The biking experiences that I have had on my trips to Korea have been indescribable. It is so hard to convey even just a glimpse into some of the amazing things that have happened in my brief travels there:

• Riding on trails PACKED with hikers.
• Riding on trails that range from smooth, flowing single track to insane, rocky steep descents.
• Having hikers on the trail cheer you on, offer you food, beer or soju (kind of Korean vodka).
• Hitchhiking in bongos (small Asian flatbed trucks).
• Jumping onto a bus loaded with older Koreans with our bikes and in full gear. The passengers look like they have just seen an alien visit from another world.
• Riding in Seoul traffic and getting hit by a Seoul city bus in front of a police station. It was easy for me to stand there in the middle of the street and look dumb even without a bus driver yelling at me in Korean. The funny part was that the bus lost a fiberglass right-front fender panel but my bike (and I) came out OK.
• Reading Lonely Planet Korea and seeing the following (5th Ed, April 2001 p.98): "Getting Around - Bicycle: While riding a bicycle in Seoul means almost certain death, it's not a bad way to move around in rural areas if you're experienced in this kind of travel...Bike lanes are a rarity, and expect some big hills." Ha!
• Stopping for Korean food just about everywhere.
• Have a drunken ajusshi try to start a fistfight with you and your biking friends on more than one occasion.
• Getting squeezed against the wall with your bike and gear on a totally packed subway.
• Having the three worst mountain biking accidents in my life (the bus was minor) and breaking just about every single part on my bike in brief periods of intense riding. On previous trips I had broken my front wheel, my rear wheel, my Trek 8000 hardtail frame, my fork pre-load adjuster, chainrings and chains. This past trip was only 4 weekends of riding and I went through 2 brand new rear tires, 1 brand new front tire (the tread has been ripped off in chunks in several locations), a chain, a middle ring, a seat, a tire patch kit, the sole of the bottom of my left shoe and my upper lip.
• Deciding to squeeze one more ride in on Acha-san's steeps before dark and not being successful. It never felt SO GOOD comimg down off a mountain without lights and without grinding myself into the rock.
• Riding with an incredible group of riders. The people who I have ridden with around Seoul have been the best and most intense group of riders that I have ever ridden with. Almost every ride has been an epic all day ride, resulting in my going back to work on Monday (or the next morning in the case of a night ride) to try and recover from a long, intense ride. Rides often start early and end late. I think that the employees at the hotel that I stay at have finally started getting used to repeatedly seeing a sweaty, bloody, dirty bike rider enter the lobby at 12 or 1am in the morning. Most weekends I leave the hotel at about 8am in the morning and return at about midnight. Sundays generally start a little later - about 11am in the morning but finish up just as late. Weekday night rides start at 7pm and end at 12-1am. Because none of the riders has a car, commuting consists of riding to wherever we are going to go or riding to the subway station and then riding to where we are going to go. Any way you look at it, it involves a lot of riding.

Pete & Alex bongoing up Namhan	Photo by Steve Danyo Clean Seoul subways invaded by dirty mountain bikers
Steve bongoing up Namhan	Photo by Steve Danyo Korean Rommel?

It is not just the bike experiences but also the different culture, non-western society, language, food - and so much more that have made the trips incredible. So, along with my mountain biking experiences, I would like to also try and provide a little glipse into the overall Seoul Korea experience:

Photo by Dan Thornton Soul (Seoul) Food	Photo by Dan Thornton You often ride through this: Seoul Sidewalks
Photo by Dan Thornton An unfortunate part of the Korean environment	Photo by Dan Thornton Nighttime Seoul

Photo by Jeff Elmore

So, which way do I go to Kwangju?

Korean Food
I know that the impression of Korean food is not overwhelmingly positive in the states. Before my first trip to Korea, I packed a bunch of peanut butter and jelly and bread into a suitcase and took it with me because I thought that I would hate Korean food. My preconceptions proved to be entirely wrong. Korean food is now my favorite food type! Why? I love spicy food, lots of vegetables, rice and noodles which is a lot of what Korean food is. As well as being delicious, it is very healthy.

It is so difficult to describe the Korean food experiences but they are generally a big part of every ride - mainly because of the ride length and ready availability of places to eat. In the states, I think that generally riders either pack some gels or power bars for the ride, and then after the ride, maybe stop at a local place in town somewhere. In the states, to me most everything seems like bland, franchised homogeneous food. In Korea, the variety is endless and generally cheap. But, you can find something to eat EVERYWHERE, including at the top of the mountain, at the bottom of the mountain as well as everywhere within Seoul. So, before taking the 1 or 2 hour spin along the Han river to get to your riding location for the day, rather than packing a handful of gels or power bars in your pack, you can find a small shop in any neighborhood for any of the Korean staples: ramen noodles (much thicker than the normal American noodles), mandu (steamed filled dumplings) or bi-bim-bap (rice with vegatables), all for $2 or $3. Afterwards, have some thinly sliced beef or pork cooked at your table (Korean BBQ), beef-stock soup, or even western food like McDonalds or pizza if you want it. Beer is cheap and readily available, too. most everything is a ramshack shed that has someone selling some food out of it, whether it is a mom-and-pop corner store or a Korean restaurant, the variety is overwhelming and y Korean Bar-Be-Que at the base of the mountain after a long ride.

It has been said that along with being the hardest working country (Korea has been ranked as having the most work-hours per week), it has also been said that Koreans consume more alcohol per capita than anywhere else in the world. Any night on any street in Seoul will yield more than a few people who obviously have had thier fill.

Along with beer, Korea has its own traditional drinks: soju, makkoli and dong dong ju. Soju is a very poplular clear liquor made from potatoes and is much stronger than it tastes. Makkoli and dong dong ju are made from rice and are generally very cheap and I think are considered a little less refined. The cool thing about dong dong ju is that it is served in a large bowl. It is a milky color, kind of sweet, and you pour it into a seperate cup with a ladle: another unique Korea experience.


How It All Started
When I first began traveling to Korea early last year, I did not bring my mountain bike with me. It soon became apparent, that along with having to stay in Korea for several weeks at a time for business, the mountains in the Seoul area looked pretty good for biking. Not being able to ride my bike for that long was not going to work if I wanted to keep my sanity.

After my first trip to Korea in April of 2001, I did a web search to see if any mountain biking action was going on in the Seoul area. The web search brought up only one web site: a web site called Mountain Bike Korea which is maintained by Steve Danyo, an American living in Seoul. Just browsing the information on the site really started getting my adrenaline going. The riding looked great: lots of rocks, steeps and technical sections that looked similar to the conditions I enjoy riding where I live here in Arizona. It was several months before I was able to finally bring my bike with me in November of 2001. Prior to that, my second trip to Korea last summer ended up extending into an eight week stay without my bike and I swore that I would never go anywhere that long without my bike again. So, I bought a bike travel case and in November I had my first Korean mountain biking experience. To say that it expanded my horizons would be a huge understatement. I have now become addicted to the broad range of trails and riding that is available around Seoul, but especially to the technical riding that is there, as well as the totally unique experience that riding (and visiting) Korea has provided.

What is the riding like around Seoul? Well, what kind of riding do you like to do?

Photo from www.wildbike.co.kr

Intense slickrock steeps?



Smooth flowing single track downhill through a forest of trees?

Photos by Steve Danyo

Riding along a 400 year old ancient wall?

Photo by Dan Thornton

Photo from www.wildbike.co.kr

  
Urban assault battling intense traffic, crazy city bus and taxi drivers who don’t use brakes for kilometers, weaving motorcycles riding on both sidewalks and streets, and tons of pedestrians?



A relaxing ride through the city along the Han river on flat, smooth paved bike paths?

Steve Danyo cleaning Yongma's 2nd Litmus Test. Photo by Peter Donohue

Insane rocky steeps?


Something resembling a bit of the North Shore with steep descents, slimy slick rocks and tree roots, mud, and hikers thrown in for good measure?

Photos by Peter Donohue

  
Mine fields?

It’s all here - and more! And all within pedaling distance from anywhere inside one of the world’s most populated cities.

The Trails Around Seoul
You gotta love riding in a place that has names like the following for some local trails:

• Middle Finger
• Spankinator
• Gates of Hell
• Yikes
• Stinky Crack
• Superfreak
• Fluid
• DMZ-Undulator
• Rim Job
• Hummer
• Filthy
• Supercrunch
• Digestive Track
• Sexy Songnam
• Lickety Split
• Handbag Hell
• Puckoda (next to the Yongma Pagoda and an intense pucker factor)
• Two Trench
• Double Droop
• Condescending
• Bug
• Honeybee
• Queen Bee
• Penis Crush

Props to Steve and the Filthy crew for cool trail names! I'll defer to them for the title explanations.

Regular Riding Spots

Yongma
What can I say about Yongma, other than "Wow." This is the most intense riding that I have ever seen or done: I'm hooked. This is my absolute favorite place to ride. Not only is it scarey steep, but the rocks are big, hard and everywhere. Most of it is so steep that you have to throw your bike over your shoulder and carry it up the rock. Way up.   
Steve carrying his 20+ kilogram bike up the near vertical ascent. This is one of Yongma's easier warmup sections.
So, essentially, to ride Yongma, you carry your bike for about 30 or 40 minutes up a steep vertical ascent to the ridge at about 300 meters. You then ride a steep rocky descent which is over in about 20 minutes. It is so steep that I'll let Yongma speak for itself with pictures (or go here for more info):
                                                                 

The last photo is from a faceplant into a rock after loosing my chain during a particularly rough section further down the trail. Hmmm...maybe a full-face helmet isn't such a bad idea after all? Nah - look at that face! There's nothing worth protecting!


Namhan Sanseong
Namhan Sanseong means south mountain fortress in Korean. It is a fortress wall, kind of like a mini wall of China, that runs along the ridgeline in a group of about 500 meter high mountains south of Seoul.

I have one word for riding at Namhan: an incredibly unique riding experience with SO MANY trails of SO MANY different flavors: steep-rocky-technical, smooth and flowing, tree roots, switchbacks and all with a cool ancient fortress wall as a backdrop.

OK - so it's more than one word. I cannot convey how totally cool it is to me to spend the day riding along an old fortress wall. It has been one of the most unique experiences for me - biking or otherwise. The trails at Namhan sweep the entire range of trail types. As a result, you can spend months exploring dozens of trails all with totally different flavors. And all with a 400 year old fortress wall running along the ridge.   
Steve and Sean taking the 2 meter drop on Honeybee


Steve waiting for Sean's bus at the top


Riding along Namhan's wall
Because the road up Namhan is so narrow and tightly winding, it is extremely dangerous to try and ride up it on your bike. So, the options for getting up Namhan are:

• Take a bus up the main road. These come about every 20 or 30 minutes, usually have a lot of people and are not set up for bikes.
• Go up one of the few trails that can be reasonably hiked up to the top.
• Hitch a ride in a passing Bongo up the road to the top. This is a hit or miss proposition, as sometimes Bongo drivers are somewhat hesistant to stop for a motley group of foriegners with bikes on the side of the road.
• Have someone with a vehicle that can shuttle to the top. Fortunately, just such a person - Brad - has recently been riding with the locals and has a truck that can be used for shuttling Namhan.

The Locals : The Original Filthy Three

Steve, Brett and Jeff make up the original filthy three: the group of three guys who have explored the trails around Seoul, named, posted and made them public and have hosted numerous riders visiting the area over the years. In other words - the pioneers of Seoul Single Track.

Although mountain biking is becoming more popular in Korea, most Koreans do not ride the more technical trails. This is changing and on this most recent trip, I had the opportunity to ride with more Korean locals than on any other trip. So, the inclusion of only foriegners in my list of locals stems from my limited exposure to the overall scene here. For some more background regarding this and the bike environment around Seoul in general, go here.

Steve Danyo a.k.a. Stiff ('Stiff' is how most Koreans pronounce Steve)

Steve nose wheelie-ing down Acha
I am grateful that a guy like Steve has openly kept a mountain biking scene going in the Seoul area for so long. His web site and numerous rides have allowed a lot of people to experience the fantastic riding that Seoul has to offer. He is also great to try and follow down the most difficult sections because he has so many sweet, flowing lines pegged. I still don't know how he manages to repeatedly carry his 20+ kilogram bike up the near vertical ascents for the near vertical plummets.

Steve moved to Seoul from Atlanta in late 1994 and now works for the Korean Ministry of Environment on a regional UN biodiversity protection program. He is a self-described policy wonk.


Brett Bowie a.k.a. Boob

Photo by Steve Danyo

A good Brett line
The Kiwi Madman. I never would have thought that I would see the Tasmanian Devil from Bugs Bunny cartoons pound his way down a mountain. Sometimes I think that he doesn't so much ride obstacles but through them. Awesome. I think that Brett and Steve ought to compile a book of all of the stories that these guys have from riding in Korea - riding through just poured wet cement, the missed turn during a Korea bike race - all the ones that get told during the rides.

Thanks for loaning me a front wheel on my last trip, otherwise I would have been dead in the water for weeks after augering into the ground on Middle Finger and completely taco'ing my previous front wheel. The dong-dong-ju after that ride sure helped the bruises heal faster, too.

Brett moved to Seoul from New Zealand in 1998 and now works as Head Teacher at Konkuk University Foreign Language Institute in Seoul.

Jeff Elmore a.k.a. Jeffro

Photo by Steve Danyo

It was a lot of fun riding with Jeff and talking about mountain bike endurance events while surrounded by insane downhills in Seoul. He even kept a straight face after meeting me for the first time: I had just returned from my first Seoul ride with a face that looked like I had faceplanted into a rock (which I did). He didn't even make fun of my lack of riding style the whole time he sat across the table from me and my injuries eating lunch.

I regret not getting a chance to ride with him again on this trip before he returned to the states. I wish him the best back east.

Other Regular Locals

Sean

Sean next to Namhan Sanseong's fortress wall
Another all-around great guy. Thanks for always being willing to ride with me, even after seeing me look completely like a spaz rider by faceplanting into a rock within an hour of my first ride here in Korea. The late night riding, beer drinking and BS sessions at X-Bike were a lot of fun too. It is great to have someone who is an early Saturday morning rider and also rides a Trek 8000 hardtail!

Sean currently is in the US Army and is stationed in Seoul. He has been in Korea for one of his four years of duty there.


Peter

Photo from www.wildbike.co.kr

Peter: Mastering the wheelie in about 20 picoseconds of riding

I'm still trying to figure out how a guy who is as nice and mild-mannered as Peter has such an intense mountain biking style and can learn SO fast! I have never seen someone become so good after riding for only a few months and on such difficult trails. Once I figure out his secret, I'm going to make millions by packaging and selling it.

I'm sorry that I missed riding with him on this trip and I wish him the best back in Australia.

Peter moved to Seoul to study Korean after living in China for 5 years learning Chinese and pursuing Asian Studies. Peter has recently returned to Austraila.


There is SO MUCH more that I would like to write about, but this post is getting way too long already. Things like

• Night riding on Acha-san and Umyeon-san until the wee hours of the night and shrouded in mist, trees and spider webs.
• Doing my first shuttle on a bike ever on Namhan and then sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for hours coming off the mountain.
• Freezing on an epic all day ride and then experiencing the wonderful Korean ondul heated floors while trying traditional potato soup. That was one of the best meals of my life.
• Watching Steve go flying by on the road at 80kph as he Bongo surfs by grabbing onto a passing truck while stopped at a light.
• Ripping my shorts on my seat and riding through the streets of Seoul with my fat foriegn butt and boxers sticking out (twice). Even I was embarassed. The result is that in the Yongma photos, I ended up buying a cheap pair of shorts on the way to the mountain from a clothing shop that highlight the massive amounts of sweat generated from riding in 37°C 90% humidity weather with the added benefit of giving the appearance of riding in Bavarian liederhosen. Just when the people who have ridden with me thought that my fashion styles couldn't get any worse, I prove them wrong yet again.

Photo from www.wildbike.co.kr

Jung Han-seok, owner of X-Bike

For more info or to check out the local Seoul mountain biking scene, Steve has also established a Yahoo user's group called MTBK (Mountain Bike Korea). Check it out if you get the chance at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mtbk/

So in a nutshell - that's it. My riding experiences have only been limited to the trails around Seoul. Steve has told me about so many other great riding locations in South Korea which I hope to get a chance to ride in the future.

Thanks to Dan Thornton and Peter Donohue for use of the cool photos!


- Alex -
[email protected]

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