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67
Joined
2/12/2019
Location
Simi Valley, CA
US
I work in travel healthcare, which requires movimg every three months to different cities across the U.S. Since I am originally from Southern California, I've dealt with the state's frustrating restrictions on riding. I'd like to choose our next location based on easy access to both tracks and/or trails. What are the best cities/states to live in that offer close and convenient riding opportunities?
It sure as hell ain't Indiana. Honestly, going from California to just about anywhere else is going to be a downgrade in the availability of riding areas/tracks unless you've got a ton of money and plan to spend it buying property to ride on. I never knew how good I had it when I lived within a two hour drive of 9 or 10 tracks in California.
North Carolina / South Carolina, honorable mention to Ohio.
Ridgecrest CA. I ride out of the garage, Spangler hills, Red Mt, Jawbone, dove springs and more are my backyard. Our hospital uses traveling nurses all the time, but it’s a crappy hospital.. if you find your way here, pm me.
Everyone deleting the big paragraph of praise they just typed about their hometown tracks and/or trails because it’s too crowded as-is.
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Central Florida is pretty damn good. We live in The Villages and I have a lot of choices for mx and offroad. Spyder MX 2.0 is getting ready to open, so I'll have another place to ride.
I kind of Disagree - I cant speak to the offroad side, i'm sure somebody can. But within 1-2 hours of DFW you could be at what seems like 30 different tracks. I only spent 1-2 years there but the amount of riding, and good riding at that was phenomenal. Dirts really good too.
Grand Rapids, MI where I live is pretty convenient. There are 4 tracks and 2 or 3 trails within an hour drive of the city. Plus about 5 or 6 mountain bike trails as well.
Tracks:
Big Air Motocross - Newaygo, MI
Mecosta MX - Mecosta, MI
Martin MX Park - Martin, MI
Valley MX - Stanton MI
Trails:
Holton Motorcycle Trail - Holton, MI
Big O - Fremont, MI
Tin Cup Springs - Luther, MI
Mountain Bike Trails:
Merrell Trail - Rockford, MI
Luton Park - Rockford, MI
Wahlfield Park - Comstock Park, MI
Mosquito Creek Trail - Muskegon, MI
State Game Area - East GR, MI
Denver is just as good as Cali I'd wager (granted I haven't been out there).
If you're standing dead center of Denver you can be at three tracks within a half hour. Thunder Valley, IMI, Jewell MX.
If you expand to an hour and a half, you can add three tracks (Leadville MX, Aztec Raceway, RAM Off-Road.
If you're willing to drive 2+ hours you can add Avon, Sweeney MX up in Brush, and then a new track was just built across the border in Nebraska.
If you're good socially at the track I'm sure there are also plenty of private tracks around.
There are also a crazy amount of trail systems, but I am less educated on that.
Wow! That's nuts. I didn't realize you have so many prepped tracks that close to Dallas. As for off road, I guarantee Texas has nothing on CA. There is so much BLM desert land in CA that the options are almost unlimited. Unless I'm mistaken, there isn't much public land in Texas. I could be wrong, though.
Rampart range in CO is one of the biggest off roading areas in the country as well, only 45min from Denver 🤗
That's correct. 99% of Texas is private land. If you're used to living in the West it'll be a massive culture shock
Agree on DFW, it has a ton of tracks to ride. I would go so far as to say, more than anywhere else.
ON the other hand, if you can get assigned to the Grand Junction/Fruita area in Colorado, your mind will be blown. Not so much for the prepped tracks but you can literally ride something new every day, for free, and within 10 minutes of your house. A lot of people still ride straight out of their garage and into desert. And you can pretty much ride 365, depending upon what old man winter decides of course.
These days, you really can’t beat Baltimore. Don’t have to worry about someone messing with your bike either. 😎
Moab, gosh!
Huh??? Brother, there is like 6 XC series's in this state. Sure tracks are dead/open only on weekends but the amount of racing we have here is off the charts.....
Hahahahaah. Ohio like 3 months of the year.
Typical quad guy, can’t ride when it’s hot out.
Another vote for western Colorado, there is a lot of public land to ride on and it’s easy to get to.
Pit Row
Anywhere closer to Daytona other than Pax?
DFW has quite a few quality tracks around it right now, with in about a 90 min drive of the middle of DFW. The is not much as far as trail riding, Red River is probably the closest.
Sacramento has 5 tracks within 45-60 minutes plus a couple ohv areas. Plus tons of trail riding within 1-2 hours if you can find a bike California will let you ride on ohv/Forest service land.
Columbia SC has quite a few tracks within an hours drive. Some great ones actually.
Where is the riding in ohio? I am in grad school in Cincy and there is no riding anywhere near here that I have seen. The state is heavily urbanized from Cincy to Cleveland, I feel like the population density hurts riding areas. I suppose there may be some good off-roading past zanesville and towards PA/WV
Yeah Northwest Indiana was the best place I ever lived for riding. (strictly tracks, not sure on off road stuff) A lot of tracks and great dirt. Winters suck though. It's been about 8 years since I was living there, so not sure if some aren't open as much as they used to be.
Me and my wife went on vacation in Denver and rented bikes for two days and rode Rampart, that place was amazing the lower elevation stuff was better dirt. Here in NC/SC we have no public land for motos its all private except for OHV areas which are a fraction of the size of Rampart.
But when the riding here in NC/SC is good it really cant be beat, the dirt and tight trees in some areas is just unbeatable IMO.
Completely different environment/dirt past a certain elevation. There’s more scenic higher elevation stuff if you head further west. I’ve had this trail on my bucket list for awhile but the window to ride it is very small with the inclement weather up there. Starts in the trees and you end up at around 12k on these super exposed mountains.
If you’re in SoCal already most places are going to be a downgrade in terms of riding areas and availability
As crazy as it sounds Tulsa, OK is in a pretty good spot. We have about 10 tracks within an hour or 2. I know there are trails also but that's not my thing. Then Mtn bike stuff you can be in NWAR in an hour a half for that. Cost of living is low also
yoooo - Dutch is an hour within GR too haha
Plus, bump up the time another hour & we have Red Bud & Baja on that list.
Agreed^^^^ And most of those tracks have full prep a couple days during the week. I live in Auburn, and have been getting more into off-road as of late. Foresthill, Georgetown, PIPI, Stonyford, Chalk Bluff, just to mention a few.
Also have excellent medical facilities to choose from within 15 minutes.
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