Bikes Store-4U

The Mountain Biker’s Guide to Arizona (Dennis Coello’s America By Mountain Bike) Arizona is a state of stunning and exotic landscapes, of ghost towns, ancient Indian dwellings, wild rivers, vast deserts, and high mountains. “A land full of the unexpected,” says Sarah Bennett, veteran mountain biker and author of Mountain Biking Arizona, formerly The Mountain Biker’s Guide to Arizona. Primarily a guide of “classic” fat-tire biking trails from the Lower Sonoran Desert to the high alpine environment of the San Francisco Peaks, this book also provides a fascinating view of the natural and human history of this magnificent region. Mountain bikers of all abilities will enjoy the assortment of rides-varying in length end difficulty and appealing to a variety of moods, skills, and fitness levels. Detailed route descriptions, maps, and listings of mountain bike shops in each area will guide you to the best trails around.
Customer Review: Wow, it’s still in print!
I have an old copy of this book. It was old when I got it ten years ago. She doesn’t include the national trail, but she covers a lot. She even covers some trails Cosmic Ray (my favorite) ommitted. If you notice the bike on the cover and photos inside, all bikes are rigid. I don’t think bike shocks had been invented when this book was published. So, take it for what it’s worth. I paid four bucks for my copy ten years ago and I am happy with my purchase.
Customer Review: too many roads
This is one in the ubiquitous Falconguide series, and it has the same virtues and vices of all of them. Virtues: good info on the region, OK maps, OK trail info, good energy. Vices: the author seems to think that mountain biking is done on dirt roads. Almost all of the rides are on roads, and there seems to be a concerted effort to not talk about the famous single-track rides–most of the ST’s listed are out-of-the-way oddities. If you want to ride classic single-track, this book is next to useless. Cosmic Ray’s book is much better.

Two months later: I reviewed this book after I bought it and before I went to AZ. Even then, it was clear that the book is almost entirely about roads and rarely about single-track trails. Now that I know the area, I am appalled. Bennett literally directs you to ride fire roads while ignoring the world-class single-track trails that run right around those same roads! Inexplicable. Good book if you hate single-track, I suppose.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.