The New Mexico Rider

Possible business opportunity in Santa Fe

Hey everyone,
I currently live in CO just south of Denver. We have great riding available here with obviously constant trail closure threats.

My fiance and I may have a business opportunity in Santa Fe which would require us to move down there. Riding dirt bikes is very important to both of us, it basically consumes our lives. We love riding mountain singletrack but enjoy riding the desert in UT in the winter when the mountains are snowed in.

I race an occasional RMEC enduro but trail riding, trials riding, and dual sport riding interest me the the most.

I raced a downhill mountain bike race a few years ago in Taos and those mountains were very nice. I'm just not sure how much dirt bike opportunity there is.

I noticed NM seems to have a good trials club so that would be cool.

-Would Santa Fe be a good place to live for our interests?
-For those who have ridden in CO how does it compare for types of riding available?
-Is it a relatively safe town?
-How is it weathering the current economy?
-How far to get to good riding areas?
-Is there an enduro series?
-I would think that we could ride in the desert all year long right?

Sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate any replies.

Thanks,
Ron

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve on December 2, 2009 at 2:29pm: -Would Santa Fe be a good place to live for our interests? probably
-For those who have ridden in CO how does it compare for types of riding available? Not as dramatic scenery or as many mountains.
-Is it a relatively safe town? Yes, relatively
-How is it weathering the current economy? About average, but real estate is way down. The only real industry is tourism.
-How far to get to good riding areas? Depends what you're looking for. There are lots of places within a half hour.
-Is there an enduro series? Dunno
-I would think that we could ride in the desert all year long right? Just about. However, a good snow storm can stay on the ground a while in the northern areas.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 2, 2009 at 8:32pm: Thanks for the info!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by NMTrailboss on December 2, 2009 at 9:48pm: Ron, I think NM has quite the variety of riding from technical mountain single track, desert single track, wide open sand wash riding, and lots of great dual sport opportunities...and in my totally biased opinion, the best trials club in the nation! There is rarely a weekend that there is nowhere to ride. In winter, you may have to head more southerly to drop in elevation enough to get out of the snow and ride the desert offerings, but plenty are available. Although not the same amount of high mountain trail systems as your home state, but there are several great trail systems in the Jemez Mtns., Taos, Sipapu, and Red River areas. Several of these have very technical riding. Trails aren't as well marked as CO and would be easier to find by hooking up with a local. Dual sport riding is endless with plenty of variety of terrain and difficulty. And as I said before, the trials riding is awesome. We have a BLM designated trials area for the local club near San Ysidro, NM which is specific to trials, hiking and mountain biking. Outstanding area and probably about 65 miles from Santa Fe. There is no enduro circuit specifically, but the Mile High Enduro in Cloudcroft, NM just completed it's 50th annual event. It's put on by the Prairie Dawg M/C Club and is part of the Texas State Championship Enduro Circuit. Usually held in Sept. or Oct. Hope this helps.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 7, 2009 at 10:30am: Thanks for taking the time to give us some insight. I think we may try and come down in the next or so. If the weather improves maybe someone might want to take us out riding while we're there :-)

Thanks again,
Ron; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 13, 2009 at 7:44pm: I'm here in Santa Fe tonight, we arrived this morning. The business looks good and we are very interested. We plan to look at some real estate tomorrow to see if we can afford anything that we like. We're looking for some land outside of town hopefully in the mtns/hills (30-40 miles would be fine within 40 minutes or so).

One of our biggest concerns is having enough mtn/desert singletrack to ride in NM. It looks like the Jemez Mtns., Taos, Sipapu, and Red River areas that you mentioned above are all relatively close to Santa Fe. Very comparable to how far we routinely drive from Denver now to ride.

How difficult is it to "infiltrate" the local riding community? :-)

Also is the riding in the Sangre de Cristos decent? Is there much there and what type of riding is it?

Sorry for all the questions, we are just super excited about this area as well as the opportunity.

Thanks again,
Ron; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 18, 2009 at 11:12am: My dirt bikes are titled, plated, and insured in CO. Do I still need an OHV permit from NM?

Also we are considering driving back down to NM this week to do some riding. Can anyone recommend a place south of Santa Fe that might be a little warmer that offers good riding?

I don't see much available in the way of maps. Is it even possible for us to navigate an area without someone showing us where to go?

Thanks for any info.

Ron; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by NMTrailboss on December 18, 2009 at 7:04pm: Ron,
If your bikes are plated street legal, you should be good to go in NM. Shouldn't need the OHV permit unless it's a non-street legal bike.
You didn't define what type of riding you were looking for this week (dual sport/single track), but probably the best areas for single track right now are desert type trails on the west side of Albuquerque...maybe 60-70 miles from Santa Fe. The Rainbow and Southern areas are riding areas west of Rio Rancho that offer many miles of sand washes, ATV routes, single track and roads. Mostly sandy terrain with a fair amount of whoops and some harder packed single track and difficulty from easy to fairly technical riding. There is the Buckman area NW of Santa Fe (very close to town) with many miles of excellent single track as well (as long as there hasn't been a fresh storm!).

Maps for riding areas are much harder to come by in NM than CO. Definately easier to find by hooking up with locals and cruising the forums. Are you on ADVrider as well?

Curtis; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 18, 2009 at 7:34pm: Thanks for the info Curtis, and yes I go on ADVrider too. I've got a Garmin 60csx so maybe I can find some GPS tracks for some NM desert rides on ADV?

I should have specified, we are looking for as much single track as possible but have no problem riding sand washes and ATV routes too. We just prefer single track.

Thanks again,
Ron; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by NMTrailboss on December 18, 2009 at 8:49pm: Ron, what's your user name on ADV? PM's on ADV is an easy way to set up rides here and discuss local trails.

"Rainbow" west of Rio Rancho has about 80+ miles of good single track and "Southern" has hundreds of miles of great off road riding of various types. We'll be riding Southern on Sunday. Did you say you're into trials? We've got one of the best trials areas around about 25 miles NW of Bernalillo that is a BLM designated trials only area.
There may be some GPS tracks on ADV. Haven't really looked. I've got several dual sport route tracks I could share, but not much on single track yet. Guess I need to take the Garmin out more on the single track rides next year!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron on December 18, 2009 at 10:51pm: Curtis my name on ADV is projected if you want to PM me there. Thanks again.

Ron; ▶ Reply to This