What's up holmes. I live here in the mountain biking anti-mecca of the midwest (maybe the entire world?), Chicago! My wife works for a company that could have us in a Nevada city of our choice w/in a couple months. Any ideas of the cities that would be the most bike friendly, affordable and nearby to some shopping (window shopping, I'll be honest) for my wife? We would want to live in a reasonable 3 bedroom home.

My next question is related to the last one... would it be worth it to move out there? Should we threaten her company w/ bombs if they ship us to that hot desert, or is it just the place for a city-choked guy and gal to lay down some roots? We would love to move back out west (formal AZ residents), but we are having trouble coming up with a place that makes us tingle in all the right places...(not sure really what that means...)!

Any help with this matter will help us out a ton... or if you want to keep some foreigners out of your nice town, just tell me that there's no place at all to ride anything; mountain bikes, road bikes, dirt bikes, Harley's, mules, a really big dog, a certain wife, etc.

thanks, potential neighbors.

p.s. please don't tell me I can't ride my dirt bike, not sure I could handle that...

Nevada is nice enough. Las Vegas property values have shot through the roof in the past 18mos though. 3 bedroom 225k (ours is 1500square feet @ 275k) and up in an decent (not fancy) neighborhood.

Reno is nicer in my opinion. 4 seasons, Tahoe, close to the Bay Area for weekend trips, cooler summer temps, skiing. Still expensive property values though. Carson City/ Carson Valley also still expensive.

Both have great mtbing. I've lived Carson City, Reno, Tahoe, and Las Vegas. I currently live in Vegas but would choose Reno or even over the mountains into Auburn or Grass Valley Cali. if I had the chance.

MC

Check out http://www.travelnevada.com/adventure/biking.asp for opportunities in Nevada. I don't know much about the Las Vegas area. Hell I don't know much about most of Nevada. But I can say that close to Reno/Carson City (they're 20 miles apart with Reno being much bigger) there is an amazing amount of trails. Single-track, Jeep, Fireroad. The most noteable is The Flume Trail.

For apres-biking there's always skiing. Or brothels, or gambling, or ... :o