go straight to the rides.#go-straight-to-the-mtb-rides
Do The Dirty Deed in New York City
We have three mountain bike Rides NYC. They are the three official mountain bike (mtb) trails in NYC. No where else in NYC is riding off-road legal.
Many of the guidelines that apply to road riding apply to off-road riding. Make sure your bike is safe to operate before going into the woods. Use both brakes. Wear a helmet. Recognize that you’re sharing the trail with other users. Ride responsibly. Don’t be a jerk
Many people new to mountain biking might believe, from looking at the bikes sold and the images that adorn magazines, that mountain biking is all about aggro’ riding. It isn’t. Most people don’t get big air or need body armor for riding. And you definitely don’t need armor or a big-hit bike to ride the trails detailed here. For many mountainbikers, finding flow is the objective. Finding the smooth, energy-efficient line while not losing a pedal stroke or traction, even as the trail rises, dips, twists, turns, over hardpack, gravel, rocks, roots, leaves, and whatever else the trail offers.
These are mostly beginner trails and you should be able to ride them comfortably and safely with just about any knobby-tired bike. Kids can do these on BMX bikes. You shouldn’t need a full-suspension rig. You can probably get away without even a suspension fork. In fact, if you’ve got decent bike-handling skills, many of these trails are doable on a cyclocross bike with knobbies. In doing research for this book, I rode out to Cunningham on my ‘cross bike with 25mm slick tires, and then rode the trails. I had to be really careful, and I crashed once. When I was leaving, some guys who were heading into the park on dirt jump bikes to air out looked at my slick tires and said, ‘no way I’d ride that in there. That’s too dangerous.’
Dirt Jumping
Both Highbridge and Cunningham have jump parks, with Highbridge seeming the more aggressive of the two. Those probably need a full-on MTB or BMX bike built to withstand the kind of abuse big jumps have on bikes. .
Know the Rules
The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) has their Rules of the Trail that are appropriate to reprint here.
- Ride open trails.
- Leave no trace.
- Control your bicycle.
- Yield appropriately.
- Never scare animals.
- Plan ahead.
New York City has an IMBA chapter. It’s NYCMTB and it can be found at https://nycmtb.org/
If you think MTB might be your jam, check them out. They offer clinics when there’s not a pandemic going on, do trail work, and have a community of dirt riders that you can be a part of.
The MTB Rides
get them all at once–https://jralong.com/wheretobikenyc/product/nyc-mtb-rides-bundle/
