I’ve work just outside Manchester – Salford Quays but don’t want to live in the city, priorities are:

Good riding out the door.
Plenty going on – decent social scene with others – early 30s rather than almost exclusively middle aged families/pensioners etc.
Train station for commute – don’t want to drive in less I have to.
Bit artsy/bit of culture.
No more than 30 mins from city

Hebden Bridge is an obvious choice but with the job being West Manc, factoring in additional train/metro out of city centre to Salford Quays, (Eccles) it’s a long commute.

Any good ideas would be helpful – cheers!

Glossops an arse to get out of/into during peak hours.. Good riding but an arse to commute from.

Cue Royston vassey joke from binners…

That’s Hadfield, they are a bit local round there..

Khani – Glossops an arse because of traffic or busy trains?

Ramsbottom would be good, straight on the M66 into town. not so great if your using public transport mind…

Traffic, the train goes into Piccadilly, so a walk or tram to Salford quays after that
Edit, don’t know how busy the train is though

Ramsbottom would be a good one as you could do what Mrs Binners does for the commute. I drop her off at bury metro in the morning. She jumps onto the tram from Bury and you’re straight through to the quays. You could drive (M66 – then A roads through Prestwich, then Salford- sod the M60!) which isn’t that bad

There are some great boozers and restaurants and stuff in Rammy, and the riding out of the door is fantastic. Lee and Cragg quarries on your doorstep. Give us a shout if you do move there and we’ll show you around

Glossop…..

Anywhere south of Manc with half decent riding would mean the commute from hell!!!!

*shudders at the thought of the A6 twice a day*

Rawtenstall is really nice.
The further away from the valley floor you are the nicer it gets, as in all the valleys up here.

Rammy edges it for nicer shops, more going on and a friendlier feel.

Tod to Victoria is about 40 minutes.
It’s lovely but a bit odd.
Hebden about 10 minutes more.
Regular but unreliable trains.

Traffic around Glossop just makes the place unlivable for me.

Traffic around Glossop just makes the place unlivable for me.

Glossop (and the associated M67/A57) is horrendous at rush hours. Also, it’s the wrong side of Manc for you.

To be fair, most of the surrounding areas suffer badly with traffic – the M62/M60/M66 and M62/M60/M602 interchanges are also massive bottlenecks.

A mate lives out near Sowerby Bridge and alternates riding and train. Usually train in then ride home so it’d be very similar for you if you were in Hebden or Todmorden.

Otherwise Marple is quite nice – good riding right from the door, good train links (about 30 mins to Piccadilly).

I live in Marple and flat refuse to consider jobs in Salford / Trafford. My mate across the road works in trafford park and his commute takes him an hour and a quarter each way, I’ve got better things to do with my time thanks. I wouldn’t recommend Marple or to be frank anywhere south-east of Manchester for someone working around that area unless yo are travelling outside of rush hour so you can drive

The problem with ramsbottom is that you still have to get to Bury for the train/tram

Anywhere up the Rossendale valley is fantastic for cycling and for road access to Lakes, Dales, West Pennines, Pennines, Manchester etc. with the A56 taking you north to the very good M65 and thence north, east or west to open country. But as nbt writes above, you’ve still got to get to Bury station. Traffic levels have been tolerable for the last three years but are beginning to build up again as the economy picks up – try driving into or out of Bury on a market day, Wednesday.

From Salford Quays the most logical commuting direction would be straight up the M61 or the Victoria to Clitheroe line, which takes you through some cracking West Pennine landscape and would be feasible with a folding bike to get you from, say Salford Crescent to work. See this map:

http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Reviews/Resources/TfGM%20Rail-network-map%202013.pdf

Anywhere south of Manc with half decent riding would mean the commute from hell!!!!
*shudders at the thought of the A6 twice a day*

Unless, of course, you get the train, then it’s a doddle. That’s for getting into the city centre though, this neck of the woods, as others have said, would be a pain in the rocker for Salford Quays/Trafford Park

Binners, That picture of the Royston Vasey shop is actually above Marsden. Given that I have mentioned the place Marsden may not be a bad place for the OP to consider.

I drive from Rammy to Bury every morning to drop the missus off at the tram stop. The traffic is fine. It takes 10 minutes. She’s in her office in town 30 minutes after that. So Rammy – City centre Manchester, door-to-door is, with the odd exception, 40 minutes. If I’m not dropping her off, she drives to Radclitte, as you can park for free,right next to there, and jumps on the tram. Journey time is the same.

So the quays would be slightly longer, but not much.

If you want to drive, then I”d do M66, M60 (for one junction) to Prestwich, then through Broughton, Pendleton, through to the Quays. I do that route regular at rush hour, and you’re looking at about 40 minutes, with rush hour traffic. Its bearable. Compared to the A6, or anywhere south, its like those freeways on Thelma and louise

I work at Salford quays as well, and live in South Manchester (South of Stockport)
To get to the quays on reliable public transport is just a massive, massive pain in the arse. The train to Piccadilly is fine, just (IMHO) expensive in rush hour, the trams are a different level of useless all together…..
I drive…..from where I am at rush hour it’s about 35-40 minutes
The riding (even from my door) is great. Access to the peak is good
I would also say that I find the traffic from the north can be as bad as from the south of the city..

You say ‘work’, you’re employed by the BBC 😉

I’d heard he’d got a £7 million pound keeping-his-mouth-shut redundancy package, and he was now living on the island next to Bransons in Bermuda. No?

mate of mine gets the Witches bus from Rawtenstall to Salford Quays – the bus even has free wifi.

Not sure how long the bus commute is though.

Could’nt possibly comment Binners…..
Anyway Branson lives in the rough bit…..

binners, stay on the M66 to J20 and go in down Rochdale Road through Blackley. swear by that route as the fastest most trouble free way into manc.

Yes, Middleton feeds into that road and it’s hardly a commuter hotspot, as far as I know.

Cheers all, some very helpful info and advice. Really need to visit some of these areas but this is a great starting point. Horwich/Adlington – M61 route with the train line along that way into the city, that might be another option.

Lots of threads about Glossop in the last 12 months if you search.

If I could ride or train to work I’d live there. Mind you, I leave for work before 7 anyway, not sure what the drive towards Manc would be like at that time.

Badlywireddog will no doubt be along shortly….. 😉

Glossop would be nice but researching it today it seems just too far out factoring in the additional Piccadilly – Victoria – Eccles part. I don’t fancy driving in from Glossop, sounds a nightmare from what people have said above!

What’s so odd about tod rusty,tod fella here.

Bromley Cross / Chapletown / Edgeworth

Anywhere up the Rossendale valley is fantastic for cycling and for road access to Lakes, Dales, West Pennines, Pennines, Manchester etc.

You can tell how good a place is by how people recommend how easy it is to get somewhere else from.

Tod no question… cheap to live , great local rides excellent rail links sure long ride on train but its regular and reliable chance to sit and relax before and after work.

the quays and the bbc have been like mana from heavan for landlords in hebden bridge all the nice rented accomadation is taken by bbc types paying premium prices..( many still travel to london from HB as well..)

I live in Marple and work on the far edge of Trafford Park. I bike in and home most days. About an hour and 15 minutes each way. Driving isn’t a huge problem if you can get past Offerton Green before 7:00am or don’t head home until after 6:00pm
We went for a ride to Ladybower from home yesterday. Almost no road at all from our front door to Fairholmes but there’s more to life than biking.

Tod. Or better still Walsden (where we are). More house for your money than Hebden. Trails out of the door. Nice pub.

Train to Manchester is 30 mins from the bottom of my road. With a bike to get you across Manchester you’d be in in well under an hour.

Pop round for a brew when you’re in.

shreck – Member

What’s so odd about tod rusty,tod fella here.

I found the place quite insular and unwelcoming.

Everyone seemed to be sleeping with everyone else.

Norwegian winters see more sunlight than the average Tod summer.

Apart from that, I liked it. 🙂
I made a good few friends, survived the flooding and rode some great trails.
I miss the trails, the Keema Chips at the English Chippy, and Jan’s cheap DVD’s.

Jan got arrested for that in the pub,had all his DVDs out on show to sell.

Plenty going on/social scene?

Then basically forget riding from out your door.

You can be at a ride within 40mins. A road ride within seconds out to the Peaks.

Hebden is nice but it seems dead in the evenings.

I say city centre (sorry). Move further out when you want to have kids.

+1 on the sunlight in Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. I lived on the valley floor in HB for three years and the sun set at about 2:30 in the afternoon in high summer. Oh yes, and the indigenous population are all related!

Badlywireddog will no doubt be along shortly…..

No, I mean yes. I mean. The traffic from Glossop into Manchester is unholy bad. Great riding. A nice Thai noodle bar. M&S Simply Food. And great riding, road and off-road. Did anyone mention the traffic? I wouldn’t want to commute into Salford Quays from here.

hora – Member

Hebden is nice but it seems dead in the evenings.

Funnily enough, there’s loads going on, but you have to seek it out and it doesn’t pay to be too fussy.

I used to go to the pictures whenever a new film came out, chess on Mondays, story telling nights at the Stubbins, music nights etc.
Trades Club is ace, run by a very dedicated bunch.

But, you can’t just wander round and expect to be entertained – you have to put in the effort, which is hard when it’s pitch black, freezing cold and raining horizontally. 🙂

Burnley is a great place – friendly, riding from the door, still lots going on but it’s all a bit more accessable.
I know no one believes me, but pick your area and it’s a superb place to live – cheap too. 😀

geoffj – Member

Bromley Cross / Chapletown / Edgeworth
Good call.
Loads of great areas all around Bolton/Bury – lots of riding and easy access to the local towns & Manchester.

Prestwich/Whitefield are probably the best of the Manchester suburbs for access to the Quays and access to great riding.
Nice places to live too – Metro (tram) if you need it, but you can ride into Manchester almost without touching a road.
Some nice local restaurants and a few great pubs.

hora – Member

Plenty going on/social scene?

Then basically forget riding from out your door.

As usual… complete and utter bollocks! There’s plenty going on, unless you’re so terminally dull and unimaginative that the city centre, and everything delivered to you on a plate, is the limit of your ambition