SSBonty – i’m dusting off the bike this weekend. How about a ride on Sunday?

Maybe when she’s older and when we move somewhere quieter but not now, the standard of driving immediately near where I live is some of the worst I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Seriously.

The idea of trailing my little baby behind me… nope.

Although we’re going to Bluestone for a long weekend in June, I’ll be renting a trailer there, we can’t wait!

True, I don’t use the trailer on the road when the kids are in it. Usually pavement on the way to nursery, road on the way back

I can see Brechfa forest from my house. It’s not a conincidence…

Riding is why I moved to Calderdale. I was specifically looking for somewhere I could do loads without a car.

I’d move in a heart beat if:

a) I had a decent job there
b) I could afford a house there
c) I had won the lottery and therefore a & b were irrelevant

Ideally I’d move to Wales in the UK or Czech if the EU

The white peak is 15 minutes ride from my house!

Brecon Beacons 5 mins away BPW 10 mins away, Afan 20 mins away, Cwmcarn 25 mins away, unlimited natural riding into top of Skyline 1 minute away it sucks living in the Valleys 😆

Moved from Norfolk to West Yorkshire for quality of life.

Biking for myself and hiking for me and the Mrs, did it last year and absolutely no regrets, we do so much more here than we ever did in Norfolk and it has cut down overheads having to do B&B’s when we regularly visited ghe dales/peaks etc by just living here instead!

Also managed to get much better paid job out of it too. 😉

On my commute to work, live at the bottom of the Swansea Valley and work in Brecon.

jan 15 003 by jamesanderson2010, on Flickr

HansRey – love to but my folks are arriving on Saturday for a fortnight to see us and the little one, then we’re back in Bristol for a week! Enjoy your ride on Sun and lets sort something for April…

Back on topic, I’m also one of the folks in academia, which makes it difficult to do this as you have to be a) in or near a city of some sort with a University, b) at a Uni with a department you can work in, which for a fairly niche subject like mine certainly isn’t all, and c) wait for a job to be offered in such a Uni. If we ever moved back to the UK, London unfortunately would be one of the main possibilities, but the 3 times I’ve tried living there I didn’t get on with it and it didn’t get on with me!

My commute home…..

Traffic is murder! 😀

I’ve thought about this OP- its 2x45mins each way drive every week to get to the trails.

If I moved closer fine.

Then it’d be 10 x 1.5hr drive to get to and from work every week.

Quality of life living somewhere sticksy? Getting up early, getting back late- you don’t tend to see that much.

Plus harder to see friends/the other stuff.

If I worked from home- yes. However no.

Other thing on location is the social aspect. Sure I could live somewhere remote with tonnes of big hills and mountains to ride, but it’s lonely if there are few people about to ride with. Down in the South East, it may not be so pretty*, but there are loads of trails and loads of people to ride with. Though I do enjoy a solo ride also.

* though actually there is some amazing countryside around, and Surrey is the most tree dense county in England.

Other thing about more rural areas is on the job front, aside from less job opportunities, the social side with work is less also. It’s one of the reasons I moved to civilisation as only people I knew were those at work and they were all settled with families and had no interest in socialising, even just for the odd pop down the pub for lunch.

That said I’ve ended up going contracting and that can be worse as you’re jumping between jobs, on the bench for periods, and may be excluded from any social activities in some companies.

hora – Member

I’ve thought about this OP- its 2x45mins each way drive every week to get to the trails.

If I moved closer fine.

Then it’d be 10 x 1.5hr drive to get to and from work every week.

Quality of life living somewhere sticksy? Getting up early, getting back late- you don’t tend to see that much.

Plus harder to see friends/the other stuff.

If I worked from home- yes. However no.
Assuming centre of Manchester.
I commuted from Bollington to Manchester for 4 years.
10min drive/cycle to Macc from house.
25min train journey each way – time for reading.
Left at 8:00 got back at 18:30

Plenty of time for evening rides and you’re in the middle of it all weekend for rides/walks/views/etc.

2 boys in lovely schools.

Less danger of burglaries.

Quieter at night.

Manchester still there for gigs/parties/etc every evening if required.

I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but I was 100% happier once I left Didsbury for Bollington.

(now work from home, but would happily commute again).

after moving to somewhere on the C2C route with good local biking, both cheeky and official, and access to miles and miles of off road cycle paths (loads in north east on old railways – my commute is all off road or sustrans cyclepaths and we can take our daughter out for 30+mile rides without touching a road) and with good walking, plus a river we can canoe on in the village, good local pubs and post office that sells hot pies no way would i ever even consider moving back to a city/suburbia. imo possibly the dullest places ever imaginable unless you have buckets of cash spare!

luckily we have friends move locally and have met people living here so on the social side its a hoot too

yes.
i’m doing it right now; moving from south manchester (flat, rubbish trails, high risk of bike thefts) to the edge of the West Pennine moors, in the shadow of Rivington Pike (biggest hill in lancashire 5 mins from my door, great trails all over the place, slightly less of a risk of bike thefts, and a lot cheaper monthly bills too).
it’s not all that far to move and my commute will go from a 4-5 mile ride each way to either a 3 mile ride & 30 min train journey, or an 18 mile ride…

herb If you need a horwich guide, me and Baz ride 2 oe 3 times a week from horwich

moved near a great path, found I rode much more
next move = even closer to a path

I moved to Sweden for the mountain biking and snowboarding (plus my wife is Swedish and so is our lad) and now I want to move further north for better biking and better snowboarding. It is a relentless quest

Having done so a few years ago when I was travelling, I would never up and move without having work in place first. I got my fingers burned in NZ when I’d blown my savings during the winter so couldn’t afford a bike when summer came was about as frustrating as it gets! Also seen it in ski resorts where people would rock up without work and never get enough stable income to fund a season pass and rent.

Now facing a different dilemma – everything work wise is suggesting London next, so living close to any riding comes with having to decide if the commute is worth it.

duncan i’ll take you up on that for sure!
i’m not moved yet, doing it gradually and relatively stress-free over the next 3-4 weeks or so.

Not just for biking but we moved for better access to the hills for biking, climbing and skiing. Of course both being teachers made getting jobs easier.

Do it.

I sold my camper (that was spending most weekends in the Peak) and put a deposit down on a house when rain stopped climbing play one weekend. Never looked back, I didn’t ride the either! I was lucky that work sorted my accommodation at the time so didn’t need to consider employment, just needed to get on the property ladder and it was way cheaper than my home town in Kent. If you can; do it!

Just clicked on the link to the house in Wensley. Warnings: check out the parking, no pub or shop, they greet each other with a Hi7! Apparently the pub went out of business decades ago as they replaced their beer stock with milk (could be yokal rumour!)

I’m in Matlock and as a convince/rural living compromise would look at (based on a pub, shop, bus option):

Matlock (outskirts – although theirs some stunning town centre properties with plots but they cost since the towns built on hills, especially if want character)
Hackney
Farley
Two Dales
Cromford
Tansley
Birchover
Wirksworth (a bit cheaper)
Baslow (£££)

You could pub crawl all these via MTB in a weekend! – I’ll join you! Email in profile if you’re keen, I know the good ones! 😆

SSBonty – weather’s looking good for it. Hope your folks enjoy Helsinki.

I’m an academic too, also in a niche field. Email in profile if you want to join for a ride. I occasionally ride with a group in KP or nearer Veikkola, otherwise i’m down at some dirtjumps that i’m building up in Munkkivuori.

I was in Sheffield 3 years ago in a job I hated. I’m now in Aberdeen in a job I like. I can ride Kirkhill from work, I’m off to Pitfichie this afternoon and probably a social ride Aboyne to Ballater tomorrow then skiing at The Lecht on Sunday.
I moved here for the work, the fact that I have the proper mountains starting about 10 miles away was a happy coincidence. Scotland has the added bonus that it’s so empty, hilly and rugged. It’s like the Peak District except it’s 10 times the size, has only 1% of the visitors and there’s no access restrictions…