In Reply to: Sobek Mountain Ride posted by Ross Whitbourne on Sunday, 25. April 1999 at 20:30 Bali Time:
First of all, beware Mountain Sobek. There are no tandems, just solo bikes of questionable quality. There is no maintenance of bikes, so I'd advise bringing a multi tool with you to tighten everything. If you go on the long downhill, CHECK YOUR BRAKES. Check the wheels for trueness, etc. My husband and I ride a mountain bike tandem at home, only off-road, fairly extreme, and the Sobek experience was an eye-opener. The seat post on my bike sheared off, and my husband bottomed out his bike, among other things -- the shocks on these bikes are sketchy at best. Again, we're used to riding hard, but even for pleasure riding, safety should be of importance. They do provide helmets.
Okay, that out of the way, the Sobek rides take you through fabulous countryside. We took the harder ride (not the long down hill) and saw incredible things, villages, paddies, limestone trails. It was a ton of fun (less the scary safety stuff). One more caution: bring a hydrator like a camel bak. Sobek provides a very small bottle of water. You can also use the hydrator daily as you walk around. If you fill it with ice from your hotel (of course, government approved), you'll have fairly cool water for the first couple hours. You will be chugging water (or beer) the whole time!