Who is an E-bike festival in Arrowtown aimed at? Photo / Supplied, Shay Muddle, Cyclorama
Who is an E-bike festival in Arrowtown aimed at? Photo / Supplied, Shay Muddle, Cyclorama
The E-bike is an invention that was met with immediate suspicion.
Who is it for? Isn't that cheating?
If the almighty had intended our spokes to be supercharged, he would have provided more charging stations.
Perhaps this Luddite mistrust and a perception that it was an amoral machine for idlersis the reason why it is only now - 125 years since the patent was first registered for battery to meet bicycle - that New Zealand has launched its first e-bike festival.
Cyclorama arrives in Queenstown in November. The two-day festival is a collection of nine rides, centering around Arrowtown, each designed to follow a particular interest. There's a gourmet pedal around Lake Hayes' top restaurants, a guided nature cycle and a battery-busting grade 3 "Ride to the Sky".
Cycling the shores of Lake Hayes on an E-bike. Photo / Thomas Bywater
If you're looking for an overriding clue as to the type of rider the festival is for, you won't find it in the programme. Battery power is the only thing linking the rides.
When asked if you could do any of the rides on a regular, unpowered bike, organiser Dave Gibson inhales sharply, with a noise like a puncture.
"We'd rather you didn't," he says. "It is an e-bike festival after all."
Cyclorama is carving out a niche for itself away from the non-powered crowd.
With Queenstown hosting the summer mountain bike festival Crankworx for the first time later this year, the e-bike festival is an entirely different beast.
"Other mountain biking festivals can be super competitive," says Dave. "But we've got something that appeals to people off their bikes as well as on their bikes."
Having moved to Queenstown a couple of years ago, the former filmmaker first picked up a bike as a way of learning the local area. Before long, he was an E-bike evangelist.
"I think there's a whole group of people who haven't been catered for."
And by "catering" he means good food and a cruisy ride between Gibbston valley wineries, without breaking a sweat.
Amisfield Winery, the first stop on an E-bike Tour de Gourmet. Photo / Thomas Bywater
The Tour de Gourmet is a great example of this. A rolling degustation in five stops, taking in dishes from Artisan and Amisfield Winery, staggered along the Queenstown Cycle Trail.
Amisfield's Richard Birkby didn't need much convincing. Marketing Manager for the three-hat restaurant by day, mountain bike rider and reviewer most weekends, he was keen to make the festival happen.
"E-bikes are bringing foodies into cycling and we're hoping they might bring cyclists into a foodie place," he says.
"It's a great leveller. If you've spent a lifetime enjoying good food and wine you can still get out and about."
Equally enthusiastic is executive chef Vaughan Mabee, coming up with the perfect dish to serve cyclists. The small plates menu for diners on the go are bites of Michelin-style flamboyance.
Cycling refresher: Smoked Apple Martinis at the Millbrook Resort's Smokehouse. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Top contenders were an award-winning paua pie, green-lip mussel tacos in purple kumara tortillas, washed down with some Fume sauvignon blanc for the road.
"You've always seen people here that will rock up in their bike shorts, and they're equally as welcome as the folks celebrating their wedding anniversary," says Birkby. "Food and wine is what we're all about."
So far, so cruisy.
Setting off a couple of hundred cyclists over a weekend, the trails will be full of a mixture of self-guided and led groups.
The festival aims to deliver a jolt of excitement into the picturesque gold mining town.
More than a hundred electric bikes are being shipped to Arrowtown as a rental fleet. Which is impressive going, considering the "global e-bike shortage".
That might sound a bit melodramatic, but the huge numbers of cyclists taking to the saddle since the pandemic and a Covid-hampered supply chain has led to a bottleneck in bicycle delivery.
With waiting lists 1000-people long, buying an e-bike has become like trying to buy a Rolex, and almost as expensive.
Cyclopath: E-bikes have found favour with hardcore cyclists. Photo / Supplied, QT Trail Trust
Still, there are plenty of locals investing in new wheels (both powered and analogue) during the long, pandemic staycation.
One of the people to notice the change was Queenstown Trails Trust CEO Mark "Willy" Williams.
"For us, it's been almost a silver lining to Covid that the trails have become recognised even more to the local community," he says.
As a multi-day MTB athlete, Willy might be the last person you'd expect to be championing e-bikes. He's seen "pedal assist" go mainstream with hardcore, and not-so-hardcore, riders.
"The original concept of e-bikes was to allow people who wouldn't normally have picked up a bike to get into the sport. But now enthusiasts are realising how much more you can do."
To prove his case, he will be leading a limited group of e-cyclists on a preview of the Coronet Loop Track. Ten places are being auctioned off through the festival website for a "sneak peek" of the 57km trail. Even on an e-bike, this will be a push.
Grape vines on the upper Gibbston Valley. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Climbing Coronet Peak - into mountain ranges better known by skiers - the new trail is a sign that Queenstown is fast becoming a destination with level pegging by both cyclists and snow sports enthusiasts.
Cycling is becoming increasingly important to Queenstown, as it has in ski resorts around the world. E-bikes have been a key tool for that.
The Trails Trust is using that forward momentum generated by the e-bike revolution to connect up more of the region. Willy is keen to explore links with neighbouring trails in Central Otago and out into Southland and Te Anau.
"It's a really exciting time for bikes and Cyclorama is ahead of the curve at the moment."
CHECKLIST: ARROWTOWN
DETAILS Cyclorama has been postponed to be held in November 2022. cyclorama.co.nz
WHERE TO STAY The Arrow Private Hotel. thearrow.nz
