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Might be going to the US next February, to a conference in Albuquerque. Worth taking my bike, or hiring, or is everything either a long way away and/or covered in snow/sandstorms/whatever it is they have in New Mexico?
Not sure about biking, but you could take skis and visit Angel Fire or Taos or somewhere. I was in NM in October and really enjoyed it. Great place to hire a car and do a road trip, seeing places like Santa Fe, Taos Pueblo, Cimarron Canyon, Capulin volcano, Rio Grandes Gorge etc.
Lots of biking here in NM. Right on the city limits there is the Foothills trail system--runs along the eastern side of the city up against the edge of the Sandia mountains. Kind of a mix of easy, moderate and some technical riding on the north end . There are probably about 35-40 miles of trails in total. Mix of smooth trail, some old forest service fire roads and singletrack. Plenty of sand and rocks and the occasional rattlesnake to watch for (you won't have to worry about that in February) Except for the periodic snowstorm, the Foothills trail system is usually open 95% of the time.
There are lots of trails on the east side of the mountains, but in February, unless it is an unusually dry winter, they will be covered by anywhere from 2-10 feet of snow. On the east side (in case anyone ever comes in the summer) there is the Sandia Peak trail system, that includes a ski lift ride to the top for those inclined. The ride up is about 8 miles of non-stop climbing with 2000 ft elevation gain and the downhill is about 15 minutes with your hair on fire. Elevation at the ski area start is 8000 ft and the top just over 10,000 ft.
Also on the east side there is the Otero Canyon trail system---probably 30 miles of trail ranging from moderate to extreme technical as well as the Cedro Peak trail system which is probably 40-50 miles of mixed trails, again ranging from fairly easy to extreme technical. Both Cedro peak and Otero Canyon might be open in the winter if is a dry winter.
If it were summer I would suggest Taos/Angel FIre area, the South Boundary trail is exellent--very long, high altitude and pretty technical, but with lots of fast singletrack. Up near Santa Fe (1 hour), there are several trails, including the Windsor trail that runs from Santa Fe up to the ski area--long climb, ranges from moderate to technical.
In the Jemez mountains (1 hr & 15 minutes or so) there are hundreds of miles of trails, both singletrack and forest service roads---mostly moderate, but some tough technical.
The Foothills trail system has trail maps posted everywhere at the several trail heads and easy to get to from anywhere in the city in 5 to 20 minutes.
I forgot to mention, but in February you will generally find daytime temperatures in the 45 degree (F) range during the day, sometimes getting up to the low 50's ---it is generally starting to warm up a bit in February and by the end of February you can get some days that feel almost spring-like--also can still get a snowstorm. Nice thing about riding the Foothills trails in the winter is there aren't many riders, hikers/runners or horseback riders about---the fair-weather riders don't get back on the trails until end of March.
cheers for that busydog - the research continues...
If you do decide to do some riding, let me know and I can check with my LBS guys on what is available rental-wise in the city.