Hi All and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am considering a trip to Nepal for my 40th in October and was wondering if anyone has any experiences they can share.

I live in Malaysia and plan to fly there directly so a tour-operator based in the UK will be of limited use.

I would prefer to use local guides or companies but a quick google turns up a stack of options so thought I would try here first.

I would be taking either my Nicolai AC or my soon to be complted Tallboy LTc.

Cheers
Shiny

shine.mark AT gmail dot com

It depends what time of year. We haven’t done Nepal but we went to Kerala, India in January 2102 and loved it, the company are here: http://www.mountainbikekerala.com/ but they do a Nepal trip, The pindari Glacier. Last OCtober Tracey Moseley did the Nepal trip with Lucy and Phil from Bike Verbier who said it was absolutely brilliant. Worth a look, Mike who runs the company is a fantastic guy and it’s like riding with your mates! Good luck.

Try
http://www.himalbiking.com/himalbiking
Locally based guide comes highly recommended by mates of mine. I’m still saving to go!

I did a Scottish trip with these guys but they’ve been going to Nepal for some years now…I’d defo recommend them as they were very good,lots of attention to detail…
http://www.mtbholidayscotland.com/why-handi-adventures

Mail them and you’ll speak to Catherine..

about 3 hours ago i finished a 7 day trip with Unique Trails in Nepal… (i’m currently sat in a hotel in kathmandu…)

strongly recommended – our guide mangal was awesome – really great knowledge of the trails – the singletrack was as good as alpine stuff, the hotels were all pretty good too! there are loads of trips on offer, and i’m pretty sure they’ll be able to find something to suit you.

we did a kathmandu valley rim trip, but mangal was more than happy to go and explore more technical trails with us, so it wasn’t quite as moderate as it suggests. we’d just raced the trans nepal, mangal was racing too, so we knew each other beforehand.

Mangal has his own company – Black Yak Trails

Also worth checking out Himalayan Singletrack – jenny and santosh are awesome (also involved in trans nepal, and they’re currently re-truing my wheel as we speak!)

definitely recommend nepal – the riding has been far better than i expected – literately giggled my way down the trails.

edit – if you want to use local companies (which i would definitely suggest) then all 3 above are local – unique trails are run from a beautiful guesthouse just above kathmandu, HST are based in thamel (central kathmandu) and black yak are a group of nepalis

bike wise, the tallboy would probably be better i reckon, as there’s a lot of climbing. i used a 29er race bike and it was perfect, something with a bit more travel would be even more fun…

I’ve just returned from Kerala and had an excellent trip with Mike & MTBKerala and I would thoroughly recommend Mike, but I would add that I believe the Pindari Glacier trip is not in Nepal but in Indian Himalaya (I wait to be corrected!). The Pindari trip does sound quite spetacular though.

I would say the Himalayan Singletrack would be a good choice. I’m off to Nepal for Himalayan Rush in March and and planning a few days of MTBing in and around Kathmandu before hand, and to do so with Himalayan Singletrack. I know a couple of the guides hacing raced with them during MTB Himalaya in October, and they’re really nice guys, and pretty handy on a bike too 🙂

Cheers, Rich

Further to my post above, a Swiss couple that I was riding with in Kerala had just completed a trip in Nepal with Santosh @ Himalayan Singletrack and they rated him very highly.

WOW People – what a response!
Thanks for all the tips and advice – keep it coming.

cheers
shiny

used to live there and just back froma visit, dawn til dusk (sonam gurung) in thamel knows all the guides and between him and his brother chimi could sort out what ever you like. htere is also a corsican guy called tangi based in a bike shop called epic bikes in patan who is an excellent guide and has spent a lot of time finding more technical trails. i think his company is called xcnepal or nepalxc but he has a good mix of xc and more technical downhill riding.

BAsically all the guides ride together everyday when they are not out guiding and so know each other etc, ive ridden with a lot of them and they are all very good and very fit. Sonam organises rides most morning of the week in and around the ktm valley and is noramlly only too happy for others to join, so you na get an early morning 2 hour blast pretty much for free, you may have to buy the tea.

I did 2 weeks in Kathmandu/Pokhara/Mustang valley last Christmas/New Year – great trip and it is an amazing place to visit and ride.

The trip I was on was guided by Tangi and he is definitely a good bet for finding more technical riding if that is what you are after, though he is not guiding full time AFAIK. I contacted him via Pokhara Mountain Bike club but he is based in Kathmandu and works closely with Epic bikes as above.

Pile of my photos here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhill/collections/72157628783377625/

One thing to bear in mind is that many of the companies will be pitching rides at people with all sorts of levels of experience, so make sure you ask plenty of questions to find out what sort of riding is involved, particularly if you want something more technical.

Piha, shows how thickie adder my world knowledge is but I thought one of his guides was from Nepal and he used a local guide on each trip. I could be wrong. Either way awesome company any of these pics ring any bells 😉
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-terrific-10-days-with-mountainbikekerala

Oh and gives me and Mr MC some more ideas for the future!

MC – it was yours & CTM’s review that brought my attention to MTBKerala in the first place (thanks for that) and I certainly recognise a few of those places in your photos. The Indian guys Mike had riding with us were Pankaj and Chippie, lovely fellas and both can ride a bit, Chippie was awesome on the techy stuff on this hardtail!

I posted on a similar subject a good few months back and got plenty of advice if you do a search for the thread. The trip never happened though it might be useful to have a look for it.

i can confirm that santosh at himalayan singletrack is a bit of a legend – currently suffering the after effects of a few too many rum and cokes with him last night… if you get a chance to party with him, do so. his dancing is incredible.

i went to nepal in october with mtb worldwide (they operate trips in scotland as mtb scotland), and I can without doubt say that had the best 10 days of my life!

there are quite a lot of other companies offering xc style trips, but if you’re looking for enduro/all-mountain then our guide mandil is definitely the man you want to ride with in nepal. very well connected and a solid rider. the trip was amazingly planned and 95% of the descends were on singletrack! all the staff on our trip were local, which was one of the main deciding factors in choosing these guys.

this is the video that sold the trip for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyhrTp67WVI

bike? i took my sb66 with me – perfect bike for the trip. there was a couple on rented rocky mountain slayers and i dont think they had any complains.

Looking at doing something similar next year. And these
look good

http://www.redspokes.co.uk

Tangi’s a good guy, worth talking to him if you don’t go for a package option. I did a day ride with the Pokhara MTB Club when I was there a few yrs ago – got my ass kicked by him and a couple of 14 year old locals up and downhill. Rode the shonkiest hire bike ever and it was one of the best rides possible.
I really miss Nepal, 3 weeks there was an amazing time. Spend some time seeing the area around you as well as riding if you can, the trails are spectacular but calm of the place is something I appreciated more while travelling through a bit slower and the people are it’s real beauty. I want to go back on my bike-packer ride to see the Mustang area and north of Annapurna. Enjoy, and post some pics when you get back, a Nepal MTB thread needs more pics..

ricardo666 – Member
Looking at doing something similar next year. And these
look good

http://www.redspokes.co.uk

I’m booked with them for Peru/Bolivia this year.

I’m booked with them for Peru/Bolivia this year.

Envious )