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Employees at a strip mall aren’t happy about seeing naked mountain bikers in their parking lot.

According to local mountain bike advocacy organizations the employees at the Mountain View Plaza shopping center — which has become the defacto start location for the rides in the Tortolitas — are upset about mountain bikers “exposing themselves” and urniating in the parking lot before and after rides.

Hillary Mathis from Southern Arizona Mountain Bike Association posted the following account on the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclist page:

An unfortunate situation for the local cyclists….

Oro Valley Bicycle received a call from the Oro Valley Police regarding the tenants at 1171 N. Rancho Vistoso (Fast Rhino/Mountain View Plaza) being upset bicyclists are parking in their lot.

They have told Police that cyclists are peeing and exposing themselves before and/or after their rides.

The tenants have asked Police to warn all cyclists that the lot at 1171 N. Rancho Vistoso is not a “public parking lot”. The tenants are going to post “private parking” signs and are planning to have unauthorized vehicles towed.

The Police officer also made known that it is a crime to pee in public or expose yourself in public. As I’m sure none of us would do such a thing…Please inform your friends this is not an acceptable practice.

The officer did say cyclists could park at the “Honey Bee Canyon” parking lot that is just south of the trail head. It is a public parking lot. As always, any one who wants can park in front of or on the north side of the Oro Valley Bike shop at 12925 N. Oracle road, the parking lot is plenty big.

Mountain bikers who want to avoid the hassle and park relatively close can park in the Honey Bee Canyon parking lot at 13880 N Rancho Vistoso Blvd, Oro Valley, AZ, 85755.

This is not the first time mountain bicyclists have drawn the ire of people who live in Rancho Vistoso. Check out our previous stories.

6 thoughts on “Naked, urinating mountain bikers angering Rancho Vistoso business owners”
  1. This is stupid on so many levels. Why would OVPD call Oro Valley Bicycles about this problem? The bike shop has no enforcement power, and I’d wager many of the cyclists never set foot in that shop. I certainly don’t. This makes as much sense as TPD calling Circle K to complain that people are throwing cigarette butts and 1 oz bottles of liquor out of their cars.

    Also, Oro Valley Bicycle’s parking lot is equally private.

    I don’t know how they can distinguish “authorized” from unauthorized vehicles. If I went to the bank’s ATM, and then went on a ride,would I be ‘authorized’ to park there?

  2. ARS Section 9-499.05(B) provides:

    “B. The owner or agent of the owner of the private property shall be deemed to have given consent to unrestricted parking by the general public in any parking area of the private property unless such parking area is posted with signs as prescribed by this subsection which are clearly visible and readable from any point within the parking area and at each entrance. Such signs shall contain, at a minimum, the following:
    1. Restrictions on parking.
    2. Disposition of vehicles found in violation of the parking restrictions.
    3. Maximum cost to the violator, including storage fees and any other charges that could result from the disposition of a vehicle parked in violation of parking restrictions.
    4. Telephone number and address where the violator can locate the violator’s vehicle.”
    http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.azleg.state.az.us%2Fars%2F9%2F00499-05.htm&h=4AQE0xBS5

  3. @Christian Yes there is.

    I’m also struck by the conflation in the headline and article between strip mall employees and Rancho Vistoso residents. I’d be willing to bet there’s not a ton of overlap between those two populations.

  4. @ignorant drivers I rewrote the headline several times and each time replaced residents for business owners except for the last time. Thanks for pointing it out.

  5. Is there any proof or is this just hearsay.  Has anyone seen a cyclist defecating in the parking lot?  Are there police reports?  How many instances of nudity? Every time I read these accounts, it seems so vague and unsubstantiated like a gossip column for some disgruntled individuals.  I don’t doubt they have real issues with all the traffic to and from the trail but how do we sort the wheat from the TMI here?

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