Speeding down Doi Pui’s slopes in Chiang Mai by mountain bike

Posted by paul on April 28th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized

Once the more advanced mountain biker has reached the 1,600 metres high mountain’s summit he or she will be enthralled by the reward of rocketing down the road at a velocity sometimes reaching more than 30 mile per hour, while passing by some of the national park’s most gorgeous scenery.

There aren’t any mountain-bike tracks for beginners up here. Some say that these routes even rank among the most difficult on the globe. Even the experienced veterans often have to walk certain strenuous parts of the tracks. However, it rarely happens that somebody gets hurt as the bikers here wisely use bicycles featuring space hopper-suspension and all wear protecting body gear and helmets.

Knowing these safety facts I decided two weeks ago to experience a bike trip myself. Once I arrived in Chiang Mai’s old part of the city at the bike base, I’d told the owner and organiser that the last time I really cycled was nearly two decades ago. He just smiled and introduced me to the group of beginners. Mountain biking in Chiang Mai

Our guide, Steve, said that everyone will crash sometime and we shouldn’t have to think about if but rather when we would hit the surface. But there wasn’t a thing that seemed to frighten the fanatic Irishman. Even the possibility of crashing against a tree didn’t bother him. He described such an unfortunate event as “annoying”.

Suddenly I realised that this was probably going to be one of the riskiest activities I’ve ever had done so far. To me mountain biking always seemed like a pretty extreme sport, certainly harder than rock climbing, white water rafting or mountain hiking. The origin of the sport is surrounded by many controversies.

Probably the coolest story tells about Buffalo Soldiers, being the first persons riding souped-up bicycles. At the end of the 19th century these people were soldiers belonging to the special African-American USA regiments. They covered more than 800 miles distances from Montana to California and back, to test the bike’s military usability.

A rather obese Swede in our team seemed fully in his element, biking with the mobility of a chimp. Making sure not to miss his adrenaline-pumping kick, he rocketed down the 90-degree slopes’ off-the-beaten-track paths. When he decided taking a tumble, instead of groaning, the jolly Swede sub-sided into a muddy pool.

 

Better not try this as a beginner!

The members of our group all seemed to manage with the litre of water, which was supplied to us before the start of the bike trip. However, the real athletes on the advanced group drank electrolytes containing liquid. Steve explained that certain sections of the trip they were going to tackle and speeding down along had a difficulty level five times higher than the hardest ahead of our team.

As Steve said before back at the base, there was no possible way of enjoying the scenery, which rapidly flashed by. My eyes remained focused on the surface below. Performing a smoother ride we were advised as often as possible to let go of the brakes. This should make it easy to ride over obstacles but I still don’t have a clue how a biker should sail over pine needles as these obstacles are similar to black ice! Guide to sports and adventure activities in Chiang Mai

To avoid a pile-up, five lengths was the distance we should remain with the cyclist in front. I’d remained at the last position throughout the entire trip so at least managed to faithfully obey this rule. After four hours I was very relieved when our group reached flat stretches.

We stopped at a scenic lake surrounded by bamboo huts. As we all were hungry, in one of the huts we enjoyed eating grilled fish and fried rice while appreciating the view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Our tough Irish guide pressed a ice cube to his sour fingers and the burly Swede took one group picture after the other.

After having finished our meals we slowly cycled back to the city and I finally reached the base exhausted and saddle-sore.