Las Vegas biking

We are off to Vegas in May for a conference for my wife. After a few days sight seeing I can either fly home while she goes to the conference, or I can stay far another 3 days for no extra cost.

As she will be ‘at work’ all day I’d have to amuse myself, and strip clubs and gambling can only go on for so long….

Soooo, it looks like bike hire is feasible, but are there good accessible trails to ride or would I need a car? Alternatively would road biking round there be an option?

3 extra days in the sun seems quite appealing at the moment, but I don’t want to spend the time just mooching round Vegas on my own.

ta.

do a search on interbike. theres a trail centre of sorts a few miles out that interbike uses for testing purposes.

Red Rock Canyon. Speak to the hire shops and see whether they do transport. I know they mention routes on their websites. Failing that, car hire is dead cheap anyway. Worth getting a car and possibly heading out to Bryce National Park or some other places not far out of Vegas. Get the Time Out guide to LV – well worth it and shows the more interesting places to see in the city. A great place to mooch about for a few days – I did it a few years ago.

Cheers.

The more I think about it (staring out the window into the damp murk) the more I like the idea. Even if its just 3 days of road biking.

Any particular recomendations for bike shops?

I think Vegas is featured in this months MTB UK.
vegas

I hired from Las Vegas Cyclery, somewhere on the west side of the city which is on the way out to the best trails. Pretty helpful staff and well maintained bike, plus they had trail maps and some good route suggestions. I went in early march and drank more water in a 3 or 4 hour ride than I would in a weekend away here. 2 bottles and a camelbak wouldn’t be silly. There were a few nice short loops that I linked together easily enough (Badger point rings a bell?) and you could easily spend a happy 3 days there enjoying the dusty trails.

Bootleg Canyon is where interbike use, lots of trails and the local bike shop just down the hill do a shuttle service, bootlegcanyon.com is down for some work at the moment.

Check these guys out for trail news and rentals, really nice shop: http://allmountaincyclery.com/

I hired ( a road bike) from Las Vegas Cyclery as well (about 10 miles from the strip), did the Red Rock Canyon loop, nice and spectacular in the afternoon sun.

When I researched, it seemed to me the best riding was Cottonwood/Blue Diamond nearish LV or else near Boulder, into Bootleg Canyon- a bit of a drive, but as said, hiring a car is good, gets you out of the city, and it’s worthwhile having a look at Hoover Dam while you’re over there.

Drive to St George just across the Utah border and ride Goseberry Mesa. The National Parks like Bryce arent really for bikes, but are well worth a visit.

Not biking, but whilst staying in Vegas we did a canoe trip on the Colorado downstream of the Hoover Dam which was great

Canoeing on the Colorado[/url]

Cool, that should keep me quiet for a few days.

The zipline at bootleg canyon is fun too

http://www.bcflightlines.com/home.html

Rent a car, drive up to Moab, find a cheap hotel with a hot tub. Next day, ride SlickRock, relax in hot tub with 3% strength beer (all they’re allowed in Utah). Day 3, drive back to Vegas.

Job done.

with 3% strength beer (all they’re allowed in Utah)

Nope. Thats all they can sell in the restaurants. The licensed beer store (just off the main street) has a pretty good range of beers of all strengths. Got to watch the opening times and take ID.

I lived in Las Vegas for 11 years, but before mountain biking came into being—I was dirt-biking and into boating in those days. One thing to keep in mind it will likely be hot–May temperatures can get into the 90’sF and have sometimes been known to top 100F that early. Take and drink a lot of water on rides and use sunscreen or you can get fried really easily. Early morning rides are the easiest way to deal with the heat.

Nope. Thats all they can sell in the restaurants. The licensed beer store (just off the main street) has a pretty good range of beers of all strengths. Got to watch the opening times and take ID.

Cool! That’s useful info to have if I ever make it back there 😀

there is some very nice riding around las vegas

Cottonwood canyon has some top singletrack trails

I’ve not ridden the cowboy trails – but have heard there some great techy singletarck there

And there’s a load of trails over at bootleg canyon from smooth singletrack to gnar downhill

Me and my wife are flying out to vegas this april and will get in a couple of rides in there before heading down to arizona

check out my web site for some maps and pics of rides we did out in las vegas

My MTB Website

Heres a picture taken over on the cottonwood trail system