Living Car Free - Getting your mountain bike to the trail.

For those of you who have gone carfree (myself included since the fall) and still love mt. biking-- how do you get to the riding in your area?

Im kinda new to the area and really havent met that many riding types. My newyears resolution is to be more sociable. So in the regional area I have extended a request for a ride and maybe make a few friends.

But in the case no one takes me up on the offer is there any suggestions how I can fill this void in my life?!?

I am in the developmental stages of getting a bikestowork trailer that will have a bike mount to it. Just dont know what I would do with the bike and trailer while im out riding for the day. It would be kewl to find someone's porch to rent out or get lucky and discover a remote storage rental place. Im sure i could find one in brevard (pisgah) but dont know how close it would be to the riding. I need to check out the area a bit more. When I had a truck i would just drive to the spot and not pay any attention to such landmarks as storage rental places.

a link to some pics of my rides
http://bikingbachelor.smugmug.com/gallery/2319825

That's a problem. I found two solutions: First, there's a vacant area of unused woods nearby that's perfect for vagrants, criminals, and mountain biking! There's a few old fire roads going through the woods and several opportunities for some singletrack trails. Probably 2-3 miles with some looping around. And it's less than half a mile from my house.

Second solution involves a bicycle rack for my motorcycle. At least that way I'm technically car free even if I still have to rely on internal combustion occasionally.

Az

I consider myself fortunate with miles and miles of backwoods trails just 2 blocks away from my house.

For those of you who have gone carfree (myself included since the fall) and still love mt. biking-- how do you get to the riding in your area?

See if there is a mountain biking club in your area. Members will probably be happy to give you a ride to far off sites.

This page should help. It links to the Mountain Biking in Western North Carolina website. It has listings for clubs.
http://www.mtbikewnc.com/

if it's within a rideable distance just ride the mtb there. I've ridden a mtb with skinny slicks the 30 miles to the trail head and then pulled some knobbies out of my paniers and switched tired, let the paniers, rack, extra tires at a camp site office and rode the trails for the day, then reversed the changes and rode home. It was a very tiring day but I finally got to ride a trail I'd been wanting to for a long time.

I have friends with trucks, suvs, and/or bike racks. The closest trail to me that's more than 400 feet long is about 15 miles away, and I can't manage 15 miles on my FS with massive knobbies after a day on the trails :p

Second solution involves a bicycle rack for my motorcycle. At least that way I'm technically car free even if I still have to rely on internal combustion occasionally.

Az


is there such a thing? a bike rack for a motorcycle? ive often thought about how one would do that and havnt come up with a viable solution. fi someone has made one- i'd love to see it/ have one.

Sounds like I'm doing the same as most of you.
For me it's either:
1) Ride to the trail (90% of my rides)
2) catch a ride with someone else (nobody ever turns down an offer for gas money)

Come to think of it, same goes for group road rides, and road races.

I often ride a mountain bike--with knobbies--on the road for fairly long rides, like 30-40 miles. Even in the midwest, that brings me within riding range of several nice MTB trail systems that ring the city at 10-20 mile distances.

Granted, MTBs are not as fast as road bikes, but try it. You may decide that your MTB is "fast enough." If not, try one of the other ideas.

The best mountain bike trails around here are too far to bike to and still have any energy left over for riding the trails. So I have a friend who has a car pick me up. If I could talk him into giving up the car, I'd give up my ride to the trails. But it isn't going to happen, and he would still be mountain biking even if I didn't go with him.

As regards to motorcycles, I've seen bike racks on motorcycles but they are always custom since the market is too small. There are pictures of a BMW GS at the Sea Otter race in CA with TWO bikes on the back plus luggage. There's also a guy who made a rack for his KLR650. I am thinking about building a rack for my FZ1 but I haven't started the design process yet.

is there such a thing? a bike rack for a motorcycle? ive often thought about how one would do that and havnt come up with a viable solution. fi someone has made one- i'd love to see it/ have one.

I found one link. But the guy says he only works locally. But the pictures should give you a good idea of what needs to be done.

Bike rack for Motorcycle (http://hometown.aol.com/__121b_oanl1PprabZgEVzy8Q+86duGeWfpnjK1OIh15DF+yLI=)


Heres a homebuilt one. (http://web.mac.com/cbaldini/iWeb/Flying%20Baldini%20Brothers/Blog/346B9F92-0DA6-410D-85EA-2283E3E1B562.html)


Or tow it. (http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-hitch/)


Looks like it's a small market.

my solution :D

http://www.bikerubbish.com/xtracycle2/xtracycle/images/gallery/wedding37.jpg

http://www.bikerubbish.com/xtracycle2/xtracycle/images/gallery/wedding38.jpg

http://www.bikerubbish.com/xtracycle2/xtracycle/images/gallery/wedding40.jpg

Bah,

Your use of an xtracycle is intriguing! How do you keep the thing from tipping over while riding? It seems like all the weight is on one side. I have had many a sleepless night (not really) trying to decide what would serve my purposes better- an xtracycle or a two wheeled trailer like those at bikesatwork. Think i might be in the trailer camp since you can disconnect the trailer and use the bike for other tasks. I don't know what your terrain is like but one would be hard pressed trying to get that rig up all the steeper grades around here. Like what you've done with the garage.

After giving it alot of thought I might be better off riding the mountain bike to the trail and just switching out tires upon my arrival and stashing my panniers somewhere. This is for those times that I wouldnt be staying more than a couple days (which would be most the time). For longer stays I would probably pack up the trailer and haul everyting with me. By the way nice website!

Here's some pics of my current rides http://bikingbachelor.smugmug.com/gallery/2319825

BAH--

Great use of the xtracycle for second bike transport. The first picture also shows the good use made of a garage when you don't need to store a car. It looks clean and cozy, and lots of neat storage. Are those looms in the background?

I think it's a hammock, but then again it's not my garage :)