Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • Moved house and there's no trails from my door anymore, how do you cope?
  • thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Moved house over the summer, only 5 miles, so not far.

    But the trails were always about 7 miles away anyway, which meant that a ride there and back and a loop was a good if a bit predictable ride for an afternoon. So now they’re too far and the farm track linking to them too dull to be worthwhile. And while night riding isn’t out of the question, groups are now far enough away that riding time would be less than the time in the car!

    Do I:
    a) sell all my MTB’s, eat cake and get fat
    b) as a, but become a roadie
    c) embrace the fact that as all riding is now realistically a car journey away anyway I may as well use it as an excuse to buy a ‘trail’* bike rather than an XC mile muncher and head further afield to ride in Wales/Surrey etc.

    *I’d say enduro, but I’ve done the whole 150mm travel, 65deg HA 30lb+ mini-DH bike thing before and hated it on anything other than a DH track.

    How do you cope without being able to “just get out and ride”?

    slowboydickie
    Full Member

    Nah you’ll adapt and get on with life.

    pitduck
    Free Member

    cake

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    NormalMan
    Full Member

    Nice XC HT under n+1 rules?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Silly boy!

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    b and drive to trails as required

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    B and C.

    hebdencyclist
    Free Member

    It’s all a state of mind!

    In my view, all cycling is good cycling. You’re lucky to have a farm track as a link to your favourite trail, rather than a busy road full of Audickheads.

    Unless you’re in central London, you’re never more than a few miles away from countryside. Use your move as an excuse to get out and explore.

    Or just, y’know, put your bike in the boot and drive to the trail.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Nice XC HT under n+1 rules?

    already have that for riding from the door at the old house (ditto fat-bike). One’s going to have to go as there really is a complete dearth of bridleways withing 5 miles of the house and I’m probably not going to drive somewhere to ride XC often enough to justify it.

    Resorted to talking the road bike down the canal towpath to make it interesting last weekend………

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    The only trail anywhere near my house is Richmond Park. As any locals will attest, it isn’t really anything more exciting than a towpath.

    I need to move…

    somouk
    Free Member

    I have nothing near my house, I need to move house out to the sticks really.

    I tend to either ride the 6 mile to the nearest trail if I have all day or throw the bike in the car and drive to Cannock.

    AlexSimon
    Full Member

    Moved house and there’s no trails from my door anymore, how do you cope?

    Move back

    kayla1
    Free Member

    Option ‘d’- SS hardtail, ride street and do more skids and wheelies 😀

    ampthill
    Full Member

    B & C

    Surely for most people a blast from the door after work is important. I happily do this on the road some times, even though there are OK trails near my house. Or “Gravel bike” and do mixed rides

    When you have longer time slots drive to the trail

    So if you want to spend money (I never do my road bike is my old hard tail with slicks) then look at

    1. Buying a road bike
    2. Setting up for low stress transporting your bike by car. This might mean a new bike rack, buying a van or larger car
    3. hen think bout a different off road bike

    Or perhaps you’ve moved closer to the local Synchronised swimming club and you’ve always fancied giving it a go

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Gravel bike and mixed rides!

    nemesis
    Free Member

    Not so bad as you but proper mtbing is certainly a bit further away now so short rides aren’t really long enough to go mtbing.

    CX bike is the answer. You’re bound to have routes nearby that are more fun on a CX and it also allows you to cover ground much faster so you can explore further.

    helpful1
    Free Member

    I can’t understand folk who don’t enjoy riding their bikes other places than “trails”

    What’s stopping you bunnyhopping, manualing, wheelying, skidding, jumping, carving turns, drifting, sprinting about the place WHEREVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE?

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    +1 Gravel bike

    wanmankylung
    Free Member

    I used to live near the bottom of the uplift road at Innerleithen. I would ride round there most nights. Now I live in north Edinburgh. I dont ride anything like the amount I used to on the MTB. I ride a lot of cross now. N+1 – cross bike for you. 😀

    parkesie
    Free Member

    Find new trails.

    davosaurusrex
    Full Member

    Dunno, no intention of finding out either! Mate who moved and has to schlep 5+ miles home on the post-ride Thursday night pub stop never looks happy about it though. He doesn’t come out so much these days. Hi BG!

    sharkattack
    Full Member

    I’d ride every day if I could but I have to pack the van and drive at least 40 minutes to Hamsterley or Chopwell to ride anything resembling decent trails. I can ride from home but I’m surrounded by miles and miles of housing estates. Yes we have cycle routes but they’re bland, featurless, gravel pits covered in broken glass. I’d kill to have easy access to proper off singletrack and preferably some massive jumps.

    What’s stopping you bunnyhopping, manualing, wheelying, skidding, jumping, carving turns, drifting, sprinting about the place WHEREVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE?

    Because I’d had enough of that by the time I’d finished puberty.

    helpful1
    Free Member

    I feel sorry for people like you 😥

    scandal42
    Free Member

    Hang on, you moved 5 miles, can I just confirm that a mile is the same in your world as mine and everyone else’s

    5thElefant
    Free Member

    Hang on, you moved 5 miles, can I just confirm that a mile is the same in your world as mine and everyone else’s

    English or Welsh?

    scandal42
    Free Member

    Namibian

    RRD
    Free Member

    Similar situation myself

    My job moved me from Scotland to the SE of England. Unfortunately I now struggle to get excited about the riding near to me. (Olympic track being possibly the most underwhelming trail I have ever ridden)

    Road bike purchased and loving it… Scandalous I know but I’m here for a while so I’ll have to make do.

    FOG
    Full Member

    You haven’t got some kinda thing about using the car , have you? OK I am fortunate enough to be 10 mins ride away from my first trail but I am equally happy to chuck bike in car and drive to ride somewhere a bit different. Our riding group has a mate who refuses to put his bike in a car unless its a holiday or an event. We don’t see much of him.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    When you say, ‘there’s no trails from my door’, what do you mean by ‘trails’?

    There’s bridleways to explore all over the place so unless you live in the middle of a massive city/town there’ll be trails of some description.

    In this day & age you can still buy things called ‘O.S. Maps’ & they’re available in outdoors outlets & even good bookshops. I know they’re old fashioned but they still work. 😉

    lunge
    Full Member

    I did the same 5 years ago and whilst it was a long process, eventually b. happened. I now don’t own any MTB’s. The faff, the road riding to get to trails and the draw of the road proved too much in the end.

    redthunder
    Free Member

    Your not looking hard enough!

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    Bouncy trail bike to chuck in the car when you can’t be arsed to ride to trails, keep the XC to ride there or even take in the car also and then go mince around bridleways, footpaths or even as much urban off road as possible if it’s all urban (paths often round and through estates, town centres, all a bit cheeky of course). Make up some local xc loops.

    As said, look at an OS map, or Open Cycle Map. Almost everywhere has something to ride.

    Or on/off road touring, riding what you can off road and see where you can go, link it up with pub stops 😀

    A good book by the way, The Good Mountain Biking Guide, has loads of this kind of stuff. Bought it looking for trail centre stuff but they’re the minor sections and the rest is actually more interesting. Okay more so when the natural routes hit the big hills.

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    explore

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Break the law (footpaths)

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    Where you moved to TINAS, still around Reading I guess? Road bike is the way. Some nice riding to be had North, South and West. Avoid the cake (ok maybe in moderation) and become a lean mean racing machine 🙂

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    Similar situation here…

    …the answer is a train or more usually a car in my case but then I ride somewhere different most weeks and enjoy the variety.

    Road bike ok but wouldn’t give up the mtb.

    br
    Free Member

    When I lived down south it was 7 to 12 miles to the Chilterns. The various ways there were a mixture of cyclepaths, bridleways, cheeky trails and country roads.

    They were all riding (and a warm up). Just concentrate on getting there quicker whichever route I took.

    Now the nearest trail is just the other side of my fence 🙂 And I can then ride pretty much in any direction 🙂

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Im fairly sure this is by definition a first world problem.

    andyl
    Free Member

    [Quote]. Move back [/quote]

    That is what I did

    jamesoz
    Full Member

    Just drive. I often keep a dismantled bike hidden in the motor so it’s no hassle. Helps that I work all over the country so get to ride a few places. With regards to living in Reading, I’ve ridden to swinley more than once from south reading but it’s a crap road ride which seems to attract lots of trucks.

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