Mountain Biking - XC ride lengths

Just curious, how far do you usually ride on your XC trails? Where i usually ride, if you take the longest route its a little over 9 miles

average around 20-24 miles

No idea. We don't have many pure xc trails here. One of the longest and most difficult is 18km. Oneof the newest and excruciating is 15km I think. It takes around 3 to 4 hours to complete.

my rides aren't too difficult. small steep hills some patches of rocks, small streams etc. Depending on where I want to go and how hard I want to work, my rides are anywhere from 20-40 miles long.

I dunno though, might have to start working harder. There is some kind of ride up in Alpine my uncle wants me to do with him. something called a century ;)

We have a race here called the Test of Metal. Typical 75km of single track. A very very brutal race. The absolute best xc racers in the world finish in 4 hours give or take. My friends are trying to talk me into it, but in all seriousness the longest distance I have ever ridden was like 40km...and I was so bored by the time I was done I vowed never to do it again.

Most Of The Trails I Ride Are Short And Very Tecnical So Mostly Between 3-5 Miles But If I Go To National Or State Parks They Are Longer Between 10-30 Depending On How I Mix Them Up.they Are A Series Of Many Trails Combined Into 1 Ride.i Get Bored On Trails That Are Straight And Not Technical Real Easy So I Look For Hills Roots Etc.

The Trails I Spoke Of That Were Short I Meant Each Way As It Is An Out And Back Type Ride Not A Circular And If I Ride Too Much In The Non Technical I Tend To Lose Focus And Crash.most Of My Worst Wrecks Have Come From Lack Of Focus

usually about 13 miles, but i really should do more

My rides are typically judged on time instead of miles. This is just what I have to do with my life schedule.

We were out for 5 and a half hours there on Saturday, took 3 1/2 hours making our way to the top of one of the local mountains and then 30 minutes later we were down the other side! :eek: All that work for such a short time of DH. Worth it though. ;)

Maybe 10 miles or more depending. I don't have an odometer.

Maybe 10 miles or more depending. I don't have an odometer.

cool, yeah the only way i can measure is the maps of the trails are marked, but only for each trail, so i just added them all up

I ride 12-15 miles every day on trails/backroads. Usually out around an hour.

I have a route around my home town that takes you on about 9-10 miles of hiking trails and about 10-12 miles of connecting road rides...pretty sweet ending to the ride: it takes you on a breakwall that leads to a light-house, all the way is hopping from one rock to another, and one slip puts you in Lake Erie! Its a blast!

20 miles are my avg XC lengths. I have ridden XC centuries before though.

I have to go with Time as being the key factor. I have a Ride which is just over 10 miles Fast ,and not to rocky that we do in an hour. Yet Another area I I ride we have a ride that is 25 miles and takes up 5 + Hours to do it, and it is extreamly technical.

bigchina - there's lots of good riding near where you are. Are you racing the 12 miles of hell this year? I know a bunch of those OKC guys come up to Greenleaf once in a while, that trail is around 20 miles of technical singletrack. Sign up for the KORS and OKearthbike email lists, we usually post when we ride.

I found a new place to ride in far NE OK, it's the Spavinaw Game management area. No real singletrack but I would guess around 50 miles of Jeep trails and several more miles of foot-only trails that we have permission to ride. It's great if you don't mind double track, lots of BIG climbs and very little mud. Plus huge groves of Pine trees which help you forget we're in the middle of winter. We did about 25 miles up there the other day in the snow. I went back a few days later and did somewhere around 50 miles and maybe 5 or so miles of that were repeats. Much more to explore there too...

bigchina - there's lots of good riding near where you are. Are you racing the 12 miles of hell this year? I know a bunch of those OKC guys come up to Greenleaf once in a while, that trail is around 20 miles of technical singletrack. Sign up for the KORS and OKearthbike email lists, we usually post when we ride.

I found a new place to ride in far NE OK, it's the Spavinaw Game management area. No real singletrack but I would guess around 50 miles of Jeep trails and several more miles of foot-only trails that we have permission to ride. It's great if you don't mind double track, lots of BIG climbs and very little mud. Plus huge groves of Pine trees which help you forget we're in the middle of winter. We did about 25 miles up there the other day in the snow. I went back a few days later and did somewhere around 50 miles and maybe 5 or so miles of that were repeats. Much more to explore there too...

hey mike, no im not. i just got into the XC scene about 7 months ago and i've just been riding locally. i dont know anything about any organized riding events around here, but i'd really like to get involved in some. i live in norman so i just ride at thunderbird and nu draper. where can i sign up for those email lists?

The best one for you is the okearthbike list, click here (http://www.okearthbike.com) to go to their homepage then click on the link at the top that says "earthbike list". That's a real active club for the OKC area.

We have a race here called the Test of Metal. Typical 75km of single track. A very very brutal race. The absolute best xc racers in the world finish in 4 hours give or take. My friends are trying to talk me into it, but in all seriousness the longest distance I have ever ridden was like 40km...and I was so bored by the time I was done I vowed never to do it again.

Uhhh...many portions of the TOM course that I rode (like 9 Mile Hill) were just dirt roads.

http://www.petefagerlin.com/images/bc/tom/9climb.jpg

"The Rip" was WIDE doubletrack/trail.

"The Powerhouse Plunge" was festive techy singletrack though.

Dude, there's no way in hell I'd ride anything called 9 mile hill.


:D

Dude, there's no way in hell I'd ride anything called 9 mile hill.


:D

There's a grueling climb around here on a trail located on the Olympic Penninsula called Mt. Muller Loop. The start is a 3 mile singletrack climb that goes up 2200 feet and no I've never done it without some walking. Peak is at 3,748 feet almost exactly at the halfway point, total elevation change is around 3,200 feet, length is 14 miles total (95% singletrack) with around 30 switchbacks (some pretty highspeed). The view is breathtaking. You can see Vancouver Island from the top. When I finished I was so exhausted, I fell asleep for a couple of hours in my Jeep at the trailhead.

Uhhh...many portions of the TOM course that I rode (like 9 Mile Hill) were just dirt roads.

http://www.petefagerlin.com/images/bc/tom/9climb.jpg

"The Rip" was WIDE doubletrack/trail.

"The Powerhouse Plunge" was festive techy singletrack though.

To be honest, I only know what I have been told. My friends probably told me it was all single track because otherwise I would turn around and ride dh. I hate double track and dirt roads and my buds are all trying to talk me into doing this. Looks like I will be offering support, definately not my kind of ride :)

In either case I have heard it is grueling, congrats on the race. 9 mile hill isn't exactly a joyous ride ;)

My short rides are usually about 14 miles and go up from there depending on what I've got going on. My longest was a 50 mile ride that I did last month.

L8R

Just curious, how far do you usually ride on your XC trails? Where i usually ride, if you take the longest route its a little over 9 miles

I must be lucky. I have 5 miles along an unmade road, before I hit the South Downs, and there they are, Tracks galore, 3 coffee stops that accept bikes, and you name the type of riding you want and its there. I can get in a short ride of 20 miles, with the last 5 miles along cycle/walking paths, or make it up to 65 miles with only 2 miles of road. All you have to do is get out a map, and sort the Bridle/ cycle paths out and link them together. Either that or take a holiday in the South of England, and bring your bike.

My ride last Sunday, was 5 miles on the unmade track, 1 mile on road,1 mile of climb to 200 metres, 3 miles across grass tracks, 200 metres down technical over The roots, 200 metre climb, 6 miles dirt single track, Breakfast stop, 2 miles single track out of the forest, 2 miles gentle climb to 1/2 mile downhill,(Bit muddy so only 30mph top speed)Climb up the roots, rather walk up them, as it was too slippery,3 mile grass track,1 mile Downhill on broken scree, and then the 5 miles back along the unmade road. Just over 30 miles altogether, and that is one of our gentler rides. Take into account that this was Done on the tandem, so come and join us.

I normaly ride about 10-15 miles if i only have a hour or two, but if i can ride as long as i want its not uncommon for me to do 20-50 miles a day.
One of my favorite rides to do is going from Sunriver, to bend, its a 20 mile one way trip along with descutes river. its super easy so you can go real fast and keep a good pace going.
I usualy do it both ways, as i ride from my house, and riding back is normaly the only option for geting back home. you just dont want to ride it on the weekends! to many hikers to watch out for... its more of a hikeing trail, so thats why its a super easy ride, but it is all single track so its cool.


One of my races last season had a good 9 mile climb on a jeep road. it was a hard race for sure, but the ride down was well worth it! single track with some VERY FAST jeep roads in bettween. it was so harry on the jeep roads (you would get goin at least 35-40mph if you where crazy enough, and I was)... this was the part where i crashed HARD, i totaly skined my legs, hips, and arm and sholder! not a little scrap... when your goin that fast and go down.. its no good if you can imagine :p that crash slowed me down a lot but i got back up on my bike (i was even cliped in still on the pedal) and keped going down, i was red and brown when i got to the finnish.
though, I managed to keep my 2nd place posistion, as me and the first place guy got a real strong lead on the rest of the pack. but the 3rd place guy was not to far back... maybe 30 seconds back after the crash. i had the 1st place guy in the cross hairs before i went down.
But it was a kick ass race still!

Ramble ramble ramble:!

Later
Jonathan

Mine is 10K, but we double back and make a 20K of it.
plus the 20K there and back makes for a 40K trip.

Around here, time is about as big a deal as miles...guess cause most of em' are short around here...Most local trails get ridden twice...now that my lungs are getting there, I'm riding one lap clockwise, the next one counter-clockwise...

Most of em' are 4-8 miles long...usually suck up 45-75 minutes of ya life...