A friend of mine had suggested that they had some holidays coming up and that they would like to go to Bali and would I like to come with?
An opportunity to cycle in Bali? You son of a bitch, I’m in!
Sounded fun, but riding in Bali presents a number of obstacles, none of which I was adequately prepared for. Hence this article, should you decide you’d like to go cycle there, this should make things a lot simpler than what they were for me.
Worthy? Yes.. Are there better places to cycle? Yes..
Bali wouldn’t be known as an idyllic cycling destination and it’ll probably be a long time before it is. But you can see growth in Bali. I hadn’t been there before but I didn’t quite get the sense of a backwater third world place strewn with poverty. Not like I have in other parts of South East Asia. It looks like the Balinese are doing alright for themselves despite all the COVID troubles, there’s no shortage of tourists now and it appeared as though the locals were able to just roll with the punches.
In contrast actually, it looks like the silver linings of COVID are starting to shine through for the Balinese. With more and more people having the option to work from home (or wherever they like) it seems that it’s not just rural Australian towns that are benefiting. Villa’s and part-time rentals are popping up in Bali by the droves and it looks like it’s not just western businessman that are capitalising on the profits of a growing expat population. The local Balinese seem to be investing in property as well and the government are even offering tax incentives to encourage Westerners to make the move.
A short stay down south of Bali in the small surfing village of Uluwatu confirmed this. It wasn’t short-stay tourists buzzing around on scooters, it was expats working from paradise.
Ok so what’s my point? Well my point is that there appears to be more diverse streams of revenue entering Bali and with that, more business opportunities and road cycling appears to be one of these streams, even if it’s just a glimmer.
Do a little bit of digging and you’ll find road bikes for rent and even the odd bike shop. Heck, I even found a local pro that’s doing guided tours and boy can he ride. (See below for details). I’d say with a richer landscape and more expats actually living in Bali than ever before, you’re going to see the road cycling scene grow and grow. I even saw a local Bali Bastion Cycles ride and there seemed to be a few. The foundations are there.
Having said that, there’s probably many places you’d have higher on your list. Bali isn’t a huge place, there aren’t famous mountains to ride and the roads do get a little bit crazy. Getting in and out of any major centre is very stop, start and a bit of a pain in the arse but once you do, the roads are smooth, the fields are endless and you’ll have much of the road to yourself.
Would I go to ride again? Absolutely. But I still wouldn’t be spruiking it as a top notch road cycling holiday destination. It’s the kind of place that you holiday for the warmth, culture and relaxation and if you’re road cycling inclined, you hit up the local legend for a roll through the rice fields, the coast or perhaps an active volcano. Not a full week tour across the land.
I rode a road bike in Ubud. Ubud is known as a sleepier location in Bali I believe. It’s not.
The main roads around town are heaving with traffic.
The roads are in reasonably good condition however. Theres a few pot holes and cracks that you should exercise a high degree of caution around, however I thought I might need a gravel bike to negotiate the roads. Not necessary, they are all in reasonable condition and theres basically no gravel to speak off. I suppose in Bali, asphalt comes cheap and gravel isn’t worth the maintenance.
Just be prepared to abort mission if there’s heavy rain. Around Ubud there’s many low lying river passes that flood at short notice and you’ll be walking your bike across them knee deep.
With a growing Bali population, infrastructure spending hasn’t kept pace. In most areas, you’ll find just one main road linking towns together. That one road will hold the bulk of all traffic in that particular region whether it be cars, small trucks or scooters and to get out of a city centre, you’ll be riding with them.
Having said this, I have a theory.
Bali traffic rules don’t exist and to throw a bazillion scooters darting around in the mix, it’s chaos. It’s unpredictable. There is literally shit going everywhere.
But it can be this unpredictability that makes it safe to an extent.
Traffic moves slowly and everyone has their eyes on the road. Everyone has to drive with an extreme focus as a result of this unpredictability. The traffic has an eye on you at all times. The locals are used to being held up and don’t get upset about something slowing them down. They are constantly tapping their horn not as we do , accompanied by a “get off the fucking road”, it’s just their way of letting you know that they are there.
I would say exercise a high degree of caution on the busy roads. If you can, leave early and beat the traffic. Most shops don’t open until after 8am and the cities outside Denpasar and Kuta are small, it won’t take you long to get out of them.
Stay off the freeways and don’t take your bike anywhere near Denpasar.
I would say from very little experience, the best places to ride are around Ubud and in the Northern or Eastern parts of the island.
Originally, my plan was to bring my own bike. I have a couple of bike bags, one big bulky Allan Box and another smaller but annoying and softer non-derailleur-breaky-proof one.
Questions I had;
1. How difficult would it be to transport my bulky bike bag around Bali?
2. How difficult would it be to find a bike shop in Bali should my derailleur be bent in transit?
3. How difficult would it be to hire a bike in Bali and what condition would it be in?
In the end, I decided against bringing my own bike as I didn’t want to inconvenience my travelling companion with having to find a van (or similar) to move my bulky bike bag around and I didn’t want to waste any time that would be required to find a bike shop should something go wrong.
I had found a few rental places online and the bikes looked, ok. Alloy but ok. I didn’t need to set a land speed record here, I just needed something that would get me around without snapping in half.
In the end, here’s what I learnt;
- I would have absolutely no trouble whatsoever moving my bulky bike box around.
Getting around in Bali is dead easy. Literally everybody is a taxi. Its not uncommon to be walking around and someone to poke their head out of a bush and ask, taxi? Furthermore, there is a taxi company called Blue Bird that is nothing short of spectacular. Better than Uber and you can literally hire a van for you and your luggage for dirt cheap and there’s heaps of them. There’s even an estimate of price upfront (for every trip) using their their app and you can lock in a price so the chance of getting ripped off or taken the long way around is zilch. For a trip of about 90mins, you might be looking at $20 – $30 tops. - Bike shops in Bali? They exist but they are far and few between. The road bike scene in Bali isn’t exactly heaving. Anyone on any type of bike in Bali is rare. In Ubud, there is no bike shop. In and around Denpasar would likely be your only options but it’s bit of a minefield out there. I wouldn’t be able to comment on parts, service or costs. If you want to bring your bike with you in a bike bag, I suggest its sturdy or you remove the derailleur before you fly and have plenty of tools to fix it yourself.
- Hiring a road bike in Bali is actually not as hard as I thought. All you’ll need is WhatsApp!
I hired my bike from a kind of athlete-centric resort called Balitri which are based on the coast about 40min drive south of Bali which isn’t a problem because they’ll deliver anywhere on the island for a price of course.
They do have a number of road bike in different types and different sizes.
They are all alloy. They are all in reasonable condition. The tyres were a little bald and the chain a little dirty.
But it got me through and while a bit on the heavy side, it was no problem to ride.$40 per day is what they charged for the bike which I think is good value but I later learnt is apparently on the steep side.
$15 to have it delivered to Ubud which isn’t bad.
$15 to have it picked up from Ubud, again not bad.
$15 for them to change the pedals to SPD’s for me which is a fucking rip but oh well.
(not sure if they had any other types of pedals, pretty sure not).
$200 cash deposit on delivery and return when they pick up the bike.Another options is to hire a local legend and to do a guided tour with them and let them provide you with a bike.
Now I did do this but I had already hired the bike from Balitri so I didn’t need the bike. A fellow rider who signed up for the tour did use one of their bikes which was in fairly poor condition and I’m not sure its something that I would recommend.
The local legend however, I really would recommend. Kadek was an absolute legend and I booked the tour through a tour company (not him) that provided those bikes.
Kadek however, has his own bikes and you can talk to him directly which I would really recommend. Not only did the tour company ignore my tour request and send me on a much shorter tour, they gave out the wrong address etc. Ie. They didn’t give a shit. Speak to Kadek (Details below). He’s your man.
If I was going to Bali again, I would speak directly to Kadek and while I can’t vouch for his bikes, he knows what he’s doing – you’d be hiring a bike from someone who cares about it.
Ok so call me a rooky but I did not know that my Garmin maps would not work in Bali!
In Bali your Garmin is useless unless you can find maps to download and add to your Garmin which of course I’ve gone and figured out for you from the comfort of my own home. (I’ve managed to get a free Bali map on the Garmin, whether it works with the GPS is a different story, it should, but you know.. Garmin.
Another simpler way to navigate or track your rides is simply to use Komoot which will require you to download the app to your Garmin device. Komoot actually has some pretty good loops out of Ubud if you use the discovery option.
Not only that, there a Komoot app for your Garmin device which makes things pretty easy.
Here’s how to upload Bali maps onto your Garmin:
- Go to this website: https://extract.bbbike.org/
- You’ll see a map with a sidebar on the left hand side of the page. In that side bar, option 1 (format): select from the dropdown menu “Garmin OSM”.
Option 2, click the search button and type in “Bali” then select the “Bali, Indonesia” option which will centre the map to Bali.
Option 3, enter your email address. (I haven’t been hacked yet but it’s still early days).
Then click the part underneath all that that says, “click here” and a transparent square will appear around Bali.
Then just above that, click a button that says extract. - Wait 5 – 10 minutes and then open your email and follow the link which will download the file. Open the downloaded folder and the file you are looking for is called gmapsupp.img
- Plug your Garmin into your computer and open the Garmin folder that pops up on your desktop screen and then open the folder called “Garmin”.
- Drag the gmapsupp.img into that main Garmin folder. (You’ll see quite a few files with a similar name).
Alternatively, you can just watch this video that I made for it:
Bali is hot, really hot and humid. Kit wise, I’d just be sticking to bib shorts and a summer jersey, t-shirt or shirt.
It can rain and you’ll get wet but I don’t think it ever really calls for a rain jacket. Just get wet. I rode without a base layer and was pretty happy that I did.
If you are bringing your own bike, here’s the list:
- Water Bottles (you will find heaps of shops along the way even in remote locations)
- Snacks and Gels (again there’s plenty of shops along the way but the snacks are a bit odd and a lot of the places don’t really do full meals that are tourist friendly)
- Cash (most places wont accept card and even mini marts have a $5 minimum which is hard to spend on snacks alone in Bali)
- Spare tubes (plenty of opportunities for a puncture and you won’t find any tubes locally)
- Mini pump or CO2 (CO2 cartridges are fine to bring on a plane in checked luggage or carry on according to Qantas and to my knowledge, most airlines, provided:
- They are in good condition
- You are carrying no more than 4
- They are packed or packaged to prevent damage
- Their capacity doesn’t exceed 28g or 50ml each and that it is clearly labelled as such
- Bike tool (check-in luggage only, they will not let you fly with this as its considered a potential weapon).
If you aren’t bringing your own bike:
- Pedals that match your cleats if using anything other than SPDs for the road
- Probably still everything above
Now if you ask me, this is by far, the best way to see Bali on a road bike.
Forget the daunting roads, finding the best route or worrying about getting a flat. You can ride the best roads in Bali without having to research a thing.
I found Kadek through a different touring company whom he moonlights for, however, Kadek runs his own touring business complete with road bike (or mountain bike) rental of all sizes and all the touring options you could wish for.
Not to mention, it’s extremely good value and he’s also a handy wind break for when things get tough.
Tour prices including bike hire, lunch, technical support, electrolytes etc. range from $80 – $200 AUD.
You can contact Kadek directly:
Via Whatsapp: +62 838 4733 5801
Or via his website: Road Cycling Bali (http://www.roadcyclingbali.com)
His website has a good summary of pricing, bikes and what routes are on offer.
Not all tours have to leave from Ubud, you can select from the tours available or customise a tour based on where you are staying and where you would like to go.
→141km ↑2890m ～Very Hard
Hit the roads nice and early while they are still free of traffic and the air is fresh.
Bedugul & Kintamani are the two most popular tourist points in Bali.
Bedugul is an area located in the Tabanan district which is located in the centre of Bali.
Take in the countryside, hills and plantations as well as Lake Beratan on the way to Bedugul.
The beauty of the lake is contrasted by the magnificent Temple Beratan that stands on its banks.
After enjoying the view from Bedugul you will ride up and down through the beautiful Chess Village and onto Kintamani Village where you will see the volcano and the largest lake in Bali.
On the way to Kintamani you will pass the highest road and bridge in Bali.
This ride is for the those who don’t mind a bit of climbing and have a very good level of fitness.
