Thailand is a great destination for cycling tours, either on road or off road.
The North of Thailand with it’s rugged landscape, mountain, jungle, and hill-tribe villages is certainly the best destination for any off road cycling experiences.

Northern Thailand mountain-biking tours
In 1995 we launched our fully supported mountain biking tours through Northern Thailand. This was the beginning of the “Northern Trails Biking Adventures”.

Today with our base in Chiangmai, a full work shop with qualified mechanics, tools and support, fleet of mountain-bikes, Northern-Trails remain the leading organizers of mountain biking tours in Northern Thailand. We offer professional, quality off-road biking and multi-sport adventure tours at affordable prices, while offering a personal touch and flexibility so important to the success of this kind of holiday.

Equipment & material

We provide well maintained quality Shimano equipped mountain bikes. We carry a fleet of importedTREK mountain-bikes, model TREK 3900 and TREK 4300. All bikes are 24 speeds and have a front suspension. Spare parts and tools are taken along in our escort vehicle. Our bikes should fit persons from 130cm to 200cm (4’ to 6.6’). The Trek bike frames sizes range between 13″ and 21.5″.
For our longer tours, we provide models TREK 4400 with RockShox Dart front suspension, equipped with a rack on the back wheel.

Our Staff

Our staff are locals. The guides that will lead cycling and mountain-biking trips are well experienced. They all speaks well English, well equipped and outfitted and are good mechanics. They also will share the love of their country, challenge you on some hills, cook food in hill tribe villages. Our guides are the most important part of our trips. They are the people making our customers coming back again, and sending us great feedback. Our well experienced tour guides are the driving force of the company.

Food and accommodation

Depending on the program, we stay in selected hotels, usually blending Northern Thai style with comfort. (Refer to your program). Sometime we stay with a family in a hill-tribe village. Food is taken at local restaurants or or in the hotel. Nutrition is important when cycling. Main meals are delicious local Thai food, served with rice. There is always enough food and we eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Drinking water, fruits and snacks are always available in our escort vehicle.
Other drinks are not included in the price, but widely available at local restaurants and shops along the routes.

What to bring

Recommended personal equipment: Gloves, sunglasses. A pair of mountain-biking shoes, or runners, as a hard-sole will reduce foot fatigue). Bicycle padded shorts or lycras (if you do not have padded cycling shorts, we recommend light cotton shorts with an elastic waist-band). Cycling gloves and sunglasses are also a must, and we require all participants to wear a cycling helmet at all time while riding. We have helmets available for rent in Chiangmai, but would recommend to bring your own if you go for a multiple-day trip.

Clothing: Long sleeve sweater or jogging suit, windbreaker, cotton T-shirts or lycra’s. Please pack all in a soft bag that we can take in the escort vehicle. We also recommend a fleece for winter season, and a waterproof during the rainy season. A small backpack can be practical to carry personal items such as camera, suncream, etc..
The small hydration backpack developed by “CamelBak” and now other brands are ideal, allowing to carry water and personal items and valuable with you.
For most of our tours, large suitcases can be deposited in Chiangmai (at your hotel or our office) or even be taken in our support vehicle. Participants can bring their own SPD pedals which we can install on our bikes (make sure you bring shoes and pedals). Some cycling equipment can be found in Chiang Mai, including helmets, gloves, water bottles, cycling jerseys and padded lycra, as there are a few well stocked bike shops in town.

Who can join

Anyone in a good physical condition can join our regular cycling trips. Participants riding bicycle on a regular basis will better enjoy the trip. If someone feels tired, they can always rest in the escort vehicle. While riding, you don’t have to carry your belongings so the trip is more enjoyable.
On request, subject to availability, non-cycling accompanying persons are welcome to join the trip, traveling in our escort vehicle.

Risk of Adventure

Participants understand that this type of adventure travel may incur some risks!
We provide a local, very limited coverage, accident insurance, as per Thai Law.
However, we strongly recommend participants to contract a personal travel insurance before taking this trip. Make sure the insurance contract is for “accident” and stipulates no restriction for outdoor activities such as mountain-biking, cycling, trekking. We require participants to sign a “liability release” before trip departure, stating their agreement to absolve all responsibility from the tour operator and/or its affiliates for any causes.

Season

Best (coolest) season is from September to end of February, with busiest month being November through January.
Itinerary subject to change according to season (rain, local festivals, etc..). Month of June is usually green and beautiful at the early start of the raining season.

Group tours and special itineraries

Please send us an e-mail if you have any special request. We can organize any kind of event, large group, longer trip, bike rental. at Contact Travel, we have operated cycling tours since 1995 and certainly have pioneered the commercial mountain-bike trips in Thailand. Today, the company has grown and we maintain a large fleet of quality bikes, and can provide the logistic to virtually any type of support.

For more cycling tours in Thailand and Southeast Asia, visit our partner site NorthernTrails.com. operated by Contact Travel Ltd.