Travel: mountain biking Borneo

Saddling up the cycles in the shadow of Mount Kinabalu

Borneo conjures up images of head-hunting tribes and endangered orangutans and whilst this is may still be the draw of Borneo, the island is also attracting a new breed of adventure traveller and sports enthusiast. Expedition experts, Fieldskills, has recently been working on setting up and rigging a new tropical island for rock climbing, opened the first indoor wall in the Malaysia Borneo state of Sabah and is now getting regular groups of bikers from around South East Asia, Australia and Europe. Here, the company's Simon Amos describes what it's like to cycle extreme single track to rolling dirt roads through tiny villages – and experience a new way of seeing the place he now calls home.

There’s banter as we unload our bikes from the back of the pick-up truck, jokes about how clean Sly’s bike always seems to be, my worn-out gloves and how much food Ronny seems to be able to consume.

The sky is sensationally blue and a slight haze makes the backdrop of Mount Kinabalu appear washed out, but the absence of clouds serves to warn us that soon enough it's going to get hot.

Sly and Ronny make a joke in Malay – it's too quick for me to understand and they snigger conspiratorially while I check my tires to make sure they didn’t put any rocks on my camelback. You have to watch these guys.

Dave returns from watering a nearby tree and lifts out his incredible machine from the truck. It's easily the best bike of the group but Dave is the heaviest and the tallest of us all and we are only too well aware that the tight jungle trails and fast gravel bends will favour the smaller riders like us.

The ride starts with a hanging bridge and immediately we are on to dirt. Foot trails lead into a small village where we jump off small hits and dodge chickens. A long shallow hill gets our legs nicely warmed up before we get our first reward: long sweeping bends on a gravel road focus the mind, sand on the inside of the bends makes it difficult to judge the right speed or angle of 'lean', and more than once I feel my front wheel start to dig in. But now the ride is getting interesting and a second climb brings us to a steeper descent to a river. The road is mainly packed dirt here, ideal for some fast fun but there are sections of large gravel, the sort of stuff that takes no prisoners if you hit it too fast.

We all get to the bridge wide-eyed and laughing. It's one of those days. The route continues like this for another 30 minutes or so until we get to the turnoff for Dan’s Downhill, a section of singletrack that is what we are really here for: it's less than ten minutes of riding time but an amazing bit of downhill.

As we drop our seatposts, and take a drink of water, we marvel at the jungle-clad ridges spread out before us. You never get bored of this.

Time to get out of the sun and take on the singletrack: the first kilometre is an old logging track that is very overgrown and rough, no good for vehicles anymore but a fast and furious mountain bike trail complete with dips and banked turns.

You can't afford to be complacent on jungle rides. Once you take your eyes off the trail a boulder or pothole will appear and bite you. None of the trails here is groomed. You get whatever is there – this is the charm of riding in Borneo.

We stop two or three times on the descent to make sure no one has piled. It’s a frantic and physical ride, demanding careful braking and good balance.

The trail finally levels out and we arrive at the first hanging bridge – a sad-looking affair with rusty cables and only half the wooden planks in place. I suddenly find myself upside down and the sound of Dave laughing confirms my suspicion that I probably look a bit foolish having made such a hash of trying to cycle across and disentangle myself from my bike.

We discuss our mechanical woes with impossible gear changes, over-hard suspensions and slippery hand-grips as we ride back through the village, over the bridge and back to the car.

It's still the morning and this Sunday has been an unmitigated success.

Simon Amos of Fieldskills moved to Borneo nearly ten years ago where he has now settled with his wife Christine and together with a business partner in the UK they run adventure and expedition company Fieldskills. For more information about mountain biking in Borneo see www.fieldskills.com.my/ or contact Simon and his team on [email protected].  If you are interested in adventures a little closer to home or want to plan your own trip you can also get in touch with Fieldskills in the UK via www.fieldskills.co.uk