Expert Answers
Deciphering Guidebook Ratings

In checking out biking routes in California, guidebooks list ability level as"moderate." What exactly does moderate mean, and how does the meaning fit into a scale of other levels? Thanks!

Steve Jones's Answer:

	Steve Jones The author of four mountain-biking books, Steve Jones has logged thousands of miles of trails and backroads. Meet Steve Answer Archive Biking Forums

If the term"moderate" is all the information you received from a bike guide, you have every right to be confused — if not downright perturbed — by the lack of clarity created with the use of this and other terms of generality.

Ideally, the guide or publication should have given a reference explaining what the term "moderate" indicates. For example, if Helen the Hammerhead wrote the guide, a moderate ride might be an off-road adventure that covers 10-15 miles with an average elevation gain of 500 feet per mile. On the other hand, if PomRoy (Aunt Presta's frail son) is describing a moderate ride, he might mean something in the neighborhood of 4 miles that has no more than 500 feet elevation change . . . total.

But in practice, what I've found a moderate ride to suggest is this: a ride that covers anywhere from 5-10 miles with hill climbs requiring effort falling well short of lung-busting exhaustion before the top is reached.

Another way to gauge trail difficulty is by how long it will take to complete. I generally average 4 miles an hour, which I know is laughably slow to a hard-core racer. But I'm not out to race. I like to look and take breaks, pushing hard up the hills and enjoying a relatively slow descent. Therefore, a moderate ride will take anywhere between an hour-and-a-half and two-hours-and-a-half.

The best guides use several standards to describe a ride. After all, a ride that's moderate as far as aerobic difficulty goes may be no more technically challenging than riding on a gym floor. The opposite can be true, of course. An example of this is a ride along a river or large creek: It's a technical challenge with numerous rocks of all sizes, but it seldom generates a deep breath.

In a perfect world all guides would include crystal-clear pictures of the trail, but in reality that's not the case. So here are the areas to pay attention to and what I use to classify a trail as moderate: overall length no more than 10 miles, and total elevation change no more than 1,000 feet. Technical standards are harder to apply, but guidebook authors are better about giving pictures in this area. Read the description and try to determine if you will have any difficulty completing any section by bike or by foot. For example, if the route has a section where you have to cross a knee-deep river, you will want to be sure you are up to such a challenge before you find yourself with daylight fading and this obstacle between you and your vehicle.

Finally, consider this: Practically every ride can be turned into at least a moderate ride (no matter what is meant by the term) by either pedaling faster in a higher (more difficult to turn) gear, or slower in a lower gear. That's one of the many beauties of riding a bike.