Haleakalala Downhill Gear & Safety

Recommended Gear

Wear close-toed shoes, bring sunglasses to protect your eyes, and sunscreen to protect your skin. All of our Maui Downhill Bike Tours include a rain/wind suit (jacket and pants), gloves, backpacks, locks and route maps. 

In the morning at high elevations, the weather on Haleakala can be cold and windy. It is recommended to wear light removable layers as you bike down the volcano to warmer temperatures. The weather changes hourly and everyday can be different, it is better to be prepared. Best case scenario you ride down in shorts and a shirt and you never touch your rain gear! However, we are in the tropics and rain showers can be a normal occurrence.

Committed to Safety

Your safety is our highest priority. To ensure you have the safest and best Maui bike ride possible, we use only top of the line biking equipment and make sure that our bikes are maintained daily by our certified bike mechanics. In addition to the pre-ride safety briefing, our experienced tour guides give you detailed instructions on how best to use our equipment and our roads for your utmost safety and enjoyment. We direct bikers to the safest bike route on Haleakala and while you’re biking at your own pace, you’re not left totally on your own. We always offer roadside assistance if you need anything along the way, just call us and we’ll be there to help.

The reason we don’t offer a guided haleakala downhill tours is also for your safety as guided groups can be problematic to local traffic making it difficult for drivers to pass. It can also be difficult for varying abilities to either keep up or slow down to stay with the whole group. Riding in a big guided group can be dangerous if a rider directly in front of you suddenly brakes. The tail vans they provide blocking traffic make it difficult on local and tourist drivers on the road, making drivers more upset and aggressive. We only provide self-guided Haleakala Downhill tours and we make sure every rider we send down the road is capable to bike down.

The time of day we ride makes a difference. We have heard from our guests that sunrise rides can be unnerving with all the cars coming down from Sunrise. On top of that you would enter town during local rush hour traffic – when families are trying to take their kids to school and get to work. That’s why we meet at 9am and your typically riding by 10:30am. Less cars on the road, less impact to local families and all the shops are open to explore! 

Ride Specific Bikes

We provide Redline front-suspension mountain bikes with 29″ wheels and disc brakes. The bike is a single speed bike specifically for this downhill ride. You will be going 99% downhill and it will be the easiest day on a bike.

We are in process of ordering a Brand New Fleet of Bikes for our Haleakala Downhill Ride! Our new fleet will be even more ride specific, addressing optimal comfort and ride position as well as optional gears! If you are booking for the future, and would like to know if they will be in-house for your trip, send us a message!

Helmets

We provide full-face bike helmets made by Bell. For your safety helmets are a mandatory requirement for you to ride downhill. For ADVANCED and very experienced cyclist we do have open-face helmets (approval required by our team at check-in)

Drive Up The Same Way You Bike Down

Before biking down the volcano, guests are driven up the mountain on the same route they will bike down. As you’re driven up the slopes of Haleakala, you’ll hear a narrated tour of the route explaining its history, points of interest, Hawaiian culture, and dining options at local restaurants along the route. Thus, you’ll know exactly where to go on your ride back down to sea level where our shop is and where your car is parked.

Proven Record

Our customer reviews say it all. Thousands of well-satisfied customers join us every year to bike down Haleakala and explore Upcountry Maui. We have an excellent safety record and we believe it is due to the way we design our tours and our eye for detail when it comes to bike mechanics. We have over 1000 positive reviews on Google, Tripadvisor and Yelp. Maui Sunriders is a Tripadvisor Hall of Fame Business and was voted Maui’s Best Way to Cruise Down the Volcano by Maui Magazine.