MickeyMills
Cannon Fodder
Does anyone know of any good mountain bike tours in south america??? I tink there is one in Equador but I cant find it.
Cheers
Cheers
DH in south america!!!
- Thread starter MickeyMills
- Start date
ja_har
Likes Dirt
http://www.gravitybolivia.com/
These guys are brilliant..They basically started MTB in South America.
These guys are brilliant..They basically started MTB in South America.
Ivan
Eats Squid
Yeah go with those guys....I went with the other mob and it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops( probably had the biggest stack of my life actually). Gravity Bolivia have a really good reputation, probably due to the fact that it's run by non-Bolivians.
Not only can you do "Death road" but around La Paz there are some seriously sweet trails apparently. There's a movie with Cedric Gracia riding some of them and those guys do tours of those trails. Just be ready for the experience of trying to do anything physical at altitudes above 4000m.
Peru also has MTB tours out of Cusco that I know about. The bikes and tours are fairly cheap, but you get to see some absolutely amazing stuff and ride a few nice trails.
There are mountain bike hire stores and tours in Argentina in Mendoza and Bariloche that I know of, However all these seem to be really tame. If you could somehow get a nice long travel dually to Bariloche you could ride some really really nice trails.
gnarly_rider
Likes Dirt
I third Gravity, they rock, and they have a well maintained fleet of Konas. Aside from the 'Worlds most Dangerous road" they have a great repertoire of non-tourist single track descents they do as day trips, we are talking 1km+ vertical descents, shuttling you to the top.
I think I road 3 days with them, and loved it. I also have a mate who did the 'Worlds most Dangerous road" with another company (all the other operators in La Paz are just plain crap from what I saw of the bikes they had on display), and he also had a very very serious crash after his front wheel came off. That says everything about their maintanence standards......
I think I road 3 days with them, and loved it. I also have a mate who did the 'Worlds most Dangerous road" with another company (all the other operators in La Paz are just plain crap from what I saw of the bikes they had on display), and he also had a very very serious crash after his front wheel came off. That says everything about their maintanence standards......
Ivan
Eats Squid
Whilst my bike was good (Rocky mountain RMX) the maintenance standard was poor. I had my Chain jump whilst i was in top gear, flat out, and pedalling like crazy. I somersaulted many times on one of the rocky sections, and spent the next few hours waiting to see if i would piss blood.
Ivan
Eats Squid
Another thing to consider is the level of hospital care you will recieve in these countries. You will also need to ensure that your medical insurance will cover activities such as mountain biking.
Getting to speak to english speaking doctors and access 20th century medical equipment in the capital cities isn't too hard, although you will have to pay for it. And a bonus is that the nurses wear those cute nurses uniforms like you see in the old movies. However, if you required surgery you would have to fly to a western country as there is now way I would trust their doctors, or there sanitary conditions, to be cut open.
Also, you really need a decent grasp of spanish, because if you do hurt yourself, you may well end up at a hospital where no-one speaks english and your mime artistry is not as good as you thought it was.
I'm not trying to scare you here, because given the oppurtunity I would ride again in SA, but it's definately somehting that you need to have considered before you start bombing down trails.
