Where do you live and why is it good/bad for dual sport?

I live in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Diego</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State></st1lace> area which is pretty awesome for dual sport. We’ve got year round riding weather and all types of riding from beautiful scenic twisties in the hills to endless dirt trails in the desert. The only downside I’ve found is that if you want to ride away from <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">San Diego</st1lace></st1:City> you need to either travel though some serious congestion or miles upon miles of boring super slab. I’m curious to know about the other areas of this planet that you ADVers live and why your home is good or bad for dual sport riding.
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If there is already a thread out there asking the same question, I apologize. If the powers that be think I posted in the wrong section, I apologize and please move it.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I would vote it as being bad for dual sport riding because there is very little dirt available that hasn't been fenced off. Worse, the off road parks (e.g. Carnegie) are being attacked by the tree huggers and we're losing what little dirt riding areas that we have.

I can go 100 miles to the east and ride in the Siearra foothills though.

For those who like riding on twisty paved roads, it's one of the best areas in the country. Many, many good choices for that type of riding. This is one reason why the dual sport tires on my XR650L are more street oriented.

I live outside Ft. Worth(35 miles SW) and have excellent DS roads right out my back door. Endless vistas await and I can ride over 650 miles and still be in Texas. And these roads are usually not crowded at all. Perfect. With a large variety in terrain and roads I feel lucky. Add year-round riding and cool little Texas towns and Great BBQ and life is good. Hell, it is great.

Northeast Florida, around St. Augustine.

Good = 12 months riding, if you can bare the heat (and now, the cold). Also can find plenty of places to ride if you look hard enough.

Bad = lots of sand and even more palmetto roots. Makes riding boring after a while, especially with no elevation changes. Few places have tacky dirt, mostly towards Reddick and other locals. Other problem is as much forests we do have, much of it is identified as conserved landscape (working for the department of forestry has its' benefits though, hehe).

Orange County - Good! - Fireroads close by and very tight twisty roads all over North County San Diego. i.e., Fallbrook, Temecula area. And as you know, it hardly ever snows here.

~Mike

Atlanta, Ga area. North Georgia has very good overall riding, on and off road. Lots of twisty pavement, lots of forest service roads, some good ORV areas. Unfortunately a lot of the good and challenging trails in the National Forest have been closed. Overall I think North Carolina and Eastern TN has better riding but It's still pretty close to the Atlanta area. The scenery here is also pretty good but not as spectacular as out west. Overall I rate the Southern smokies the best riding of all the places I have lived. I have lived in Ohio, CT, LA, FL, Ca(San Diego), Mi, MD, ME, and AL before moving to GA. Still, I would love to do more riding out West.

I'm in Dillard, SW Oregon, near Superslab-Five. Fair bit of cool paved twisties nearby, tons of forest roads for exploring. Just watch out for log trucks! It can be interesting in the woods during hunting season. Woods really aren't the place to be when you're on a quiet DS wearing a deer-colored jacket! My rule is if I can hear gunfire over road/wind/engine noise, or if I spot 8 hunting rigs in 5 miles it's time to pull the big U and head back for a beer.

I live in Hanover which is rather north in Germany and dual sporting is like a bad joke. Germany is a really small country, we've got 230 People per square kilometer. Take for comparison California. It has about 86 Ppl/sqkm. There are no deserts or large rural areas in Germany. Every spot is used for agriculture and the paths between the fields are usually blocked by a road sign that forbids trespassing. And since this country is so overcrowded there's always someone to see you.

Offroading in general is not legal here. So if you're looking for unpaved roads...don't come here, everything belongs to someone and they are watching.

SW New Hampshire

Good: The white Mountains, The Green Mountains, Lots of twisties and dirt roads/trails to ride.

Bad: Cold and snowy for too long.

North Wales, fantastic mountains, coast and twisties that could have been planned by a motorcycling deity, a lot of small roads winding around if you can find them, a fair bit of legal offroad if you can find it, but its a small country and someone owns every bit and the police are fairly hostile towards motorcycles, wild camping is illegal, but there are quite a lot of campsites, climate not too bad if you dont mind wet, currently under a lot of snow though this is pretty rare, come and have a look, our beer is pretty good too.

Stewart

Goods:
Loads of twisty raods up through the Lake district mountains, North Wales just half an hour way. Great views where ever you go (out of the cities). Green, Green, Green.

Bads:
Limited access to forests. Very little dirt to ride on. You need a good knowlege of by laws to keep out of trouble and to find the good places to ride. Lots of fencies.

All in all it's best for roads, but there are places to ride off the roads, they are just not that easy to find.

Surrey on the southern edge of Greater London. Surprisingly not too bad for biking of any stamp with local MX/enduro/circuit racing, legal off road riding (although not much of it) and plenty of twisty roads once you get off the arterials. One of the big Sunday bike meets in the UK takes place at Ryka's Cafe near Dorking.
Obviously heavily populated being so close to London but we have the south coast just 50 miles away and access to continental Europe for an hour and a half's ride plus the Channel Tunnel or ferry.

East TN.

Good- Lots of good roads, lots of good trails. Great camping spots. Great bike shops. Great backpacking, so it's not always just motor riding for the sake of it.

Bad- Winter kind of sucks (like now @ 20F) and it's a tourist destination so dodging tourists in your lane is an unofficial sport.

Hmmm... factoring in comfort, suspension range, handlebar and leg placement and the ability to leap curbs , the question might be, is there really a bad location for a good dual sport?
Just asking.

Finland, plenty of dirt roads of different grades, lots of enduro trails, despite its small size and population this country is a real super power of enduro racing, also lot of twisty blacktop, although some of it in shitty state due to perma frost, 21 front wheel and the great suspension on the 990adv have so far saved me from to much strife, the vicious winter here limits the riding to about 7 months, which is bit of a let down, studded tyres is an option but its just too bloody cold, for me anyway.

Somerset & Dorset - SW England

Not many 'trails' in south Somerset but Exmoor is half an hour away and it has loads of twistie bits and some trails.

There are a lot of small back roads - most of which are a lot of fun and theres nearly always great scenery, but its crowded in the summer with slow brainless drivers.

In the UK you can pack a lot of action into a relatively short distance. But its crowded - more than most European countries. You gotta be careful.

Interior of BC, Canada.

Less than a 20 min ride from my door in several directions I can hit the dirt on a well maintained Forest Service Road. Excellent network of maintained FSRs with virtually limitless options of unmaintained FSRs, 4x4 trails, and quad trails with a fair amount of single track mixed in. Excellent variety of terrain including dirt/gravel, mud, rocks, roots, hills, stream crossings, just about everything except a lot of sand. Many choices for destinations including mountain summits, back country lakes/streams, public-use cabins, the KVR, etc. Lots of wildlife to see, deer, elk, moose (and they generally stay out of your way around here), bear, mountain lion, lynx, wolf, coyote and many types of birds. You can camp anywhere and there are many unofficial campsites next to lakes and streams as well as free official recreation sites with picnic tables and outhouses and other cheap campsites with various amenities. For those that enjoy the paved part of dual sport there are plenty of twisties throughout the area and enforcement is rather minimal.

The bad... only about 8 months of riding a year due to snow, even less at higher elevations. The best camping spots are often occupied, especially around long weekends (still not too much traffic though). Very dry (and dusty) during summer with campfire bans in effect. Summer tourists in RVs foul the road in the twisties more than I like.

Central Ohio is flat and sucks... that said, about40 miles east it starts to get interesting and goes on all the way to the coastal plains on the other side of West Virginia. Lots of good roads of all sorts that range from the obvious well kept highways to the secondary highways and county/township roads for sport and supermoto play. Then there are the unpaved county/township roads that range from nearly perfect (great sweepers for broadslides) to nearly impassable or actually abandoned, but ridable on two wheels.

The plethora of roadways was probably constituted by all the wagon trails to get "from here to there" over the hills and mountains while transportation was still very primitive for settlers and such. Some of the more interesting stuff we've been on clearly was a winding trail at one time. One is actually named the Winding Staircase with something like 11 corners in about 3/8 mile with a few hundred feet elevation change. Lots of fun stuff... and that's just eastern Ohio, there's still all of WV and the other actual mountain states.

I think there's a large quantity of interesting roadways too because the Appalachian range is old and worn down allowing easier creation of roads and path ways. Less craggy peaks and valleys, more rolling yet steep. Fun fun fun...

I mostly ride twisty paved roads here in the Bay Area. Not really any dirt unless you goto an offroad park. I also frequently put my bike in my truck and go up north to the Mt Shasta area. There is equally great paved and dirt roads. It's a perfect dual sport area.

I live on the southern Oregon coast where the moderating influence of the Pacific--always 55F--makes year-round riding possible, if occasionally a bit brisk. By most people's standards, however, the winter months are very very wet. Even when it is not actually raining, water continues to drip out of the mossy trees and ooze out of the muddy ground and cascade down the brown and swollen watercourses. With a good weather eye, you can ride between the raindrops. With good gear, you can push your luck.

The land is rural and rugged; lovely twisty roads are everywhere. The hinterlands are wild and remote, and a vast network of BLM and NFS roads are maintained in a challenging state of disrepair.

If only hypothermia did not kill!

M-P