Been living up near durham for couple of years now and really wanted to get out this morning however i dont know where to ride, have nobody to ride with and need to be back by 12.

How do you guys play it? just ride to end of street and ride till you find a path or only ride centres?

I used to live at shipley where i think i was a little spoiled for choice.

plus mrs is still in bed and little one is alive and kicking with the cbeebies

Just go & explore, bound to find something

Try living in the midlands. It's like a desert for trails ect… I just keep riding until I find something or I have to load the car up. Normally option two.

Is Hamsterley too far away?

That's not too bad for a quick whizz round

yeah about 40mins drive. i drive 1000miles a week and try not to drive at all at weekends.

Do you live in Durham itself?

you could buy an os map for your area

Multimap, find something that looks interesting – go explore.

I looked at multimap OS for Durham, thinking it can't be THAT hard, surely, what with Durham being up north and all. Mad me feel glad to live in the south 😉 I reckon though that you could make a decent loop up by heading south towards Bowburn. Then east towards Wheatley Hill, then loop back northwards.

There would be plenty of cheeky trails in that though, so you need to give it a go to see how protective the farmers are. And yes, other than hooking up with more experienced riders, the only way you're going to find out what's good is to get out there with no expectations.

Anything in the woods between Durham & Crook? There are some marked bridleways en route.

just between durham and sunderland. i know its all farmer fields and no bridle ways. thanks for your advice. mrs now up and need to take kid out at 12 for a party so may have to wait till next weekend. might put bike in car this week and just park up somewhere and go……….

Chopwell is only 30mins away – http://tiny.cc/yG8u1 – get off the fireroads and there is some great woody singletrack

Also look these guys up: http://www.beamishoddsox.co.uk/

It does help to have a bar mounted GPS to follow, using that helped me to find lots of good stuff locally. I could just plot a route on the map at home from what looked like it might be interesting.

map my ride route

I use mapmyride to find routes in new places, hit the link and the route will come up.

Its a good resource and worth a try.

cheers for all the advice. think i will power up the satmap and get planning then just tick off the good the bad and the ugly. didnt realise you could get OS on multi map. thats kinda handy! can you view gpx laid over the top do you know?

where's the path link

Try this site, its a minter

That site is mint. satmap want loadsa money to use their site and this one is a cracker.

genius

wow! great site

nice easy ride from Durham is on the Lanchester valley way/walk, from Bearpark upto Consett. Few other railways etc that you can use to get to more interesting places. Most offroad in and around the city is a bit cheeky

Try the search function on bikely for inspiration. Garmin connect also has local rides by local people, login required.

Try living in the midlands. It's like a desert for trails ect

is this a non UK midlands? doesn't sound like the one i live in

On the OS website, buy a 1:25,000 map centered on your house.

Open it out, and with a highlighting pen, highlight all the bridleways and 'allowable' tracks.

Stand back, and look for 'loops'.

Then get out and discover.

I'm with br. Sit down one night and get a highlighter on an OS map. Then go explore and annotate your map. Grade each path as a climb and as a decent and how it will be in really wet weather. Then work out some summer and winter routes to suit.

I used to ride loads round there while I was at Uni in Durham. You can head out along the old railway lines, there are some very nice trails off those that lead up into the woods and beyond. I can't quite remember where though… It was 5 years ago…

I'm probably not far from you (New Herrington, near Houghton) and there's loads of riding to be had right from the doorstep. OK none of it is epic, but plenty of fun.

I moved to Sunderland about eight year ago and just spent whole days on the bike getting to know the lay of the land. No maps, no clue, frequent benightings, but what a great way to get to know a new area.

There's some good singletrack just following the river out of Durham, towards Shincliffe Hall (I think!). All the woods round there are full of little used paths and tracks. One of my favourites starts at Sunderland Bridge (nowhere near Sunderland!) just outside Durham.

thats all great guys.

thanks for the info and the encouragement!