It’s a reasonably steep dirt track. My confidence is up after 25 minutes or so on some rough downhill terrain. My weight is shifted over the rear wheel, as the instructor told me. My pedals are level, as the instructor told me. I’ve managed to limit my speed by starting slowly and using primarily the rear brake, as the instructor told me. There is a deep patch of sand like dusty mud approaching really rather quickly. I seem to remember the instructor saying something about this.

Bugger. I’m going too fast. No problem, keep off the front brake and keep the front wheel straight… or perhaps not. The front wheel digs into the sand, turns in the direction it wants to go. The bike goes down to the left, I go to the right in what turns out to be a spectacular stunt type roll along through the dust, over the embankment and down through the overgrowth, with huge dust cloud for added effect.

Everything feels ok, although I am upside down. My main worries lie with my camera in my rucksack and as to how badly smashed it must be.

The Danish chap behind me, as I found out afterwards, got really worried. He saw me go down. He saw the dust cloud, and his worst fear was realised (once the dust had settled), that I’d gone careering over the side of the mountain.

As it happens I was lucky. The overgrowth was so thick it stopped me within a couple of metres down the mountain. Furthermore, I had not a scratch on me, thanks in no small part to the knee & shin pads, elbow pads, shoulder & back protection, gloves and crash helmet. The only problem was disentangling myself from the thorns and bushes and scrambling back up to the track (covered in dust and fauna). I’d never imagined that falling off a mountain bike would be so much fun…

When I signed up for the trip I was concerned about it being a bit tame. I imagined a slow ride through the forest, following ten other bikers going at the pace of the slowest. As it happens, it was one of the best organised packages I’ve been on. The bikes were very good and well maintained. The staff were extremely skilled, not only at riding, but by judging peoples abilities and separating them into smaller groups accordingly. It was a tough day. Both physically and technically. In fact, some of my favorite parts were the slow single track sections that zig zaged down steep slopes with drops of a foot or so over roots and boulders.

In short, I can’t recommend Chiang Mai Mountain Biking enough.