# Bike riding in dubai - ranches or springs



## toneson (Jun 15, 2012)

Not sure whether to sell our mountain bikes or bring them with us - any views? Anyone know if it's permitted to ride around these places and if so are they nice places to do so?


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## pamela0810 (Apr 5, 2010)

Ranches has a bike track if I remember correctly. Springs has gotten a little risky since they widened the roads but people still ride. Its great to ride when the weather gets better but not much scenery wise. So you're pretty much just going round and round like hamsters in a giant wheel.


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

i brought my road bike. 
I heard there were weekly track days for cyclists at the autodrome, which is very close to the Ranches. Planning to get out there once it is a bit cooler.

Anyone on this board go?

I heard there are plenty of places to explore on a mountain bike too, further afield, up in the mountains etc.


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## fcjb1970 (Apr 30, 2010)

Cycling here is like many things, make the best of the situation. I have not mt. biked, but I guess there are some things out of town, not a weekday ride. I don't know the area around the ranches. I don't ride through the Springs much (confusing roads), but I find the loop around Jumeriah Island and the loop through Emirates Hills to be really nice, and simple to get to from the Springs. Nothing exciting from a view standpoint, but there is almost no traffic the roads are nice. Both about 5K, I do it from JBR a couple loops and home and get 35K in.

To me the biggest thing is that drivers don't think about cyclists and are very unaware, you really need to be paying attention in traffic areas. So I think the trick to cycling is finding roads away from construction and traffic (not always an easy endeavor). There is a group that does rides every Friday morning (too early and organized for my taste).Dubai Roadsters worth checking out. They also organize rides to Hatta pretty frequent once it cools off.


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## Confiture (Jan 9, 2011)

I do circuits of Ranches 3 times a week. For me it's 10k door to door. I use the roads but you can get all the way round on the paths alongside, save for a few bumps at the various gate entrances.

If you're even a little into cycling, I would say definitely bring your bike(s).


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## toneson (Jun 15, 2012)

thanks for that - will do!

cheers for the intro to the agent too - looks promising!


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## HamishUK (Oct 20, 2009)

pamela0810 said:


> Ranches has a bike track if I remember correctly. Springs has gotten a little risky since they widened the roads but people still ride. Its great to ride when the weather gets better but not much scenery wise. So you're pretty much just going round and round like hamsters in a giant wheel.


You don't need to cycle along the roads at all though, there is plenty of cycling around the lakes. It's about a 10km loop around the big lake.


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## HamishUK (Oct 20, 2009)

Also when looking for places to ride take a look at Strava. It's an app people use to track their rides and you can see where other people have ridden.
http://app.strava.com/segments/expl.../25.075274,55.231132/zoom/12/map_type/terrain


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