Maydena pricing

[bigdamo]

Can't remember the elevation drop but its not much more than 150m ? These shuttles take 3 minutes and a 900m in length on a tarmac road. They'd do less distance in a 10 trip pass that one run up the Maydena dirt road.

Wrong place Ozzy your thinking George Town those pricing are for Tippo. Whole new ball game or your just riding the bottom half of the mountain. Plus it's a mostly dirt road shuttle up closed to the public.

 

[maydenabikepark]

Hey everyone,

We appreciate all the feedback.

We get no joy putting our prices up, and hate to add to the growing list of things that cost more. Unfortunately though, our operating costs have sky rocketed in recent years (unsurprising to most people!). On top of this, we want to be able to continue to invest in our trails and facilities.

We didn’t build such a massive bike park in such a remote location to make money (even we aren’t that stupid!), we did it because we love Tasmania, and this was a place where we could develop a unique trail product. The reality is that ‘keeping the lights on’ at MBP is a multi million dollar cost each year, and we clearly won’t be around for long if we can’t cover those costs. Unlike many of the other examples given here, we design, build, and maintain our trails, and we have purchased or lease the land we operate on. We also invest hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a full time patrol and safety team.

We find that the overwhelming majority of our customers have access to more laps per day than they have the endurance for. I’m saying that though, we are adjusting our systems to ensure we reduce wait times this season. In terms of road upgrades, we lease our access road from 3 different parties, so undertaking works isn’t easy. We will be investing in a number of road upgrades this season though.

We get it that value is perceived differently for everyone, and for those that don't see the value in our product that’s ok- we aren’t trying to please everyone.

Cheers all!
Simon @ MBP

 

[bigdamo]

If some of these shuttle companies changed their business model to Provide a good experience and turn a Profit, instead of just trying to Maximise profits there would probably be more business.
I'll use Bright as an example. To get 7 runs in from the top you basically need to be there from the first shuttle till the last.. 10am till 4? Or thereabouts... at around 6-7mins for a full top to bottom run, that's alot of faff time, especially when you used to be able to get 3 top to bottom runs in, in less than an hour shuttling yourself.
Sitting around waiting for the frothers to fill up the bus as they shralp their way down the hill in 20mins is shit, and gives an old fart like me alot of time to get angry.
By comparison a few years ago I was up at Coronet Peak in NZ and for the first 3 hours had the entire hill and chairlift to myself... the chairlift would spin whether there were people there or not, similarly in Roto this year catching the shuttle bus up with 1 or 2 other people... if you were at the shuttle pick up when the bus got there you'd load up and if no-one else was coming the bus would go...sure it could have sat around and waited, but riders want to ride.
Luckily I don't mind a pedal up, and I'd rather spend 3-4hrs actually riding my bike, yes even up hill, than sit around waiting for 6hrs.

One or two riders on the shuttle and the business is loosing money and won't be in business long.

 

[ozzybmx]

Wrong place Ozzy your thinking George Town those pricing are for Tippo. Whole new ball game or your just riding the bottom half of the mountain. Plus it's a mostly dirt road shuttle up closed to the public.

Apologies, yeah its on the other side of the Bridport rd.

Just had a look on trailforks, why is the shuttle road private ?

 

[Mattyp]

One or two riders on the shuttle and the business is loosing money and won't be in business long.

Yeah you're right... but on a busy day when there are 30 ppl on each bus they're not exactly going to give out discounts because they are making too much profit are they ..
Remember that bit about providing a good service...
Locals in Roto know when the shuttles are on, they are on, like clockwork every 20mins, 1 rider or 100.

 

[Ackland]

I’ve ridden a number of bike parks here with a shit tonne of elevation and only been charged between $40 and $80 for the day.

Canadian or Aus dollar bucks?
IIRC even in peak Bike Park season, the lifts in Whistler are propped up by the winter use.

 

[ozzybmx]

Canadian or Aus dollar bucks?
IIRC even in peak Bike Park season, the lifts in Whistler are propped up by the winter use.

Makes sense, having a mountain there doing nothing in Summer would still cost a lot of money, even if they clawed back a percentage of that with MTB and maintained workers and businesses around the resort all year round, it would be worth it.

 

[frenchman]

One or two riders on the shuttle and the business is loosing money and won't be in business long.

Nah m8, u run the service on a timetable. That’s what gets people coming back. If an extra 15 - 30min drive in a diesel bus up the hill is going to sink ur business, u have other issues.

 

[jrewing]

Hey everyone,

We appreciate all the feedback.

We get no joy putting our prices up, and hate to add to the growing list of things that cost more. Unfortunately though, our operating costs have sky rocketed in recent years (unsurprising to most people!). On top of this, we want to be able to continue to invest in our trails and facilities.

We didn’t build such a massive bike park in such a remote location to make money (even we aren’t that stupid!), we did it because we love Tasmania, and this was a place where we could develop a unique trail product. The reality is that ‘keeping the lights on’ at MBP is a multi million dollar cost each year, and we clearly won’t be around for long if we can’t cover those costs. Unlike many of the other examples given here, we design, build, and maintain our trails, and we have purchased or lease the land we operate on. We also invest hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a full time patrol and safety team.

We find that the overwhelming majority of our customers have access to more laps per day than they have the endurance for. I’m saying that though, we are adjusting our systems to ensure we reduce wait times this season. In terms of road upgrades, we lease our access road from 3 different parties, so undertaking works isn’t easy. We will be investing in a number of road upgrades this season though.

We get it that value is perceived differently for everyone, and for those that don't see the value in our product that’s ok- we aren’t trying to please everyone.

Cheers all!
Simon @ MBP

As the instigator of this post, Firstly, Thanks Simon for responding. Secondly what you've built is amazing.
The last 3 visits i managed 7 runs forgoing lunch ( the food and my standard Cider i sacrificed ), then 2 x 6 runs including the food.
Its the price verse wait time that stings me.. this is my feelings of course, not speaking for others. If i can get 8-9 runs it’d be a positively different story.
I guess thought has been put into the possibility that halfway only could get more designated shuttles for faster turnaround?

 

[bigdamo]

Nah m8, u run the service on a timetable. That’s what gets people coming back. If an extra 15 - 30min drive in a diesel bus up the hill is going to sink ur business, u have other issues.

Nah mate I've run a tour business for a few years. The magic number of people to break even in your vehicle is 4 that's before you even turn the key. Your naive in your costing need to factor in far more things not just diesel, Tyres, maintence, rego insurance( feen hell that's pricey now) accrediation ,commisions Etc Etc I could be here a while adding to that list even just taking on one employee is a money pit. Timetables for shuttles good luck with that.

 

[bigdamo]

Apologies, yeah its on the other side of the Bridport rd.

Just had a look on trailforks, why is the shuttle road private ?

Not sure can't remember but there was some private cars parked up half way the road at times and lots of mtbers where riding up it even after being told not to.

 

[yuley95]

Canadian or Aus dollar bucks?
IIRC even in peak Bike Park season, the lifts in Whistler are propped up by the winter use.

$CAD. Not sure how Big White is covering even basic costs. It was pretty empty when i was there and they were offering half price Thursday. Maybe as @ozzybmx says, it’s about mitigating against some of the loses they might otherwise incur. Thats said, ther are also cost involved with having ticket staff and lifties and bike patrol and trail maintenance so they need to make a bit…

 

[ozzybmx]

Nah mate I've run a tour business for a few years. The magic number of people to break even in your vehicle is 4 that's before you even turn the key. Your naive in your costing need to factor in far more things not just diesel, Tyres, maintence, rego insurance( feen hell that's pricey now) accrediation ,commisions Etc Etc I could be here a while adding to that list even just taking on one employee is a money pit. Timetables for shuttles good luck with that.

In rAdelaide, any vehicle transporting passengers has a PV plate (not taxi), wine tours, outback tours, shuttles etc...

Vehicle is inspected once a year, the driver has to have an Operator Accreditation which requires a medical and a criminal check.

PITA

 

[maydenabikepark]

Our plan is definitely to run separate Midline buses during peak times. It’s something we’ll be working on this season as we finish off and improve the link trails into the main trail network from the Midline drop off.

As the instigator of this post, Firstly, Thanks Simon for responding. Secondly what you've built is amazing.
The last 3 visits i managed 7 runs forgoing lunch ( the food and my standard Cider i sacrificed ), then 2 x 6 runs including the food.
Its the price verse wait time that stings me.. this is my feelings of course, not speaking for others. If i can get 8-9 runs it’d be a positively different story.
I guess thought has been put into the possibility that halfway only could get more designated shuttles for faster turnaround?

 

[frenchman]

Nah mate I've run a tour business for a few years. The magic number of people to break even in your vehicle is 4 that's before you even turn the key. Your naive in your costing need to factor in far more things not just diesel, Tyres, maintence, rego insurance( feen hell that's pricey now) accrediation ,commisions Etc Etc I could be here a while adding to that list even just taking on one employee is a money pit. Timetables for shuttles good luck with that.

Ur comparing a charter service to schedule. U better let lake mountain, mtb rotorua, Southside shuttles (Nelson) that timetables don’t work.
The difference of waiting an extra 40 minutes for another 2 punters to turn up to avoid doing another run in the bus is 2/5ths of fuck all. Ur paying rego, insurance etc if you do 0 runs or if u do 20. All u do is piss off the punter down the bottom who had to wait twice as long for a run so you could “save” $10 in extra tyre wear and diesel.
Knowing a service is going to be running is what keeps people coming back. Know the client. Ur dealing with a bunch of dirt mamils that want a service and are happy to pay a premium to do it.

the cost of shuttles is what the market will sustain. If no one uses it the price will drop or it’s not a viable venture. But run a service that’s predicated on a min number of passengers, well good luck

 

[leitch]

Not to mention timetabling means you get to make your own decision about whether it's a quick top-to-bottom run to catch the bus that's leaving in 15 min, or a take-our-time-and-session-some-sections cruise for the one that's 20 min after that.

 

[Jpez]

I love Maydena, I love what’s being done there but my last trip was a one day whistle stop. It was during the week I think so I expected fewer people but I didn’t expect being only able to get 4 runs in. And only because Reece took pity on me and ran me up in a ute.
it’s just not acceptable to pay full rates and have to wait another 1 to 1.5 hours for another bus. Which will then sit around waitingfor a couple more heads.
Simon I know you’ve said you’ll be improving shuttle wait times but I’m sure you’ve said that before. I understand the cost analysis of it but I’m not going back anytime soon until I hear of actual improvements.
And just spending a few days in the Euro alps with continuous lifts for $25 aust for a day pass for every lift on the mountain it makes it even harder to swallow. Not apples to apples I know but still.

 

[fjohn860]

I think our last uplift at Buller that old van shat a turbo though. White smoke for daaaaaaaayyyyyzzzz... lol. 1st gear was still quicker than riding up anyway, unless going full @ozzyeebonturbo up the hill.

That was hilarious. Thank fuck we were in the other van!

 

[jrewing]

I love Maydena, I love what’s being done there but my last trip was a one day whistle stop. It was during the week I think so I expected fewer people but I didn’t expect being only able to get 4 runs in. And only because Reece took pity on me and ran me up in a ute.
it’s just not acceptable to pay full rates and have to wait another 1 to 1.5 hours for another bus. Which will then sit around waitingfor a couple more heads.
Simon I know you’ve said you’ll be improving shuttle wait times but I’m sure you’ve said that before. I understand the cost analysis of it but I’m not going back anytime soon until I hear of actual improvements.
And just spending a few days in the Euro alps with continuous lifts for $25 aust for a day pass for every lift on the mountain it makes it even harder to swallow. Not apples to apples I know but still.

Thats a rough trot out there for sure mate. I remember you planning the trip.
If the shuttles can execute fast turn arounds, and little waiting..well thats the win.
I agree with extra midline runs and ill be there with my fingers crossed Maydena.