Winter Mountain Biking (December – March)

Fat bikes are an awesome way to keep your bike mojo flowing during the winter months.  In addition to a few layers of extra clothes, local fat bike riders should arm themselves with information before setting out.  Guidelines and best practices for access, safety and sharing the trail can be found here. 

Know where to ride this winter!  Some of the best places, like Winona State Forest in northern NY, offer miles of groomed trails open to fat bikes.  Locally, volunteers at Shindagin Hollow and Morgan Hill state forests continue to do a fantastic job grooming winter trail loops.  Our neighbors to the north are grooming trails at Green Lakes State Park and Split Rock.   Finger Lakes National Forest has quite a few miles of trails and frozen dirt roads open to bikes all winter.  And many local rail-trails and dirt roads can add some variety to your winter biking.

But not all summer riding locations are open to winter riding, as Hammond Hill, Jenksville, and Oakley Corners state forests do not allow bikes on snow-covered trails.  Visit our Trails page for more details on each location.

Winter rides in our region, and local winter trail conditions, are often announced on our Cycle-CNY email list…subscribe by sending an email to cycle-cny+subscribe@googlegroups.com.

While we try to stick to a Tuesday group ride schedule, winter riding conditions can change quickly so group rides will be announced as conditions allow.