[seespotendo]

so I'm planning on going to college in Virginia next year, seeing that i live here.
and i want to know what are the best schools for a rider?
here are the things i would like, mountain bike wise....
-mountains in the area. duh.
-singletrack, some with the option of shuttling
-bike park close by, im thinking like no more than a 3ish hour drive
-and i would like the college to have a bike club that races competitively

thanks!
nick

 

[ridiculous]

didnt go there but it sounds like va tech, jmu (girls, girls, girls) or radford is for you.

I know va tech has a freeride club and plenty of good riding around its campus. SS cant be too far from it.

JMU The shoe is about 2 hrs away, good urban, massanutten and single track everywhere. PLus good shops in Hburg.

 

[seespotendo]

yea...
jmu, vt, and uva were my 3 main ones right now.
jmu is probably at the top of my list currently seeing that the harrisonburg area is practically over flowing with single track. I didnt realize how close it is to snowshoe.
cool, cool, cool.....
anymore ideas.....

 

[mattmatt86]

Clemson!

 

[seespotendo]

weird... never heard of that school. What part of virginia is it in?
haha.

 

[46chief]

WVU in West Virginia. hour fifteen minutes to 7 Springs, 45 minutes from WISP, 2 hours to Timberline, 2.5 hours to Snowshoe. for your XC fix Coopers rock 15 minutes, Bakers ridge 10 minutes, Big Bear 20 minutes.

Morgantown is cool because it is centrally located to alot of great riding.

 

[ridiculous]

also theres that whole UVA being the 2nd best public school in the nation. Might add some time to your gravity riding travel but will add a whole lot to your resume! My buddy used to leave JMU to hit a few spots around UVA from time to time, XC and DJ.

 

[seespotendo]

alright cool. thanks for that.
does anyone know about radford and their riding club?

 

[andym]

alright cool. thanks for that.
does anyone know about radford and their riding club?

Radford is one of the top ranked schools for parties and STDs.

 

[nelsonjm]

I went to VA tech.

-mountains in the area. duh.
-singletrack, some with the option of shuttling
Brush mountain is 2 miles from the school, it's "downhill" and singletrack stuff. I bought a truck and shuttled there every weekend I could find folks to go, it was great. There are also a bunch of other great singletrack mountains who'se names escape me around the area but farther than 10 miles away.

-bike park close by, im thinking like no more than a 3ish hour drive
About a mile from campus there is a small cement skate park that is bike friendly. The VT freeride club also just bought a house and small plot of farmland which they are building jumps on.

-and i would like the college to have a bike club that races competitively
VT freeride usually hits the Snowshoe and Masanuttin races.


Education there is pretty good, but to meet the ladies, you gotta go to JMU. Radford is where the crazy parties were, but they are cracking down on it. Disease is still rampant there too.


Edit:
There are alot of bike lanes around virginia tech too.

 

[seespotendo]

^cool thanks for the info. I just recently visited the freeride club website and it seemed kinda dead.

and as for Radford, partys are cool, but im not to big on contracting an STD.

 

[zsmct]

I'm extremely partial to JMU having just graduated from there. Yes, 2 hours from the shoe plus tons of people to ride with and an insane amount of trails to ride. I knew a guy who grew up just outside of town and hadn't even hit all the trails in the George Washington National Forest.

Massanutten Super D/XC race in May, legit DH race at Mass (not sure what time of year), and finally 6 pack downhill races (6 pack of beverage of choice, don't have to be 21) on awesome single track with the fastest riders in the area as well as a pretty big mountain bike festival in the fall.

Only minutes from campus there is also Hillendale Park where single track trails are being maintained and new ones are being put in still. Has a pump track and potential for jumps (all depends on the City though so don't go renegade building). Campus itself has a few spots to hit but nothing spectacular.

And as others have side, good bike shop (partial to Shenandoah Bicycle Company). People also try to organize in town events like alley cat scavenger hunts as well as critical mass rides to support the environmentalists.

I love the downtown area (especially after 21) because I thought all the "college" bars on the other side of town were really lame.

Finally, its great for outdoors activities in general. Where there's good riding, there's good hiking and even climbing not far from town.

And yes.........I'm bored at work. Enjoy. Good luck with the college search.

 

[dhphoto]

Having been a Harrisonburg local for years, I have to stay I hate JMU, but the riding is good in the area. Just can't stand 99% of the students there. NJ should be forbidden from sending anymore people to this state. But yeah, other than that BS, there's tons of stuff to do within reasonable distances from town.

 

[AlmostHeaven]

I would have to go with VT on this, they are in the mountains, the party scene is great, and there is an abundance of great riding. Tons of worldclass singletrack within 5 minutes to a couple hours away, plus Blacksburg has an entire all-concrete skatepark (with a full bowl) which is a bmxer's dream.

JMU is another good option, Harrisonburg is a very cool city and laid back to the extreme. As someone mentioned before, if you hate NJ yankees and Yinzers from PA, do not even think about it. The place is infested with them and it makes things that much more miserable. There are also lots of them here at WVU but I've never seen it worse than at JMU. It's like they advertise entirely in NJ.

I'm sure you are looking for a four-year college. I attended Dabney S. Lancaster community college in Clifton Forge for the past two years before transferring up here to WVU in August. They had a Forestry technician two year associates program which was automatically transferrable to WVU, which worked out great for me. The party scene is nonexistent outside of the group of guys who attend the Forestry school, but who cares? The best part I loved about the area was the 5 minute drive from my apartment to Douthat State Park, 'Disneyland' of mountain biking on the East Coast. 50 miles of ridiculously perfect and screamingly fast singletrack, challenging on a XC bike and so much fun you'll crap yourself on a DH/all-mtn bike. Dabney does not have any type of bike club, but there are lots of other riders in the area so riding in groups is not a problem.
Not sure what you major interests are, but unless you are into Forestry, I'd say Tech is your best bet. There is not much other point to move away from home for a community college. I went to the Forestry program @ Dabney b/c it's the only one in Virginia. Douthat and the areas around Clifton Forge are only 1.5 hrs away from Blacksburg, and it is well worth the drive. Not only Douthat SP, but hundreds of miles of trail surround Alleghany county. I spent my two years there riding 4-5 days a week and I found new trails continuosly, there is a never ending supply and I am as serious as a heart attack. It would take a decade to ride everything in the area.

Ok, wow, long post. But as you can tell I was/am very passionate about the riding around the Clifton Forge/Covington area. I'm no longer close by to give any tours unfortunately, but if you are venturing out into Alleghany county and want to know the hot spots to ride, PM me for some info and you'll have a ride that you will never forget.
Good luck finding a school!

Whoops, also forgot to mention that there is shuttlable riding and that Snowshoe is only 1.5 hours away (2 if you drive conservatively). How can you beat that?!

 

[AlmostHeaven]

WVU in West Virginia. hour fifteen minutes to 7 Springs, 45 minutes from WISP, 2 hours to Timberline, 2.5 hours to Snowshoe. for your XC fix Coopers rock 15 minutes, Bakers ridge 10 minutes, Big Bear 20 minutes.

Morgantown is cool because it is centrally located to alot of great riding.

And yes I am being partial because I attend WVU now, but this area definitely rivals the Clifton Forge area I lived at for 2 years previously. The only bad part is that the area in VA was much steeper mountains and literally NO traffic, but the trails around here are very fun and flowy.
As 46 chief said, there are many options around to ride with a couple resorts being very close. It's really a bummer that Snowshoe is farther from here than Clifton Forge. There is no comparison between Snowshoe and 7 Springs, Wisp, and Timberline; it puts them all to shame. I used to be able to shoot up to Snowshoe any weekend I wanted, but with it being a 2.5hr drive from WVU, that definitely hinders my spur of the moment travel plans.

 

[pau1]

anywhere but odu hahaha. c/o 07

 

[Hulkamaniac]

I'm going to sound like an old guy here, but....

Pick a college/university based on the program your looking to major in, not on the riding around it!!! Worry about the education first and foremost, the riding opportunities will always be there.....you can get to Snowshoe from nearly anywhere in the tri-state area rather easily (3-5 hours). Good education and job preparation will pay off ten-fold.

If your not exactly sure what you want to major in or where you want to go I would suggest enrolling in your local community college this summer or next fall.

 

[AlmostHeaven]

I'm going to sound like an old guy here, but....

Pick a college/university based on the program your looking to major in, not on the riding around it!!! Worry about the education first and foremost, the riding opportunities will always be there.....you can get to Snowshoe from nearly anywhere in the tri-state area rather easily (3-5 hours). Good education and job preparation will pay off ten-fold.

If your not exactly sure what you want to major in or where you want to go I would suggest enrolling in your local community college this summer or next fall.

good advice from the old guy :biggrin:

 

[01tj]

WVU in West Virginia. hour fifteen minutes to 7 Springs, 45 minutes from WISP, 2 hours to Timberline, 2.5 hours to Snowshoe. for your XC fix Coopers rock 15 minutes, Bakers ridge 10 minutes, Big Bear 20 minutes.

Morgantown is cool because it is centrally located to alot of great riding.

Add Valley Falls to that list, 2 nice bike shops in town and a good sports program