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places to ride in the peninsula

kobidge

Chimp
Sep 30, 2005
17
0
foster city, ca
i'm just picked up a new fs bike, and i'm looking to get into dh/xc. i found a few websites that offer some info on trails in the area, but i was wondering if anybody here could recommend some good places to ride around the sf bay area peninsula? how about some good places to first start off, so i could get a feel for the bike, etc.?
 

Joe Pozer

Mullet Head
Aug 22, 2001
673
0
Redwood City
Welcome to RM...I used to live in Foster City until a few months ago when I moved to Redwood City.

Places to ride around the area...

A good XC ride for a beginner is Russian Ridge. Nothing too technical and the climbs are not too long.

Another great place is China Camp if you don't mind driving to Marin County. It's a perfect place to get used to your bike...China Camp has some nice singletrack and great views but it's not too technical. The only downside is that the trails can get crowded on the weekends.

Have fun on your new bike...
 

Benton

Monkey
Aug 8, 2003
118
0
SLC
Probably the best biking in the bay area is at the Soquel Demonstration forest. If you google that you'll come up with lots of info. it's down south though so it'll take you a little while to drive there.
 

Total Heckler

Beer and Bike Enthusiast
Apr 28, 2005
8,171
189
Santa Cruz, CA
Yeah soquel demo is fun, the ride up is pretty brutal though. Its like a 40 min or more climb to the top. But the downhill is totally worth it. UCSC trails are a lot of fun (those are what we did yesterday). Nicene Marks in Soquel is also a lot of fun (thats where I broke my foot).
 

Benton

Monkey
Aug 8, 2003
118
0
SLC
Where in Nisene Marks do you ride? I thought the only thing open to biking was the fire-road. Are there legal trails that are good? Are there illegal trails that are good?
 

kobidge

Chimp
Sep 30, 2005
17
0
foster city, ca
can somebody tell me about carlmont hills? a friend of mine was talking to me about it yesterday, and i think he's gonna bring me up there to check it out tomorrow.
 

Scarpa

Chimp
Aug 31, 2005
76
0
Felton
Benton said:
Where in Nisene Marks do you ride? I thought the only thing open to biking was the fire-road. Are there legal trails that are good? Are there illegal trails that are good?
You can ride the lower singletrack in Nisene legally. Anything before the steel bridge is legal. After that, it's only the fireroad that's legal. There are a few bootleg trails up there, but I don't know where they are. You can ride all the way up to Soquel Demo Forest from Aptos if you're nuts like that.. 13 miles and 2500ft of climbing.
 

Benton

Monkey
Aug 8, 2003
118
0
SLC
I've only been there twice but basically it's a place to go dirt jumping. There are tons and tons of doubles, and some steep drops and stuff. it's not really a place to go trail riding. You just pick jumps and drops to practice. I'm a big wimp and most of the stuff there feels too big for me. There are gaps from maybe 4 feet wide up to 20 feet wide, and drops of similar sizes.
 

kobidge

Chimp
Sep 30, 2005
17
0
foster city, ca
the drops seem like they'd be fun to practice on, as long as they're nothing too crazy. i'm not big on dirt jumps either, i have the jumps by the bay which are only a couple of blocks from my house (i recently found out they are called "shells"), but i never really go over there.

can anybody recommend me to some good bike shops in the peninsula? the two bike shops i used to go to regularly went out of business a few years ago.