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That's my privileged little life in North Van near the base of Fromme. Traffic has become a complete shitshow on the Shore but it's just background noise for us as we ride everywhere. Grocery trips, kids soccer practice, kids school drop off all by e-cargo bike. Work from home and skip out mid day for 1 hr lunch laps.

What's the crime rate for " gun-toting Christian Nationalists"?

Haha and thank you! Don’t get me wrong either, Grand Junction has been rad so far (I haven’t gotten to explore as much as I’d like yet) and the access to riding (local and especially if your willing to drive a bit) is great. I just miss steep granite tech deep in the woods with a giant fresh water lake to swim in afterwards. No bugs in the desert though!

Saying the Sea-to-Sky is “expensive” is an understatement. For the vast majority of people, it is so cost prohibitive you could never live there even if you wanted to. I was fortunate enough to grow up in Utah at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. My childhood home to Snowbird/Alta (some of the best skiing in North America) was 8 miles and a 12 minute drive. I now have a PhD and could never afford to live anywhere near that same place even if I wanted to move back. Moving to a place like the east benches of Salt Lake...

Main reason we moved to where I am currently. Commute to work by car is less than 10 min, bike commute is about 12 min. Pedal from garage to trail head. There are some spots close, 15-20min drive. When a small window opens to have free time for a ride, the quick out the door is so easy.

Yes, for sure. The culture in Cusco is wild. Their introduction to MTB was basically just DH and they obviously have the mountains for it. Locals are super cool, friendly and welcoming. Shuttles are easy to come by. For some people the altitude might be a problem though. City is at like 11k ft and the mountains are big. Easy to find rides above 15k feet in the region. Super vibrant city as well. Cusco also has an international airport. Santiago isn’t far away for example. Food is insane. Yeah there are fairly affordable places in North America, Europe, too...

Regardless of where it is I would also personally prioritize being able to ride directly from home. It's amazing to have most all of your rides start and finish from the garage. That is a massive quality of life perk that I don't think people realize just how good it is.

2007, it was glorious.

This is such a loaded question. sea to sky and Vancouver island are expensive, but it’s a trade off for climate, trail access and the amount of activities close by. I can ride from my door almost year round. If/when we get snowed out the ski hill is 25 min drive. Winter surfing small wind swell is close, and good surf is a 2.5 hr drive. Housing isn’t cheap and doesn’t make sense, but after living in a few places that didn’t provide a healthy work life balance we lucked into jobs in a great community. Sacrifice some affordability for...

In 2013 I bought my house for $130k (still live here). My closest local trail has 2200 feet of vert, with several more in that range just a few min away. The trail that I ride from my office parking lot has over 3k of vert. All of it excellent Enduro style riding. Since then my house has tripled in price. Its a shame that kids who grew up in this place cannot return from college and afford to live in the town they grew up in.

I moved to Knoxville from Denver 5 years ago. Zero regrets. The west is great for looking at gorgeous mountains and for having over 300 days of rain-free riding per year. But the trails, campsites, and cool towns are hella crowded. Also, the toll of climate change on the Rockies is real, and the winters keep getting shorter and drier, and the smoke is getting more constant. I mean, we are all contributing to that, no matter where you live, with our car-centered life. But when you are literally driving out 70, into the mountains to have fun, and that...

I was gonna suggest the Eastern Tennessee area. WNC has gotten kinda crazy with prices recently but east TN is killing it. There's soo much riding within a 45 minute drive from the Knoxville area. Housing is cheap and the riding is year round. I prefer the riding in Knoxville (they've done so much work on riding infrastructure) to Bentonville any day.

I'm here in Brașov, Romania. Cost of living is obviously cheap, being the country we are, although some prices line up with the West, where the wages don't necessarily. But it is generally cheaper for most things. Mountain biking? How about FREE shuttle service on state-operated local buses, that take you up 12 km to our local resort? You just pay a normal bus ticket, which is about 1 EUR a ride, and on Fridays it's completely free. From the local resort (Poiana Brașov), you can either ride back down on a plethora of trails (of which some are shared...

Smolyan, Bulgaria. Southern Rhodope mountains, right by the Greek border. Totally off most people’s radar — and ticks a lot of your boxes. Riding: 25+ enduro trails accessible with flexible shuttle (local 4x4 pickups, not resort infrastructure — but that’s what keeps costs down), plus a small bike park nearby with 5–6 chairlift-accessed trails. Season April–November. Proper mountain terrain, up to ~1000m of descent per lap depending on the trail. Rocky, rooty, loamy — a bit of everything. Nothing is crowded because almost nobody outside Bulgaria knows about this region yet. Cost of living: house in a Rhodope village, 20–40k...

cheap places usually means low income as long as you are not a remote worker. so living cost to earn ratio should be similar. i‘d place riding quality above living costs…

I can tell with absolute certainty it's not California. Haven't lived there, but whenever I've traveled to northern Italy it's been very affordable for what you get. 40 euro lift tickets (at least they were about 10 years ago). Bed & breakfasts that are clean and have nice home-cooked food for about 100 euro per night, right across from ski resorts. A couple I know of close to retiring are planning on moving somewhere there because it's just so much cheaper.

This is probably the best answer so far. I have visited the area its sick would love to live there.

East Tennessee/western NC seems like the obvious answer here

Imperia region of Italy. See Paul Aston and his bike farm. Buy some ancient stone place in Molini for 50k and make it livable. Then ride ride ride.

Bentonville is the MTB capital of the world; they say so themselves! I don't know if you mean "cheapest" by housing, food or what, but UT seems cheaper than CO. Moab has homes for less than $500K. I see a few on Trulia for less than $400K. (TWE, Captain Ahab, Slickrock.) St. George has a bunch under $400K. (Hurricane, Virgin, Rampage sites.) I may retire in Cottonwood, AZ someday, myself. 20 minutes to Sedona. Plenty under $400K there, too. If you're looking for CHEAP, cheap, you may find good stuff in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming. I don't know much about...