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Moving to Phoenix
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flag livluvrun7
O+
Posted: Oct 2, 2023 at 13:19 Quote
Hi all,

I am moving to Phoenix (working in Old town Tempe). I would love to ride from my house everyday and then commute to work. I am thinking about either North Scottsdale - ride at McDowell, or try to find something in Mesa (east if I can) and do Hawes. Looking at renting first year to get the lay of the land. Harder to find apartments near Hawes (and it looks a little out of the way of a lot of things). Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thank you!
flag isaacwmtb04
Posted: Oct 2, 2023 at 17:51 Quote
livluvrun7 wrote:
Hi all,

I am moving to Phoenix (working in Old town Tempe). I would love to ride from my house everyday and then commute to work. I am thinking about either North Scottsdale - ride at McDowell, or try to find something in Mesa (east if I can) and do Hawes. Looking at renting first year to get the lay of the land. Harder to find apartments near Hawes (and it looks a little out of the way of a lot of things). Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thank you!

I haven't done a ton of exploring out at McDowell, but as a Hawes local, I highly recommend it. I would say it is biased towards tech, but there's definitely some good flow out there too if you know where to look.
flag LukeMorgan42
O+
Posted: Oct 11, 2023 at 9:05 Quote
livluvrun7 wrote:
Hi all,

I am moving to Phoenix (working in Old town Tempe). I would love to ride from my house everyday and then commute to work. I am thinking about either North Scottsdale - ride at McDowell, or try to find something in Mesa (east if I can) and do Hawes. Looking at renting first year to get the lay of the land. Harder to find apartments near Hawes (and it looks a little out of the way of a lot of things). Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thank you!

If it were me I would avoid Scottsdale just to avoid paying the "tax" of living in those zip codes. Hawes is definitely disconnected. But there are lots of great neighborhoods and the riding is some of the better Phoenix riding (i have not been to SoMo much)
flag Singletrack828
Posted: Dec 8, 2023 at 4:23 Quote
Moved here 2 years ago from so cal. We ended in San tan/queen creek. If I wanna do some
Xc rides I have San tan regional park and hawes on the weekends. About 25 mins away. Done south mountain once and it was fun.
Lots of good riding out here
flag willydhere
Posted: Dec 11, 2023 at 3:03 Quote
livluvrun7 wrote:
Hi all,

I am moving to Phoenix (working in Old town Tempe). I would love to ride from my house everyday and then commute to work. I am thinking about either North Scottsdale - ride at McDowell, or try to find something in Mesa (east if I can) and do Hawes. Looking at renting first year to get the lay of the land. Harder to find apartments near Hawes (and it looks a little out of the way of a lot of things). Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thank you!

You can try to find apartments in zillow
flag Daray
O+ FL
Posted: Jan 3, 2024 at 21:40 Quote
Hey all, I wanted to chime in that I’m planning to move to Phoenix this year as well. My wife’s family is all on the west side (Waddell). I’ve ridden in the White tanks ands Estrella mountain multiple times as well as once at South mountain.

It seems to me most of the trails I’ve been to are more hiking trails than purpose built MTB trails, is that generally the case in Phoenix? I still had a ton of fun riding these trails, but I’m curious if there are any trail systems that are more MTB specific.

Hawes looks awesome but it is pretty far from my wife’s family so it might end up being a weekend destination for me, any other recommendations of you live North or west?

I enjoy tech both up and down, but I’m a big fan of flow trails too and I really like dh riding.

I plan to visit Sedona a bit as well.

Thanks

Once we finalize plans I’ll let you know where we land
flag Daray
O+ FL
Posted: Jan 4, 2024 at 6:31 Quote
One other question: I'm sure there will be a bit of variety to this response, but I'm curious to get all of your take what is the general bike of choice for aggressive trail riding and enduro racing in AZ? 130/140? 160/170? or do most people go shorter travel in the xc or downcountry realm?
flag isaacwmtb04
Posted: Jan 4, 2024 at 11:25 Quote
Daray wrote:
One other question: I'm sure there will be a bit of variety to this response, but I'm curious to get all of your take what is the general bike of choice for aggressive trail riding and enduro racing in AZ? 130/140? 160/170? or do most people go shorter travel in the xc or downcountry realm?
From what I have seen, it really depends on personal preference. There seems to be a lot of people running stuff with travel more in the 140 to 150 bracket, but based on what you said in your last post about aggressive trail/enduro riding with a bit of DH, you might want to go for something with a bit more travel. But from what I have seen out on the trails, an AM bike like a stumpy, stumpy evo, or something similarly equipped should strike a good balance unless you're super serious about enduro and downhill.
flag shakazulu12
O+
Posted: Jan 4, 2024 at 12:49 Quote
I moved to the PHX area two years ago from the PNW, though I'm in Gilbert. Which means I ride Hawes and SOMO for my daily rides. Then get out to Sedona, Prescott and Flag once a week (mostly Sedona to be honest though).

I've got a 170mm and a hardtail now, which came with me from the PNW. If you are talking one bike to do everything, a 140-150ish bike would be fine IMHO. Suspension setup being more key than anything. There aren't really any crazy sustained high speed DH type runs like I would expect in the PNW, and suspension quality seems to matter a ton more than quantity with the amount of rocks you will be running through at speed.

You will see the full gamut out here for bikes on the trails though. Large population really close to all the riding areas will do that. Everything from Rigid single speeds to people pushing full on DH up the hill. I would come down with whatever bike you have now and put a solid year in, then make up your mind from there. I wouldn't say there is really a wrong answer unless you are just riding XC all the time.

Not sure where you are coming from, but "Arizona flow" is a lot different than the "flow" I was used to when I moved here lol Though I have come to enjoy the terrain and availability of riding immensely. Also, there isn't a lot of huge, sustained vertical anywhere near PHX, though there are certainly a few steepish, gnarly runs you can bomb. They are just over pretty quickly. That said, Sunrise is just under 4 hours drive and you can make it to Big Bear in about 5ish for some lift serviced riding. Bootleg Canyon is also about five hours if you want to get some winter DH runs in. They have a cheap shuttle service on weekends, or you can pedal it. Pretty much like riding on the surface of Mars, yet somehow ridiculous fun.
flag iliveonnitro
Posted: Jan 8, 2024 at 9:25 Quote
I'll be visiting PHX a lot (staying near the airport) this year and will bring a bike for some of the longer stays/weekends.

What area should I focus on for enduro type rides? I enjoy the downhill not than xc/ climbing/pedally type trails. I ride a Firebird and I'm used to the steep stuff, although I don't have much rocky terrain in santa cruz.

I'm hoping for both 1.5hr post-work ideas, and weekend 3-4hr ride ideas. It sounds like south mountain mostly?
flag shakazulu12
O+
Posted: Jan 8, 2024 at 9:43 Quote
iliveonnitro wrote:
I'll be visiting PHX a lot (staying near the airport) this year and will bring a bike for some of the longer stays/weekends.

What area should I focus on for enduro type rides? I enjoy the downhill not than xc/ climbing/pedally type trails. I ride a Firebird and I'm used to the steep stuff, although I don't have much rocky terrain in santa cruz.

I'm hoping for both 1.5hr post-work ideas, and weekend 3-4hr ride ideas. It sounds like south mountain mostly?

Somo and Hawes have what you need. They have slightly different personalities, but ultimately both have a pretty good amount of terrain you should enjoy.

Nate Hills has a ton of trail vids of Somo and Hawes on youtube, so that might give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
flag Daray
O+ FL
Posted: Jan 8, 2024 at 11:41 Quote
shakazulu12 wrote:
I moved to the PHX area two years ago from the PNW, though I'm in Gilbert. Which means I ride Hawes and SOMO for my daily rides. Then get out to Sedona, Prescott and Flag once a week (mostly Sedona to be honest though).

I've got a 170mm and a hardtail now, which came with me from the PNW. If you are talking one bike to do everything, a 140-150ish bike would be fine IMHO. Suspension setup being more key than anything. There aren't really any crazy sustained high speed DH type runs like I would expect in the PNW, and suspension quality seems to matter a ton more than quantity with the amount of rocks you will be running through at speed.

You will see the full gamut out here for bikes on the trails though. Large population really close to all the riding areas will do that. Everything from Rigid single speeds to people pushing full on DH up the hill. I would come down with whatever bike you have now and put a solid year in, then make up your mind from there. I wouldn't say there is really a wrong answer unless you are just riding XC all the time.

Not sure where you are coming from, but "Arizona flow" is a lot different than the "flow" I was used to when I moved here lol Though I have come to enjoy the terrain and availability of riding immensely. Also, there isn't a lot of huge, sustained vertical anywhere near PHX, though there are certainly a few steepish, gnarly runs you can bomb. They are just over pretty quickly. That said, Sunrise is just under 4 hours drive and you can make it to Big Bear in about 5ish for some lift serviced riding. Bootleg Canyon is also about five hours if you want to get some winter DH runs in. They have a cheap shuttle service on weekends, or you can pedal it. Pretty much like riding on the surface of Mars, yet somehow ridiculous fun.

Thanks, I've done a lot of riding in the PNW and I still plan to make a trip every year as I've got friends up there, but I do understand how vastly different AZ is from Bellingham or Seattle. I'm still excited, I've always had a great time Mountain biking everywhere.

Do you see people on EMTB's much in AZ? I have one that I have been thinking about selling. I love it, but none of my friends got onto the bandwagon, so I'm considering just selling it now. Are they allowed on the trails there?
flag shakazulu12
O+
Posted: Jan 8, 2024 at 12:18 Quote
Daray wrote:
shakazulu12 wrote:
I moved to the PHX area two years ago from the PNW, though I'm in Gilbert. Which means I ride Hawes and SOMO for my daily rides. Then get out to Sedona, Prescott and Flag once a week (mostly Sedona to be honest though).

I've got a 170mm and a hardtail now, which came with me from the PNW. If you are talking one bike to do everything, a 140-150ish bike would be fine IMHO. Suspension setup being more key than anything. There aren't really any crazy sustained high speed DH type runs like I would expect in the PNW, and suspension quality seems to matter a ton more than quantity with the amount of rocks you will be running through at speed.

You will see the full gamut out here for bikes on the trails though. Large population really close to all the riding areas will do that. Everything from Rigid single speeds to people pushing full on DH up the hill. I would come down with whatever bike you have now and put a solid year in, then make up your mind from there. I wouldn't say there is really a wrong answer unless you are just riding XC all the time.

Not sure where you are coming from, but "Arizona flow" is a lot different than the "flow" I was used to when I moved here lol Though I have come to enjoy the terrain and availability of riding immensely. Also, there isn't a lot of huge, sustained vertical anywhere near PHX, though there are certainly a few steepish, gnarly runs you can bomb. They are just over pretty quickly. That said, Sunrise is just under 4 hours drive and you can make it to Big Bear in about 5ish for some lift serviced riding. Bootleg Canyon is also about five hours if you want to get some winter DH runs in. They have a cheap shuttle service on weekends, or you can pedal it. Pretty much like riding on the surface of Mars, yet somehow ridiculous fun.

Thanks, I've done a lot of riding in the PNW and I still plan to make a trip every year as I've got friends up there, but I do understand how vastly different AZ is from Bellingham or Seattle. I'm still excited, I've always had a great time Mountain biking everywhere.

Do you see people on EMTB's much in AZ? I have one that I have been thinking about selling. I love it, but none of my friends got onto the bandwagon, so I'm considering just selling it now. Are they allowed on the trails there?

I think you will enjoy it, I've really come to appreciate and love the riding right next to the city. Add in the fact that there are so many amazing places to ride just a short distance away, and a nearly 12 months a year riding period and it's a winner.

South Mountain specifically allows e-bikes. Pivot had a huge hand in that, their headquarters is nearby. They aren't technically allowed at Hawes, but you won't get any flack for riding one there. Most of the trail alliance are even rolling around on them at this point. I don't believe they are allowed on Brown's or McDowell, I can't remember which one it is, but one of them I've heard of tickets actually being handed out. No-go in Sedona either. That being said, I'm considering buying one for the inferno season. Anything more than a thousand feet or so of vertical in a ride during the heat wave, even at 5 AM, just sucked the life out of me for the next several days. I typically get 1600-2300 feet of vertical in on a typical ride. Several of my friends got some this past summer and were definitely happier in the heat on them, though they go back to their meat bikes when it cools down.
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