The ban was announced as temporary but has since been extended.

"Its been a very challenging last four and a half months," said Brian Kramer of Mountain Riders. "We are only up and running because we are trying to get the business going."

Kramer said business is down 80 percent and he has been hurt by negative news reports. He said the public, including booking agencies who take customer reservations, does not understand that the bike tours are still operating. Customers cannot ride commercial tours in the park but can use public roads outside the park.

While Kramer struggles to keep his business afloat, a smaller company, Bike It Maui No Ka Oi, has stopped tours altogether.

"We didn't want to do a half-ass tour," said owner Ralph Johnson. "We wanted to do a good tour. We are waiting for the word."

"We are just trying to hold out and wait out," Johnson added.

Phil Feliciano, owner of Cruiser Phil's Volcano Riders, initially shut down his business and planned to wait until a decision about reopening the park to commercial tours was made.

But after several months passed and the park announced it would need additional time to process a safety study, Feliciano said he couldn't hold out any longer and needed to get back on the road.

"We can't weather 120 days without any income," he said.

Last week, Haleakala National Park Superintendent Marilyn Parris said she expects to make a final decision on the ban in early March.

A National Park Service Analysis Team, which includes a representative from Maui County along with park service specialists from the Mainland, is working on a report to be completed at the end of January.

The report will then be submitted to the NPS Pacific West Region Board of Review, which will take up the issue during its meeting Feb. 1, at its regional office in Oakland, Calif., Parris said.

The board of review, which includes Parris, will come up with a recommendation. But Parris has the final say.

The analysis team was on Maui in early December. The team interviewed tour companies, their customers, medical staff and others affected by the ban.

"I couldn't be more pleased at the effort they are putting into coming up with the best recommendation as possible for all concerned," Parris said.

Wailuku attorney and bicycle enthusiast James H. Fosbinder, who has been retained by the Maui Bicycle Tour Association, which has five member companies providing guided downhill tours on Haleakala, also submitted a report to the analysis team on behalf of the companies.

Fosbinder's summary said the tours "pose virtually no threat to other visitors in the park," and that there is an "energy efficient way of maximizing the park experience with no negative impact on the ecosystem."

He said there have been three bicycle fatalities in the park in the past 24 years, two of which occurred in 2007.

On Oct. 10, Haleakala National Park began its "safety stand-down" at the park, following a fatal crash in September involving a bicyclist on a tour. Parris had said at the time it was the "next prudent" step.

During the stand-down, studies were to be made on whether the tours can operate safely at the park. Individual bicyclists can still ride in the park on their own.

Initially parks officials said the companies could not operate their bike tours in the park for at least 60 days until a study was done, but in November parks officials said more time was needed. That pushed the safety stand-down into February instead of December.

In the meantime, companies deal with the ban's effects in different ways.

Kramer said his staff is down to one-fourth of what it was, and he also had to raise his prices to accommodate new features.

Like several other bike tour companies, Kramer had to contract with other businesses to get vehicles to take bike tour customers for a vehicle tour of the park and then start bike rides outside the park, as the sunrise at the summit is the big draw.

Five of the seven companies that used to run bicycle tours at the park do not have permits to conduct vehicle tours of the park. Two other companies have a vehicle tour permit.

Kramer said his prices have climbed 15 percent because of the expense of the vehicle tours of the park. Rates can reach up to $170, he said.

"Ultimately it costs the visitors."

Jon Thuro, of Maui Mountain Cruisers, also reports that he had to add $50 per person to the normal cost of the bike tour in order to have a van take his bike riders for a vehicle tour of the park.

Thuro said some customers have not booked because of the added costs.

He said customers have been unhappy that they cannot do the bike tour in their own national park.

"It's definitely a big hardship on us," Thuro said of the ban.

Thuro questioned why all of the bike companies cannot just take their customers in via vehicles and start the rides outside.

He said his company, which does not hold a vehicle tour permit, did carry passengers in its vans when there was bad weather at the summit and had the riders start the tour farther down the park.

Now those bicycle tour companies without the vehicle tour permits cannot even enter the park, Thuro said.

Thuro said businesses he has patronized on his tours, including Polli's Mexican Restaurant in Makawao and Sunrise Country Market, have suffered trickle-down effects.

For Johnson, a couple of his employees have already found new jobs, while a couple of others "are waiting in the wings."

Johnson said he assisted his employees financially during Christmas.

"We are just paying our bills and waiting for the word," Johnson said.

Johnson's wife, Petra, added, "We have been totally out of business, it has been horrible."

Thursday was Feliciano's first day back in business since shutting down when the ban began.

"We shut down everything we could to tighten the belt and weather the storm," he said.

Now, slowly, Feliciano is trying to get his business back up. He said he was operating at only 50 percent on Thursday.

"That's how it's going to be for a while," he said.

Last week, Feliciano reported that he had no tours lined up for Friday or Sunday, but had a tour on Saturday.

Before shutting down, Feliciano had around 16 employees. He now has four.

Feliciano said he has been reaching out, letting everyone know that his company is back in businesses.

He added that bicycle tours are important to Maui. He said the tours are something that could attract repeat visitors, for example those who have already done a whale watch but have never done a bike ride.

Feliciano has also teamed up with Ben Hall of Haleakala Bike Co.

Hall's company has a vehicle tour permit and assists Cruiser Phil's by giving the park tour via van, Feliciano said.

Hall and Paolo Baricchi of Maui Sunriders Bike Co., who both have permits to give van tours at Haleakala National Park, report they are doing well.

"Through the holidays I have been slammed," Hall said.

Hall was seeing an excess of 100 clients per day during the holiday season.

But all wasn't well for Hall at the beginning, as, like Kramer, he also felt the ill effects of the ban's being reported throughout the nation.

Hall said activity desks and agencies were not booking bike tours after the word got out about the ban and the accidents, as those agencies felt the tours were unsafe.

But slowly the bookings are coming back, although Hall said he was still working with a large booking company to place him back on its activity list.

Baricchi said "nothing has changed" for him and his company, including his prices.

"I never like the park, I never thought it was safe," he said.

But like the rest of the companies, Baricchi also reported a slowdown initially when the ban was announced as agents were not booking the bike tours, leery of liability issues.

"It was a little slow the first few weeks. Right now, it's business as usual."