# Mountain Biking in the Czech Republic?



## moose (Feb 28, 2004)

I will be in Prague from July 10th through July 28th and would like to mountain bike. I do have a friend who lives in Prague but he does not know anything about mountain biking so I was hoping someone here would be willing to answer a few questions for me. I ride XC 3 to 4 times a week and am looking for intermediate to advance XC singletrack. I am not limiting myself to the Prague area and would be willing to travel anywhere within the Czech Republic. With that said, I have the following questions: 

1.) Is there a bike shop in Prague where I can rent a mountain bike and buy trails maps and books about the trails?
2.) Are there any mountain biking clubs that I could ride with?
3.) What are the names and locations of some of the better trails to ride around Prague as well as in the Czech Republic?

Thank you in advance for any help that you can provide me with.


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## ico (Mar 20, 2005)

Try bike-forum.cz for more info.


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## battleroller1 (Jun 1, 2008)

*Biking in Prague*

I live here in Prague and there are several trails for good mountain biking in and around Prague. Check out Prokopske Udoli (near metro stop Jinonice on the C line). There are also several trails around Karlstejn, which is only 30 minutes from Prague by train. As for renting bikes, you can demo some sweet rides from "Krab Cycles" which is a shop facing the Vltava river south of Palackeho Namesti two or three stop by tram. I believe the stop is called Dvorce. Feel free to contact me. It is possible that I'll even be free to show you some of these local trails. It is always nice to help fellow riders. Good Travels...

Rob


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

My only experience in the Czec Republic is the area around Spindleruv Mlyn / Harrachov /, against the border with Poland. The hills/mountains go up to about 1000 m / 3000 ft. IIRC, and the trails are great fun with lots of rooty singletrack and an amazing amount of rock gardens,

In fact, in 3 weeks I'm going to make the 1000 km drive to ride there again! :0)


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## Jerk_Chicken (Oct 13, 2005)

I'm looking for all the info I can find. I live in Dresden, a relatively short drive from Prague, and would love to check out the trails there.


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## Jerk_Chicken (Oct 13, 2005)

Sorry to bump this back up, but any updates on the trip?

Here's us overlooking the Czech republic from the German side of the border:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=447263&highlight=czech


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Sorry, will post a lengthy reply as soon as my wrists are OK (typing is a pain)


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## Jerk_Chicken (Oct 13, 2005)

Thanks a bunch. Could be a ticket for me to check out those trails, but I'll probably need a Vignette to go through, no?


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Wow... sorry about the hiddeously late reply.

You'll certainly needa vignette for the Czech Republic if you plan on highway driving. I think they're available at most gast stations before the border.

The week in Spindl was great fun. We stayed in Pension Kraus, which is on the south-west side, on the edge of town. Great riding practically from our door. The weather was excellent too - 20-28 degrees all week with only one thunderstorm.

The rails were rougher than I remembered from past years, although it's all do-able on a hardtail or XC machine. Did have tons of flat tires though - less than 2.5 bar for a 140 lb rider with 2.1" tires is asking for it. We killed a couple of spokes and one rim as well.

The most fun rides are to be had if you buy a topo map of the area. Spindlruv Mlyn is in a river valley, and almost trail up the sides of the valley will cross another fun one going down. I don't know if the trails are maintained (except for the local DH course I suspect not) but the regular volumes of hikers going to the area for over a decade mean there at least a lot to choose from.

Some of the more fun rides we had were to Harrachov, Cerna Hora(?), Bily Labe, and south to Vrchlabi. I took my GPS along a couple of days - if you're interested I can post a link here with some of the tracks. Do yourself a favour and check the map before you leave. We were goofing around on one descent, followed what looked like a fun trail, but ended up on the wrong side of a ridge, riding around the hill in the end.

Prices in the Czech Republic are more than decent, even in a tourist town like Spindl. Beer (pivo) is served in proper 0.5 L glasses and the food in most restaurants there is really good. Labusnik (just north of the bridge in the middle of town), the local Mexican and the wild fowl place about 2 miles upstream of Spindl were the best this time 'round.

Just a couple o' pics:


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## gab-star (Sep 16, 2005)

eric said:


> The rails were rougher than I remembered from past years, although it's all do-able on a hardtail or XC machine. Did have tons of flat tires though - less than 2.5 bar for a 140 lb rider with 2.1" tires is asking for it. We killed a couple of spokes and one rim as well.
> 
> The most fun rides are to be had if you buy a topo map of the area. Spindlruv Mlyn is in a river valley, and almost trail up the sides of the valley will cross another fun one going down. I don't know if the trails are maintained (except for the local DH course I suspect not) but the regular volumes of hikers going to the area for over a decade mean there at least a lot to choose from.
> 
> Some of the more fun rides we had were to Harrachov, Cerna Hora(?), Bily Labe, and south to Vrchlabi. I took my GPS along a couple of days - if you're interested I can post a link here with some of the tracks.


Sounds good Eric! I am definately interrested in the GPS tracks! and some additional info is also welcome. Maybe you know of some tour-guides. The rouger trails is just the ting I am looking for!

Replies in dutch also okay... 

Happy trails
Gabby


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## flipnidaho (Aug 10, 2004)

Looks like fun!


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## rideczech (Feb 16, 2011)

We at Rideczech have some awesome trails round us....check us out! 

We are in the far east of CZ on the borders with Poland and Slovakia


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## nts550 (Jul 25, 2006)

Spindleruv Mylen is awesome. Lots of easy to find marked XC/FR trails. Great downhill run. It's a lot of fun.


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## vikingboy (Nov 5, 2008)

Hi, are there any DH or Freeride places near Brno by chance? I'm here for 4-6 weeks more and missing some riding time.


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## rideczech (Feb 16, 2011)

Brno is pretty flat to be honest...so probably not...


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## bd4e1 (Jun 10, 2009)

Hi, if anybody is interested in real allmountain riding on local trails around Prague contact me: mikulashapka on gmail. We ride every weekend for whole year


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## rudyshy (Aug 10, 2012)

nobody would be disappointed in czech rep. lot of trails


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## SaintJV (Oct 22, 2012)

Nice single track park locatend in town "Nove mesto pod smrkem". 85 km lenght is cool enough for everyone i think...


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## French-Timber (Aug 31, 2013)

Hi there!
I'll live in Prague for about 10 month untill september 18th, and I'll be in search of good trails and some "Biking Friends" to train.
Looking foward to ride with you


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## bd4e1 (Jun 10, 2009)

Check your inbox.


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

Wanted to bring this thread back up - going to Prague for a few days in June. I'll have mornings completely free so I wanted to find some XC trails in and around Prague. I'll be staying in Karlin. 

Any advice?


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## Trail-Guide (May 30, 2017)

Hi Peter, contact us on [email protected] . We organize guided rides for our club members, but we can take you out and show you some specialities. Not sure about the exact schedule now, but if you give us the dates, we will get back to you with an offer.
Klara, Head of Flow, Trail-Guide 
O nás | Trail-guide.cz


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

Thanks for the response, I'll drop you a line!


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## gticket (Apr 24, 2014)

Just did a ride with biko adventures yesterday. Our guide was able to link up 20+ miles of riding around Prague with many viewpoints. Couldn't have navigated that by ourselves&#8230;ever. Well worth the cost. There are countless short trails all over the place, pretty sure half of them are sheep trails. Enjoyed a lunch at a café along the way, a beer on the river, and a pump track at the end. Highly recommend: http://www.bikoadventures.com/ 

Wanted to check out trutnov and rychlebské stezky


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

Those tours look really fantastic. The trail-guide people were super helpful and I ended up just doing a Strava ride that looked nice - about 100km, most areas passable by bike, some clearly walk-a-bike sections. It took about 6hrs. Very little pavement and overall I was super impressed by the quality and quantity of trails available around literally starting inside and going to the outside of Prague. I used my Garmin 820 and didn't ever get lost (missed a turn or two, but it's easy enough to know that).

If anyone is going to Prague and wants to repeat my day, you can reply here or shoot me a message and I'll link you to the Strava file. That said, I'm sure you can get a better guided tour from Biko, if that's your thing. Those trails and routes look great and tourists should definitely support a business like that.


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## Structure (Dec 29, 2003)

Biko tours out of Prague is a great option for learning the local trails. I found navigating confusing (lots of mixed urban and road to get to trails, short train hops etc.) and having a guide made it super easy and fun. They also do tours around other areas of the Czech Republic. Nice guys.


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## jc1978 (Sep 2, 2017)

Trail-Guide said:


> Hi Peter, contact us on [email protected] . We organize guided rides for our club members, but we can take you out and show you some specialities. Not sure about the exact schedule now, but if you give us the dates, we will get back to you with an offer.
> Klara, Head of Flow, Trail-Guide
> O nás | Trail-guide.cz


Hi Klara
Does your club have english speaking members?
Thanks


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

JC - I didn't get to ride with them, but they all communicated with me by email in English, so I'm gonna say they probably got that part done pretty well


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## jc1978 (Sep 2, 2017)

hi Peter, thanks for reply
did u ride in Prague?


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

I did two rides, first was kind of so-so, but the second was pretty great. There are some pretty nice trails. I can send you the GPX of them on private if you want (I think I can at least, never sent a GPX by private over this forum)...


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## jc1978 (Sep 2, 2017)

yes please do, that would be cool! theres some pretty nice places around Prague
thanks mate


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## Replay229 (Mar 24, 2017)

peter85 said:


> Those tours look really fantastic. The trail-guide people were super helpful and I ended up just doing a Strava ride that looked nice - about 100km, most areas passable by bike, some clearly walk-a-bike sections. It took about 6hrs. Very little pavement and overall I was super impressed by the quality and quantity of trails available around literally starting inside and going to the outside of Prague. I used my Garmin 820 and didn't ever get lost (missed a turn or two, but it's easy enough to know that).
> 
> If anyone is going to Prague and wants to repeat my day, you can reply here or shoot me a message and I'll link you to the Strava file. That said, I'm sure you can get a better guided tour from Biko, if that's your thing. Those trails and routes look great and tourists should definitely support a business like that.


Hi Peter, is it possible to get the tracks that you did in Prague? thanks !

Simon


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

Hey Simon,

If you've got Strava premium, you can download them from here:

1. https://www.strava.com/activities/1048780379

2. https://www.strava.com/activities/1050465084

The first one was so-so, but the second one had lots of nice parts, especially from Kunraticky Les and on. Drivers in CZ also seemed pretty reasonable.

If you don't have Strava premium, send me a PM with your email and I can send you the GPX directly.


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## PHAM (Sep 19, 2017)

I'm going to Pod Smrkem next weekend. Not sure if it has been mentioned here. In German the village is called "Neustadt an der Tafelfichte". The trail center is the "oldest in Europe" with a lot of crazy-flowy trails. Looking forward!!

You'll find some videos of that on my youtube channel soon after:
http://youtube.com/PHAM-TrailsTechTips


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

Hope you do a video on it!


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## ArmySlowRdr (Dec 19, 2003)

I have several outings booked with Biko Adventures over Easter week 2018. Biko seems to have a solidly stellar rep.


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## bd4e1 (Jun 10, 2009)

Hi, if anybody is looking for proper technical riding in Prague while is a native English speaker, contact me here: [email protected] You will help me to improve my English (via mindfull conversation about bikes ofc) and I can show you best trails around  Only for very experienced riders!


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