[1x1]

Will be traveling around Bali for the next month and have seen some mountain bike tours advertised. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with any of the companies or could recommend any must ride areas. Any information at all would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Patterson]

If you stop in Singapore I'll take you on some good rides.

Lots of my friends have been on rides in Bali but I haven't yet. I hope you have good brakes!

 

[highaltitude]

Bali is brilliant, you'll have a great time. The guides to use are Bali Trailblazers, who are highly recommended my my friends here in Singapore. No affiliation, I have used them once and really enjoyed it. The route I was taken on was about 3 hours long, decent technical downhill through jungle, and paddy fields, with a tasty lunch thrown in. Have fun!

 

[SLOCanucker]

Bali is flippin sweet, I spent a little over a month there as well some years back. Do a tour initially but after that find some of the local teenagers in the villages / towns... for a few bucks they will hook you up. You can rent 4x4's super cheap over there as well. We met a couple young men that gave us a personal tour of their section of the island for the equivalent of $14.00 each... they stayed with us for 2 days... we paid for food and accomodation for them which was practically nothing by our standards. Also get a copy of the Lonely Planet. Denpasar is OK but a tourist trap... the rest of the island is awesome! :thumbsup: You can climb the volcanoes and have hard boiled eggs at the top of them supplied by local kids that cook them in the dirt!

 

[MrRogers1935]

Riding may be nice but you couldn't pay me to go to Bali. I'd be afraid of riding on a damp trail, getting caught, and being imprisoned for 20 years because they say so. Look at the Chapelle Corby investigation and trial. Sorry but those people are savages.

MrR

 

[highaltitude]

Sorry but you are an idiot.

Riding may be nice but you couldn't pay me to go to Bali. I'd be afraid of riding on a damp trail, getting caught, and being imprisoned for 20 years because they say so. Look at the Chapelle Corby investigation and trial. Sorry but those people are savages.

MrR

 

[MrRogers1935]

Sorry but you are an idiot.

Good comeback.

To each their own.I assume you didn't offer a more extensive response to my post because you didn't have one. If a third world country is your idea of a great getaway, I say go for it.

MrR

 

[nuclear_powered]

Riding may be nice but you couldn't pay me to go to Bali. I'd be afraid of riding on a damp trail, getting caught, and being imprisoned for 20 years because they say so. Look at the Chapelle Corby investigation and trial. Sorry but those people are savages.

MrR

That's probably the most ignorant statement I've read all week.

Unless you're sh*t stirring, in which case it's funny in that "I'm pretending to be ignorant" kinda way.

As for the OP - I was keen to hook up some MTB trips in my time there, but unfortunately had a major crash on a DH course the day before we headed to Bali. Not so bad, because it forced me to spend 2 weeks doing nothing and it's certainly an extremely easy place to relax, and the local people are simply beautiful and certainly make you feel at home.

Before this change of plans I read about Bali Trailblazers and BaliMountainbike.com and they both seemed like they had pretty similar and decent tours of the Batur Crater area, as well as the slopes of the 2500m giant Agung. Both look like really awesome examples of jungle terrain, along with some nice volcanic formations. I know there's several walking trails leading to the top of Agung. I imagined if it was possible to walk up then ride down them all the way to the ocean, it would be one hell of a ride. I daydreamed about moving there, setting up such a trail and holding MTB Enduros and Megavalaches there. I can think of worse places to live.

As advised earlier, do one of the tours, and that should lead you to more MTB folk who can take you to other tracks.

Good luck, and have a great time!

(P.S. Avoid the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak area if you want to avoid tourists. I swear there are more pisshead bogan Aussies in Bintang singlets per square mile in that area than anywhere else on the planet, including Australia.)

 

[Feideaux]

Riding may be nice but you couldn't pay me to go to Bali. I'd be afraid of riding on a damp trail, getting caught, and being imprisoned for 20 years because they say so. Look at the Chapelle Corby investigation and trial. Sorry but those people are savages.

MrR

Yeah, because white-trash beauty therapists would never smuggle drugs, only third world savages do that kind of thing

 

[womble]

Good comeback.

To each their own.I assume you didn't offer a more extensive response to my post because you didn't have one. If a third world country is your idea of a great getaway, I say go for it.

MrR

Highaltitude clearly didn't offer a more extensive response because your pig-ignorance doesn't deserve anything beyond a simple-put down.

1x1: Bali is a great place to travel. I'd second the "avoid Kuta" recommendation.

 

[airwreck]

If a third world country is your idea of a great getaway, I say go for it.

Bali is definitely not "third world".

 

[dft]

Good comeback.

To each their own.I assume you didn't offer a more extensive response to my post because you didn't have one. If a third world country is your idea of a great getaway, I say go for it.

MrR

ha, gotta bag some more on this guy. i was there for 3-4 weeks and bali was about as safe as most anywhere in the US. super nice and friendly people, crime is not bad at all. pull your head out and experience the world. i will say though, other indo islands can have problems. but bali is the only hindu, the rest are muslim so they are very peaceful.

i used bali trailblazers and it was a great day. a shuttle ride plus about 1500 feet of climbing, lunch, etc. good times.

 

[SLOCanucker]

ps - don't drink "jungle juice" at the bars...:nono:

The people are fantastic... some of the nicest I met while traveling for a year.

Be smart, don't put yourself in a "bad " position and you'll have a great time. (That can be said for any country obviously...)

 

[Patterson]

Riding may be nice but you couldn't pay me to go to Bali. I'd be afraid of riding on a damp trail, getting caught, and being imprisoned for 20 years because they say so. Look at the Chapelle Corby investigation and trial. Sorry but those people are savages.

MrR

Have you ever been to Bali?

 

[Bummer]

Bali Trailblazers - they're great. Did a 7 day package with them that included accommodation and they planned rides over most of the island. They would also shuttle your luggage from one hotel to the next if you start in one place and end up in another.

 

[MrRogers1935]

Have you ever been to Bali?

I said you couldn't pay me to go to a Bali, so the answer would be, no. You are all free to think and travel where you like but I value my freedom to much to go somewhere where the people, government, and police force are run by the native savages. My brother was in Bali on vacation when a cleaning woman keyed into his room and robbed him. He awoke when this woman was at his bedside taking his watch and chased her out. When he contacted the police, he was threatened and told the theft was deserved and told him he should have not taken home a prostitute whom they assumed later robbed him. When he asserted his position, the police officer drew his baton and postured. Had he defended himself against this woman, who knows what would have happened.

Regardless of her guilt, the proceedings of the Corby trial only substantiate my point that the Balinese are savages. You don't necessarily have to do anything to have them finger you as a criminal. Once that happens, good luck trying to defend yourself against their corrupt "legal system."

MRR

 

[nuclear_powered]

Regardless of her guilt, the proceedings of the Corby trial only substantiate my point that the Balinese are savages.

HA!! I was wrong, you weren't sh*t-stirring. That's fair I guess we're all entitled to our opinions.

For what it's worth, to label an entire nation of people based solely on the actions of the worst examples of their politicians or police force is really quite a bad idea. Even the most civilised Western societies are then full of murderers, racists, savages, bigots, homophobes, ... you name it. That includes the two nations we're from as well.

In any case, your brother's story will play out in 100's of countries worldwide. A fellow Australian I know with middle eastern appearance suffered far worse than your brother during his experience with the law in your united states.

But that's beside the point. This shite could happen in nearly any country - if you searched you'd find enough stories to stop you leaving your safe shores regardless of your destination. It's a risk just crossing the road. I'd rather take it than stay home all day.

Seems the OP has made that choice too.

 

[MrRogers1935]

HA!! I was wrong, you weren't sh*t-stirring. That's fair I guess we're all entitled to our opinions.

For what it's worth, to label an entire nation of people based solely on the actions of the worst examples of their politicians or police force is really quite a bad idea. Even the most civilised Western societies are then full of murderers, racists, savages, bigots, homophobes, ... you name it. That includes the two nations we're from as well.

In any case, your brother's story will play out in 100's of countries worldwide. A fellow Australian I know with middle eastern appearance suffered far worse than your brother during his experience with the law in your united states.

But that's beside the point. This shite could happen in nearly any country - if you searched you'd find enough stories to stop you leaving your safe shores regardless of your destination. It's a risk just crossing the road. I'd rather take it than stay home all day.

Seems the OP has made that choice too.

I have been traveling, living and vacationing all over the world since I was 8 yo so I definitely don't think I'm hypersensitive to danger or restrict my behavior without proper cause. Yes, this could happen anywhere, yada yada, yada, but in my experience it hasn't. Anecdotal experience is just that, however still influential.

To be honest, my decision to stay away from Bali is more influenced by the Corby "trial" than my own brothers experience. You cite these incidents as "the worst examples" of the native people or government, however, the Corby trial was recognized around the world and I can only presume they were following protocol to the letter as a result.

I have no idea if she was innocent or guilty, however, neither do the Balinese. I don't want to take time to go into the details of the trial, but every aspect of the proceedings was sophmoric and incredibly biased. They thought nothing of locking up someone for 20 years based on their ridiculous "investigation." The fact that they ran their proceedings as they did and saw it as evidence to take away a young woman's life is what makes them savages.

In conclusion, is it worth it to me to expose myself to their criminal government just so I can get a few runs in on some killer singletrack? No.

As I said before, to each his own. I'll stand by my contention that the Balinese are savages because that is the adjective that best describes them.

MrR

 

[disfocus]

Hmmm...Now, I certainly wouldn't want to holiday in a country with corrupt politicians, police with a reputation for excessive force, large numbers of people given long, punitive penal sentences for minor drug offences, or a history of executing of minors and the mentally disabled after show trials with ineffective public defenders. Let alone a country where I can be detained without charge, tortured or taken to a third-party country for more torture.

Guess that rules out taking the kiddies to Disneyland this year...

 

[nuclear_powered]

Well said disfocus.