Cycling in Santa Fe NM

[Alan]

It looks like I am headed to Santa Fe for a 3-6 wk project. I probably won't bring my bike but I would like to do some riding. Anyone in the area with thoughts about rental options or a shop I could make some kind of deal with. Feel free to email me directly.

Alan

aefishman@yahoo.com

[chuckred]

[QUOTE=Alan]It looks like I am headed to Santa Fe for a 3-6 wk project. QUOTE]

Don't know what to tell you about rentals, but, if you're there towards the end of May, the Santa Fe Century (http://www.santafecentury.com/) is a pretty fun ride.

Lots of great mountain biking in the area, from what I hear, but don't know from personal experience.

[11.4]

Not much in Santa Fe but assuming you're flying into Albuquerque, they have plenty of good shops. No formal rental programs for decent bikes that I've ever heard of, but they have some trial bikes for some of the bigger builders that you might be able to work a deal on.

Santa Fe is an interesting place to ride. Long distances without water, questionable drivers on the bigger roads, but some superb back roads for road cycling. In particular, ride north to Tesuque and on up on the back roads towards Taos, or else drive south through Madrid to the top of Sandia Crest (the rest of the road down to Albuquerque is lousy so just turn around and enjoy a long fast downhill with great vistas). Depending on season, the roads can have a lot of thorns -- it's one of the few places where I bring clinchers. If you're on slightly larger tires such as Vittoria Open Pave's, you can comfortably go onto some of the unpaved roads and expand your local availability a lot. North and west of Santa Fe (behind the opera house) are all kinds of roads leading to housing developments, but if you cut right through you get to some great country roads heading out into Native American ruins. Do be sure you have plenty of water. Two water bottle cages are an absolute must. And nearly everything is quite hilly, so gear appropriately.

[AgilisMerlin]

great riding.

I lived their for 4 years, while going to school. Met my wife their.

Excellent riding. backroads are key.

The riding is beautiful. High, arid, desert.

Ya gotta kind of polke around. Stay the hell out of Los Alamos, unless you are doing lab work up their.

The riding can be lonely, and new mexico is definately a diff culture. WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T PISS OFF THE MOTORISTS. I used to have beer bottles thrown at me all the time. New Mexico, is a diff. kind of unruly.

the cllimb to the ski station right out of town is epic, 5 thousandish up to 10 thousandish in about 13 to 14 miles. wowza...........santadecristo (blood of christ mtns)

the colors and landscape their are beautiful and strange.........diff. kind of vibe.

lot of chip seal riding.

their is a board member here who builds and sells wheels............can someone post his name. He is also over at weight weeners - I'll pm him their about this topic. I totally disagree that their are no class bike shops in santa fe. He gave me some up to date info before on this subject. Their is also a woman frame builder in town. Someone post info paleaze

(don't forget to try out some sopapillas at Maria's, and fire roasted peppers. It is a totally diff. scene, you will be taken aback. enjoy :banana: )

New Mexico

[jbrainin]

Check out MellowVelo, located at 102 East Water Street. They rent road or mountain bikes. Their phone is (505) 982-8986. Their website is www.sunmountainbikeco.com/home.html. They are nice people who can suggest many good rides in the area.

Jonathan

[Jeremy]

Check out

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/sfroadriders/?yguid=101910377

and

http://www.routeslip.com/

for ride info around SF. The first link is for the local Santa Fe road riders club, the second link provides ride maps for many locales around the country.

The guys at Mellow Velo are great. Margo Conover owns Luna Cycles, though I believe that she is moving back to Colorado.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[Climb01742]

you may also wish to stop by alchemy bike works and say hi to jeremy (see above.) ;)