Title says it all. Evaluating job opportunities, and living in Bristol I’ve been spoilt with fantastic biking on my doorstep.

Train or car commute?

Plenty of riding in the Chilterns, but whatever you do don’t live far away as it’s a busy ‘commute’ (from anywhere).

I work in Maidenhead, avoid an M4 commute! Somewhere with access to Swinley, Bracknell is under half hour back road commute by car to Maidenhead

Hadn’t really thought too much about the commute. Want to get the balance right. No more than 40 mins travelling each way widely, and mtbing ideally from my doorstep (at the moment I cycle 15 mins to the trailhead, which is doorstep as far as I am concerned).

Train commute sounds sensible to be honest. I hate driving. Cycling is an option if it’s not simply lethal

If you want ease of trail centre accessibility or the local woods for a couple of hours blast then Bracknell is good. You can also drive to the Surrey Hills in under an hour, or to Chicksands/Aston Hill in just over an hour if DH, 4X or DJ is your thing.

Also, some really nice road riding round here too. Flat when you want it to be, and hilly when you want to mix it up.

Couple of hours local sounds OK. I just don’t want to end up someplace where mountain biking equates to driving

It may be worth looking 5-10 miles to the North/West as well – the Chilterns between Henley, Hambleden, Marlow and High Wycombe offer great muddy flinty riding, with plenty of shortish steep hills. There are full days of riding on your doorstep with the Wessex Downs meeting the Chilterns at Goring.

Thing to remember in the South East the soil type plays a big role in “MTB”.

The soil in the chilterns (north + west) of maidenhead is very clayey.
This is great in the summer long natural rides (but not much gnar). if you get a wet winter can easily become unridable. (its not been too bad this winter last winter was alwful).

The soil to the south of bracknell (ish) is much more sandy and there is some very good woodsy undulating tight twisty mtbing all year round. Swinely forest (almost a trail centre is here).

The bit in between Maidenhead and bracknell is flat and good for road riding.

The problem is there is no north south train line.
Train lines in the south east tend to be in/out of london.
Therefore there is the an east west train line.

I see no point for you commuting on the train your not going to be closer to better mtbing.

I would therefore suggest

1. live in maidenhead, in the summer evening you can ride out to good natural riding (there are some “DH” trails on Winter Hill)
You can then ride/drive to bracknell/sandy areas for forest riding when u fancy it.

2. Live further south ie Bracknell area ish.
You then need to ride/drive to work. You will be able to get out in the forests for good riding all year.

The train is not going to help.

You can see the areas for good MTBing under 15 on this map
UK geology

Alternatively look at this for areas for MTBing. There isan area norht of maidenhead near cookham which is good.
Strava Heat map

What’s the Burnham Beeches like for riding? Not that living in Burnham/Slough area is to be wholeheartedly recommended, but it will be slightly cheaper than Maidenhead.

Having just started working in Maidenhead the cynical side of me woudl say don’t move, stay in Bristol!!!!

If it’s a given it then comes down to cost as it is a lot more expensive to live round here. I’m on the edges of high Wycombe and it can take me over an hour to get to work in the morning (16 miles) which oddly enough I’m not enjoying. i can ride from my doorstep into the chilterns (sort of) which is nice but as above when it’s wet it’s horrible.

Stokenchurch is a similar distance but even closer to the chilterns (see above) prices are reasonable as well.

If it wasn’t for other commitments I would probably look at Bracknell and aim to be as close to Swinley as possible costs are reasonable and the commute is around 40 minutes (or so a colleague reckons)

Knowing your budget might help ! Most of Bracknell is horrible, hence cheap. Dunno if that’s what your after.

It all depends what time you start and leave the office. I commute from fleet in hampshire to Maidenhead cross country then onto the m4. I leave fleet at 6.50 and in the office by 7.30 – on the way home I leave at 4.45 and I’m back for 5.30.
In the last year I’ve been caught in traffic on the m4 twice on the way home.

that’s the big joke – no budget or anything in mind yet. Just been made redundant, and I’ve seen a job I fancy in Maidenhead, so trying to evaluate if I could really live around there!

There’s a lot of factors though – I need good schools, good transport links….and I hate commuting! Ideally, I want to build a mansion (west wing can be the workshop), move Afan over trail be trail to my garden (you’re all welcome to visit), and have that about 25 minutes of flowing singletrack from the office (where I get my dream job).

In real life though…