[Closed] Best mtb county (not country...)

Obvious answers, because in STW mountain biking doesn't exist South of Sheffield!

Yep, definitely the best counties for rocky doubletrack on desolate, bleak moorland.

They sound like the best in England. I'd go-

Perthshire
Inverness-shire
Stirlingshire

I'd agree with the statement that mountain biking doesn't exist south of Sheffield, or thereabouts. Below that it's just twiddling your bars around in some woods.

shite here. I hear the rolling hills of Surrey is where its at

Lakes, for the sheer variety and actual mountains.

Yorkshire is the best for anything and everything, no arguments.

Munro - exactly the prejudice I was attempting to highlight - thanks for showing it!

hertfordshire for wooden singletrack 🙂

exactly the [s]prejudice[/s] [i]experience[/i] I was attempting to highlight

Eff-tee-eff-yu.

[quote=ben98 ]Yorkshire is the best for anything and everything, no arguments.

No arguments how about freedom to roam?

Powys has to be in with a shout for Wales, it takes up half of the Country!! From the Beacons all the way up through the ELan Valley up to Snowdonia. Snowdonia's only second as it's so small.
Maybe Carmarthenshire third?

For sheer variety of terrain and types of trail:

Cumbria
Ceredigion
Dorset

Bit of a westerly bias though!?

Lakes, for the sheer variety and [s]actual mountains[/s] some hills.

Somerset is a good one. Exmoor, Quantocks and the Mendips. Lots of variation from Moor tops to steep sided wooded valleys.

Devon, cos its where I live.
Cornwall is crap though.

I was down in Somerset on the weekend (for a rally), it looked brilliant for mountain biking, mile upon mile of byways, bridelways, paths, forests, moors, woodland, you name it, and seemingly open access over much of the areas, no gates on tracks, and bike tracks, jumps etc in a lot of the woods I saw.

[quote=core ]I was down in Somerset on the weekend (for a rally), it looked brilliant for mountain biking, mile upon mile of byways, bridelways, paths, forests, moors, woodland, you name it, and seemingly open access over much of the areas, no gates on tracks, and bike tracks, jumps etc in a lot of the woods I saw.

somerset stages?

Northumberland 😀

Cannockshire!

jam bo - Member

core » I was down in Somerset on the weekend (for a rally), it looked brilliant for mountain biking, mile upon mile of byways, bridelways, paths, forests, moors, woodland, you name it, and seemingly open access over much of the areas, no gates on tracks, and bike tracks, jumps etc in a lot of the woods I saw.

somerset stages?

Indeed, some mates were doing it, I should have been, and I have a mate who lives down there so went and stayed with him for a couple of days and watched the rally.

No-one's mentioned Derbyshire, which contains most of the Peak District. Odd.

CUMBRIA

And for 29er riders,Norfolk

In my experience and opinion:

Aberdeenshire
Cumbria
Northumberland

And I don't think you can have "Yorkshire" as a single answer, you need to specify which one.

IHN - Member

No-one's mentioned Derbyshire, which contains most of the Peak District. Odd.

The Peak District has been successfully annexed by The People's Republic of South Yorkshire. We just don't like to tell many people.

Essex 😥

Anywhere that doesn't allow you to ride a bike on most of the interesting trails is a crap area for mountain biking if you ask me. So that rules out all of England I reckon.

Aberdeenshire suits me well, but I'd also give a nod to Ayrshire. You don't actually want pointy mountains (except to look at) as you can't ride up them. In fact you can't ride down lots of them either. So, decent sized but rolling mountains are where it's at.

As a Yorkshireman I don't think any of the Yorkshires have as good mountain biking as Derbyshire. Which in turn doesn't have as good biking as the Lakes, which doesn't have as good riding as much of the Highland region.

Not quite a single county but I miss Cardiff / Caerphilly area, better than the Peaks IMO.

Aberdeenshire is great but annoying if you are unable to drive places.

roverpig - Member

Anywhere that doesn't allow you to ride a bike on most of the interesting trails is a crap area for mountain biking if you ask me. So that rules out all of England I reckon.

well, certainly The Peak District.

Surely the Scottish Borders should win this hands down

- Open access
- Variety of terrain: large forests, hills & coastal paths
- Lots of trails centres, e.g. Glentress with all the extra gnarrrr enduro trails
- Quiet with few people

Yeah, but it's in Scotland.

Cannock is excellent but I don't know about the rest of Staffordshire - though it is good for road biking.

Haven't ridden north of there so can't comment on the Yorkshire is best argument, however from experience I would go with;

Neath
Snowdonia
Carmathenshire

very Wales centric I know but that is where I have ridden most on mountainbiking holidays. Need to head to Scotland and the North in general I know.

For the record Surrey Hills are amazing, but haven't ridden them enough to displace the above yet.

Yeah, but it's in Scotland.

It's a council administrative area, or county.

Essex.

Actually, I retract that.

Suffolk.

Aberdeenshire
Moray
Tweeddale
Yorkshire

The Peak District is great but too crowded. And English access laws are crap compared to Scotland. Scotland is free, empty, gnarly and lumpy - ideal for mountain biking

I'd say somerset is up there - Quantocks, Exmoor & Mendips/Cheddar would keep most people entertained for quite some time.

Cheshire!

Absolutely nothing here in Aberdeenshire, stay where you are, save your diesel.

The suitably named Down gets my vote.

Cannock is excellent but I don't know about the rest of Staffordshire

very Wales centric I know but that is where I have ridden most on mountainbiking holidays. Need to head to Scotland and the North in general I know.

gotta be yorkshire - the county is split by riding 😀

badoomtish

Marin county?

Yeah I'm keen on Wales, always feel the hate for England/the English from the Scots contingent... which puts me off.
Yes the Welsh hate the English but it's not so far to go

Well last year I had the option to move anywhere on the Country. I've ridden pretty much every County on the list so far and my choice of location was based mainly on the riding in the area.

I now live in Perthshire.

And in ten months I've not had any anti English stuff at all.

milky1980 - Member

Maybe Carmarthenshire third?

There have been 2 mentions of Carmarthenshire.

Why?

Other than a couple of trail centres there's not much riding worth a trip. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that it may be one of the worst counties in Wales for MTBing. Those of us who live further east often quiz Carms locals about their riding and generally come away no wiser.

(I lived in Whitland and Carmarthen itself for a while so I'd love to know what glut of riding I missed! 😆 )

Edited because it wasn't really that funny.

In the trend of voting where you live its Derbyshire for me, I take a liberal approach to where I am allowed to ride

Devon
Devon
Devon

Just for Dartmoor really. I don't even live there. Plus you can surf in under a hour, swim in rivers, bouldering.. gah, really do need to move there.

Gloucestershire: Cotswold hills, huge beech woods and FOD.

cumbria
Yorkshire
Lancashire

From that list

Obviously Scotland would win if it was UK wide

Devon 😯
I lived there and its ok. However it is hampered by the lack of mountains

tang - Member
Gloucestershire: Cotswold hills, huge beech woods and FOD.

POSTED 13 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

I was waiting for someone to say this so I can pounce on them. I can't judge as I've mainly only ridden cleeve, however I will, because thats how I am.

This place of southern England doesn't seem to handle rain very well, leading to a clay like substance which you can *ride* on in the winter (I say this as its mostly like rolling a turd through cotton). Meaning you can only ride when it hasn't been raining. Whats the point in that.

No-one's mentioned Derbyshire, which contains most of the Peak District. Odd.

That's because lots of the riding in the Peak District is fairly dull. Blatting down rubbly doubletrack isn't really that amazing.

I'd go:

1. Ross & Cromarty (Torridon)
2. Cumbria
3. Yorkshire

Admittedly never ridden much down south. FOD was quite pleasant I guess.

Neath
Snowdonia
Carmathenshire

Only one of which is a county 🙂

Derbyshire, because of it's size
Surrey, perhaps, due to woodsy singletrack
But I think you'd have to go a fair way to beat Powys, South of the border at least.

Yorkshire isn't a county, you'll all need to pick one of the three.

/pedantry

Yorkshire isn't a county, you'll all need to pick one of the three.

/pedantry

The original counties were never technically abolished, just changed for administrative purposes.

/pedantry

tomd - Member
Surely the Scottish Borders should win this hands down

- Open access
- Variety of terrain: large forests, hills & coastal paths
- Lots of trails centres, e.g. Glentress with all the extra gnarrrr enduro trails
- Quiet with few people

Dumfries & Galloway or Dumfriesshire

Just happens to be close to Cumbria and the Lakes 😆

roverpig - Member
Anywhere that doesn't allow you to ride a bike on most of the interesting trails is a crap area for mountain biking if you ask me. So that rules out all of England I reckon.

Weren’t many of the historic Counties altered or abolished by local government reorganisations in the 1960s and 1970s?

It is a commonly held misconception that the local government changes of the 1960s and 1970s actually altered the historic Counties of Britain. In fact they did no such thing.

Modern local authority areas were only created in 1889 (in England and Wales) and 1890 (in Scotland). Initially these areas were closely based upon the historic Counties. However, they were always understood to be separate entities from the Counties themselves and, indeed, had separate terminology: they were labeled “administrative counties” and “county boroughs”. Nobody ever confused the local government areas with the historic Counties themselves. After all, the Counties of England had, by 1889, already been in existence for over 800 years (many for centuries longer). Those of Wales and Scotland had also been fixed in name and area for several centuries.

The local government reorganisations of the 1960s and 1970s abolished all the “administrative counties” and “county boroughs” and created a whole new set of local government areas. However, it did not alter or abolish the Counties themselves. In Scotland the new top tier administrative areas were called “regions”. However, in England and Wales the new top tier local government areas were, confusingly, labelled “counties”. It is this use of the word “county” to mean something other than the real historic Counties which lies at the root of the confusion of the last 40 years. Nonetheless, the government has consistently made it quite clear that these “counties” are simply narrow administrative areas created for a specific purpose and are not intended to be replacements for the traditional Counties in a cultural or geographical sense. For example, on 1st April 1974, a DoE spokesman said:

“The new county boundaries are solely for the purpose of defining areas of … local government. They are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of Counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change.”

So Yorkshire is actually still a county in it's own right.

Arguably two of the UK's most successful MTBer's for well over a decade both live in Malvern, and ride the Hills regularly.

That's got to say something!

Got to say that, at the moment, the Wyre Forest is riding so well too (albeit it's crap normally for 50 weeks a year!) that it has reminded me just how good this part of the country is for woodsy singletrack (my favourite kind of riding).

This place of southern England doesn't seem to handle rain very well, leading to a clay like substance which you can *ride* on in the winter (I say this as its mostly like rolling a turd through cotton). Meaning you can only ride when it hasn't been raining. Whats the point in that.

Got to call you on that one I'm afraid mate... There are localised area's in Gloucs/Worcs that are very heavily clay based soil which makes them no good to ride in the winter, but there's some real gems too... The Forst of Dean for instance certainly doesn't suffer a heavy clay based soil!

Yep, definitely the best counties for rocky doubletrack on desolate, bleak moorland.

Goes to prove just how different "Mountain Biking" is to different people. And I largely agree! If mountain biking to you, means riding big mountains, then you won't be happy unless you've spent most of your ride very exposed, above the tree lines, on big rocky terrain.

Personally that's not my thing so much, but show me a new section of technical woodsy singletrack, and I'll be your friend forever!

Id say Somerset too - specifically the south. Good for mtb and lovely for road rides too. Also easy to reach Wales if you want.

I'd say Cumbria and Somerset are pretty good shouts if just for the diversity of riding available within them.

The original counties were never technically abolished, just changed for administrative purposes.

Followed by Westmorland and Cumberland?