Hi all,

Got a 6 month placement working with Rolls Royce in Derby starting in January.

Anyone from around those parts? What’s the riding like? Peak District/Sheffield is an hour away I guess, as is Cannock, but is there much a bit closer?

Also, any tips on accommodation? Good areas/bad areas? Probably looking to rent a flat with a mate.

Ta, Duane.

Cromford/Ambergate/Matlock/Darley Dale/Chatsworth has some pretty good riding, I may expand more later – wrightyson will probs be along shortly to offer some more info about the Belper area.

It won’t take you an hour to get from Derby to Cannock, or the Peaks, much closer than that.

Alright artist, I will meet up with you one day! If you stay in derby you will be 30 mins from Cannock at the most and 10/15 mins from belper area as tafkastr said. Depending again on where you end up,you could ride from the door. Personally I’d avoid mackworth/allenton/normanton/alvaston areas when it comes to digs and the security of your bike but unfortunately that does cover most of derby 😆
In all honesty tho are you going to ride/bus/drive into work as theres better areas to stay in to make that easier.
Think pook who posts more on the bike side is at royces and may be able to help more on the digs side. Let us know if you fancy a spin out….

Lived in and around Derby for a lot of the last 40 years, living both in and around the city, and living out Belper/ Kilburn and Ashbourne way. TAFKAS sums up the riding, out the other sides of Derby the riding is pretty dull imo.
I guess where you would want to live depneds on your age, lifestyle and what you are after really. If I was a student or single, and wanted access to the City then I would live Ashbourne/ Kedleston road side of Derby and there is accomodation to suit all budgets, or if a little more aspirational Mickleover/ Littleover ;-). But if not interested in that, then some of the surrounding towns are decent places and get you closer. As a 40 yo bloke with kids who still has a good social life (ie like to go around a few pubs with mates), I’m happy Kilburn way, but am just about to move back to Asbourne which again suits.
Derby itself is a pretty quiet City, little music scene to really speak of. But does contain the usual meat market type pubs if that’s your thing. I’ve always supplemented what Derby lacks by heading to Notts, Leeds and Manchester. You quite often hear the comment ‘I spent a week in Derby last Wednesday afternoon..’etc.
But to a bloke like myself, one of it’s finest features is the fact we are totally over burdened with micro breweries making some fantastic local ales, and this is a feature of Derbyshire in general. I can’t actually think of a city where I can get access to such a variety of local micro ales. The City centre and on it’s fringe has a good 7 or 8 pubs where you can drink the stuff in decent lively boozers without the idiots of town bothering you.

I hear they are building an indoor velodrome in Derby.

@tang – work starts this week iirc. Could have done with it this morning really, but sadly it will be a cheek trip to the woods that no seems to think you should mention…..

What area of RR you working Duane?

I miss derby storm……. its bmx track used to be ok for killing an hour or two

morning. where you working in royces duane?

RR is full of cyclists, quite a few with Derby Mercury. As said above riding from the city is disappointing a few little bits of paths and things. Few tracks over to North East of city are Ok and you can ride mostly off road to Nottingham for soemeasy miles. Ticknall / Robin Wood is maybe 45 min ride from city centre but is a mess in winter.
Cannock is 35 minutes away but I can get to Church Stretton almost as quick as Edale sometimes!

I like Derby, fairly average city. Know where near as rough as other places. Easy to get about with motorways or by train. Music is not so hot though but if only here for 6 months not an issue. Not to expensive. Has a lot going for it really.

Ride from John Thompson Pun, Ingleby every Monday night.

I lived in 5 lamps area for 20 years and it was 5 mins walk to city centre or 1 minute onto park and straight onto cycle paths to get you across town to work.

Boatman, where do you ride? I’d hardly say black rocks and the secret woods are dull?

Nor would I wrightyson, but I thought that was covered by TAFKAS’s post. My doorstep ride out of Kilburn is throught Drum Hill over Holbrook coming out by the Hollybush, over the Chevin and over to Shining Cliff/ Crich chase. It needs some road bits to link it, but I think for a doorstep ride it’s pretty good.

I live in chellaston and work at RR. Robin woods / ticknall etc. It’s great for a quick couple of hours post work in the summer, but hellishly muddy on the whole in the winter – singlespeed makes it round, but gears generally die!!! Peaks is only a shortish car trip away – lots of classic loops like edale and cut gate on hand!

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/370695927343?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla&crdt=0

There is a route in this book called Derby North which takes up all the semi decent off road riding around the North of Derby and knits it together.. It’s in no way epic, but it’s great to get you out there from your doorstep.
I prefer to drive to Cannock rather than the Peaks myself, simply because Cannock is closer and more accessible.. If you live in Derby City centre then you are a good 1hr and a half+ away from any decent peak district riding..

Depends what you want from your pub, but my personal favourites are in no particular order:

The Flowerpot
5 Lamps
Blessington Carriage
The Greyhound
The Dolphin
The Brewery Tap
The Exeter Arms
The Brunswick

All the above are excellent real ale pubs with varying degrees of
busy-ness/clientele.. and as has already been said, there are more dotted around the city..

Eating out, you have all the usual chain places, The Mount Everest Gurkha restaurant is worth a mention..

The clubbing scene in Derby is virtually non existent nowadays, mostly late bars..

If you guys get a meet sorted for a ride out from Derby itself, I’d be interested..

Oh and welcome to the city, we are a friendly bunch I’m sure you’ll find.. and it’s not true all those sheep sh***ing rumours…! 😯

Boatman: i’m in Ripley if you fancy meeting up? That ride is a regular for me!

Derby here too not much I can add to the above
Seems to be more and more houses popping up for rent over my part of city at moment – edge of Littleover near the hospital, just the city side of Manor road
It’s ok here, decent enough area, walkable into town but on bus route, couple ok pubs and easy ride onto Sustrans paths out to Ticknall or north east of city for The Chevin and Drum Hill
As stated avoid Normanton, Rose Hill, Alvaston, Mackworth, Allenton and parts of Sinfin/Sunny Hill (which describes pretty much the whole area where Royces is located!)
I’d be up for any local meet/ride that gets organised

Aah got ya boatman! Love the newer downhill run in the secret woods. Sometimes wish I had a rig and bigger bollocks to have a real blast at it! We’re out Thursday nights around 6 ish most weeks and at least a Saturday or Sunday if anyone fancies a spin!

I’m originally from Ripley and my folks still live down there. If you don’t mind I think I’ll bookmark this post and hunt you out for a ride when I’m down that way…..

I grew up in Derby, it’s a town, not a huge amount going for it and not much to count against it either.

Nights out should always end in the Blue Note (“where the drinks are friendly and the staff are cheep”).

Monday night rides from the John Thompson are good for keeping some fitness even if they’re not the most technical, although there are a few bits of really good singletrack in Robins Wood (mostly cheeky) and Repton Scrubs (bridleway round the edge). Prefecrtly easy to do a 20-30mile loop without much road (but plenty of farm tracks).

Peaks is under an hour depending on where you want to be. Cannock is even closer, and from there you’re onto Wales pretty quickly, Cannock’s good for a 2 hour early morning lap of the monkey, before heading to Llandegla for the afternoon if everywhere else is covered in mud.

I’m 7-8 miles north near Ilkeston – can ride into Derby or Nottingham in under an hour, easy to get to the bottom of the Peaks/Cannock/Sherwood Pines.

Lots of bridleways/tow paths/cycle paths around ILkeston to link together for decent local rides.

h4muf – would be happy to mate, slight snag might be that my shifts which are generally evenings and weekends. So main bulk of my riding is mon-fri morning starts, but if that suits drop me a mail (addy in profile).If that’s no use might be returning to a 9-5 pattern in the new year, and if I do will drop you a mail after xmas.

h4muf and theboatman im in Ripley too
Are you fast skilled riders 😕 or normal 🙂 , If poss I would like to have a local ride with others if you will allow

Anyone of reasonable ability, check out DVATC for some cracking Tuesday night rides.

Ridden with them a few times and they are a friendly bunch (the organiser – can’t remember his name – owns an LBS in the area). They are fit, but don’t try and kill you.

Dropped out of riding with them, as we were doing our own thing on Thursdays – I work away and hardly ride anymore.

http://www.dvatc.co.uk/2010/

Vixalot – as I posted to h4muf, if my schedule fits for you drop me a mail with your contact number and we can sort something out. If you have a more normal working pattwern I would also recommend hooking up with the DVATC guys, having seen them out and about over the years they seem a friendly bunch, and I would think if you ride pretty regularly, fitness wise you would be fine imo.

Having grown up in Ripley and lost many nights in the Bluenote, I am wondering if I have met some STW’ers before without knowing! Oddly though as a reflection on Derby’s nightlife, I was out a few months ago on a workmates 21st, and this ended up in the Bluenote. Whilst my face was 20 years older, and I wasn’t full of speed and red stripe, not a lot else appeared to have changed, including the playlist! I really was like stepping back in time 🙂

Vic : Average at best! Email in profile if you want company?

Thanks for all the replies, some good info.

So, we’re two Edinburgh uni students looking for a flat, ideally a student-y flat but not too dire.

Will need to be fully furnished, and ideally equipped too (plates etc etc). Would be fine to share with others, but only if they’re students (don’t want to pay council tax).
6 month lease.

Any tips on how to go about this? Any recommendations for estate agents?

We would like to go out a bit if there is a night-life at all, but not biggest concern I guess.

Will have a car, so getting around is fine, as is getting to trails a bit further afield.

Im in Derby, but a 50 year old so not so quick now on the trails.. Re Derby North, have the GPS coordinates if required, also Repton Shrubs, Spondon Locko and a few others if folk are interested.

Duane

If you need a little road fitness, Derby Mercury chain Gang meet every Tuesday and Thursday around 6.40 at the Little Chef, A38, Little Eaton throughout the year. Always very well attended and can get up to 60+ riders in the summer 😳

Visitors welcome…..

Cheers.

Kinda struggling to find flats, I’m guessing it’s pretty rare to rent a flat which is fully equipped (ie plates, cutlery, ironing board etc etc)?

Any recommendations on any estate agents which might be suitable?

So is Ashbourne/Kiddleston Road area a good place to look? Near the uni so guessing shouldn’t be too dead. Only thing is it’s opposite side of town to Rolls Royce’s main sites, but guess it’s only a small place anyway?

I’ll be working in Gas Turbine Supply Chain btw.

They’re good areas but parking can be a nightmare during term time. Take you 15 mins tops to get to the royces sites on a good traffic day. Varying pubs then on into town down the “mile” towards friargate which is the better end of town for drinking these days. As regards agents you actually just tried ringing a few in town and giving them specific details? Got to be better than trawling thro rightmove etc..,

Hi all,

Been in Derby a few weeks now, got a flat nearish the uni, near Friars Gate, just off Uttoxeter Old Road.

Finally got my bike down with me, so looking to get out this weekend hopefully.

So, anyone out and about, and fancy being a tour guide? 😀 Ideally downhilly-ish, but anything is good as long as it’s not a ridiculously tame XC/CX epic 😛

Ta, Duane.