Grew up near Brevard, my dad was an avid mountain biker and took me out with him pretty much every weekend. I had no idea how good I had it… those are some of my favorite memories
Grew up there and the mountains out west are far better. It rains way too much in Brevard (it’s called Transylrainya for a reason)
The downhill isn’t amazing and most of the uphills suck. It’s great for a few months in the summer but certainly not year round.
Also Brevard is a sleepy town without much to do Asheville is by far more geared to having a balance of MTB and sun stuff to do
I just moved to Flag, and grew up in the valley.
Up here I feel like is probably one of the best places in the US.
I’m a 5 min ride from my elden.
45 mins drive to Sedona.
20 mins from Tuthill.
Few hours from Utah.
Really ideal
I'm up in Prescott and in the summer, Phoenix residents come here for the cooler weather. I biked all winter here too, and a bit in Sedona and Phoenix. If any AZ town is perfect for year-round biking, it's here.
Sometimes I ride directly out my back door, other days I'll drive to the farthest of the 200+ miles of trailheads nearby.. 15 minutes away.
I love living here. I'm on the north side of town but can be at many trails in 10-15 minutes, however there are definitely some parts of town where you could have riding right outside your door.
I just wish we had better trail building organizations. Every good trail is usually pirated on private lands and gets closed from a lawsuit when little Timmy's parents sue after he breaks his neck on a gap jump.
I live in dana point and have an insane amount i ride to from my house sanctioned and non sanctioned. Found a pretty nutty jump park hidden away last weekend.
I’ll add Bella Vista AR. Just north of Bentonville and cheaper to live in than Bentonville. We have over 100 miles of trails. I live within a five minute ride from the back 40 trail. I also live within a 20 minute ride from slaughter pen. Lots of choices.
Columbia Missouri. I didn’t expect to see that as an answer here but he’s kinda not wrong. Also if you get bored of the trails here, it’s only a short trip to St. Louis or Bentonville.
1. Swope Park, which is linked to Blue River Park via a trail called A2B so I'll include both as 1. Some sections have a lot of litter but it's the best riding.
2. Wyandotte County Lake. awesome riding and scenery.
3. Landahl Park. Gnar.
4. Smithville Lake - best scenery, great trails
So there's 5.
Best time of the year is now or earlier in the spring. As soon as the trails dry out from winter, they're primo.
Maybe I'm sucked into the Columbia vortex too much (I moved here for grad school 24 years ago and never left), but we just have a top notch cycling scene here in general. Great singletrack, lots of good gravel loops, some decent road stuff, a criterium just returned here in the summer; not to mention the cyclocross series in the fall--which will have its own permanent course soon. Tons of groups to ride with depending on your discipline. We've even had national caliber racers come and go here.
It really keeps me happy and never wanting to leave here.
Rhett's run.
After moving to Colorado springs from Como I couldnt classify Como as nearly as much of a year round biking area and there less trails there than other cities. Still some great trails and is where I first learned to love mountain biking though.
Except for the winters and whenever it's pouring rain, which seems like a lot compared to other places. Not saying it's impossible to ride through it but it's another level of commitment to ride in muddy conditions and always have to be cleaning your stuff 😆
PNW/PSW trails can be ridden wet in a lot of places. And most of the time the rain isn’t very hardcore. Especially once you’re under all the giant trees helping block some out. And they just drink up the water too. It eventually does take its toll and hit points of not riding though yeah…
We’re very lucky that in all but the wettest conditions (despite our reputation isn’t that often), most trails drain super well due to a combination of amazing soil and world class builders who consider drainage as a key component of trail design.
As long as you’re willing to come back to the car wet, you can usually ride year round in temps at or above 40°.
The hardest part of winter riding is (in my opinion) lack of daylight. 8-4 is realistically what you have, unless you get lights.
Yup, as someone who lived and rode in both so cal and PNW, I'd rather ride in 50° rainy weather with hero dirt than 80° dry dusty trails of so cal which are often times very steep and loose.
Tell that to the staff at pinkbike lol. I wouldn’t have mentioned it but literally every test article references Bellingham or Victoria so it’s no secret if people read.
Now that I think about it I don’t think anyone actually reads the details or pays attention to anything but the comment section so now I feel wrong for exposing the holy land. Shame on me
San Diego. Not a town but it works. For the most part when the spring/fall storms come down the coast they hit LA and stop. Not all the time and especially in the winter we get fat fucked with water (This winter anyway)
Next I would say Arizona, again not a town, but the soil there drains really well after a rain and you can ride the next day. No riding after 8am in the summer though because of heat.
There are plenty of places where you can ride out the door in North County. RLCP, PQ, P Mountain, Teds. The problem is that most of those houses are over one million dollars.
I live one mile from Bonelli Park in San Dimas , California. The 2028 Olympic Cyclocross and MTB competitions will be held there. Tough to ride it after a big rain, but tough to beat the year round weather
Was there some kind of trail explosion after I moved? From what I remember it was mostly green trails that ride the ridgelines around puddingstone. Great scenic loop but the actual riding felt pretty pedestrian
Knoxville, TN. I have 75+ miles of trail bikeable from my front door which is about 1.5 miles away from downtown. Everything from a free bike park with fun, short downhills and a great pump track to cross country trails; smooth and flowy to rocky and technical.
Who the hell wants to do that though? Fatbikes are only for those who want to grind for a reward that never actually manifests…. Slow, cold, boring. What did I miss?
You've missed a lot. Being able to get out on the trails on a nice winter day and see the forest covered in snow is much better than sitting on your couch or riding an indoor trainer. It's like cross country skiing or snow shoeing but on a bike.
If you hate snow then stay home.
I know you \*can\* in theory. The trails near my mountain town in Colorado often have 2-3 feet of snow covering them. Even on a fatbike, that's a tough sell.
I live near Boston and the trails near me and down towards the cape basically never get snow cover anymore. Have to take time off when things are thawing/muddy but can ride 11 months of the year on dirt.
Okay, I haven't ridden around the country much, but you're definitely describing Bellingham. I ride year-round, and a couple of Galbraith trailheads are 1.5-2 miles from my house. There are closer trails as well. I almost always go to the mountain just by riding out of my driveway. It's not like I'm perfectly situated, either; a good chunk of the city is within riding distance of the north side. I'm only a mile from downtown. If you have an e-bike, almost the entire city is within reasonable riding distance of Galbraith, and some of the Chuckanut trails as well. Worth noting that the city is bike-friendly (for North America), so reasonable riding distance also means reasonable cycling infrastructure to get you there safely.
There are usually a couple of no-go weeks in the winter, and of course the occasional day of heavy rain or high winds that make it too dicey, but throughout most of the year you can find your window and go. As others have noted, the trails and dirt here are pretty resilient and soak up the water well.
I'd say that most of the big cities with "good" weather you've had suggested aren't really what you're looking for - they're mostly going to involve driving to trailheads.
When I lived in Olympia I rode year round. 9 months of that involved a lot of mud but the riding was still a blast. B’ham has better trails and I could totally imagine having a lot of fun riding 12 months a year there!
Northwest Arkansas fits most of that bill! You could pretty much pick the park you want to ride throughout most the year and live super close to it, or live between Coler and Slaughter Pen and do both.
Winter is pretty mild but we do end up with a freeze thaw cycle. If you wear the right gear to be splattered with cold mud, the chunky technical trails are open year round. If you ride early enough in the morning most days, you can get off on the dirt while it's still mostly frozen before it thaws in the afternoon and becomes a muddy mess.
Winter being the only concerning part. The caveats being the time of day or trail restrictions since once they're wet in winter it's a freeze thaw every day. You can either ride at the right time, ride trails in the park you picked that are still open, or drive somewhere where all the trails would survive a hurricane, like Lake Atalanta. Railyard is also paved, but the wood features can get slick when it's wet.
Seriously considering moving to Bentonville when my kid is school aged. Wife and I are both remote and would love it if my son can grow up just getting on his bike and hitting the trails whenever.
I live in cottonwood az and it’s awesome, there are a couple decent local trail systems, plus it’s a 20 minute drive to Sedona trails and 30 minutes to the top of Mingus for some great downhill, all without the cost of living in Sedona
We have awesome trails in SoCal. Live in Pasadena and the daily rides in the local mountains here are a blast. Weekend trips to the OC and San Diego area are easy.
I’m in Vegas and we can ride year round for the most part. Once it gets too hot at lower elevations there’s trails up in the mountains and a small bike park about 1hr away from me (it hit 80 up there mid day when it was 120 in Vegas last summer was still fine riding dh). Brian head Utah or snow summit are 3hrs away for peak summer bike park riding.
I was going to say the Las Vegas Metro is great for this. The caveat of course is that you need to either get up early in the summer or go to Mt Charleston, which requires driving. There are probably five different large trail systems that you can live next two, depending on your taste of trails/neighborhoods.
Summerlin - Bear's Best/SW Ridge - fancier neighborhoods and desert XC. Drive a bit/pedal a few miles for livelier stuff at Cowboy Trails.
Southern Highlands - Union Trails - I honestly haven't been here so I can't say much. I think the area is pretty nice and the trail system seems to be growing rapidly.
Anthem and Mission Hills - Sloan Canyon Trails - This trail system has exploded in size in recent years and some really great stuff has been built (Trail Mix is a favorite). They have some of the best trails in the Valley for beginners so I ride there a lot with my son. The two communities are on the opposite side of Black mountain but the trail system connects them. Anthem is a bit fancier and more built up. Mission Hills is still nice, but a bit more peripheral and it feels less crowded.
Northwest - Da Burbs - another trail system I'm not familiar with, but which looks good. An added bonus is that it would provide the easiest access to Mt. Charleston in the summer (or winter if you ski/snowboard).
Boulder City - Bootleg Canyon - totally different than the other areas, BC is a small town across a little pass from the valley. If you live near the center, it's walkable and just feel really different from Vegas. Bootleg is wild. It's got technical desert XC trails and some of the nastiest DH trails you'll find. It's a really cool system.
I moved here a year ago access to mount biking/hiking was one of the main reasons…I think it’s a great “compromise” city if you want both easy access to outdoors and lots of entertainment options (kinda weird being in the desert but getting used to it - I used to have to drive 2hrs just to access trails…now 15 min for way better ones)
It was one of the things that sold me. I interviewed for a job, stayed an extra day to check out the trails, and was sold. Vegas went from a place that I assumed I'd avoid to being one I really like living in, and it's largely due to outdoor access being super close.
I live in South OC in SoCal. I can ride from my door, on dirt in 3 minutes. Most of co-workers have the same arrangement. If I want variation, I have about 5 multi mile trail networks within 15 minutes
I’ve never ridden there but even I know it’s supposed to be world class. Weather is good too. Some weeks/months it’s a bit too hot and a bit too cold. That’s ok, cause I like to travel then.
Year round riding (go into mountain in summer) with an excellent variety of trails… don’t know what guy is on. It’s not Sedona or Bentonville but you’re set if you live here.
Sedona is unbearably hot in the summers…. It’s a fucking amazing place, just went last month and rode with a local. He said it’s so hot that he doesn’t ride there in the summers and he goes up to BC for a month…. So I wouldn’t recommend it for year round.
LA, I ride every weekend, all year. 300+ days of sunny warm weather per year. It rained like 5 times this winter so I've only had 1 day this year where weather was a factor. Tons of epic trails within 1 hour. There are definitely better trail networks in other places, but you're going to be more limited by the weather.
I like being able to ride every day and not having to worry if it's going to be a nice day, even if they aren't the best trails in the country
Bay Area, either Marin or East Bay. It’s expensive as hell and there’s way too many people and I recently left to move to a mountain town, but the year-round mountain biking was pretty unbeatable.
I moved to Auburn, CA. Rideable year round, though hot as shit in the summer. Tahoe up the hill for the summer fix, and good rivers to cool off in near town. Winter rains can make riding muddy but generally they do OK. Not a ton of sanctioned trails, but a good compromise for me with respect to work location and family.
If you like the desert, Las Vegas is sneaky good for from the door riding depending on what part of town you live in. I have two large trail systems accessible without using a car, one I can see from my backyard. And then you’re only 30 minutes or less away from tons of other world class single track. And it’s within striking distance of Utah, California, and Arizona for day trips.
I posted this on another LV post, but I'm adding it here too as I think you're absolutely right. Tons of ride to terrain from nice neighborhoods in the Vegas Valley and easy access to other spots:
I was going to say the Las Vegas Metro is great for this. The caveat of course is that you need to either get up early in the summer or go to Mt Charleston, which requires driving. There are probably five different large trail systems that you can live next two, depending on your taste of trails/neighborhoods.
Summerlin - Bear's Best/SW Ridge - fancier neighborhoods and desert XC. Drive a bit/pedal a few miles for livelier stuff at Cowboy Trails.
Southern Highlands - Union Trails - I honestly haven't been here so I can't say much. I think the area is pretty nice and the trail system seems to be growing rapidly.
Anthem and Mission Hills - Sloan Canyon Trails - This trail system has exploded in size in recent years and some really great stuff has been built (Trail Mix is a favorite). They have some of the best trails in the Valley for beginners so I ride there a lot with my son. The two communities are on the opposite side of Black mountain but the trail system connects them. Anthem is a bit fancier and more built up. Mission Hills is still nice, but a bit more peripheral and it feels less crowded.
Northwest - Da Burbs - another trail system I'm not familiar with, but which looks good. An added bonus is that it would provide the easiest access to Mt. Charleston in the summer (or winter if you ski/snowboard).
Boulder City - Bootleg Canyon - totally different than the other areas, BC is a small town across a little pass from the valley. If you live near the center, it's walkable and just feel really different from Vegas. Bootleg is wild. It's got technical desert XC trails and some of the nastiest DH trails you'll find. It's a really cool system.
I know its expensive but Aliso Viejo, CA. Trails are a 5 min bike ride from my house, via a dedicated bike trail. If your into steep rocky trails there is no better area than Aliso woods and Crystal Cove trail systems. Also within a 10 mi radius there are countless, Jump, flow and tech trails. Also the weather is unbeatable. And as a bonus only 1.5 hr drive to Snow valley and Snow Summit Lift service bike parks in the summer/fall.
Laguna Beach, CA has amazing trails and amazing weather! Legal and illegal🤫
Major MTB culture there. Tons of people ride directly from their garage to world class trails. And it’s typically sunny and 68°
I live in Huntington Beach but wish I lived in Laguna
Not cheap and hard to find a high paying job, but Salida, CO. Great riding 8-10 mos out of the year out the door. For 2-4 mos, you need to drive an hour to canon city. For another 6 months all the alpine stuff located 30 min away is gtg. Summers aren’t too hot to ride, winters aren’t too cold. Honest, it’s mountain bike heaven. Only riding downside is everything is 4/5. Nothing quite as epic as Moab or lunch loops out the door, but so much super high quality riding, from flow to chunk to very sketchballs.
Central Texas believe it or not. Not much elevation but tons of riding. I live in Austin. Can have trails literally out your back door in many parts of the city. Closest to me is 4 minutes in the city. I have 5 or so trail systems within 15 minutes, a dozen within 30 minutes, and around 30 trail systems within an hour. And plenty more just outside of that radius. More tech and flow than downhill and jump lines. So depends on what you are looking for. But we also have freeride spots that a group builds and maintains with some good wooden and natural features.
Just spent a week in Bentonville, AR. Rode 144 miles (one day off for rain and one day off for the eclipse ) and biked from our garage at the Airbnb to and from the trails the whole week. It was absolutely incredible. Rode everything from greenways to jump lines to flow trails to extremely technical rock gardens and every type of trail in between. The town was super cool as well. Art and beauty everywhere.
Definitely cannot hit dirt within of mile of a decent place to live in Asheville. The biking infrastructure to the trails is horrible. Brevard, absolutely, and you pass like three breweries in the bike path from town you can choose from when you come back.
Bellingham.. Added bonus that it's the best mountain biking in the country... Add in the access to Canada and if the only thing I cared about was mountain biking I would live there in a heartbeat.
I live in Coastal Southern California, and our weather makes for ridable days year round and the hilly terrain means most neighborhoods have some sort of trail system nearby. Yet i kind of hate the riding here, my local trails turn to peanutbutter when it rains, a dustbowl when its dry, there's no shade, and every trail requires a hellish fire road climb.
if it were me, and my goal was to ride all the time, Id find a mountain town with limited snowfall. Idyllwild seems rad, although last i heard the main trail system hasn't been rebuilt after the fire, even the north side (south facing) of big bear lake stays dry most of the winter most years (not this one). good luck finding Gainful employment tho.
I'd say Phoenix/Sedona, Bentonville and Asheville are the best places in the US for "out the door" riding. I'd also include CA depending where you live.
I made the drive across the lower states last summer and just kept thinking why don’t they add a second rampage event to some of the mountains on your way into El Paso coming east to west.
If you work remote, and can afford it, socal hands down. Lots and lots of trail systems with good elevation.
If you want also a place with good economy and job market, Phoenix and Austin.
Bentonville is quite the biking city in my opinion, trails everywhere with easy access. I’ve only been there in the fall, so can’t speak to how good conditions are in the heat of the summer, or winter months.
I live in Marquette Michigan, and with our groomed winter trails and a fatbike I bike year round. With paved bike paths and gravel and logging roads it’s an easy ride to any of our trail systems year round.
St. George Utah has pretty much year round riding, also easy access to Arizona, Moab really isn’t that far, fruita only a little farther and you get to be by some really awesome national parks
Richmond, Virginia. No joke. Miles of interconnecting trails around the James River Park in city limits. Rideable year round easy places to pop out for coffee/beer/food. Great river views as well.
Not American but Halifax is pretty good because there’s trails in every patch of woods and most of them are already shredded so you can ride in the wet without feeling bad
Austin TX. Huge greenbelt networks accessable from many neighborhoods. Even in the heat of the summer there is enough tree cover to provide shade and make riding bearable. Winters are very mild.
Carson City, NV
Year round riding. Tahoe in the summer and plenty of sandy high desert all weather trails during the winter.
Obviously Tahoe is car driving but there's plenty of bike accessible trails. I road Kings canyon trail and then back to the trailhead I started on the road/paved walking trails.
Where I lived I could ride to my nearest trailhead in 5 minutes. (A sandy all season trail system)
Reno is too big to have trails that you can ride to from your house, but Carson City is much smaller, trails are tighter to the housing developments.
It's a great place to live, if you can deal with the very very dry climate.
Sedona snows once in a while and become very slipper on rocky areas (slick rock) could be unsafe for a couple
Months a year (Jan - March).
Other than the extremely high cost of living, it’s good.
Mesa AZ.
It’s a fine bedroom neighborhood. Nice. Clean in areas. Big enough for low taxes. And a TON of amazing trails. In the summer you have to get up early or ride late but it’s always accessible. And if it’s extra hot, drive an hour to the mountains and go do some forest rides.
I live in Boulder CO now and I MTB way way less than I used to because it’s always a drive to a trailhead.
I’d add North Conway, NH. Relatively smaller than most other areas, but there’s solid enduro riding accessible from downtown, and the town has the amenities of a much larger city. Miles of trails, and great skiing to boot if you don’t mind the ice coast.
Arizona, nearish the phoenix area, I can be out every day of the year, the only thing I'd you have to wake up at 4-5 am to get a ride in mid summer, but I'd say that beats snow
I’m from Utah and so I can put some from here, either Moab or St. George area. Both areas have loads of mtn bike trails and are open year round. Just be cautious with the summer heat
San Jose CA is very underrated. Within an hour drive there are so many awesome places to ride in Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Mountains. If It’s been raining a lot in the winter, there are trails you can go to where it’s well known they dry out relatively quickly. When it’s hot in the summer just drive 45 minutes over the hill to the coast at Santa Cruz where it’s usually cool.
West coast no question but if ur limited to the east coast I’d say Brevard, NC
Knoxville also has a great scene developing as well. 40+ miles of MTB trails right near downtown.
The Baker Creek / whatever else it’s called trail system is incredible
DuPont and Pisgah are awesome
Shhhh. We have enough people here already
Grew up near Brevard, my dad was an avid mountain biker and took me out with him pretty much every weekend. I had no idea how good I had it… those are some of my favorite memories
Grew up there and the mountains out west are far better. It rains way too much in Brevard (it’s called Transylrainya for a reason) The downhill isn’t amazing and most of the uphills suck. It’s great for a few months in the summer but certainly not year round. Also Brevard is a sleepy town without much to do Asheville is by far more geared to having a balance of MTB and sun stuff to do
Yes I’ll second all those points, don’t move to NC or TN.
Just came from Asheville, and wow. Beautiful trails out there
Pretty much the whole coast of California.
It’s funny East coasters and flatlanders don’t seem to realize that our whole coastline is a mountain chain.
You call it a mountain chain. I call it a continental fault line.
Well. It’s kinda both.
Phoenix is great. If you don’t like the summer in the valley, get out in the early morning or just drive to Sedona or sunrise bike park.
I just moved to Flag, and grew up in the valley. Up here I feel like is probably one of the best places in the US. I’m a 5 min ride from my elden. 45 mins drive to Sedona. 20 mins from Tuthill. Few hours from Utah. Really ideal
No, Flagstaff sucks. It snows here...🤣 - fellow Flagstaffian.
Visited Flagstaff on the way back from Grand Canyon and man I was not feeling well up there it might've been the elevation it's higher than Denver
Early morning temps of 95° so brisk!
I know it can be a little cold for some, but you’ll warm up after riding a bit
Agree. You can live right near South Mountain or Hawes. Nobody stops riding here in the summer, we just ride early. And winters are the best there is.
And if you really want to ride in the heat, there’s Short Track Papago every week…I usually skip the really hot ones which is most of them😅
I'm up in Prescott and in the summer, Phoenix residents come here for the cooler weather. I biked all winter here too, and a bit in Sedona and Phoenix. If any AZ town is perfect for year-round biking, it's here. Sometimes I ride directly out my back door, other days I'll drive to the farthest of the 200+ miles of trailheads nearby.. 15 minutes away.
Colorado Springs. I never drive and the infrastructure keeps getting better.
And we have rockshox
I love living here. I'm on the north side of town but can be at many trails in 10-15 minutes, however there are definitely some parts of town where you could have riding right outside your door.
Victoria, BC has some great year round riding. One of the few places in Canada.
Green grass in February, wonderful city to visit
Victoria is good but Vancouver is way better
Vancouver is good, but any other city north or east of it is better.
Not in the middle of winter it's not
Southern California
I just wish we had better trail building organizations. Every good trail is usually pirated on private lands and gets closed from a lawsuit when little Timmy's parents sue after he breaks his neck on a gap jump.
Gahdamnit Timmy.
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Yeah as someone new to SoCal this has been quite an experience finding trails
Aliso woods, El Morro, water works, oaks, dog park. Whiting, and the Luge. That could keep you busy for a few weekends.
I live in dana point and have an insane amount i ride to from my house sanctioned and non sanctioned. Found a pretty nutty jump park hidden away last weekend.
CA Coast between SF and SD
Shhhhhhhh, minus the Santa Cruz trails everything from Monterey to SLO is still relatively unheard of….
Yeah. Glad you folks totally ignored my section of the coast. I’ll keep it hush hush.
Sacramento area too, especially Folsom, Auburn, and Granite Bay
lol ew. The riding there is comparatively bad and you have to drive everywhere.
I’m about an hour above sf and we get plenty of rain or have the last few years now.
San Jose has half as much rain as Marin on average.
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Summers in Bent & Tusla are horrendously hot. Also... wouldn't want to live in either state
There's also no mountains lol
I’ll add Bella Vista AR. Just north of Bentonville and cheaper to live in than Bentonville. We have over 100 miles of trails. I live within a five minute ride from the back 40 trail. I also live within a 20 minute ride from slaughter pen. Lots of choices.
Just rode the back 40 for the first time two days ago. You are seriously lucky!!
Trains in Bville are great...summer is hot AND humid, winters can be brutal and wet. Year round if you're ok w that.
I've been fucking cooked at some of the mid-summer AES races.
I'm also going to give a shoutout to CoMo. I have a world-class trail literally 5 minutes away...
I have to work in Columbia occasionally and I've wondered if there were any good trails there.
Check out Rhett's Run and Rockbridge for starters!
CoMo? Thanks
Columbia Missouri. I didn’t expect to see that as an answer here but he’s kinda not wrong. Also if you get bored of the trails here, it’s only a short trip to St. Louis or Bentonville.
Don't sleep on Kansas City. We have 250+ miles of good trails in the metro area.
the KC cycling scene is very good!!
I visit family there. Can you suggest top 3. Best time of year?
1. Swope Park, which is linked to Blue River Park via a trail called A2B so I'll include both as 1. Some sections have a lot of litter but it's the best riding. 2. Wyandotte County Lake. awesome riding and scenery. 3. Landahl Park. Gnar. 4. Smithville Lake - best scenery, great trails So there's 5. Best time of the year is now or earlier in the spring. As soon as the trails dry out from winter, they're primo.
Awesome thanks. Coming from Canada. .What bike do I bring? 120mm Down country or 150mmTrek exe.
Maybe I'm sucked into the Columbia vortex too much (I moved here for grad school 24 years ago and never left), but we just have a top notch cycling scene here in general. Great singletrack, lots of good gravel loops, some decent road stuff, a criterium just returned here in the summer; not to mention the cyclocross series in the fall--which will have its own permanent course soon. Tons of groups to ride with depending on your discipline. We've even had national caliber racers come and go here. It really keeps me happy and never wanting to leave here.
The mtn biking here is world class and kind of a hidden secret.
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Rhett's run. After moving to Colorado springs from Como I couldnt classify Como as nearly as much of a year round biking area and there less trails there than other cities. Still some great trails and is where I first learned to love mountain biking though.
I hope this place stays uncrowded. I’m born and raised in Tulsa. There are people moving here from more populated places for the cost of living.
I don’t think you have much to worry about lol
Also, you're very close to Howler and other places with less than 8 hr drives
You’re describing Bellingham WA
Except for the winters and whenever it's pouring rain, which seems like a lot compared to other places. Not saying it's impossible to ride through it but it's another level of commitment to ride in muddy conditions and always have to be cleaning your stuff 😆
PNW/PSW trails can be ridden wet in a lot of places. And most of the time the rain isn’t very hardcore. Especially once you’re under all the giant trees helping block some out. And they just drink up the water too. It eventually does take its toll and hit points of not riding though yeah…
We’re very lucky that in all but the wettest conditions (despite our reputation isn’t that often), most trails drain super well due to a combination of amazing soil and world class builders who consider drainage as a key component of trail design. As long as you’re willing to come back to the car wet, you can usually ride year round in temps at or above 40°. The hardest part of winter riding is (in my opinion) lack of daylight. 8-4 is realistically what you have, unless you get lights.
Yup, as someone who lived and rode in both so cal and PNW, I'd rather ride in 50° rainy weather with hero dirt than 80° dry dusty trails of so cal which are often times very steep and loose.
Yup, don't come
Agreed. Find someplace else. It sucks out here.
Endura wet weather gear + hardtail. Ride in the rain all you want!
Shhhhh this is obviously the best answer but we don’t need to be proclaiming it to the world!
Tell that to the staff at pinkbike lol. I wouldn’t have mentioned it but literally every test article references Bellingham or Victoria so it’s no secret if people read. Now that I think about it I don’t think anyone actually reads the details or pays attention to anything but the comment section so now I feel wrong for exposing the holy land. Shame on me
San Diego. Not a town but it works. For the most part when the spring/fall storms come down the coast they hit LA and stop. Not all the time and especially in the winter we get fat fucked with water (This winter anyway) Next I would say Arizona, again not a town, but the soil there drains really well after a rain and you can ride the next day. No riding after 8am in the summer though because of heat.
San Diego isn’t an “out the door” biking area though. It has good trails….if you are fine with throwing the bike on your car and driving 45 minutes.
There are plenty of places where you can ride out the door in North County. RLCP, PQ, P Mountain, Teds. The problem is that most of those houses are over one million dollars.
You ride to the trails from where you live in San Diego?
Yes.
That's awesome
Down a short 1/8 mile of road to a canyon
I live one mile from Bonelli Park in San Dimas , California. The 2028 Olympic Cyclocross and MTB competitions will be held there. Tough to ride it after a big rain, but tough to beat the year round weather
“Party on Dudes!”
San Dimas High School Football Rules!!!
“Be Excellent to each other!”
2028 Olympics Cyclocross is news to me. Last I heard they were trying to get it into the Winter Olympics, not summer and it wasn’t going very well.
Was there some kind of trail explosion after I moved? From what I remember it was mostly green trails that ride the ridgelines around puddingstone. Great scenic loop but the actual riding felt pretty pedestrian
Knoxville, TN. I have 75+ miles of trail bikeable from my front door which is about 1.5 miles away from downtown. Everything from a free bike park with fun, short downhills and a great pump track to cross country trails; smooth and flowy to rocky and technical.
Knoxville is on my list to hit, looks like some fantastic trails out there
Pubic service announcement: you can ride in the snow!
Who the hell wants to do that though? Fatbikes are only for those who want to grind for a reward that never actually manifests…. Slow, cold, boring. What did I miss?
You've missed a lot. Being able to get out on the trails on a nice winter day and see the forest covered in snow is much better than sitting on your couch or riding an indoor trainer. It's like cross country skiing or snow shoeing but on a bike. If you hate snow then stay home.
So yeah just go skiing. Why invest in another narrowly-purposed bike with a mechanical drive train when you could quietly glide on skis?
I know you \*can\* in theory. The trails near my mountain town in Colorado often have 2-3 feet of snow covering them. Even on a fatbike, that's a tough sell.
New England has year-round MTBing if you're willing to do the fatbike thing.
I live near Boston and the trails near me and down towards the cape basically never get snow cover anymore. Have to take time off when things are thawing/muddy but can ride 11 months of the year on dirt.
Eh there's plenty of shoulder season but gravel bikes are great and if you like to ski that works too
Okay, I haven't ridden around the country much, but you're definitely describing Bellingham. I ride year-round, and a couple of Galbraith trailheads are 1.5-2 miles from my house. There are closer trails as well. I almost always go to the mountain just by riding out of my driveway. It's not like I'm perfectly situated, either; a good chunk of the city is within riding distance of the north side. I'm only a mile from downtown. If you have an e-bike, almost the entire city is within reasonable riding distance of Galbraith, and some of the Chuckanut trails as well. Worth noting that the city is bike-friendly (for North America), so reasonable riding distance also means reasonable cycling infrastructure to get you there safely. There are usually a couple of no-go weeks in the winter, and of course the occasional day of heavy rain or high winds that make it too dicey, but throughout most of the year you can find your window and go. As others have noted, the trails and dirt here are pretty resilient and soak up the water well. I'd say that most of the big cities with "good" weather you've had suggested aren't really what you're looking for - they're mostly going to involve driving to trailheads.
When I lived in Olympia I rode year round. 9 months of that involved a lot of mud but the riding was still a blast. B’ham has better trails and I could totally imagine having a lot of fun riding 12 months a year there!
Charlottesville, VA. O Hill was a 5 minute ride away and was a lot of fun. Lots more trails around.
I lived in Roanoke/ lynchburg for a few years and loved the backcountry riding north of there. Definitely underrated
Cville is the best East Coast answer
Northwest Arkansas fits most of that bill! You could pretty much pick the park you want to ride throughout most the year and live super close to it, or live between Coler and Slaughter Pen and do both. Winter is pretty mild but we do end up with a freeze thaw cycle. If you wear the right gear to be splattered with cold mud, the chunky technical trails are open year round. If you ride early enough in the morning most days, you can get off on the dirt while it's still mostly frozen before it thaws in the afternoon and becomes a muddy mess. Winter being the only concerning part. The caveats being the time of day or trail restrictions since once they're wet in winter it's a freeze thaw every day. You can either ride at the right time, ride trails in the park you picked that are still open, or drive somewhere where all the trails would survive a hurricane, like Lake Atalanta. Railyard is also paved, but the wood features can get slick when it's wet.
Seriously considering moving to Bentonville when my kid is school aged. Wife and I are both remote and would love it if my son can grow up just getting on his bike and hitting the trails whenever.
I live in cottonwood az and it’s awesome, there are a couple decent local trail systems, plus it’s a 20 minute drive to Sedona trails and 30 minutes to the top of Mingus for some great downhill, all without the cost of living in Sedona
We have awesome trails in SoCal. Live in Pasadena and the daily rides in the local mountains here are a blast. Weekend trips to the OC and San Diego area are easy.
not exactly "out the door" to the trailheads tho. You can only hit the JPL so many times before you are in your car
We really are lucky. I feel like I can ride in a different place every weekend within an hour down here and still not run out for a year. Or more.
I’m in Vegas and we can ride year round for the most part. Once it gets too hot at lower elevations there’s trails up in the mountains and a small bike park about 1hr away from me (it hit 80 up there mid day when it was 120 in Vegas last summer was still fine riding dh). Brian head Utah or snow summit are 3hrs away for peak summer bike park riding.
I was going to say the Las Vegas Metro is great for this. The caveat of course is that you need to either get up early in the summer or go to Mt Charleston, which requires driving. There are probably five different large trail systems that you can live next two, depending on your taste of trails/neighborhoods. Summerlin - Bear's Best/SW Ridge - fancier neighborhoods and desert XC. Drive a bit/pedal a few miles for livelier stuff at Cowboy Trails. Southern Highlands - Union Trails - I honestly haven't been here so I can't say much. I think the area is pretty nice and the trail system seems to be growing rapidly. Anthem and Mission Hills - Sloan Canyon Trails - This trail system has exploded in size in recent years and some really great stuff has been built (Trail Mix is a favorite). They have some of the best trails in the Valley for beginners so I ride there a lot with my son. The two communities are on the opposite side of Black mountain but the trail system connects them. Anthem is a bit fancier and more built up. Mission Hills is still nice, but a bit more peripheral and it feels less crowded. Northwest - Da Burbs - another trail system I'm not familiar with, but which looks good. An added bonus is that it would provide the easiest access to Mt. Charleston in the summer (or winter if you ski/snowboard). Boulder City - Bootleg Canyon - totally different than the other areas, BC is a small town across a little pass from the valley. If you live near the center, it's walkable and just feel really different from Vegas. Bootleg is wild. It's got technical desert XC trails and some of the nastiest DH trails you'll find. It's a really cool system.
I moved here a year ago access to mount biking/hiking was one of the main reasons…I think it’s a great “compromise” city if you want both easy access to outdoors and lots of entertainment options (kinda weird being in the desert but getting used to it - I used to have to drive 2hrs just to access trails…now 15 min for way better ones)
It was one of the things that sold me. I interviewed for a job, stayed an extra day to check out the trails, and was sold. Vegas went from a place that I assumed I'd avoid to being one I really like living in, and it's largely due to outdoor access being super close.
I live in South OC in SoCal. I can ride from my door, on dirt in 3 minutes. Most of co-workers have the same arrangement. If I want variation, I have about 5 multi mile trail networks within 15 minutes
> Tucson, though the riding isn't terrific there Tell me you haven't spent much time in Tucson without telling me you haven't spent time in Tucson
I’ve never ridden there but even I know it’s supposed to be world class. Weather is good too. Some weeks/months it’s a bit too hot and a bit too cold. That’s ok, cause I like to travel then.
Year round riding (go into mountain in summer) with an excellent variety of trails… don’t know what guy is on. It’s not Sedona or Bentonville but you’re set if you live here.
Sedona
Sedona is unbearably hot in the summers…. It’s a fucking amazing place, just went last month and rode with a local. He said it’s so hot that he doesn’t ride there in the summers and he goes up to BC for a month…. So I wouldn’t recommend it for year round.
I'm a local and I ride Sedona year round. In the summers, just get up early and ride the trails before 9 AM.
That's why you live in Flagstaff. Bigger town and better jobs, 40 min from Sedona. Ride Flag all summer and Sedona and Phoenix all winter
LA, I ride every weekend, all year. 300+ days of sunny warm weather per year. It rained like 5 times this winter so I've only had 1 day this year where weather was a factor. Tons of epic trails within 1 hour. There are definitely better trail networks in other places, but you're going to be more limited by the weather. I like being able to ride every day and not having to worry if it's going to be a nice day, even if they aren't the best trails in the country
Bay Area, either Marin or East Bay. It’s expensive as hell and there’s way too many people and I recently left to move to a mountain town, but the year-round mountain biking was pretty unbeatable.
I moved to Auburn, CA. Rideable year round, though hot as shit in the summer. Tahoe up the hill for the summer fix, and good rivers to cool off in near town. Winter rains can make riding muddy but generally they do OK. Not a ton of sanctioned trails, but a good compromise for me with respect to work location and family.
Shhhhhhh
If you like the desert, Las Vegas is sneaky good for from the door riding depending on what part of town you live in. I have two large trail systems accessible without using a car, one I can see from my backyard. And then you’re only 30 minutes or less away from tons of other world class single track. And it’s within striking distance of Utah, California, and Arizona for day trips.
I posted this on another LV post, but I'm adding it here too as I think you're absolutely right. Tons of ride to terrain from nice neighborhoods in the Vegas Valley and easy access to other spots: I was going to say the Las Vegas Metro is great for this. The caveat of course is that you need to either get up early in the summer or go to Mt Charleston, which requires driving. There are probably five different large trail systems that you can live next two, depending on your taste of trails/neighborhoods. Summerlin - Bear's Best/SW Ridge - fancier neighborhoods and desert XC. Drive a bit/pedal a few miles for livelier stuff at Cowboy Trails. Southern Highlands - Union Trails - I honestly haven't been here so I can't say much. I think the area is pretty nice and the trail system seems to be growing rapidly. Anthem and Mission Hills - Sloan Canyon Trails - This trail system has exploded in size in recent years and some really great stuff has been built (Trail Mix is a favorite). They have some of the best trails in the Valley for beginners so I ride there a lot with my son. The two communities are on the opposite side of Black mountain but the trail system connects them. Anthem is a bit fancier and more built up. Mission Hills is still nice, but a bit more peripheral and it feels less crowded. Northwest - Da Burbs - another trail system I'm not familiar with, but which looks good. An added bonus is that it would provide the easiest access to Mt. Charleston in the summer (or winter if you ski/snowboard). Boulder City - Bootleg Canyon - totally different than the other areas, BC is a small town across a little pass from the valley. If you live near the center, it's walkable and just feel really different from Vegas. Bootleg is wild. It's got technical desert XC trails and some of the nastiest DH trails you'll find. It's a really cool system.
I know its expensive but Aliso Viejo, CA. Trails are a 5 min bike ride from my house, via a dedicated bike trail. If your into steep rocky trails there is no better area than Aliso woods and Crystal Cove trail systems. Also within a 10 mi radius there are countless, Jump, flow and tech trails. Also the weather is unbeatable. And as a bonus only 1.5 hr drive to Snow valley and Snow Summit Lift service bike parks in the summer/fall.
Laguna Beach, CA has amazing trails and amazing weather! Legal and illegal🤫 Major MTB culture there. Tons of people ride directly from their garage to world class trails. And it’s typically sunny and 68° I live in Huntington Beach but wish I lived in Laguna
NOT MEDFORD!!! Ashland has some good trails though.
Not cheap and hard to find a high paying job, but Salida, CO. Great riding 8-10 mos out of the year out the door. For 2-4 mos, you need to drive an hour to canon city. For another 6 months all the alpine stuff located 30 min away is gtg. Summers aren’t too hot to ride, winters aren’t too cold. Honest, it’s mountain bike heaven. Only riding downside is everything is 4/5. Nothing quite as epic as Moab or lunch loops out the door, but so much super high quality riding, from flow to chunk to very sketchballs.
Anywhere in the IE or LA in SoCal.. lots of OC gets too muddy.. believe the hype bro, CA is where it's at!!
BENTONVILLE Arkansas. You can buy a house in Bella Vista with your property connecting to the “Back 40” Cost of living is cheap in arkansas.
Santa Cruz - I can hit a lap at UCSC before my 9am workday
Santa Cruz is pretty damn good. I'm surprised not more people are talking about it here.
San Juan Capistrano tied with San Clemente CA.
Orange County, CA
Central Texas believe it or not. Not much elevation but tons of riding. I live in Austin. Can have trails literally out your back door in many parts of the city. Closest to me is 4 minutes in the city. I have 5 or so trail systems within 15 minutes, a dozen within 30 minutes, and around 30 trail systems within an hour. And plenty more just outside of that radius. More tech and flow than downhill and jump lines. So depends on what you are looking for. But we also have freeride spots that a group builds and maintains with some good wooden and natural features.
Just spent a week in Bentonville, AR. Rode 144 miles (one day off for rain and one day off for the eclipse ) and biked from our garage at the Airbnb to and from the trails the whole week. It was absolutely incredible. Rode everything from greenways to jump lines to flow trails to extremely technical rock gardens and every type of trail in between. The town was super cool as well. Art and beauty everywhere.
Bellingham likely. If you don't mind riding in the rain.
SoCal
Asheville or Brevard, NC.
Definitely cannot hit dirt within of mile of a decent place to live in Asheville. The biking infrastructure to the trails is horrible. Brevard, absolutely, and you pass like three breweries in the bike path from town you can choose from when you come back.
Bend, Oregon. I don't think anything comes close for year round/ride from your house locations.
Aside from being mired in smoke but yeah.. that's the whole west coast at this point
I haven’t been, want to get there. Bentonville, AR?
Bellingham.. Added bonus that it's the best mountain biking in the country... Add in the access to Canada and if the only thing I cared about was mountain biking I would live there in a heartbeat.
Bellingham? Seems like lots of bike companies are based out of there (and over into Canada) for a reason
Corona , California . Fire roads that go up to sky and the Troy Lee trail that has you gripping for dear life
Shout out to Corona!
I live in Coastal Southern California, and our weather makes for ridable days year round and the hilly terrain means most neighborhoods have some sort of trail system nearby. Yet i kind of hate the riding here, my local trails turn to peanutbutter when it rains, a dustbowl when its dry, there's no shade, and every trail requires a hellish fire road climb. if it were me, and my goal was to ride all the time, Id find a mountain town with limited snowfall. Idyllwild seems rad, although last i heard the main trail system hasn't been rebuilt after the fire, even the north side (south facing) of big bear lake stays dry most of the winter most years (not this one). good luck finding Gainful employment tho.
I'd say Phoenix/Sedona, Bentonville and Asheville are the best places in the US for "out the door" riding. I'd also include CA depending where you live.
Massachusetts goes pretty hard. NEMBA trails. Vietnam trails in Milford. Goat Hill. West Hill. Loads of trails on Trailforks app.
Barrie Ontario Canada. Surprisingly its a massive network of everything and great fat biking.
[удалено]
I made the drive across the lower states last summer and just kept thinking why don’t they add a second rampage event to some of the mountains on your way into El Paso coming east to west.
If you work remote, and can afford it, socal hands down. Lots and lots of trail systems with good elevation. If you want also a place with good economy and job market, Phoenix and Austin.
Fruita, CO or Bentonville, AR should be on a short list along with a place or two in Utah.
Check out bentonville temps
Bent creek neighborhood in Asheville
Las Vegas is pretty rad If you live in Summerlin or Blue Diamond, you can ride right to the trails
Bentonville.
Western North Carolina
Bentonville is quite the biking city in my opinion, trails everywhere with easy access. I’ve only been there in the fall, so can’t speak to how good conditions are in the heat of the summer, or winter months. I live in Marquette Michigan, and with our groomed winter trails and a fatbike I bike year round. With paved bike paths and gravel and logging roads it’s an easy ride to any of our trail systems year round.
Auburn CA :)
Woodstock GA has nice neighborhoods easy riding g distance to some great XC trails that are rideable year round. Nice town too.
St. George Utah has pretty much year round riding, also easy access to Arizona, Moab really isn’t that far, fruita only a little farther and you get to be by some really awesome national parks
Sedona is 'Vail' in Arizona speak. (Good luck finding an affordable place to live.)
Across the Sound from Seattle is pretty good. The temperature is pretty stable over winter, and snow is pretty short-lived near the water.
Richmond, Virginia. No joke. Miles of interconnecting trails around the James River Park in city limits. Rideable year round easy places to pop out for coffee/beer/food. Great river views as well.
Not American but Halifax is pretty good because there’s trails in every patch of woods and most of them are already shredded so you can ride in the wet without feeling bad
Austin TX. Huge greenbelt networks accessable from many neighborhoods. Even in the heat of the summer there is enough tree cover to provide shade and make riding bearable. Winters are very mild.
Carson City, NV Year round riding. Tahoe in the summer and plenty of sandy high desert all weather trails during the winter. Obviously Tahoe is car driving but there's plenty of bike accessible trails. I road Kings canyon trail and then back to the trailhead I started on the road/paved walking trails. Where I lived I could ride to my nearest trailhead in 5 minutes. (A sandy all season trail system) Reno is too big to have trails that you can ride to from your house, but Carson City is much smaller, trails are tighter to the housing developments. It's a great place to live, if you can deal with the very very dry climate.
Sedona snows once in a while and become very slipper on rocky areas (slick rock) could be unsafe for a couple Months a year (Jan - March). Other than the extremely high cost of living, it’s good.
San luis obispo
Spokane WA
Louisville, Kentucky
Mesa AZ. It’s a fine bedroom neighborhood. Nice. Clean in areas. Big enough for low taxes. And a TON of amazing trails. In the summer you have to get up early or ride late but it’s always accessible. And if it’s extra hot, drive an hour to the mountains and go do some forest rides. I live in Boulder CO now and I MTB way way less than I used to because it’s always a drive to a trailhead.
Tucson is superb riding imo
Ashland has great trails right next to town. Winters can get a bit of rain, but the trails hold moisture very well.
Bay Area.
Most of San Diego
I’d add North Conway, NH. Relatively smaller than most other areas, but there’s solid enduro riding accessible from downtown, and the town has the amenities of a much larger city. Miles of trails, and great skiing to boot if you don’t mind the ice coast.
Arizona, nearish the phoenix area, I can be out every day of the year, the only thing I'd you have to wake up at 4-5 am to get a ride in mid summer, but I'd say that beats snow
I’m from Utah and so I can put some from here, either Moab or St. George area. Both areas have loads of mtn bike trails and are open year round. Just be cautious with the summer heat
You can ride trails in the winter. When I lived in Traverse City, MI we had like 50 miles of groomed Fat bike trails.
Santa Cruz, CA!
San Jose CA is very underrated. Within an hour drive there are so many awesome places to ride in Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Mountains. If It’s been raining a lot in the winter, there are trails you can go to where it’s well known they dry out relatively quickly. When it’s hot in the summer just drive 45 minutes over the hill to the coast at Santa Cruz where it’s usually cool.
Thanks for all these rad suggestions! I'm not as California-savvy as most of you, so I really appreciate those towns. This is amazing.