No. You can rent from our fleet or bring your own — both work, and neither is treated as the default.

Rentals are charged per riding day, not per trip day: an enduro is $130 USD a day and an e-bike $200 USD a day. On Mountain to Sea that is four riding days, so $520 or $800 for the week. Optional damage cover is $60 USD a riding day.

If you bring your own, ground transport and bike transfer between every stage is already in your rate, and our mechanic services it alongside the fleet.

You are comfortable descending technical singletrack for several hours, you can pick a line through rocks and roots without stopping, and you have ridden multi-day trips or regular full days before.

You do not need to race, jump, or ride everything. Every trail has a way around the hardest features, and your guide will show you the options before you commit.

Around 25 to 30 km a riding day, with 700 to 1,000 m of descent.

The days are weighted heavily downhill on purpose. Ixtepeji and most of the Sierra Norte run on community shuttle trucks, so you are not grinding up fire roads to earn a descent — you are riding the descent.

The distance is modest by road-riding standards and misleading if you read it that way. Twenty-five kilometres of technical singletrack with a thousand metres of descent asks far more of your hands, forearms and concentration than the number suggests.

It is the part people underestimate. You arrive into Mexico City at 2,240 m and the first riding day is above 3,000 m in Desierto de los Leones.

That is exactly why the trip starts with an arrival and acclimatization day before any riding. Oaxaca sits lower at 1,550 m, and the week ends at sea level. Drink more water than feels necessary and go easy on the mezcal the first two nights.

Yes, we rent full-suspension e-bikes at $200 USD a riding day. Tell us when you book so we can plan charging at each stage.

Yes, and plenty of people do. Most dates run as open group departures, which means solo riders and small groups book individually and ride together. You do not need to bring a group to make a date happen.

Yes. If you have your own group, tell us and we will set a dedicated date for you rather than putting you on an open departure.

Two to eight riders. We cap it there on purpose — your guides should know your name and your riding by the second day.

Honestly, the trip is not built for that right now. The week is structured around riding days and point-to-point transfers, and a non-riding companion would spend a lot of it waiting.

That said, we are not closed to it. Talk to us and we will look at your dates specifically — some departures have more room to work around it than others.

A bilingual lead guide and a trail mechanic ride with you, with a separate professional driver handling every transfer. Our guides ride these trails year-round; we do not fly staff in for the season.

• Seven nights lodging, double occupancy
• All ground transport and bike transfer, with a dedicated driver
• Bilingual lead guide and trail mechanic
• Daily breakfast, one main meal and trail nutrition
• Trail access, shuttles, the mezcal and artisan workshop tour, and the surf clinic

• International and domestic flights
• Travel insurance, which is mandatory and arranged by you
• Gratuities for guides, mechanic and drivers
• Alcohol beyond the included tastings
• Personal bike spares and consumables
• Bike rental and optional damage cover, if you want them

Guides, drivers, vehicles and shuttles cost roughly the same whether two people ride or eight. With more riders the fixed cost spreads further, so the per-person rate drops. It is the same trip either way.

A 50% deposit confirms your place. The remaining 50% is due 30 days before the trip starts.

Payments are handled through Stripe, so you can pay by card from anywhere without wiring money internationally.

Yes. Rates are based on double occupancy; a private room for the whole trip is $650 USD. Tell us when you book, because at our group size we hold a limited number of single rooms per departure.

The 50% deposit is non-refundable. It goes straight into holding hotels and locking your dates, and we cannot recover it once it is committed.

The balance works on a sliding scale:

• More than 60 days before departure — balance refunded in full
• 30 to 60 days — 50% of the balance refunded
• Less than 30 days, or no-show — no refund

If the balance is not paid by its 30-day deadline the booking is cancelled automatically and the deposit is lost, so put the date in your calendar when you book.

There are no partial refunds for arriving late or leaving early.

Yes — and we would rather answer this directly than pretend nobody asks it.

Part of the answer is how we work: we scout and mark every route ourselves before a group rides it. We are not improvising on trails we found on an app. We ride these mountains year-round, we know which valleys and which hours are worth avoiding, and the route is planned around that knowledge before you arrive.

The rest of it is ordinary travel sense, and your guides handle the logistics so you are never working it out alone in a place you do not know.

Yes, and this one is not negotiable. We do not provide insurance of any kind, and you will be asked to show proof of cover before Day 1.

Your policy has to cover mountain biking or adventure sports specifically, and it has to include medical evacuation. A lot of standard travel policies quietly exclude both — read the wording before you buy, not after.

If local weather shuts a trail or an activity, we swap in an equivalent one — another trail at a similar level, or a cultural stop. The trip keeps its shape and there are no partial refunds for a substitution.

If something larger disrupts a whole destination, a hurricane on the coast being the realistic case, we either run a safe alternative route or issue a travel credit valid for 12 to 18 months. We do not refund in cash for force majeure, and you should assume the same of any operator who tells you otherwise.

On a private departure we look at what can be shifted. On an open departure the tour runs as scheduled — the rest of the group is waiting on the same trail time — and you cover your own transport to catch up with us.

Either way, days and activities you miss cannot be recovered. It is the main reason we ask you to fly in a day before the first riding day.

You fly into Mexico City (MEX) and out of Puerto Escondido (PXM). It is a point-to-point trip, so you do not return to your arrival city.

Book your arrival for the day before the first riding day. We collect you from the airport and transfer you to the hotel.

One day before the first riding day. That arrival day is built into the itinerary — it covers the welcome dinner and the safety briefing, and it gives you a night at altitude before you ride.

Seven nights, double occupancy: one night in Mexico City, one in Tehuacán, three in Oaxaca and two in Puerto Escondido.

We work with a set of hotels we know and use every season — comfortable, well located, and chosen so your bike sleeps somewhere secure. We confirm the specific properties for your departure once your dates are locked, because holding rooms across a whole season is not something any honest operator can promise in advance.

Wi-Fi at every hotel. On the trails, signal is patchy to non-existent in the Sierra Norte — which most people end up enjoying. Your guides carry communications for emergencies.