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Best US location for year-round riding?

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
Wow - so much good info!
I never explained the background of my Q, so everyone's starting to wonder why I'm looking for the perfect/probably unobtainable spot. Y'all just assumed I was looking for a place to move. :) I have NO problem riding in the winter myself. But I'm just kicking around an idea to start a business that caters to mountain bikers and cyclists, and am trying to find that perfect spot where they'd want to ride all year round. While myself I wouldn't mind riding in dry, cold weather or doing some snow riding (yeah even cold and wet, I do that plenty), people aren't interested in traveling across the country to go somewhere where the weather isn't top notch.
Maybe I could make something work in Arizona, since Tucson (good for winter riding) and Prescott/Flag aren't that far for summer.
Thanks guys-
AB
Well, in that case, you want a riding destination IMO. If you want to attract people to ride, you want a pretty good experience for them. Damn the weather, a lot of places will have a good riding season. Trying to balance out perfect year-round riding with a top quality trails is going to be difficult, and it's probably better to focus on places that have great world class trails. Places that people are going to want to go to ride.

Tucson is ok in the winter, but Sedona is downright amazing 99% in the winter. You don't really want to go to Prescott in the summer, it's ok, but Flagstaff and the White Mountains will be closer. Prescott is a good place to live with good trails and reasonable drives to excellent trails.

Mendocino

Eugene

Medford/Ashland

Bend Oregon

Tahoe

SLC

Santa Fe

Grand Junction

Salida

Durango

Front Range

Gunnison

and a few others. The key here is trail experience. These have absolutely amazing trails right from town or nearby. Many have good weather much of the time. It's not really possible to have great weather all year round, not in that way. Every place has a tradeoff. Go slightly inland in SoCal and you are frying, not to mention the smog. Rain in NorCal winter, especially along the coast. Cold temps in the SW/Rockies at night at the altitudes that won't be killing you in the summer.
 

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
Living in Socal right now, I'd agree with a lot of what has been said, though it's important to remember that Socal is a large region and a more local area may matter more than that (so Big Bear, South LA and Victorville are all in Socal but hugely different). But I live in the burbs where lots of other people do. There are decent trails around and a lot of them are somewhat busy, but as with just about anywhere else, if you go off the beaten path a bit you can find trails that are barely used at all....they may not be in great shape, but that's part of the fun sometimes. Lack of close lift-served DH nearby (compared to the northeast) is a bit of a bummer.

One thing I'd also say is I do not like the road riding around here. Basically, I can either start climbing into the mountains (which is not something I want to do every ride) or deal with tons of cars, multiple lane roads, stop signs, lights, etc. Before moving here I lived in New Haven, CT, which is a small city. I lived in a more urban area than I do now but could still have gotten on the road bike and been completely out of all the traffic and into rolling hills, a few small farms and country roads in about 15 minutes. The sprawl here makes road riding much less enjoyable...that varies locally, but is an issue in a lot of places.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,128
7,679
Transylvania 90210
stay out of SoCal. trails here are as bad as the weather is sunny. also, sunny means hot and dry in this area, so consider cooler and damper areas. Bend, Oreagon looks nice in many ways, but the weather isn't "perfect."

or get this and ride anywhere, anytime.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,128
7,679
Transylvania 90210
also, SoCal could mean driving hours to get to a trail that may only be a dozen miles away, or living closer to the trails means closer to the meth cookers.

minimal lift/DH trails makes this more of a XC environment.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,799
8,383
Nowhere Man!
So its settled. He's moving to Michigan to ride Road bikes and to drink Hamms Beer and smoke crappy Mexican Schwa even though you can get decent Kind bud for cheap.....