I do all types of cycling. Road, Commuting, touring, mountain. and I always feel bad when I realize how little mountain biking I do compared to the others. When I think about going mountain biking, I get pumped and ready to jump on the bike and start pedaling. But then I think about having to drive there and get discouraged. I just don't feel like putting the bike in the car and driving to the trails, which aren't very close.

Compared to road riding, where I can just hop on and roll out of my driveway, all the effort of getting to mountain bike trails doesn't seem worth it. I just think... "I could load up the bike and drive to ride, or just ride...".

Because of this, I'm doing less mountain biking than i'd like to..

Do you guys get this too? or are you down the street from trails? Takes 40 min to an hour by car for me.

Move.

That's a big part of the reason why I don't do many charity rides. Driving to the ride start just.... doesn't jive with why I'm riding.

I'm close to most of the trails.

The Bluff: ~10 minutes
The Beacon: ~20 minutes
Riverside: ~30 minutes

Sometimes I ride my XC bike to Mt. Spokane for a group ride on a warm summer evening, which definitely calls for some preparedness. It's 25 miles to the Beach IIRC. But driving's not an option, I went car-free.

Anyway, it takes me a good 20 minutes just to get my legs fully online, so in your scenario, I'd rather ride at least partway to the trailhead than arrive with my legs in Sleep mode and have to suffer on the first climb.

I totally get you. I don't like to drive very far to ride either. I'm lucky to have one decent trail that's about a 15-minute drive away. There is also double-track in the area.

50 minutes drive away are some drop-dead excellent mountain-bike trails. I love to ride them, but can't justify the drive unless I've got other errands to run, or I have all day to burn.

Many evenings I'll just piece together a mishmash of pavement + dirt road + bits of "social" ATV trail + bits of snowmobile trail + bits of doubletrack. I've a Salsa Fargo that's perfect for rides like that.

well i got a trail thats about 8 to 10 miles from me...but i see what you mean..have to motivate yourself to go

I agree with the idea of moving. I don't think I'd really want to drive more than 30min to ride, and probably wouldn't ride nearly as much as I'd like if I had to drive that far.

If you're an "established" adult, own a house, have a career, etc, you might be out of luck, but if you're still renting, aren't tied down by family, etc, start looking for a place closer to the trails when your lease time is getting near.

I have what seems to be a more road-tuned crossover. Being not a mountain biker, I'm not sure how this would go, but ...

What if you got a nearly-mountain hybrid, one that is "a mountain bike" but if you slap slicks on it it's decent enough for a city commute?

Then slap some city tires on, ride to the trail, get off and deflate. Swap out for your mountain bike tires, raise your handlebars, fold up the road tires and slip 'em into your CamelBak.

Well, I can tell you that's why I ride my cross bike more than any other bike I own. I can ride it to trails, drop the psi and have a blast, though it can't go everywhere a mtn bike can. I use my mtn bike much less frequently for the same reason and I don't like riding it 12+ miles to a decent trail. My best advise would be to plan out mtn biking trips the day before, so you get up in the morning and have everything ready to go. If I don't do this, I usually get too unmotivated and just ride my crosser haha.

I can ride to a lot of trails around where I live but I also drive to ride a lot because I like trying new places. It's the only real downside to MTB for me but it's worth it.

I think most cases for drive-and-go mountain biking probably aim at the casual mountain biker. Someone who just shows up to mountain bike, but otherwise doesn't ride really. People who dip into the woods for an hour or two, then go home.

There are more extreme mountain bikers that vanish off the face of the earth for the whole day, or multiple days.

In any case, nobody expects you to show up to a bike trail on a bike. Does this look like France to you?

I live within 2-5 miles of three different trail systems, all of which have singletrack. One is a National Recreation Area with a huge network of trails. So I don't drive to ride very often. I think it will be hard for me to ever live anywhere where I can't ride to at least some decent mountain biking. I would do less if I had to drive an hour to get to trails, and that would make me unhappy. Or at least I would do a lot more road riding (yawn).

I feel you,40 minutes or so here to "real" trails too . I have a lot of mountain roads and gravel grinders right from the driveway though,LOL! So I look at singletrack riding mostly as a weekly treat...plus I enjoy driving the vehicle I have for bike hauling (makes it nicer)

I drive if I need to. I like riding all over, road or mountain. I have good rides out my front door. But like to go other places as well. Probably 50% of my riding is driving to the start. Too much good stuff around here to limit yourself.

I feel the same way. I have to drive about 15 minutes to have some decent riding trails. I did just purchase a new Trek 520 that I use to commute to work because I wanted a more "road" bike feel.

I am thinking of switching to my mountain bike for the commute though. I ride on a pretty rough rail trail part of the way, and lately I am missing my neglected mountian bike

I agree with most posters about needing motivation to drive...I know I always have a blast once I get there...just hate the drive.

I am thinking of planning a mountain bike oriented vacation (Moab??) as my motivation to get out there and ride

We are terribly spoiled in the Spokane area to be sure. My daily commute is far longer than any distance I have to go from in town to a trailhead.

Your post makes perfect sense. I have nice warm up rides east and west of my house and then I'm off and kicking up dust. There are two great trail systems 30-60 minutes away. Bootleg Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon. I rarely see them. HECK, I haven't seen a trail since December, but I still have high hopes for June.

Stinkin Yeti riders always have to rub it in, SHEESH!

The only place I lived where I had to drive to ride the trails was in Virginia and to a certain degree, North Carolina. I VA, I had to drive 45min to hour to get to decent mountain bike trails. I drove out to the trails alot but only because gas back then (90s) was cheap. Then when I lived in NC there was one decent trail within riding distance but it got old after a while and it was in the sand hills of NC. So I drove up to the RTP area for better trails. Usually on weekends at a hour drive each way. When I rode my Bianchi, I just headed out from home on the local country roads or the roads out in the training areas of Ft Bragg (no traffic other than the odd, military vehicle)

Fast forward a couple years and I found myself in the Bay Area of Norcal. There were some trails within riding distance but better trails if you drove a half hour to an hour to get to. The mountain biking out there is primo. For road rides I just hopped on my bike and did a big loop somewhere on the Peninsula.

Here in Germany I just hop on a bike (mtb or road) and head out. Not much singletrack in these parts so the mountain biking is more on gravel / cobblestone with very short portions of singletrack. I have to travel an hour or more out for decent singletrack so I'll be taking several mini vacations to hit the primo singletrack here in Europe.

Hey, you live in NY, can't you take your MTB on the subway?

Haha! Don't blame it on the Yeti; blame it on Eastern-Washington-North-Idaho smugness .

This here is God's country; everything else is just a place to live.

I still need to get you up to Mica and Caribou ridge - then you will really know "God's country" - let me know when your ready.......

I've had to make mountain biking an entire day event. I just feel bad driving 30 minutes each way for 2 hrs of riding. Thankfully my local loop is situated around a park with a pool, so the whole family can go and make a day of it.

Get some dirty looks if it's crowded and better keep the chain clean. Somebody gets their clothes dirty from your filthy bike and - well you can imagine.

But yeah, we have a couple cool places on the subway. My fav is the Rockaways. With the planes from JFK flying overhead. Got the ocean, boardwalk and a cool fort. The 16 inch guns are gone but there's pillboxes still and a WW1 fort with rotted old wooden gun carriages and even an acre of broken glass to ride on. There's every surface imaginable. Sand, glass, wood chips, dirt, water, rock, pebble, boardwalk.

That said, I'd rather be riding a ski area.

I'm game for going back to Caribou (took never, Chris and Ben shuttling up there last year) some free wekend for sure. And you're right - - I need to ride Mica now. Also would like to check out the Kettle Crest, Canfield and a bunch of those others I haven't been to yet.