Possibly considering a move to the area but I have no idea what it’s like. A brief study of the OS map suggests it doesn’t look promising. I can see North York Moors and Dales are <1hr away but wondering about stuff on the doorstep. Road, MTB and cross type stuff all good.

where in Teesside – how close to the NYM could you live ?

Roads used to be OK when I was a kid but that was a looong time ago

Not somewhere I know intimately, but definitely depends on where you’re going to be based. In some of the southern areas, there’s some potentially very good riding, right out on the N York Moors, around Guisborough, through to the Dales. North of the river, less so.

Work would likely to be on Hartlepool side so I guess I’d only be near NYM if I was up for the commute. Any towns or villages that are particularly nice?

Edit: Guisborough to potential place of work is 30 mins even at rush hour according to google so definitely an option

I live in Saltburn and can have a great ride right out of the house in Errington woods and on the cliffs, then there’s Guisborough forest 10 mins drive or a ride along the Cleveland way to get there. Theres the North Yorkshire moors next to that. Hamsterley is really close as is Dalby. Keswick 2 hours drive, less than that from most of Teesside. It’s a great place for mountain biking.

Guisborough and nearby has some great trails, good enough for me and Danny Hart anyway 😀

I’d be thinking somewhere around that area given the choice. Just North of the moors. Then you have a nice gateway to some really good stuff. Some of the areas are nice too. The rest of Teeside is mostly flat and relatively congested. But I’m sure there are plenty of locals that can provide more specific advice.

Plenty of cross stuff. You can pick up the various NCN and then add in interesting bits. From memory the 1,14 and 65 are all nearby. I’ve used then for loops onto the moors and to get there from Newcastle. Race wise I’m not sure what would be available. If you were prepared to drive north you’d have access to the NECCL and CXNE leagues. That is about 20 races a year. Can give you info on either, but I am the secretary of the NECCL.

Road wise there is a fair bit around Durham, Bishop Auckland, Barnard CAstle and TEesdale. FWIW I love Teesdale, one of my favourite places to ride (in the world but I’m biased as it just feel like home). There is an active TT scene and I regularly travel down that way for races. I’d check out Ferryhill Wheelers and Stockton Wheelers to see what you can get info wise from them. Both active on the race scene and I assume do social stuff. See a few of the ferryhill lads do CX and mtb racing.

Mtb, The North york moors is very good, some waymarked stuff and plenty of exploring. Not sure what would be on your doorstep but I here good things about Guisborough. If you head west then again there is stuff around Teesdale. HAmsterley is the trail centre and the trailblazers website would be a good place to start.

If you are going to be working in Hartlepool I’d suggest you live North of the river. MY experience is that the A19/A66 is a nightmare commute. Not that bad at weekends though.

Guisborough is somewhere we’ll be thinking of in a few years time. Not a bad commute to Monkey Hanging land & the whole of the Cleveland hills/NY Moors/Dalby/Dales not far away. Bike Scene would be your LBS!
My mate lives in Stokesley which is also a handy place to be!

I don’t live in teeside but ride guisbourgh woods plus moors quite often. Plenty to keep you happy there and a very active locaks scene. Not much trail centre type stuff but the place is covered in natural trails then there’s all the xc stuff over the moors. Hamsterley is maybe an hour away and has good trail centre stuff, plenty of sneaky stuff and dedicated uplifted DH tracks. Lakes and even Scottish Borders are doable for early start day trips.

Stockton/middlesbourgh is very flat but has very good cycling infrastructure with plenty of dedicated cycling paths.

Road stuff I don’t do personally but have friends over that way who get out on them often enough. Your soon on quiet country roads and can make loops to head over to dales/county durham depending on mileage.

Thats it sorted then. When are you moving here tomd 🙂

Haha steady on, nothing anywhere near confirmed yet. Thanks for the great advice above, it certainly sounds like I could either live somewhere very near decent trails / road routes and commute a bit or live nearer work and get to trails easily.

STW is great for this sort of advice. You can’t really ask “The job sounds alright but what about any gnarrr to shred in the vicinity? What’s the local CX scene like?” at an interview. When in reality that is probably the deciding factor.

If I was you I would definitely move to just near the NYM/Cleveland Hills/Guisborough etc and just commute. 30 mins is nothing, I regularly commute 90 mins to the NE for my job but that means I get to live in the Lakes so that’s the pay off.

The alternative is to live in Hartlepool or Teesside and sell all your bikes to pay for the mental health counselling and time off work you will need for clinical depression.

Move to Guisborough/Great Ayton/Stokesley for an acceptable commute and lots of fantastic riding on your doorstep.

Huge network of trails in and around Guisborough Woods with new stuff popping up all the time. Can’t go far wrong just riding along fireroads and keeping an eye out for tyre tracks either side. Alternatively, the locals are very friendly and will probably be happy to let you tag along or at least point you in the right direction.

I live in Billingham and usually ride on the NYM which is 20-45 minutes away by car depending where you want to begin your ride. The Lakes and Yorkshire Dales are easily accessible for a day’s ridng. From the door there are plenty of flat routes for road or CX bike. It’s possible to ride as far North as Sunderland barely touching tarmac. The network of quiet lanes between Teesside and Darlington is very popular with road riders.

Our blog gives you some idea how old blokes who work shifts while away their free time around the area.

There’s a nice BMX/pump track in Hartlepool to hurt yourself practise mad skillz on.

+1 on the balls to commuting over the A66 flyover.

Depends on where you will be working really but I’d definitely recommend Guisborough if you are going to be working in Middlesborough. I grew up there, I have nothing but incredible memories of the town, the area and the people. I go back at least once a month to catch up with family and ride with friends.

It has fantastic amenities; 5 supermarkets in the town itself (Morrisons, Sainsburys, Aldi, Lidl, Iceland), there’s an Asda and Tesco superstore about 20 mins away, good GP and dentist, all surrounded by beautiful countryside.

For riding, if you live in the south / east part of town then there’s great XC / natural trail riding from your doorstep. From the top of the hills you are straight onto the North York Moors which opens up some fantastic routes. The Dales are about an hour away (Nidderdale area) and there’s also a fair bit of riding further north around Durham / Northumberland.

Great Ayton is another option if you want somewhere a bit quieter. Stokesley used to be a lovely town but I’ve heard some bad things about it recently. Nunthorpe is another option if you have kids as it has a great secondary school.

Another vote for Guisborough awesome natural riding up there with never ending trails to find.
Hamsterely forest isn’t far away either, as is Dalby Forest.

Lots of road biking in the area as well, when you get off the main roads.

The area really does have lots to offer riding wise

I live in eaglescliffe/Yarm.
I’m only 40 mins drive from hamsterly which is awesome, heading south I’d say 20 mins drive to the north York moors where there’s some really good natural trails, guisborough trails within 15 mins to.
Plenty of country road rides on the door step.
It’s a decent place to live if you bike

Guisborough woods are great if you like steep, the trail pixies have a penchant for the near vertical. The trails are so vertical that they actually hold up quite well over the winter as the water can’t form puddles. It does however mean a feckload of climbing, which is likewise all 1in3.

There is a signposted red route, ignore it. Everyone does/did. One of the best descents is officially a climb it’t that well ignored.

The more XC stuff is good, plenty of small woods with more cheeky singletrack to link up. Otherwise you’d be knackered if you tried to ride Guisbrough woods for a whole evening.

Cycle path provision is great, you can pretty much get to/from the villages to Middleborough town without dealing with too much traffic. And there’s a bike “car-park” in the town, with security, showers, lockers etc.

Downsides:
Foods crap. You can get an alright curry, but most other restaurants are serving the kind of stuff you’d expect in TGI/Wetherspoons.

In Teesside you don’t go to restaurants for fine food. You go to places like Parmo King or Parmo Palace. That’s where Teesside’s culinary wizards work their magic!

I’ve heard about Parmos. It’s probably not one of the main selling points. Cheers for more of the good advice.

The Buck (pub in Great Ayton) does an amazing posh parmo.

I live in Stockton and I agree with everything said above about Guisborough and Great Ayton. On a good run the the golfie is only a couple of hour’s away too