- This topic has 73 replies, 61 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by danielgroves.
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How far do you drive to ride?
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ac282Full Member
I don’t know about super techy, but hacking around the edge of fields and then spending an hour cleaning your bike is pretty pointless.
chiefgrooveguruFull MemberI’ll drive to a few percent of my rides, the vast majority are from the door – mostly lots of twisty singletrack, some mini DH, some big downland rides. I’m happiest when I’ve taken lots of corners as fast as possible and had the wheels off the ground as often as possible.
boxfishFree MemberHave a great time box fish. It was stunning today.
Now that is good news! Cheers buzz!
SuperficialFree MemberAbout half my rides are from the door, half a 15 min drive away. It’s great to be able to ride local, but there are only a limited number of trails within a 5 mile radius of my house. Plus meeting friends usually requires driving somewhere.
Glad I no longer live somewhere that necessitates an hour of driving just for riding though 8)
bwfc4eva868Free Member10 Mins Cycle through backstreets brings me to Sunnyhurst woods and Darwen moor and Rivington beyond that. 25 mins drive to Gisburn and 30 mins to Lee Quarry. An hour and your in the Lake District. If i head 5 mins up the road there is a nice little wood for pratting about in.
I cant wait get out on the bike again.mikewsmithFree Memberno rules and no norms.
Anything from doorstep to 6 hr round trips though normally make a weekend of it for that much.
Luck enough to have riding on the doorstep currently but it would be dull if that was all I did.
Hate the snobbery of “I can’t see why people would drive to ride” sometimes we can, sometimes we can’t and sometimes it’s good to go somewhere different. Whinlatter was on my doorstep (up the hill) and I rarely ever rode up there as it’s a dull slog up the road, I preferred to chuck the bike in the van and get up there for a quick blast.
londonerinozFree MemberUsually 60-90 minutes each way for me, sometimes longer. Western Australia is a huge state so I count myself reasonably lucky. Not as lucky as someone living in the hills, but most here prefer to live closer to the beach or town, plus you’re at risk of bush fires if you live close to the trails.
For those riding from home, is your work commute compromised?
aphex_2kFree MemberDrove just over an hour on Sat for my ride. The nearest place is probably half hour away. There’s plenty of cycle paths etc locally but nothing that I’d class as a proper trail.
Where are you Londoner? I’m in Rockingham. Seems to be a fair few of us WA guys on here now.
mindmap3Free MemberRoad is straight out the door, off road round me is a bit poo so it normally involves a drive…the local woods are 10mins by car I could ride there along the canal but can’t be bothered with the super thorns all over it or the skanky kids that hang out on it.
Cannock is half an hour so so away so I do tend to go there a lot. Ride the peaks a lot too because I have family in Sheffield. I miss my old house…Stanage and Wyming Brook were my local spots, Bolehills was a short ride away.
londonerinozFree MemberWhere are you Londoner? I’m in Rockingham. Seems to be a fair few of us WA guys on here now.
Clarkson, which is right at the very top of the Joondalup line. I frequented STW years ago too before I emigrated, but as you’ll know there’s a lot of poms living in the Northern and Southern suburbs of Perth close to the beaches. I overhear a fair few poms at the trails too. I still come on STW now because there’s a lot more happening than on the PMBC forums.
You’re probably an actual Australian, but you’re lucky to be down South though as far as mtb goes, that puts the trails past Mandurah within reach as well as KC, Turner Hill, etc.
I forgot to mention that my road cycling is pretty good where I am with ambles up and down the coast in the sun with sea views, but I prefer climbing in the hills, especially as the wind is a real issue here.
crispoFree MemberMy local ride is from the door (well my parents in laws house where my bike lives, that’s 5mins away). We tend to ride there most of the time but there’s only really one place to ride (even though it is pretty good)!
Tend to maybe have a once a month ride to somewhere like gisburn, south lakes or
Rivvy which takes about 30-45mins in the works van. Can get 6 plus bikes in it plus the fuel is free!Once or twice a year I’ll drive somewhere a bit further, Scotland, Wales, North Lakes for a lads biking weekend away.
mrhoppyFull MemberEvening rides are from the door, weekends can be anything from 20 mins for the shropshire hills up to 1.5 hours to get to N Wales. I do only have a 10 minute walk to work though which kinda makes up for things. Compared to kayaking where I look at at least 1.5 hours each way and then probably an hour on shuttles bikings a low travel option.
WhathaveisaidnowFree Membercannock/wyre forest/long mynd all within 30/40 mins drive,…i’d be crazy not to drive to those…
lot of from the door riding as well, kinver/clent/baggeridge,… various loops
its all about variety and challenging yourself… IMHO
trips to wales are becoming rare though, it just costs too much to get there
kayak23Full MemberSOAP – Member
I just get bored of riding the same stuff week in week out and want to ride as many different places as possible.
Hence the need to drive.Ditto. I live in Warwickshire, and while it has some cracking little rides if you know where to look, the second it rains it turns into clag that is best avoided if there is a better alternative.
Being in the Midlands though, means I am central for just about everywhere that is great so lots of variety.
I think If I lived in the Peak or something I would tend to be less adventurous in terms of riding destinations, and it’s good to be adventurous.
trips to wales are becoming rare though, it just costs too much to get there
Further trips have deffo lessened for me. I used to like to go off on my own to ride a fair bit but now, unless I have at least two mates to split the petrol with, I’ll look to be nearer.
saxabarFree MemberDepends – I have a lot of natural stuff and short DH trails from the door, but will travel 15/20miles for forum rides or trail centres.
TiRedFull MemberRoad: Ride from the house or catch the train for clubrides
Mtb : 10 miles to Swinley, 25 to Surrey Hills. 120 to S WalesmogrimFull MemberRarely drive anywhere to ride, unless it’s an event or something. Loads of trails round where I live, great XC and more complicated stuff, nice and sandy/rocky so little to no mud.
catnashFree MemberBrechfa used to be 20 minutes, now live another 10 minutes away, Sustrans something or other right out the door.
LiferFree Memberlondonerinoz – Member
For those riding from home, is your work commute compromised?Nope – cycle 😀
andytherocketeerFull Memberusually: 0 km (the Odenwald is exactly 7 minutes’ ride away)
once or twice a year: about 8-10 hours drive, each way (sometimes with an overnight ferry)
tempted to hop on train with bike, then ride back (just to get a bit further distance from home)
BadlyWiredDogFull MemberI’m lucky, I live on the edge of the Peak District and rarely drive to ride – I have great trails on my doorstep and cracking road riding too and I tend to see time spent driving to ride as time that could be spent on the bike. I don’t really do driving from here for, say, two hours to ride in the Lakes for a day then two hours back, though I’ll do it for a weekend or longer or occasionally to hook up with friends. Four hours of driving is four hours mostly wasted that could be spent pedalling or doing something else.
That said, I can see why folk without obviously rewarding local riding would hop in a car to ride and I’m not about to throw virtual bricks at anyone. I don’t really get the thing with people having a pop at others for driving or not, all the stuff about ‘your local riding must be boring’, ‘you only need a rigid singlespeed fixie etc’.
I love the process of riding the same terrain in different seasons and watching it change and having to ride it differently as a result, and I love the thing of exploring the area you know and finding trails or route combinations you didn’t know were there. Still finding new sequences of trails and new trails after living and riding here for almost 15 years.
I think it’s a shame that we’ve somewhat equated exploration with travel. You can drive hundreds of miles and really discover nothing new while you’re ignoring what’s under your nose.
There was a brilliant bloke we encountered ‘somewhere above Hayfield’ a few month back who didn’t like mountain bikers going past his house who somewhere in the middle of a very calm discussion came out with the line: ‘I’m a real mountain biker, I’m going to Mont Blanc’ as if somehow riding in the Alps was somehow better than riding on your own local patch because, well, presumably it was bigger and a long way away and the food’s better… 🙂
asterixFree MemberI have a rough rule that I don’t drive for longer than I would end up riding. So I wont drive for more than 3 hours to do a 3 hour cross counry ride/event. I only go a long way to ride if I am staying over and get two or three days riding in
miketuallyFree MemberI’ve never quite got around to passing a driving test, so I can’t drive to a ride.
Hamsterley’s a 30km ride from home and Swaledale’s 45km away, so I just ride up to one of those and then do a ride and then ride home again. Or, once, both.
This does limit the frequency of my riding, however. And I just bought a cross bike.
asterixFree Member@miketually – man, great route, but I’m surprised you can move after all those pies!
freeagentFree Memberhave pretty good road riding, and some OK XC from my front door – withing 10 mins riding i’m wither on quiet country lanes or fairly tame (but entertaining) bridleways/paths.
I live an hours drive from Swinley, which I visit a few times per year, and 25 mins from Cyclopark in Gravesend, which is nice for the odd evening blast.
Ecky-ThumpFree Memberorangeboy – Member
Do trails have to be supper techy and hard to be fun ?Yes!
But I think I’ve got a reasonable mixture within striking distance:
Calderdale = 45 mins, Lakes = 1 hr, Peak = 1.5 hrs.
Tend to lift share to cut costs (3 in the car for Helvellyn last Saturday)
Local stuff like Rivi, Longridge, Lee Quarry is only about 10-30 minutes in the car so easily accessible for mid week nightrides.vondallyFree Member1 hr to lakes
45 mins to heart of calerdale….rubbish road
1.5 nw wales
Dales well 30 mins ish
12 miles to gisburn forest one way ride that there and backused to drive a lot but illness means usually round where i live
londonerinozFree MemberWhy have rules? The prospect of a good ride, or even something just different can warrant a longer travel to ride ratio for me, particularly something good that’s usually private.
Afterall, people travel nationally and even internationally for racing. Some for a couple of rides that last a few minutes if you’re a downhiller, or perhaps seconds even if you’re a track sprinter.
I lived in London most of my life and generally caught the train to all sorts of places for rides and races, not just the Surrey Hills. I only used to hire a car if it was overnight.
You’re actually very fortunate if you’ve got decent, varied riding with multiple options from your door or very nearby, but it wouldn’t stop me from going further afield regularly either.
IanMunroFree MemberPretty much always from the front door. The trails are mostly simple with no technical merit. Just how I like em. 😀
danielgrovesFree Member0. I ride from the door, I don’t even own a car so I couldn’t drive out anywhere if I wanted to.
danielgrovesFree MemberI do suspect some of the people being smug about never driving to ride are riding some pretty tame trails – hence why CX bikes seem to be so popular on here.
Nah, we just haul our bikes up a cycle path for an hour out onto the Moors. On the plus side, it’s downhill all the way home 😉
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