In the past years cycling got more and more popular and if you go down to the Al Qudra Cycle Track on a weekend you will meet hundreds of cyclists. I love cycling, but unless you head to the east coast, the cycling is a bit monotonous: no hills and endless, seemingly straight stretches of road. As long as you don’t stick to the cycle tracks or go to the open rides in the Dubai Autodrome or Yas Marina Circuit, you will expose yourself to the traffic which is posing a huge risk.
I have heard and saw many posts online about fatbiking in the desert, people posing with bikes with huge tires on the top of a dune and the emptiness of the desert. Buying a bike was not even a consideration even though they got much more affordable. I was told by a friend on a road cycle ride, that OutdoorArabia is offering guided rides and are also renting the bikes at affordable rates. We spoke about this idea for the whole ride, with the result that we made the plan to rent bikes for the next weekend and give it a try.
The bike rental for a Silverback fatbike which is priced at 6,900 AED is only 150 AED for one day or 250 AED for the weekend. If you want the bike delivered and collected from your home, you can do that for an extra delivery fee of 100 AED. OutdoorArabia also offers to rent bike racks or a trailer for the bikes, so that you’ll really be independent to use the bikes.
So a phone call later, all was set and the bikes booked and the endless opportunities of the desert where awaiting us.
As a start and for a first trial of the bikes, we decided to not tackle the big dunes but follow one of the routes — provided outdooruae.com’s Routes feature around the wildlife sanctuary at Al Qudra. The area is easy to reach and is very diverse with hard sand tracks around the lakes and nice dunes in the surrounding areas. We started off on the gravel tracks where the bikes handle like a normal MTB if the tire pressure is not too low. When we entered the dunes, we deflated the tires as soon as the dunes got steeper and to my surprise, the bike really works amazingly good in sand. I know everyone repeats this judgement and I have heard it many times before, but hearing it and experiencing it is two different things. When I read on Facebook that guys went for a 10k ride, I always thought that this is very short and not even worth going out for such a short ride, comparing it to the distance you do on a road bike. But the steeper the dune, the softer the sand will be and you will be slow and will sometimes average a speed as low as 5kmh. This might sound boring, but it is the absolute opposite. Moving silently through the desert and the dunes give you a completely new perspective. You see more, you hear more and you smell more. Especially around the sanctuary you can see a lot of wildlife which is usually very rare.
We spend a whole morning on the bikes, exploring the dunes of an area we thought we knew but saw it from a new perspective which was an amazing experience. We only did 30km but it felt like a 100k ride on the road.
For now I’m not thinking of buying a bike but the first seat is planted but for sure. We will soon go again and rent some bikes, this time with a few more people who also want to try it.
Words by: Alin Epure
