Riding Indonesia!
 

Hi HuBB,

I'm leaving on my third big trip in my life soon and I'm super excited to get going! The first leg will be Indonesia, I'll be there mid March to June. It's a mixed bike and surf trip.
For the bike part of it, I plan to travel
1. North Sumatra
2. Bali, Java & Sumba
3. Timor

Buying a bike and doing it all continuous is not an option, so for each of these locations, I'll need to rent a bike. I'd therefore like to ask two questions:
Does anyone have a recommendation on where to rent a decent offroad bike? I'd be looking at 250cc bikes, something like a CRF 250 - but I'm also happy with a 150cc bike if there is nothing else available. I don't necessarily plan on riding hard dirt anywhere, but from past experience in Indonesia I love the confidence the bigger engine and longer suspension gives compared to the scooters.
For Sumatra, Medan seems to be a good starting point, and I have found this vendor which has a decent selection of bikes- but they are, for Indonesian standards, quite expensive to rent: https://www.mahongrentalmotor.com - so I'd be happy to learn of any alternatives.

And, does anyone have riding recommendations for roads to take, especially in North Sumatra? I plan on climbing volcanoes, visit lake Toba and so on, but I'd be happy to get any more specific biking recommendations on great drives, be it on road of off road.
Thanks in advance!

Sounds like fun.

Any reason you need a “decent off road bike”?

Not criticism, just interested. I’ve toured Java and used a Honda ADV150 and it was great. Everyone and their dog ride scooters. I think you would really need to be looking for off road situations to warrant it.

Having said that, there are companies that have XR150 type bikes, and one company does one way rentals across Java to Bali on “adventure” type bikes.

This is an example of what I mean.

https://www.motoindo.com/

Sumatra:

For great roads in Indo - the road south from Banda Aceh on the west side of Sumatra is just wow!

Bukit Lawang is interesting place 80-90 kms from Medan up in the mountains for jungle and orangutan trekking.

Its also a spectacular road with 40-50 hairpin turns near Lake Manindjau a bit north of Padang.

Java: To be honest - I didnt find many great bike roads there. Its not that its no nice roads there - its just too crowded! 155 million people on 132 k sqm kms is intense! Mt Bromo and Borobudor temple is good POI.

Indonesia was THE highlight of my RTW trip so I envy you a bit now LOL. But the traffic can be a handful to say the least.

Happy travels

PS This guy has travelled the southeastern islands of Indo extensively and also have a guesthouse and scooter rental on Lombok: https://journals.worldnomads.com/merantau?

Hi Homers,

good question. Like I said in my original post, I love the confidence the bigger engine, bigger tires, and longer suspension gives compared to the scooters - and honestly it's also just a lot more fun to me :)



Hi Snakeboy - thank you for your recommendations! That road north of the lake looks super flowy, would love to ride it. Do you also have any recommendations for the mountain area west of Medan?

Hey Green.

Sorry I missed that part of your post. Too much bier

Have fun.

@green_jinjo,

You can also have a gander at my ride report.

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...sumatra-105059

Mountainious areas west of Medan - no sorry mate - only the place I mentioned already - Bukit Lawang. Great place for jungle trekking and orangutan spitting. But the road up there wasnt anything special…as far as I remember.