The missus has just been offered a new job at Southampton hospital so it looks like we'll be moving to the area at some point.

What's the biking like around Southampton? Googlemaps says flat as a pancake and barren for miles around.

Where are the best places to look at living?

i hated the place, had the most evil 2 years of my life between 1993 and 1995 when i was there in uni.

*I'm sure its nicer now 😉

cultural back water. we once had a frenchman; who was training is in his continental ways but even he has left returned to Nice, and now we have returned to our hillbilly ways!!

some decent biking in lordswood – close to hospital. good mtb scene. lovely bridleways round winchester/ salisbury area & on the IOW. some riding to be had in the New Forest.

alright muush.

Local riding spot is lordswood, it's ok, trails built by locals and students. Stuff in easy reach, IOW, North and South Downs, Purbecks, Quantocks. Avoid the forrest unless you're road/cross riding or like dull boring xc trails. Buy bug spray as lordswood has its fair number of ticks.

You're right, Southampton is as flat as a witches mammary. We make do though. Winchester, Aston Hill, IOW, Petersfield, Rogate, UK Bike Park, Swinley, Gravity are all a doable in a day.

Move to bassett, Chandlers Ford or chilworth if you can afford it. It'll be a nice commute for your missus in the summer (through lordswood).

Shirley, Lordshill and Maybush are a bit rough in places…but mostly okay. Millbrook is a big no no.

i hated the place, had the most evil 2 years of my life between 1993 and 1995 when i was there in uni

Where did you live etc? I was there from 94-97

Lordswood has plenty of riding once you know your way around it – if you like woodsy, wet singletrack you will be okay. You mostly have to drive to get anywhere else interesting to ride.

I bin Southampton but I never bin to Scunthorpe

Avoid the forest unless you're road/cross riding or like dull boring xc trails[b]with a local[/b]

fixed that for you.

Commute form Poole by train, Purbecks on the doorstep (well 5 minutes on the ferry).

A fair few from there on here. WorldClassAccident/BigBikeBash, Somarich?.

Shoppings ok, town centre full of posers with trendy mullets.

French Ewan rambles around there?

Never had a tic in LW I've been riding there for well over 5 years 3 times a week – you must be unlucky! I know it very well and can spend a good 2 hours in there not riding the same bit of singletrack. I actually think we are pretty lucky to have a spot like it, just a shame about the motorcross or scrots (try to stay away from the woods closest the estates)

New Forest is great if you know where to go. North is better imo. Try riding out NW from Fritham, been out with a couple of guys from here. One of em had a satmap and used googleearth to plot the courses, worked really well.

I live in Shirley, its ok, most of the chavs seemed to be being priced out of it, and in the last 3 years I've noticed the quality of cars (z4's, TT's etc..) on the street improve (supposed to be a sign of up and coming??)

Happy to show you around LW sometime, drop me an email

Grazzer – you got a link to 'gravity?' not heard of it before?

There's also some FC run northshore at watchmoore woods (ringwood)

What thom says. Southampton is a nice place to live if you pic up the correct area. Riding is good enough to keep you entertain through the 4 seasons.
From a cultural point of view there is a picture house, and the library is very good too (saved me lots in books fares 😉 )
You'll be able to go to london and return whithin a day and you'll have nice flights connection to the riding paradise that is scotland. Nioce places to live involve a bit everywhere really.
If I got a job offer there, I'll move back in a heart beat.

Avoid the forest unless you're road/cross riding or like dull boring xc trailswith a local

fixed that for you.

Nope ridden with locals, I stick with the dull and boring xc trails evaluation. thanks 😀

The New Forest is nice. I went exploring around Fritham the other weekend. It seems a good place. Just south of there, on the other side of the A35 (or is it A31?) is good too – far hillier than the southern parts.

DT78 – I live in Shirley too – where are you (vaguely, don't want you to put your intimate details on the web)? I'm within about half a mile of Hargroves. A very wide road near Tesco if that helps.

Erm hu I can't actually believe I wrote something that cryptic 😳

oi, you lot, riding round fritham – gerrrooffff my laaand !

I went to uni there. loved it. commuted along the itchen river to winchester every single day to my placements at the hospital. then over to the new forest on the weekends. there is the south downs in easy reach and like it's been said, the Isle of Wight (IOW)

steer clear of portswood if you don't wanna be in studentville!

Make sure you live in the Flowers Estate. A lovely place…… Erm…..
Highfield is rather nice. Not exactly Portswood/StudentVille, but some nice houses close to the Common.

I ALSO live in Shirley, though The Hub would be my LBS…

Make sure you live in the Flowers Estate

1st year I lived in Pansy Rd

Scumton 👿

Hora, I spent a while on Viole(n)t Road. Classy place.

Capn I remember Matt Le Tissier stopping off down the road for a takeaway and getting attacked/assaulted. Made me laugh.

We never had any problems. I blended in nicely with the locals 8)

We never had any problems. I blended in nicely with the locals

I didn't.

lol

yep thumbs up to The Hub. Awesome LBS. also rock n road cycles for higher end stuff.

Moving back to Bristol fairly soon, but have spent the last four & a half years in Soton (uni postgrad). Didn't know what to expect riding-wise, but Lordswood has got some pretty good woodsy singletrack, once you get to know it. Especially nice in dry, autumnal conditions (just around the corner… hopefully). My preferred loop can distract me for a good hour or two, followed by a pint at the Cowherds. It's kept me sane – although have had the odd confrontation with local scrotes, MXrs & trail saboteurs.

The Hub: great shop.

Hmm the Flowers estate. Had 2mtbs stolen from Glen Eyre in 90-91 pretty damn sure both bikes were stolen by flowers residents

You were in Glen? Posh kid, eh? 😉

I was at uni from 93-96 there and after I graduated my parents moved there (early retirement and all that) so I go regularly. The city is fine if you avoid the crap parts to live in but so are most places. Others can advise better about the riding but for living there, it should be fine and for your Mrs, the hospitals have a good reputation due to links with the uni so it might be a good place for her.

I recommend the South Western by St Denys station for it's rotating real ale selection.

I liked Southampton when I lived there, it isn't the best city in the country but easy to get around and does have a fair bit of good stuff to do/see etc. and the people I met and go to visit on occasion are sound.

i live here and like it. Big parks in town, Lordswood 200 metres from my house one way, the General Hospital 200 the other way. Just returned from the General actually (sore shoulder).

And if someone decides to take up the baton it is dead handy for the Big Bike Bash

Well plenty of new building in soton in the past 3 years. The area is getting prettier. I wouldn't knock out living in shirley or around portswood/higfield/uni. House are nice, so is the neighbourhood, plus student are out 3 month per years (the nice ones as well).
Riding wise from the top of my head
gary
tim
fraser
phill
rich
matt
steve
tom
rich
WCA
the SUMBC
Plenty of people all with a different knowledge of the woods. If you know where you're going you will have some fun 😉

Is that yourself Neil? The guy I was out riding with on the IOW a few weeks back?

I lived in Lymington and worked in Southampton for a year before moving to the Isle of Wight. Nice commute through the New Forest. Lymington and that coastal fringe of the New Forest is pricey, and full of splenetic retired colonels and would-be yacht club commodores, nursing their gout or charging up and down the high street on mobility buggies. But it's good for walking and a bit of biking in the coast and the Forest.

Have to say, I never really got the hang of Southampton at all. Even now, living in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, it's my closest major city but I can't think of many good reasons to go there that are worth the ferry fare, other than the train station and the airport.

The Platform Tavern is quite a nice wee pub with occasional live music and a decent selection of real ales. Down at the waterfront opposite Town Quay.

If you're into clubbing at all, look out for High Tide boat parties on bank holidays. Good fun.

Er, it's got a very big IKEA and a couple of decent bike shops – Hargroves, Rock and Road. Beyond that I'm struggling.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
We never had any problems. I blended in nicely with the locals
I didn't.

I remember slipping and landing flat on my back once on ice on our road. 3 lads asked if I was ok and helped me up. I looked at them as though they were mad (as in I would laughed like a drain back then if I was in their position!)

+1 for The Hub – great shop! Barney and the rest of the crew are star people.

Reasonably easy to get to Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield – not Cwm Carn but quite fun.

The South Western was my local and was pretty good, The Crown in Highfield was good, Cowherds was OK, The Wellington and the Waterloo in Freemantle were OK and the Richmond in Portswood was good.

Calshot climbing wall was pretty good – don't bother with the one in St Mary's as it was never open that much in my experience. In fact don't bother with St Mary's at all.

Lordswood was fun for a quick blast, but get up to Watership Down and the North Hants Ridgeway for a real blast, and get to Cheesefoot Head for some more good riding.

Look here for some ready-made cycling routes.

Go to Bitter Virtue in Portswood for some very good beers.

And steer clear of Southampton if you possibly can – the roads are dreadful and it has an even higher proportion of small-minded idiots than the rest of this country.

Struggling to believe that CFH lived in Viole(n)t Road and not in one of the Collins houses in Highfield and always had Hora pegged as living up north somewhere!

riverside park is nice, as are some of the houes close by and there are some good opportunities for water sports if you like that sort of thing!! either flat water kayaking on the itchen or sailing in the solent.

You're right, thomthumb – Riverside park is nice. I grew up with that as my nearest park – I lived nearby for nearly twenty years and went to all three local schools.

Great miniature railway, too!

Calshot has an indoor velodrome, so a good excuse for a new fixie track bike.