Day 2 and 3 of the Jamaica "Fatta" Tyre Festival were awesome. Lots of riding, lots of crazy things to see, and way too much fun every night. Locations include Murphy Hill, Hamilton Mtn, Rio Nuevo Beach, Pimento Hill, and Robin's Bay.
Check inside for more photos and video...After the Bicycle Bash the riding part of the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival started full on. Waking up just a little hung over from the festivities of the night before we headed to John Crow's Tavern to load the bikes for the shuttle up to the top of Murphy Hill above Ocho Rios.
Unloading bikes at the top of Murphy Hill
The ride down from Murphy Hill is a mixture of leafy singletrack and super slick rock, covered with a green algae that is a lot like grease. There's also a bit of dusty doubletrack as well, heading through a few little bits of village...
Wayne Lee on a scenic piece of singletrack
A piece of doubletrack past a few locals..
After the ride we regrouped at John Crow's again for a bit of lunch and then headed out to Hamilton Mountain on Oracabessa for the afternoon's ride. This ride has a lot of climbing and isn't super scenic so I didn't bring the camera, but it was pretty much more of the same. Andy found a new piece of trail to end the ride this year that was pretty awesome, way more technical than previous years. After the ride we rode the short distance to the Sugar Pot Bar at Rio Nuevo Beach where we had an amazing dinner of curried goat and fish with rice followed by partying for a while to the sounds of blasting Reggae before heading back to the hotel for the night.
Sugar Pot Bar at Rio Nuevo
Sugar Pot Bar at Rio Nuevo
Day 3 started with a long drive out to Pimento Hill where we started with a short ride up to Natty Grant's house. Grant wasn't there but his friend Paul helped us out and I bought a bag of about 12 mangoes from him for about $2.
Paul
The first ride of the day I'm going to remember forever as the "Mango" ride. A good part of the trail was covered with mangoes, in some places tire deep. As you'd rip down the trail you'd get covered with bits of mango and rotten mango roost. Fast, twisty, turny, rocky, rooty, slippery, and a lot of fun.
Andy riding the "Mango" trail
We ended up back at Grants house after the ride and then pushed up to the top of Pimento Hill and my favorite trail in Jamaica, "Pressure Drop". Andy and Grant have put a lot of work into turning this old walking trail into a sick bike trail and it's a whole lot of fun. It starts at the top of the hill and goes for what seems like a really long way down to the beach, with berms and drops and all sorts of other fun and scenic stuff along the way.
The view from the top of Pimento Hill
We ended up in Robin's Bay where Rasta Dean cooked us up some awesome chicken fried in fresh coconut oil and he and Grant and some friends fed us an awesome dinner. Rasta's have food dialed!
Dean and Grant and a friend cooking up some food
We finished dinner with a few drinks before heading to the Riverside Inn for a few more drinks and bed...
SMORBA is a non-profit organization affiliated to IMBA that is actively engaged in locating, building and maintaining bicycling opportunities on Jamaica’s famed North Coast.
Check out more photos in my Jamaica Gallery.
It sounds like an awesome place to take a bike trip, instead of the predictable Whistler or Diablo trip. Beaches, sun, a few nice trails, party etc.
I think I'm already going to start saving for a trip next year, hah.