Samui may be a small island, which can be circumnavigated in a couple hours on a bike, but that doesn’t mean it lacks good biking. Most visitors come for the diving and beach life but mountain bike fans will be pleased to discover Red Bicycle near Lamai beach. With a modest hilly interior and plenty of old trails among the coconut trails the riding on Samui can be great, as I found out on a day out with the ‘Red crew’. Never have I felt so satisfied with being away from the beach.
Set up a few years back by ex-San Francisco couple Mike and Debra Yantis, Red Bicycle is Samui’s only mountain bike experience, and they’ve built up a great selection of high end bikes and trails to ride them on. And when you get bored with these, they’ll take you over to Koh Pha Ngan which is, in many ways, even better.
Well, real mountain bikers don’t stand around talking about their bikes, so we were soon on our saddles and off into the wilderness of the Southern Part of the island. Since I’m usually spoilt in my home town with excellent downhill, I opted for the route through the coconut trees. The undulating and windy farmer trails that led us to Hin Lat falls were perfect for testing out the Canondale Jekyll I had had my eye on in their shop. The small group also made it feel like I was back home riding with my mates, rather than joining a large group of novices.
No comments:
Post a Comment