Located 20 minutes north of downtown Milwaukee, Ray’s MKE is one of the two largest indoor mountain bike parks in the country. (Ray’s Cleveland is the other) They pack a serious amount of awesome into the park; I spent a little over 11 hours riding in two days and it went by way too quickly. This place is huge, with every square foot filled with features including wooden jumps, skinnies, elevated bridges and a pumptrack. There is also traditional ramp area freestyle BMX and a foam pit to practice and focus on progression.
Over the holidays I was in Milwaukee, WI doing the family thing. During my visit I was given the green light to spend two consecutive days riding at Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, and since flying with a bike is cost prohibitive, I didn’t bring a bike with me. Fortunately, for us tourist types, renting a solid dirt jumper will only set you back $15. Though the costs can add up, the bike rental fee on top of the $20 day fee is the way to go.
This was not my first time at Ray’s, I was here previously for the 4th annual Women’s Weekend.
To this day the Women’s Weekend is still one of my favorite women’s mountain biking events. I had an absolute blast riding the park with over 150 women. Leigh Donovan does a great job organizing this event and she recruits some of the best female coaches in the industry. (Click here for the 2015 Women’s Weekend dates)
Since I was here during the week I had much of it to myself until about 4pm. That gave me an opportunity to film a couple of sections in the park. I love riding pumptracks so I had to get some documentation of it all. Unfortunately, after hours of riding it’s easy to mess up on the dumb stuff.
Thankfully I was more shocked than hurt (though I was sore for days) and was able to shake it off and continue riding.
Click here for more information on Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park