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Jeff, I haven’t ridden them all of course as the state is quite large. Our State parks are pretty much open to mountain biking. French Creek has a great trail system with classic PA rocky gnar. Nockamixon “The Nox” has about 10 miles of purpose built Mtb trails. Mostly flow trails that you can just rip on. Berms, rollers, man made features etc. Good place to take the family or beginners so they can learn bike control and technique. Fun if your more advanced because you can see how fast you can go before you overshoot it into a tree. Blue Knob State Park is also excellent technical riding. Yeah, we get a lot of techy stuff here where the glaciers stopped back in the prehistoric days and dumped lots of rocks that they were carrying.
Within the city of Philadelphia we have over 50 miles of challenging and fun single track. Valley Green park in the Wissahickon “The Wiss” has about twenty miles of well marked multi use trails that range from flowy and fast to gnarly ass rocky descents, technical, rocky, and punchy stair step type climbs. Come out and visit sometime. Contact me and we’ll take you through the park. I’ll be willing to bet you can’t clean the whole Wiss. The Belmont plateau section of Philadelphia. Also has a great trail network and the Philly Pump Track. The trails in Belmont were built by hardcore Mtb people and you will get your log over technique some practice. Lastly, there’s Penny Pack park with at least 15 miles of tight twisty fun single track. It’s our location of choice for night riding. That’s all within the city limits of Philadelphia. So… there’s my PA riding haunts for what it’s worth.
Sorry I’m from the E-Bikes are the “Spawn of Satan” crowd. Martyn Ashton doesn’t ride one. Stacy Kouhat doesn’t ride one and those guys are friggin paralyzed. Keep those damn things off our trails!!! There’s too many folks that’ll abuse them by “chipping” the governing circuits, making them even faster. They’re motorcycles regardless of what nomenclature you use.
And who are they for??? An experienced mountain biker that possesses the skill set to competently handle one isn’t going to be the main customer of these things. An experienced MTB knows about the handling deficit of the extra weight, and the trail access issues that “motorized transport” will cause on multi use trails and the general negative political ramifications these things have within the MTB community. So that leaves the primary client for an Ebike an inexperienced rider in late middle age that fits the income demographic. That person is going to more than likely be out of shape and have no idea how to handle a Mtb. So let’s hand them a really capable, yet heavy full suspension mini motorcycle and tell em to ” Let er rip!” out on the trails that we fight so hard to have access to??? NO F@*king way! This is nothing but the bike companies trying to go after a wealthy demographic that is so riddled with ennui that they can’t think of what to do next to alleviate their exquisite boredom. Stay the f*ck off of my trails.
Was that too harsh?
I’m 51 yo guy who didn’t start seriously riding till I was 47. Yes I wear pads. I like Poc products. Vpd jacket mostly just for shoulders and elbows and their bones knee pads. Usually I just wear the knee pads unless I’m planning a rowdy ride or going full DH. Can’t tell how many times this gear has saved me from the ER. I’ve done epic endos fallen down 10’embankments rag dolled down rock pikes etc. never a serious injury while wearing armor. Before I started wearing armor i got a grade 3ac joint separation and cracked ribs. Wear the stuff!!
