A New Riding Vision For Chiang Mai
A rad project came to my attention earlier this year whereby a good downhill friend (Steve Gould aka Chewy) and I were approached to build a massive mountain bike training centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
After looking at some photos and video footage of the terrain we put our heads together and came up with a design.
In early January we flew over to Thailand and the adventure began. In the first week we had over 1000 truckloads of dirt brought onto the site and excavators working non-stop. Over the first three days, the park started to take shape, then we were hampered by tropical rain, rare for this time of year.
After two more week-long return visits we had Phase 1 of the park completed. The park features lines for all ability levels from beginner to pro.
The highlight is the 10 metre ramp which leads into the choice of the boner or big table top and gapper.
For the soft-opening of the mountain bike park, visitors included awesome local riding royalty and the Looseriders crew. We also flew Toby and Rory over to check out the new park – it was rad! Seeing a 10 year old and 12 year old hitting the big jumps like pros was awesome!
During the midday sun we retreated back to the hotel next door, SabaiSabai Retreat and took a dip in the pool then watched the boys hit the pump track on the DJs and scooters.
The potential for this new MTB Centre is huge and it has to be a great option for northern hemisphere riders wishing to escape the winter and ride somewhere new and interesting. One of the local natural DH trails is just 15 mins up the road too. I can see Chiang Mai becoming the winter place to be.
A big thanks the team of Daniel Hartmann and Mickie Dothaha for having such great foresight to create a new vision for riding in Chiang Mai.