Abdellah Hida unwinds a woman’s coiled bike chain in the busy back hallway. The woman is not a local or a client of the Marrakech bike shop where Hida works, Atlas Sport, just a tourist building her bike in preparation for seven days of riding in the High Atlas mountain range.

Hida lines the derailleur up and screws it in. Without saying a word, he gives her a slight nod and picks up the two bikes he’d been moving to the back before she’d asked for help. Hida is a local bike mechanic who entered the 2025 BikingMan, a 500-kilometer off-road race in Morocco, competed against professional riders, and won. Afterward, he congratulated the French racer who finished behind him and told him he had to get back to the bike shop for work. Hida’s story offers a small snapshot of what has been happening in Morocco’s bike scene. The longer version, however, begins as most things worth knowing in the country do: by asking a local.