Palm Springs cycling? Rentals?

[d_douglas]

I have searched and there are a few threads on this subject but not the info that I want.

We are considering a short sunny getaway for 5-7days to Palm Springs to escape the dreariness of PNW Canada in mid-late March.

I am curious about MTB riding here - it looks so foreign compared to what I ride here in dense forests. Road riding looks good, but thinking I will stay on trails.

Has anyone here done it? Are there any shops that rent nice MTBs? I can't find any (though perhaps the big shops rent and don't advertise it?)

PS if anyone knows of an affordable condo with a pool for me and my lady along with our 5+7 year olds, that be great as well - just PM me.

Thanks for any hints!

[d_douglas]

BUMP! Ha ha - 18 months later and we are booked to go in March with another family and a fellow Dad-cyclist.

Does anyone know where we can rent a L and L/XL MTB for a week or maybe just a few days? We want something good quality and I cannot find anything thus far.

There was another thread of similar discussion a few months ago, but no one turned up any suggestions there (other than to go hiking in Joshua Tree, which we will do!)

My wife booked the place - its got a pool and enough bedrooms for 4 kids and 4 adults - that's as far as we've gotten...

[Likes2ridefar]

I go there occasionally for weekends from Phx. Never seen a serious cyclist there though I’m sure they exist :)

Sorry I can’t help but wanted to follow in case someone does have info. Fly to Phx and rent here? 3.5 hr drive through desert surrounded by mtns. Or LA and much shorter drive..

I’ve looked for road rides there but didn’t see anything worth skipping the pool for a ride:banana:

Was just there this past weekend at an Airbnb in Indio. Fantastic 3 bedroom with a fire pit, grill, pool and hot tub...

[AngryScientist]

a little south, but take a look at this thread:

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=219874&highlight=borrego

[heartattackride]

Radavist did an mtb ride there that looked pretty good, or as good as it can get. https://theradavist.com/2018/01/mojave-mobbin-on-the-palm-canyon-epic-trail/#1

[d_douglas]

Thanks folks, I youtubed MTB Palm Springs and saw that there were some rides to do. My buddy is up for anything, but he and I tend to do more MTB together and since it is such a foreign landscape to me, I think being offroad would be fascinating. My local trails in the PNW are wet, muddy, heavily treed and full of roots, so my first impression of this area is that the riding looks 'easy'.

On second thought, I realized that the riding doesn't seem too demanding, but the consequences of messing up are bigger - if you wipe out here, you bounce on jagged rocks and massive thorns and if you run out of water, you could die.

Where I live, you can definitely get hurt, but you mostly just skid down muddy surfaces and have sore bones afterwards, and if you need water, just lick some leaves :).

Anyways, it looks cool - I am committed to offroad riding if at all possible.

Travelling more than 30min seems a bad idea, as we both have young kids and need to manage our time with them and giving wives time to chill out.

Riding is a priority for us, but secondary to the intent of the trip!

[Waldo]

This is the time of the year when serious group road rides start swelling with snowbirds. Last time I did this ride was a Saturday in late December. I went with the A group and had my legs promptly ripped off by a bunch of Quebecois 20-somethings. http://www.cycleclub.com/rides/

[sooshi]

I did some MTB out there a couple years ago. Palm Springs Cyclery was the best resource for local trails. We didn't have a lot of time so we rode some local trails the shop pointed us towards. From what I remember they were called the goat trails. It's in the mountains right in town and there was a pretty cool network of trails up there. Had we had time and planned accordingly we probably could have linked together a nice, long ride.

I also did a really cool MTB race out of Pioneer Town in Yucca Valley which is about 30-40 min away from Palm Springs. The route took us into the Big Bear Resort area. It was a 35 mile round trip and a lot of the ride was wider, jeep trails and the scenery up there was really nice. I could send you the Strava route if you're interested.

https://www.pscyclery.com

[d_douglas]

Thanks Sooshi, that would be excellent.

DD

I did some MTB out there a couple years ago. Palm Springs Cyclery was the best resource for local trails. We didn't have a lot of time so we rode some local trails the shop pointed us towards. From what I remember they were called the goat trails. It's in the mountains right in town and there was a pretty cool network of trails up there. Had we had time and planned accordingly we probably could have linked together a nice, long ride.

I also did a really cool MTB race out of Pioneer Town in Yucca Valley which is about 30-40 min away from Palm Springs. The route took us into the Big Bear Resort area. It was a 35 mile round trip and a lot of the ride was wider, jeep trails and the scenery up there was really nice. I could send you the Strava route if you're interested.

https://www.pscyclery.com

[sooshi]

This link to the race's website is probably a better resource than my Strava link because it has a Strava route for both the 35 and 50 mile courses as well as the Garmin Connect link. I did the race in 2017 and it was a lot of fun, a really good vibe. Tinker Juarez came out and smoked everybody and looks like he did it again this year.

http://www.bikeforbender.com/home/pioneertown-ride/

[bart998]

If you're flying to LAX or ONT, try The Path bike shop in Tustin. They are known for MTB rentals... Found the rental listings: https://www.thepathbikeshop.com/services/demos-rentals

[d_douglas]

If you're flying to LAX or ONT, try The Path bike shop in Tustin. They are known for MTB rentals... Found the rental listings: https://www.thepathbikeshop.com/services/demos-rentals

We are almost certainly hitting Disneyland before we head to Palm Springs (I dread it, but it’s a rite of passage for any parent, errr, children - correct?)

I am not too keen on driving with the bikes (forgot I’ll need to rent a bike rack) so the closer I am to PS, the better. I can’t get over the fact that there are no proper bike rental places in that city - you ‘muricans can seize that as your next business opportunity!!

Had dinner with my buddy last night (with four crazy kids under 8 so not much relaxing!) and he’s pretty pumped. He actually said he didn’t care if it was road or mountain, so I guess we can go either way, though I am partial to mountain.

So, to a niche question - is a gravel type bike useful there? We are both used to super technical trails, so as I said earlier, the PS riding doesn’t seem too demanding, just potentially big consequences if we fall the wrong way (down a canyon :)!! )