Bradley Stoke is curiously popular given it is bleak, miserable and was the biggest housing estate in Europe at one time – not a good thing. If you like Tesco Bradley Stoke is great – one huge one that owns the whole shopping centre and even the local corner shop is… a Tesco mini. Yate town is now owned by Tescos too. This area of the UK seems a stronghold for them 🙁

Surprised someone recommended Greenbank though. Its popular with people short of money, which is harmless but a bit dispiriting seeing there are so many all in the same position (lots of my collegues on low pay used to live there – as one said “so many of us from this company live there because we are poor”. I used to visit a friend there and she used to worry about the drug dealers trading openly in her local streets and had her car number plates nicked for criminal use and worried about vandalism a lot of the time. It was good for prostitutes though as I used to pass loads of them looking thin and ill hanging around on the large road, border of Greenbank and Eastville of an evening. That was 3 or 4 years back, so they may have a new location by now. I hated driving past them, it was sad and pitiful to see them as most of them looked ill and cold and you want people to have better lives than that.

Lots of nice bits of Bristol though and also nice dormitory towns on the outskirts. Renting is expensive though.

There’s A LOT of it about

How do these thieving scrotes follow their victims I wonder – by bike? by car?

Mr Terry’s £5,000 Ibis Mojo HD and Miss Hawke’s £850 Trek 6300

😀

Both, I think. Given the level of top-endbike theft at the moment, it has to be a co-ordinated group of people. My theory is two-part:

1. Some of the thieves ride bikes and follow unsuspecting riders home

and

2. The registration numbers of visitors driving their bikes to AC are noted and someone somewhere with access to a database can provide addresses for the car owners.

It’s a big problem that is not just confined to garages/sheds. These people are willing to break into occupied houses. At some point, things are going to escalate beyond theft/burglary.

The story doing the rounds is that kids on bikes are being paid to follow riders home and then report the addresses…

One problem with bringing young children up in Bristol(if you have young kids that is) could be the accent they may develop which may mark you as a Meader or a Knowle Wester

I struggle with long sentences, but Don should move to Bristol as it’s near me.

I must say I don’t like Bristol that much. Parts are ok, plenty of middle classness which has its advantages, but it’s a bit rougher than I’d like over all and the town centre’s pretty rubbish really. Lots of interesting little corners here and there though, which are great to wander about and find.

I dunno what people are talking about when they say ‘nice countryside’ either. There are a couple of overcrowded muddy local riding spots then naff all, afaik. Cardiff’s much better 🙂

Ashton court is no longer muddy though its now a gravel path with no character for those who dont like washing bikes

Edric 64 – Member
One problem with bringing young children up in Bristol(if you have young kids that is) could be the accent they may develop which may mark you as a Meader or a Knowle Wester

Not really. I find beating them lots if they start to show a local accent sorts it out soon enough.

molgrips – Member
I dunno what people are talking about when they say ‘nice countryside’ either. There are a couple of overcrowded muddy local riding spots then naff all, afaik. Cardiff’s much better

Ignorance isn’t a virtue you know 😀

I’ve never heard anyone talk about Bristol riding other than a few crappy mud spots. I’d be happy to be enlightened though 🙂

On the subject of bike crime, without wanting to minimise the serious problems that we’re currently having, we’ve got a very high concentration of nice bikes, plus a tight-knit riding community that tends to look out for each other.

What this means in practice is that bike thefts are widely publicised, as opposed to somewhere like London where the theft rate is higher, but you don’t hear about it as much. I think the theft rate is actually dropping overall and we’re now something like fifth or sixth worst in the country as opposed to third a few years back.

molgrips – Member
I’ve never heard anyone talk about Bristol riding other than a few crappy mud spots. I’d be happy to be enlightened though

Shhh. It’s ‘need to know’ 😉

The map shows a distinct lack of woodland within riding distance. I’m not talking about a short drive away btw, I’m talking riding from home.

It’s close enough to easily ride all of the welsh stuff without having to actually live in wales. The bridge toll is a small price when you look at it that way 😀

Wrecker + 1 🙂

But there’s loads of riding near/in/around Bristol – all accessed by bike, no car needed. We just like to keep it quiet…

If you throw in the unofficial stuff I reckon there’s comfortably 4-5 hours riding around Bristol, from just the other side of the bridge. Riding the official trails alone will take most people a couple of hours. 15 minutes of schlepping along the Flax Bourton greenway cycle path will take you out to some interesting combes.

Yes it’s muddy in the winter but there are the new trails, plus lots of pump and BMX tracks dotted about the suburbs for when you can’t face it.

Shaggy of this parish used to do a 24 hour ride every summer, just using local trails.

I’m sure other places are nice to live too, by the way. 🙂

Havent read all this thread but they dont like us Welshies in Bristol.

Mates used to live in St George, seems to have gone downhill a bit recently.

Brissle is a great city loads going on both good and bad.

Shaggy of this parish used to do a 24 hour ride every summer, just using local trails.

It’s a 12hr actually but all in the area of the A-Z, a few road links but next to no repetition.

It’s a 12hr actually

Blimey, good work.

My twelve hour Bristol ride consists of roughly three hours riding, and nine hours sat outside the pub. 🙂

Sounds very Brizzol, noteeth 🙂

Havent read all this thread but they dont like us Welshies in Bristol.

Course we do. Some of my best friends are Welsh 😀

My twelve hour Bristol ride consists of roughly three hours riding, and nine hours sat outside the pub.

I did one of those at the weekend 🙂

It’s a 12hr actually

Lightweight. 😉

Two laps?

The map shows a distinct lack of woodland within riding distance. I’m not talking about a short drive away btw, I’m talking riding from home.

You should get a better map. There’s loads of woodland trails within riding distance of my house.

The map shows a distinct lack of woodland within riding distance.

I was unaware that off-road cycling could only take place in woods.