5 best mountain bike towns?



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I read Bike magazine's 5 best mtb towns issue, and was a little surprised. Eugene, OR, Asheville, NC, Austin TX, Colorado Springs, CO, Ithaca NY. Besides Colorado Springs (Fruita, Loa) I'm not sure any of these towns are known for their trails. My brother-in law lives in Austin and says there is almost nowhere to ride, only on private land after paying a fee. I know that those of us who live close enough to moab to drive there on a whim turn our noses up at other places a lot, but how off base is bike magazine on this one?
 
im not from America, and i have no idea how far apart Austin and San Antonio are. But San Antonio has some really good trails aparently. If you brother wants some people to ride with or wants some info on trails in Austin, pm me and ill give you the link to a good Bike forum for Austin and the TX area.
 
Why don't we change this to a world wide thread?

Nominate in your opinion,the best MTB town,anywhere in the world.

I'll start the ball rolling with Hobart, the capital city for the island state of Tasmania, Australia.

Situated on the foot of a mountain,with a plethora of tracks and trails.
 
Why Ithaca? that's nowhere near the best town. Why didn't they pick any other town on the appalacian trail?
 
I sure love cycling in the southern California desert and the High Sierras right next door.
 
I live in Ithaca and have been very happy with the town and the trails. I have been riding yellow barn and shindaghin.

I've riddens in central VT for 3 years, Boulder CO for a summer and the Bay area for 3 years. I'll take Ithaca over all of theses areas considering the culture, cost of living and MBK appeal.

To be honest, I hit this thread via google and thought I would pos my 2 cents. I didn't read the article.
 
Well in Namibia we have a very low populations density and thousands km of desert roads where you won't see a soul. Nor would you see much water so better take some with you.

Leon
 
I go to Cornell (in Ithaca) and I'm looking to do some mountain biking there when I start the coming semester (now that I'll finally have a car to get myself and my bike to the trails). Do you have any suggestions for good singletrack? (or even some tamer trails that I could take my friends on). If you could give me names of trails and general locations it would be a big help.
 
Canberra, Australia. So much bush in the middle of town, I used to be able to commute 90% off-road from the suburbs to the centre. Some awesome single track right in the middle of the city, and if you want to get up into the mountains absolutely world class dh course as well as amazing xc at blue range. I'm sure there are better places on this fair earth, but that sure as hell is better than where I am now in Prague.

Sam
 
I cant belive there is no New England Town here,I ride the sled and ski trails here in Vermont and I find these to be some of the best and demanding you will find any where.

Green
 
my favs based upon my personal experience so far are:

Asheville, NC - Pisgah is MTB dreamland, but don't tell anyone!
Durango, CO - Great town, great trails

Both are awesome and I would love to have a place to park my camper-van in both, but if I had to choose one or the other to spend eternity mountain biking in, I think I would choose Asheville.

btw Boulder is more about road riding, try Golden or the Springs for a dramatically better MTB scene.

<edit> btw, Austin is a "little" confusing, I lived there for a short while 10 or 12 years ago and while there was some decent stuff around, I didn't think it would be anywhere near the Top 5 in the U.S., I guess the year-around riding helps, assuming you can survive the nasty hot and humid summers :)
 
Crested Butte should definately be on the list. As should Fruita and Moab. My guess is that we all live somewhere where the the MTBing is good or we wouldn't be doing it enough to post in this forum. If you notice, these articles always mention different towns each year. It's like the tourism board is paying money for advertisement. Someone prove me wrong here...find a city in the top 5 two years in a row.

Good luck!
 
Well well....For all those who don't know about the Alps. Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a dream. One could take a cog-wheel train to the top of the Zugspitz and hard trail it to the bottom. The Zugspitz is Germany's highest mountain. Some of the most awsome views of Germany.
 
How about Squamish BC? Lots of xc rides and some great downhill too. Can't beat that. As an added bonus, it's in the small portion of BC that isn't on fire at the moment..
 
I'd vote for Socorro, NM, home of the upcoming fat tire fiesta, and my new hometowm (more or less, it's the closest town to where I live)
 
Maybe not so much anymore but the cairns region in oz used to be an absolute mecca. UCI World Cups in 94,95 & World Champs in 96, home of icons like glen jacobs and his mudcows video series. On the world DH scene there are alot of past & present guys from up in cairns, such as seany mccarrol, mick hannah, michael ronning, etc etc.

Although the scene is heavily dh there is plenty for the xcer including an brilliant annual race called the rrr.

Wish i still lived there really!