Often the first reaction I have when I tell people I’m going mountain biking at the weekend is.. “What you ride in the sand???” to which the answer is obviously no… we ride in the wadis.. something most people tend to overlook is the fact that a great deal of the UAE is infact not desert but the Hajar mountain range, part of the huge chain of mountains that come all the way up the coast from the middle of Oman and culminate in the Musandam Peninsular in the Northernmost part of Oman.
There is an ever growing number of people mountain biking since my arrival in 1997, where initially there was probably no more than 10 fully active riders coming from the Dubai area that I was aware of. My rides first started with a guy called Barry who set-up a club called “Biking Frontiers” with whom a small group rode for 3-4 years before he left for other shores. Upon this point I, by default assumed the job of planning and organizing rides and re-named the club HOT-COG-MTB and this just stands to date www.hot-cog.com
Over the last 2-3 years our club has been concentrating our efforts to developing a good network of interesting trails in Shawka which is pretty much the closest mountainous area to Dubai there is, that offers good riding. As a club a small number of us have been out actually clearing and making small single-track paths with shovels and rakes to ride on through the low foothills to enable us to have some fast flowing but also technical riding within easy reach at the weekends. We now have probably close to 50km worth of trails in one small area, which allows for numerous varied rides.
The trails are aimed at the somewhat experienced riders, but there are still some 4wd track sections and a few single-track sections that would be enjoyable for beginners to intermediate riders. As the trails have become better marked and ridden its become much easier to get out there and find routes to ride, although its always advisable to ride with people who know the routes the first few times.
We are hoping that as we develop more and more routes interest in the sport will grow and hope to have more and more volunteers come out and lend a helping hand and get their hands dirty to benefit everyone.
As we all know it can get pretty hot in the UAE and most people assume that we don’t ride in summer, but you can still ride in the summer months but the rides then switch to night rides.
For this you obviously need high end LED bike and helmet lights to see where you are going, but this opens up some really fun and interesting twists on daytime riding. At night in the summer months the temperatures are a little lower after sunset and we take advantage of this by starting club rides around dusk and into the night. What’s more in summer, the humidity levels out in the mountains are much lower than on the coast so somewhat more bearable.
For riding in the UAE as with anywhere, its essential to have the right gear for the sport, but most importantly in the UAE is carrying enough liquids to stay hydrated, its advisable to ride with a minimum of a 3litre hydration pack such as the camelbak MULE. In addition you should always carry a set of basic bike tools, a spare inner tube, pump and some energy bars/gels.
Other things to consider are bike tyres, the one part of the bike to help you stay in control of the bike, wide knobbly tires are best suited to local riding from 2.35” upto 2.5” are best, its also advisable to convert from the standard tyre and innertube set-up to the more recently available tubeless setup using a latex based liquid that instantly plugs any small punctures created by the many thorny twigs that litter the local trails.
If you are interested in trying mountain biking there are a few groups around who can be contacted via their Facebook pages, look out for the following groups, Dubai mountain bikers (probably the best starting point for anyone wanting to give it a go), Mountain biking UAE, UAE mountainbiking, Barchans, Roost Tah, all these groups are happy to have new riders join on their organized rides… so get out there and have fun in the sun… (or night in summer)
