Living/riding in the Reno, NV area?

My wife and I are thinking about moving to the Reno area. What is the riding like in that area?

Is Nevada off road bike friendly??

Any other comments are welcome - we are just looking for a change from the Minnesota scene...

Renos an awesome area. If I could find what I am making now down there I would be gone in a heartbeat.

Reno is a good central location, youv'e got the desert for winter riding and the sierras for summer single track. My favorite area is Downieville which is roughly 1 1/2 hour drive. Nevada is very dirtbike friendly for now. If you do move this way look me up.

Will do - thanks.

OK, thanks.

Peavine is behind Boomtown is/was fun, watch out for the trail spikes/boobytraps that are out there.You can ride from Boomtown on Hwy 80 to Stateline on 395 north of Reno. Moonrocks is a fun place to play at for a day lots of big boulders. I really enjoy the Carson Valley area of the Pinenuts, that mountain range is from Dayton to Lake Topaz. There is some fun 2 track and spectacular views from over 9000 ft elevation. Wilson Canyon is like a video game and the kiddies LOVE that place Hwy 208 near Wellington/Yearington. There are some super technical singletrack near Monitor Pass and Markleeville. Ooops thats California, there are trees there though.

There is an MX track in Fernley that I hear great stuff about. That is where the Reno National is for the OTHG.

My God Tim, that's the nicest I've heard you be about your "new home state" yet!

Reno:
Desert riding on one side and the Sierras on the other, and it is very dirt bike friendly here. With a little work you can plate almost any bike - and a plate is a VERY good thing to have since it not only opens up a lot of connect-the-dot riding in Nevada - it also means you can ride in California without worrying about the whole "Red Sticker/Green Sticker" B.S.

Off the bike, good skiing in the winter (Tahoe), lakes in the summer - etc. etc. - lots of events and things to do all the time. Its pretty good all-in-all. Coming from Minnesota you might be shocked to discover that we have actual mountains!

Reno hasn't been TOO beat up by the recession and housing crash- nothing is as fat as it was 4 years ago, but there are still jobs and a decent house is a lot more reasonably priced than it would have been in 2006. Decent school system and a good university. No state income tax (so far!), the bars NEVER have "last call", you can do your grocery shopping at 4AM - -if you feel the need. It never - ever - gets down to -20F. Oh, and pretty good pizza - ask Coffee

Negatives - casinos, trashy downtown, casinos, regional politics, housing "sticker shock" (coming from the midwest you are not going to like the housing costs, even post housing crash) - did I mention casinos? Good thing is - you can live, work, play, go to school - and never go anywhere near downtown.

If you do come out send me a PM - Sharpie will have you hanging off a 12 inch wide cliff, 100 feet over a raging river, in a hail storm --- and tell you its "fun". There is some fun riding nearby that doesn't involve having Search and Rescue on speed dial.

Whats not fun about that? With all the rain this week it's time to hit some Sierra single track.

Whether you will like the reno area depends alot on where you're coming from. To me, the riding is ok but the traffic is absolutely horrendous. The popular riding areas like moonrocks and johnson road were starting to get hammered by folks driving over from california since so much there has been closed or restricted.

Not sure if work is an issue for you, but if I didn't need to be in reno for some reason, I can think of a few places I'd choose first.

Thanks.

How about bike racing - are there any harescrambles held in the area?

mrann is based in northern nevada. i've only done one of their races. Mostly i think they do 2-loop desert races. www.racemrann.com.

The virginia city gp is maybe an hour away (fun race, if you like rocks and stuff).

Thanks again guys.

And they have a great Husky wrench guy there. Dyna Reno on 4th st.

We are driving through Reno (on our way to do some road biking in CA), and will do some scouting.

I grew up in the Midwest, so I can say with absolute certainty that Reno will be like dirt bike heaven to you.

I've ridden around Mammoth before and it was fun. I imagine Reno would be pretty similar.

IMO Reno or any of it's out lying towns is a great centralized location for almost any kind of riding you can think of. From 12" single track where one mistake will get you a ticket on a rescue helicopter as mentioned earlier to 13k summit climbs where you can log your name in a notebook at the top if you can get up there.

Moonrocks is beat up but there's a lot of trails you can get to from moonrocks that usually only the locals can find. Plus it hooks up with Hungry Valley which opens up another great area to ride.

There's public and private mx tracks that are all set up different with different kinds of dirt depending on what your preference is. Livfast Exit 28 is a great track if you don't mind the entrance fee. Always changing and maintained!!! Prosser pits, Fernley, there's one south of Gardnerville, etc.

Single track up at Boca and Prosser lake is a ton of fun. Just slap a California sticker on your bike and you're good to go. Lots of single track in Hungry Valley.

Desert Creek/Sweet Water/Three Sisters area has some endless mountain ranges and trails. We were out there a couple of weeks ago and spent 8 hrs. riding without hitting the same trail twice.

I could go on and on about different areas and types of riding. Oh yeah, Sand Mountain outside of Fallon.

Now I'm excited to ride ! Thank goodness the weekend is close !

Lake Tahoe area is beautifull.........I'm going to stop now!