Mountain Biking in Bahrain

I first started mountain biking properly at the age of 11 in Bahrain which is a small country in the Middle East. I mountain bike in the desert as there are no mountains in Bahrain. But at least we have a lot of hills which are still nice for trails and filled with plenty of drops and jumps all over the desert here!

Routines

The desert in Bahrain is actually a great place for this fascinating sport. It’s the place where I would practice some nice technical downhill trails that had included a few small jumps which had needed skill and patience and practice and confidence over time. Mountain Biking is truly my favorite sport. Bahrain is quite a hot and humid country in the middle east so I would always wake up at around 5 am every Friday with a group of friends when the weather would be perfect and relaxing. The waking up early part mostly applies during the summer only. However, during winter, it is actually even nicer and colder obviously. I’d wake up a bit later to get some more sleep since there was no need to sacrifice sleep for less heat.

There are 3 types of mountain biking:

• Cross country (XC)
• All-mountain (Enduro)
• Downhill (DH)

The type of riding which you would like more is picked due to personal preference. Check out my other posts to also see the difference between the 3 types of mountain biking!

https://powerfuloutdoors.com/types-of-mountain-biking/

I’m mostly an Enduro rider because it includes more technical trails that involve bigger drops and jump sections that can fill up your adrenaline hunger. Enduro riders generally choose full-suspension mountain bikes with larger width tires, longer rear suspension travel, and longer front suspension travel.

Mountain bike race in Bahrain

I first started riding the trails and doing some proper jumps and tracks properly on a cross country bike which was a Trek marlin 7 2016. I really loved the bike and to me, at the time it was perfect although it was not suited for the type of riding I was doing at the time. At a certain point in my story for mountain biking in the Bahrain desert, I had competed in some Mountain Bike downhill races in the desert at the age of 13 organized by Bahrain Boost and Red bull Bahrain. I was also using my cross country bike for this race. The race was called Bike fest Bahrain. My first ever official MTB race. The race was a huge part of my mountain biking career and it had really meant a lot to me.

As I continued my mountain biking journey, I had also started learning and developing some useful, fun tricks such as bunny hopping and wheeling for example. Bunny hopping is so nice to know how to do because it really helps you get over objects or obstacles in the way. Wheeling helps you learn to balance and can help you learn how to shift your body around the bike and helps you gain confidence and comfort on your bike. These tricks could definitely take years of practice to master. check out one of my tutorials on how to bunnyhop!

Make sure to also check out my other blog posts on biking!

Also, check out my how-to bike long-distance blog post!