Review of Ride Guide: New Jersey Mountain Biking (Ride Guides)

Ride Guide: New Jersey Mountain Biking (Ride Guides)
Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 5
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This is a completely new edition of this book for 2007

On: 2007-12-10

This isnt necessarily a review, since I am the author, but I thought that this new edition warranted a comment. I completely rewrote this book over the past year for this third edition. If you look at the previous reviews of the book, I address all of the issues brought up by reviewers. I re-rode, re-plotted and re-measured every mile of trail in the book. I added nine new parks that include every place to mountain bike that I know of in South Jersey (including Estell Manor, Gloucester Community College and Wharton State Park).
New Jersey gets a bad rap from lots of people, but the truth is there is a lot of excellent riding in the Garden State.

Wish I read the other reviews first!

On: 2001-01-23

I gave this book a token 2 stars because I wasnt actually able to try any of the trails for myself...So, I dont know how good the trail maps or descriptions are. All I can report is that there isnt anything here for those of us in the soutern part of the state! For mountain bikers in S. Jersey, I recommend Bob DiAntonios "Mountain Bike America: Greater Philadelphia Area." This book covers some S. Jersy rides as well as nearby Philadelpha and Eastern Pennsylvania.

The title is misleading...

On: 2000-10-18

A more discriptive title would be, "Ride Guide Mountain Biking the Counties of Northern and Central New Jersey." For those of you living in the southern part of the state...look elsewhere. All of Southern New Jersey is ignored.

Wharton State Forest is the largest single tract of land within the New Jersey State Park System. It covers part of Atlantic, Burlinton, and Camden counties and has some great off road riding. Lebanon St. Forest is historic and includes a major section of the 50 mile Batona trail. A major mountain bike publication listed Lebanon St. Forest in an article called "Five Great Places to Ride Double Track." These areas as well as the rest of Southern New Jersey are completely ignored in "New Jersey Mountain Biking"

Hey Josh, buddy. Come on...if youre going to write a book about riding in New Jersy, how about including the rest of us!

Who knew?

On: 2000-07-11

I took up mountain biking last summer (1999). It has been a great source of challenge and pleasure to me.

Finding this book has made such an adventure out of biking in NJ! It is well-written, has great maps with the mileage and turns and a good rating system so you know what you are getting into before you leave. Driving directions to the spots and explanations of where to park, whether or not there is a fee... its got everything you need to know. He really did a good job of researching the book and a nice touch is the inclusion of other nearby sites (relevant to the place you pick).

One possible improvement: Theres a map of NJ showing all the sites, it would be nice if the page numbers were listed there and the trail ratings were also included on the map. As it is now, you need to go to 3 different pages to find all of that info. Hardly worth mentioning, but if there was one thing to make it better, that would be it, in my opinion.

One of the best NJ trail books around!

On: 2000-05-18

I have many trail guides/books, but this one beats them all. First, the trail maps are accurate and clear. From my experience, accurate trail maps are hard to find. The author not only provides accurate maps, but he also provides distances at key intervals and often draws alternate routes. Second, each trail map is accompanied by a text version of the trail, describing the terrain and the exact mileage at regular intervals. This data is useful if you are riding with a cycle computer. Although the book covers only 25 trails, this book is a must-have for all NJ MTBikers. Directions to the park, history, and other information is also provided. Also, the book is relatively small, so it will fit in your Camelback.