Sometimes we also ride bikes in the desert…at night.

Full moon night rides are great. Riding the same trails in the dark is like riding new trails. There is also a certain magic to the whole experience of being on a bike in the middle of the desert at night.

Name: Mohamed Kandil

Age: 25

Where are you from?: Obour City-Cairo

What do you do for a living? : Marketing Manger

When and why did you start cycling? : I’ve been cycling for as long as I can remember.

Road, off-road, or both? It was not until recently that I started off-road cycling and it’s really fun but before it was mainly road biking.

Tell us about your bike(s)!: Renault Eclaireur , all aluminum with Shimano Acera , It’s a good entry-level  bike that one can start mountain biking with.

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road): In 2008 I made a bike tour for 4 days in Switzerland and it was like a dream, I love mountain biking in Wadi Degla. Anyway I love biking anywhere as long as the air is clean and the scenery is nice.

Do you practice other sports?: swimming , running, I’m thinking about taking Triathlon seriously

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents: Once I had a head-on collision with another bike, the funny thing is that I could see the other bike coming meters away , but every time I took one side of the road the girl on the other bike took the same side ,  so we kept swinging like this until we eventually crashed .
But mountain biking-wise I’ve been cautious till now.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself? I love astronomy , night sky watching and I build model airplanes.

Name: Hany Nagaty

Age: 34

Where are you from?: Cairo, Egypt

What do you do for a living? Telecom Engineer

When and why did you start cycling?
I started serious cycling one year ago. It was when I knew about some cycling event in Europe where we should cycle 800Km in 7 days. So I started serious bike training for the event, and after coming back I’m still into cycling.

Road, off-road, or both? Both

Tell us about your bike(s)!: Specialized Hardrock MTB, And  I love it

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):Both
I love the off-road for the adventure and fun.
And I love going long distance on road to increase the fitness and endurance.

Do you practice other sports?:
Sometimes swimming and a little gym.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:
It was a silly accident; locking the front brakes and then going over the handlebars. I broke a finger. I had an important cycling event two weeks later and I couldn’t miss it, so I went cycling with my hand still in the cast. Thank God I didn’t fall during the event. My finger is now fine.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
I hope biking becomes more popular in Egypt. I wish there are bike shops that sell descent bikes and accessories. And I wish (for sure this is day dreaming) Egyptian streets get bike lanes just like they have in Europe.

Name: Nora Mortagui

Age: 27

Where are you from?

Raised in Alexandria but currently living in Cairo.

What do you do for a living?

I work for a multinational in the human resources department.

When and why did you start cycling?

I started cycling in April, 2009 because I was looking to adopt an outdoorsy activity where I can continuously challenge my body & mind especially in a very male-dominated sport.

Road, off-road, or both?

So far, off-road, I have only biked on-road twice. But I am not biased to either.

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

My bike is a hardtail women’s edition 2009 GTw Avalanche 3.0. I just love it when guys see it and comment “oooh, but it’s so girly!”. Yea.

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):

Wadi Degla, so far J

Do you practice other sports?:

I regularly do aerobics, strength training & hiking but I’ll be willing to try anything else at least once.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:

Some time in the end of September 2009, I was riding really fast in the Wadi’s Canyon where I, as far as I can remember, attempted to jump a very small drop off at very high speed only to end up landing on the side of my front wheel, that got twisted, then I began swerving manically & ultimately flew off my bike, injured my right forearm from my palm to my elbow, where my palm turned blue then black, and pounded the triangular bone beneath my lower spine and hit the back of my head. After a month, I am still recovering from that fall but thank God for helmets!

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

Nah, I’m good.

Name:

Mohamed Abou Bakr Al Fakahany

Age:

Almost 20

Where are you from?

Born in Jeddah/KSA lived there for a while and currently living in Cairo

What do you do for a living?

Still a mechatronics student.

When and why did you start cycling?

I have started cycling last November. Actually I bought my bike to join a tour from Nuweiba to Dahab, although it was a tedious challenge and Nuweiba was full of cats during the day and mosquitoes during the night, but I really enjoyed the company.

Then I joined MTB Egypt last February and have been a mountain biking addict since then.

Road, off-road, or both?

both, touring/road biking is a very cool thing to do …. Off-road biking is much cooler.

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

It is a hardtail Peugeot FR 20 TS. Front disk breaks, rear v breaks. Shimano components.

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):

Off-Road (wadi degla):

The Wadi Degla Rollercoaster. I am yet to try the more advanced rides in Wadi Degla/ Wadi Hof yet.

Do you practice other sports?:

Well, I am a freediver and a spearfisher.

And in 2008 I started parachuting, and we got the first place in Egypt National Championship 2008 J

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:

(video)

That was my first accident, fortunate enough it was caught on tape.

The second accident was almost at the same spot during the race (28th of February)

Three weeks later I had a puncture on the exact spot.

I think there is a witch buried under this spot. Or is it pure bad luck?

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

Naaah …

See you in the wadi ;D

]]> http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-march-2009/feed/ 0 http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-january-2009/ http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-january-2009/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:48:12 +0000 Hani http://mtbegypt.com/?p=120

Name: Sara Tabana

Age: 25

Where are you from?:

Fort Lee, NJ    / Nasr City, Cairo

What do you do for a living?

Grad student

When and why did you start cycling?

I started a long time ago, cycling on and off with friends in the New York area, I recently started Mountain Biking in Egypt and I LOVE IT! <3

Road, off-road, or both?

hmm, I’m ok with both.

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

My bike is pink with yellow and green ribbons, and a family size basket. the tires are white and the pedals are purple. hehehe.. Im actually bikeless, I am bumming off an awesome mountain bike right now until I buy a new one for myself.

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):

Wadi Degla

Do you practice other sports?:

a bit of everything. I play soccer, water ski, started sailing classes, I’m big on diving, rock climbing.. anything exciting, I’ll at least try it once.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:

non that I can remember..

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

I have a 6th toe on my left foot. It functions perfectly fine. It looks pretty normal, you wouldn’t even notice it didn’t belong. hmm, thats pretty much it folks, i look forward to more rides this year and meeting more people with similar interests. oh, was kidding about the toe

]]> http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-january-2009/feed/ 0 http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-november-2008/ http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-november-2008/#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:12:07 +0000 Hani http://mtbegypt.com/?p=119 This month’s rider is Mohamed Zaree, famous (or rather notorious) for the first over the handlebars accident on an MTB Egypt group ride (documented here).

Photo credits: Assem Ali Maged

Name: Mohamed Zaree

Age: 28

Where are you from?:

Dokki, Cairo

What do you do for a living?

I am working as a project officer, in Catholic Relief Services (CRS), especially on the Democracy and governance programs.

When and why did you start cycling?

Well, cycling when I was a lousy fat kid doesn’t count for sure. I started cycling about year and half ago, when I decided to lose 50 KG (110 lbs) of my weight, and enhancing my health, and I saw cycling as the answer for all my needs. Now, having achieved my goal of weight loss, I do cycling only because I feel that there is a strange relationship between me and the bike, I wouldn’t describe it as romantic relationship, because it is definitely much stronger

Road, off-road, or both?

Both

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

Well, my first bike which I started with is a generic Chinese 25 KG mountain bike. Very durable but heavy, on which and I would quickly feel tired after only 30 minuets of riding (but did over200 KM on it). I needed something lighter and factser.

My new bike is a 2008 Specialized Allez (road bike) weighing in at only 9 KG, I hardly could feel tired even after doing a 90 KM without stops. Only problem is that I could not find its spare parts here in Egypt. (But I think that I should blame Egypt for that)

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):

Road mostly, but I really have fun in off-road (but I hate the uphills)

Do you practice other sports?:

I workout at the gym.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:

Ooooops, you can find it on this website lol.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

I want to learn bicycle maintenance.

]]> http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/rider-profiles/mtb-egypt-rider-profile-november-2008/feed/ 0 http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/degla_decents_video/ http://mtbegypt.com/index.php/features/degla_decents_video/#comments Mon, 19 May 2008 13:02:03 +0000 Hani http://mtbegypt.com/?p=76

Thiis is a video made by some members of the Cairo Cyclists. The video shows a series of descents in Wadi Degla. The description provided by Dustin of Cairo Cyclists is :

Hey Bikers,

This collection of clips is hot off the presses. Faysal and I shot most of these on the South Side of Wadi Digla. There are a few notable “North Side” exceptions… namely, Paul’s “Brown Rat” ride near the end of the video.

Watch ONLY if you really enjoy mountain biking.

Enjoy,
Dustin and Faysal

Novices should pay particular attention to riding position on descents in the video.

Thankfully, Zaree came out of the ordeal with minor injuries, and lived to tell the story for incoming waves of mtb novices to learn from

“I started off on top of a steep hill, ready to hammer down to the main trail”

“…then I started accelerating downhill at a blazingly fast speed”

“…I was supposed to pump the brakes when I hit the flat section…”

“…only problem is, I had no brakes to speak of…”

“…and the only physically possible outcome was catching air in a trajectory akin to a stalling airplane”

“…but since I had no parachute, the worst part was landing”

“…for which the result was…”