[wilsonm73]

Having ridden only a little bit in those areas when I was out there for work for 3 months, I’d say something in the 100-130mm category works just fine. It also depends what else you are doing with the bike. Are you just trail riding? Are you hitting any drops, jumps or features? Headed to the resorts for the weekend? Its been a long time since I have ridden in that area so things may have changed greatly since I was there. The newest crop of 150mm bikes are fantastic. Can you demo any bikes to get a feel for what you want and how it works on your trails? That may be the best way you can see if 150mm is overkill or not.

[wilsonm73]

"skibum" wrote

Adventurer is right on–that’s why I said I would have easily picked Fruita up until a couple years ago, but Moab has added so much since, and he didn’t even mention my personal fave of the new, Deadman’s Ridge, part of the new additions to the Brands Trails area or Dead Horse State Park, which is novice friendly but also crazy good fun for an advanced rider.

I loooooves me some PBR at 18 Road/Fruita, but that’s just a couple miles compared to all the new stuff Moab has added.

But then again, all this talk about new stuff is pretty irrelevant–both places have far more than you could ride in a single trip, so don’t sweat that.

GBD49,
I’m also a Springs guy and I’ll definitely ditto your Blackjack experience. I ride the the black trails at Palmer Park and my fave on my end of town (SW) is the technical descent down Section 16, but nothing put the fear in me like Blackjack!

If you want a Blackjack-like experience that doesn’t threaten to maim you and has really sweet flow, hit the Lunch Loops area between Grand Junction and Fruita and do Holy Cross–I’ve never heard an advanced rider not put that in at least his/her top 5.

But wait–you’re a Springs guy–you definitely live close enough to hit both of these destinations without too much expenditure. Flip a coin and have a ball–then go back to the other at the earliest opportunity.

Besides, deciding which one to go to is just the start. Then you’ll have to ask which specific trails to ride at your choice, and answering that won’t be any easier!

Having ridden Palmer and Black Jack as well as Fruita/GJ and Moab here’s what we do. We go to Moab every year and generally hit something in GJ/Fruita on the way out or way back. Free Lunch to Pucker Up is as good as any free ride trails I have ridden. We also have done a three day weekend in the GJ/Fruita as well. There’s tons to ride there. Moab is adding more trails each year. If you can get to Moab in the fall there’s not a lot like the Whole Enchilada Downhill. You really can’t go wrong in either place.

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