Ok, so looks like i'll be working in London soon.

I don't want to live in London, so will be getting the train in. Office is next to Farringdon Station so ideally on that line, or happy to go St Pancras and cycle from there…

Willing to travel about an hour, although would do more if needs be, so any ideas on locations?

Ideally cheapish housing, and countryside (does that exisit)

cheapish housing, and countryside

pick one!

Apparently, Ashford in Kent is the place to be. Super fast rail link (35 mins or so) to London and cheaper housing (from yesterdays Metro)

Or Essex (bad rep but in reality in the nice areas, you can live out of the city and commute in quite easily)

Cheers guys!

Just looking at national rail/Google.

Rugby to London Eauston = 52 mins! Basically I don't like the South (no offence) so further north the better!

Won't Ashford and most of Essex = rubbish riding.

The Thameslink line into Farringdon goes south towards Sussex. Loads of really good riding there, and Farringdon is probably just within an hour commute to whatever the station is on the edge of the North Downs / Surrey Hill (Redhill I think). Tons of great riding within riding distance of there.

Probably not cheap, but nowhere in the South East is unless you want to be stabbed once a week or live in an absolute shithole.

Joe

nb. Euston to farringdon will add another 15mins, even by Boris bike.

oh and also consider the season ticket price, I'd imagine Ashford on a fast train would be a packet….

I would be biking at each end of my train ride, so I'll factor an extra 30mins in there…

Joe – Thanks for the heads of about Surry Hills etc… I'll look into it 🙂

Personally I think you'd be totally insane to commute from Rugby to London. I work with a guy that does this excact trip and he sets off at 5 and gets home at 8 every day, never sees his kids or has time do do anything else

A monthly season ticket is £460 for that trip, thats what I pay a month on my mortgage interest on a £230K morgage in zone 3.

So, I spend less time commuting and have more money by living in London despite house prices being higher. And with the extra time not commuting I can go night riding at Swinley forest or the North downs, c45 minutes drive away. South Wales trails are a 2 hour drive

£460 for that trip, thats what I pay a month on my mortgage interest on a £230K morgage

Doing well to get a deal like that just now…

Very interesting Penrod, thanks! Thought it may cost a little, but didn;t factor in it costing that much!!

Another option is Milton Keynes, with a 45min train journey

Where abouts are you based then?

As above, Thameslink to Farringdon offers direct links to Brighton and Luton/Bedford, so you really could move just about anywhere on that plane.

Northfields, Ealing. Its Zone 3 but really handy for getting west out of London on the M4

Hmmmm knotty one that.

Farringdon is connected to not brilliant riding on the direct routes. My advice would be live in Surbition, 22mins to Waterloo get a number 4/341/289 bus or a Boris bike and you'll be in Farringdon in much less than an hour with a five minute walk each end…Buses are plentiful and a pass for both is 48 quid a week. I do that journey regularly.

Surbiton is full of decent flats and lots of shares if your budget is tight, has the Thames nearby is quite a nice place and has a decent town centre. The Surrey hills are 30 mins away by car, Esher and various other local loops are easily accessible.wouldn't wish the Thameslink on my worst enemy.

Brighton's nice 🙂

Although season ticket and housing costs are high 🙁

barking and dagenham is cheap – epping forest isnt too far for some ok riding – bit shit in the wet mind,

dagenham has a very very good bmx track though if you're into little wheels too
and romford has a good concrete skate park

east herts, somewhere near stevenage train station – nice villages like aston – you could cycle to station, 25 mins train to kings cross.

I live just outside the M25 in Cheshunt – and I used to commute in on the train.

Farringdon would be ace, fast train to Liverpool Street in 20ish mins and ride the rest.

Local riding is alright and you're well positioned for getting further away.

I'm moving up north, you should buy my house!

Reading

Train – tick, know plenty of people doing the opposite commute to you

Riding – Swinley within riding distance to the south and is dry enough to ride (in most places) with summer tyres 24 hours after a deluge, natural stuff in the Chilterns to the north.

Brighton is the bomb but we don't have cheap housing, and many people find the commute – which a significant chunk of our professional workforce do every day – utterly soul destroying.

Surrey Hills! Buy my place in Westcott! Nice house, we've done everything to it; GCH, glazing, patio, proper secure garage, 2 decent sized beds etc

Housey link here….

Are Southrners allowed to post on here? I always assumed Singletrack is Northcentric.

Kettering is about an hour straight down to St Pancras. It's a bit crap though but the villages on the outskirts are nicer. Riding round here is rubbish (east midlands) unless you like skateparks, of which we have a few good'uns. Not really selling it am I?

I don't want to live in London, so will be getting the train in

Then get used to this every single morning, if you're too stuck up to live in town:

Alternatively, you could live in town and just have a cycle commute in. Some parts of London are really nice actually, and you've got better access to pubs, food, haberdashery shops etc. And LiDLs.

CAMBRIDGE into Kings X = 45min by fast train, you could reduce your office time if they'll let you work on the journey

BR might not be too bad in, but, personally i'll never use the UG again – so a folding bike of some sort would be of benefit to cut across town

Rubbish riding around Ashford! You don't know the place then.

If i could afford it my option would be to live in as close to "central" London (no suburbs) as i could to cut down on commuting deadtime and enjoy the urban thing (cycle commute, coffee cafe culture, cut a huge chunk of the rat race commute out) – whilst escaping by plane (Docklands)/ train / automobile at weekends. Though it would be a short / mid term plan. Depends on your budget.

Judging by your vid collection your gonna be dissapointed in the riding, bring ya sisters jeans and buy a fixie 😉

Live in London but on a train line / near a road in the direction that you wish to leave London regularly. So if you want to head out to Surrey hills regularly and of an evening live south / south west. If you want to head up north regularly, head for Finchly road area or even Ealing as although West London is easy to get onto the M40.

Don't be seduced by only 45 min to London on the train, add in 10 min walking to the station, 5 -10 min waiting time at the station, 5 min at at least transfer to the tube, 10 min on the tube, 5 min walking to the office then you are quickly at 1:15 min on a good day.

Most of the the countable country side near London is pretty dull. Stay within Zone 3 / inner zone 4 and commuting in by bike will be easy, cheap improve your fitness plus you will still beable to get night buses home if you fancy a night out. Outside zone 3 night busses start to become more spreadout.

Live in London and get the benefits of living in London, commute to London and you get the bad side, over crowding, w@nkers, expensive housing e.t.c., without the good side. The towns commutable to London and housing stock close enough to get on the train are largely populated by arseholes. If you think London is bad…

I say all of this as someone who hates London, grew up a Farmers son and is trying to sort out a Job outside of London, but if you're working in London, live in London and at least get the benfits, but live on the side of London you will want to head out towards most regularly.

regarding train journey times, id also take into account how many stops the train makes on its way in. if its lots then it gets really annoying, im not sure if im alone in this, but i get a train in that stops at 16 stations, and the stopping and starting can make u nuts, and seems longer than the same time train journey with only a few stops. i used to live in oxford and the journey in took ten mins longer but it seemed to take half the time.

if you're working in London, live in London and at least get the benfits, but live on the side of London you will want to head out towards most regularly.

Amen to that

Well I'm going to sugest Flitwick Station. Lots of trains to London, you will get a seat, some trains are limited stop. Train time is about 45 mins. You can live in nice country side/village/small town near the station. No surprise I live in Ampthill which is a mile or 2 North.

With the line to St Pancreas the closer you get to London, the more the houses cost. The next stop is Harlington which gets less trains, then Luton (which is much more Urban). Then Harpenden, short commute=big houses prices

The riding round here is pretty good for the home counties. The riding from the door is OK lots of bridleways a resaonable proportion are fun in an mTB sense. Woburn has XC and a more play bike area. Chick Sands has 4X and dual slalom runs and othe play stuff. Crucially both are on the greensand (and about 7 miles away). However wet it gets you can still ride. I think the Woburn single track is as good as any woodsey single track

The Chilterns and Aston hills are nearby but are more weather dependent

My hunch is that Surrey has more riding but with higher house prices. Round here getting to the Peaks is OK from here as we are close to the M1

Ampthill has a Heath and a Park. I walk the dog here every day. They are good country side to have as walk from the door

Ask again if you have any questions

TheBrick speaks sense.

Once again Surbiton. 1 stop into London Waterloo, trains every 10 mins and no more than 20 mins at the other end to Farringdon.

If your going to commute and have an interest in riding nowhere else is as good.

if you're working in London, live in London and at least get the benefits, but live on the side of London you will want to head out towards most regularly.

+1. Slightly south-west (nearby Richmond Park) will give you a slice of pretend countryside to chase deers around on a weeknight, easy access to Surrey Hills and simple escape to South Wales and Swinley. An hour's ride to Farrington so no soul-destroying commuter train. I never intended to stay in the big smoke long (2 years max, or so I thought) but being well placed for the trails has made me stay put. Not exactly cheap to live here, but as others have pointed out, you'll save money over an insane train season ticket and you'll actually get to have a life on weeknights.

Very helpful replies, thanks guys 😀

I need to do some research again 😆

Well Essex has some areas of riding that aren't bad – woodland singletrack near Chelmsford, Danbury is quite good. There's some races in nearby areas during the summer and a few decent bike shops around too that have club rides. It's all very tame compared to decent northern trails but it beats living in London! It's 45 mins to Liverpool St – can walk it to Faringdon from there.

SW London. There are some bargains to be had. Easy access to town, loads of open spaces, parks, the river etc. North Downs, Surrey Hills 30 mins drive away.

I can also recomend Surbiton.

I move down South around 13 years ago, first to Bristol (lovely) then to Kilburn (NW London – not so lovely) and finally been in Surbiton about 8 years. I use to cycle to work (near Oxford Circus)5 days a week, but after moving job and getting a kid that has stopped.

There's some okay door step riding (someone has even built a pump track in the woods) and the Surrey Hills/North Downs are only a few miles away (it is even possible to ride down to Dorking do a loop and ride back – good for the legs).

Getting places by car is easy as well – M3 and M4 can be got to without touching the M25.

Dare I say move to Shoreditch buy a fixie, get some sleeves, knuckle tats, skinny jeans, facial piercings and then wave goodbye to your mtb?

CYCLE IN!

perfarebly from the south west.

10-15 miles is possible as a cycle commute, and you'll save a fortune, get fit and it'll be far more pleasant than the train.