Southwest - Phoenix weekend in April - bring road or mtn bike?
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Hi - Ill be in phoenix next week for wedding. I have the opportunity to take my road bike OR mountain bike. Ill have a car as well.
Anyone in phoenix area have opinion on what would be better to bring or checkout? Seems that south mountain is popular with the road crowd. Ill be going on at least 2-3 rides and leaning toward road bike since I can get a decent workout quickly. Prob. with mtn biking is that you waste time exploring unfamiliar trails.
PLease let me know some decent trails/roads to check out - either mtn or road. Or good map/book I can buy at a LBS to get quick info when time is short. I know I can leave the hotel and hit a random road, but looking for feedback on roads that are - WOW!
TIA, TJ90
noisebeam
04-04-08, 12:18 PM
I think you would be happy with either. What do you prefer at home?
The ride up South Mountain is indeed popular for road bikes.
There are also many mtb trails around and up S.Mtn. Some of them very challenging trails.
Al
I know that we will be on the fountain hills side of town. Someone told me about mapmyride.com. I checked it out and there were almost 20 rides mapped out around fountain hills.
I would be open to mtn biking, my only concern is wasting limited time figuring out unfamiliar trails etc. maybe its not a real concern....
I dont think mapmyride has mtn bike trails - I may be wrong. Any resourse to quickly learn where the good trailheads are located?
noisebeam
04-04-08, 02:48 PM
Try this for mtb. I don't mtb so I can't tell ya the practicality of the info:
http://www.mountainbikeaz.com/aztrails/index.php
Al
imartin26
04-04-08, 08:23 PM
Great place to mountain bike is around Red Mountain which is near Fountain Hills. On Power Rd/ Bush Hwy about a mile north of Thomas Rd there is a canal where you can park your car (on the west side of the road) directly across the street is a very challenging trail that goes on as long as you want to go.
If you are looking for a good place to road bike you can take Highway 87 (the beeline) this road is actually in Fountain Hills for miles, I usually do a 30 to 40 mile loop up there from 87 and Shea south to the red mountain gun range and then back up through shea and to the Saguaro lake turn off.
Either bike will give you lots of things to do... FYI google will help find most of these places I am talking about. If you need better directions I can try and give some.
scottmilk9
04-04-08, 10:56 PM
well if you bring your mtb bike, these folks are the best: http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=66 this is the arizona forum.
road bike is very beautiful right now, not too hot and good scenery. try http://www.sportsfun.com/gaba/ if you want to ride in a group, nice folks as well.
good luck to you.
Thanks for the tips. Cant wait!
noisebeam
04-21-08, 11:46 AM
What did you do? Or is it still not done?
I ended up doing 2 rides in FH. THe one was an out-n-back to 9 mile hill and the other was the "tour of pain" on mapmyride. They were both great rides and enjoyable. I was suprised at the lack of riders early in the morning (7am) and the high % of cops in the FH area!!