Forum menu
I may have missed them but couldn't see thread on this. So if you could choose anywhere to live in the UK for mountain biking where would it be? Thinking of quality of trails, variety, proximity and volume of users. I realise that this is subjective and appreciate different riders have different views on what is a good or great trail for them but what the hell I'm in the seventh circle of revision and slowly going mad, I need a distraction.
Please note that 'Wales' and 'Scotland' are not legitimate options, a town, city or maybe a house in the middle of nowhere.
Swindon.
Nationwide.
Woods Behind.
End of...
DrP
there are loads of threads on this - one was 'best town ...'
Crewe
Lakes. I did it was ace
North of Fife
🙂
Mbuk says edinburgh or Bristol Or Sheffield
Matt, just searched "best town" and didn't come up with anything?
Bristol?! I won't say Manchester is the best, but I can say (being or Bristol blood) it is certainly better that Bristol.
If I had to say somewhere, North Wales probably.
Sheffield, Peebles or Aviemore
Anywhere in YORKSHIRE
Sheffield - not bad, but there is only really the Dark Peak within spitting ditance, which is cool, but you could cover 95% of it in 4 rides (stanage loop, hope/edale loop, cut gate, jacobs ladder).
I'm going for the Peaks side of Manchester, almost as close as Sheffield, but 90min drive from the Lakes and a lot of Wales as well. And there're enough jobs to make it viable for just about anyone, which would be my reason for not going to Sheffield (or a lot of Scotland). Scottish borders would be cool for biking, but rubbish for jobs, or being close to fmily/friends, I'd usualy put MTB in the 'must not be crap' list of criteria rather than a must have.
South Wales where we are, in addition to all the natural stuff, we're going to have Cwmcarn, Gethin (Bikeparkwales), Afan, CwmRadyr, Ashton Court and Brechfa within a hour max drive. 😀
North (east) Wales. Easy access to all northern trail centers, mid Wales,can get to m6 in 50 minutes midlands in a hour 30-2hours. Lakes in 2.5 hours. loads of natural trails and local built trails. Loads of trails nobody rides, as they all drive past it to go to coed y brenin, llandegla,betws y coed etc. amazing climbing, beaches, no big cities or heavily populated, nice local people, its friendly.thats the reasons I live here anyway.
Edinburgh or Glasgow, if only for the links both North and South. Glasgow because it's closer to the Highlands (the West Highland Way starts there), but Edinburgh because it's nicer.
i guess it depends if you want to anything else than ride your bike 😉
Brizzle FTW
Tweed Valley.
i guess it depends if you want to anything else than ride your bike
That depends on you, like this reply
I'm going for the Peaks side of Manchester, almost as close as Sheffield, but 90min drive from the Lakes and a lot of Wales as well. And there're enough jobs to make it viable for just about anyone, which would be my reason for not going to Sheffield (or a lot of Scotland). Scottish borders would be cool for biking, but rubbish for jobs, or being close to fmily/friends, I'd usualy put MTB in the 'must not be crap' list of criteria rather than a must have.
That makes a lot of sense to me rather than just there are ace trails near Peebles so live there. Obviously there's no right or wrong answer I'm just interested in what people experiences have been and what they think.
Close to an airport is best
I'm happy with north yorkshire, bridleway at the bottom of the garden onto the moors,
Dales are 25 mins away, lakes are an hour and half away.
Also three trail centers within an hour.
Close to an airport is best
🙂
fontmoss - Member
Matt, just searched "best town" and didn't come up with anything?
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/best-town-in-britain
3 years ago! Plus it was best town, this is best place for mtbing
Obviously there's no right or wrong answer I'm just interested in what people experiences have been and what they think
True
So where I live now is perfect( for me ).
Make the best of what ya got ,an all that 🙂
fontmoss - Member
3 years ago! Plus it was best town, this is best place for mtbing
Sorry, try this one....
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/mbrs-best-places-to-live
[edit] just to clarify I'm not saying there's no jobs in Sheffield, just no jobs for me.
Todmorden or Hebden Bridge (West Yorkshire); Ambleside or Keswick (Cumbria); Settle or Hawes (North Yorkshire)
Ah I see ben. In my defence that's cities not places and posted ages ago....
ok, ok I didn't find that thread
+1 for Peaks side of Manchester 😀 And when they've built the new by-pass, i'll be able to get to the Airport in 7 minutes and Edale is only 22 minutes away.
[url= http://www.semmms.info/140683/435117/A6_manchesterairportmap_15aug12 ]A6 By-pass[/url]
Todmorden or Hebden Bridge (West Yorkshire)
That's where I'll be moving to soon in large part motivated by the biking/climbing/walking and proximity to Leeds/Manchester for work. Pretty close to Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and not too far to the Lakes/Wales/Scottish Borders too.
Decent live music venue, Singletrack magazine, pretentious faux-hippie middle-class people like me - perfect. Near(ish) airports also.
House went on the market yesterday - had a viewing already and a few more booked in. 🙂
Like said above, depends on what kind of riding you fancy. Trail centers, local woods, big mountains....
Scotland is pretty amazing for big mountain rides, we have some ace local riding and some pretty decent trail centers too.
You do need to eat Stovies and chips for breakfast everyday though.
I would move to the Lake District in a second if I had the chance. I went to uni at Lancaster so was totally spoiled by having the Lakes on my doorstep. London's just not the same... 🙁
Gods County
^^Which one??? 😀
London
Good Audi dealerships and a couple of Santa Cruz suppliers within 30 miles.....
Given all the abuse Audi owners get on this forum I've just had to get rid of mine.
Won't be swapping the TrC though......
Live on Leeds / Bratfud border...
within 1hr I have locals rides, the Dales, Dark Peak & Wharncliffe, Gisburn, Staincliffe, Hebden Bridge et al
Within 2hrs I have Llandegla, Lower Lakes, Cannock Chase
Within 2.5hrs I then have North Wales (Coed y Brenin and up) and Upper Lakes
at a push I can do Tweed Valley in three hours
The Lakes is probably the best area in the UK for natural riding. Yes there are more epic trails and bigger mountains elsewhere but the density of good riding in a small area is pretty unrivalled IMO.
Hebden is pretty damn good though.
Ramsbottom
Bingley
reading between the lines, the best place to live is the place closest to the motorway so you can DRIVE somewhere. FFS.
I would rather live where i do in Cheltenham where i can get plenty of riding from the door, if my mtbing involved driving i would never bother.
Um no mrmo. There's loads of great riding you can do from the door in Hebden. It's just that you can also do trips further afield when you fancy. One of the main reasons I'm moving is so I don't have to drive to go mountain biking/walking/climbing.
reading between the lines, the best place to live is the place closest to the motorway so you can DRIVE somewhere. FFS.
in that case we're never likely to meet up...shame really, as you'd like it round here
I think that was MBUK assertion, that it's not just about good doorstep trails, but many factors like:
* Availability of decent jobs so you can afford it
* Motorway and airport access to MTB destinations
* Many nearby quality MTB destinations
* Pleasant city environs to live in
* Some sort of cycle culture
Bristol scores highly on all these points, and also has some MTB trails in the city itself. I think it came 2ndafter Edinburgh, with Sheffield 3rd.
grum, not disagreeing with you, just frustrated that most people on here when asked where is the best place to mtb, reel off a list of places they have to drive to and say the place is good. To me the best place is where you would be most motivated to ride, where the riding is good, etc.
Might as well say Birmingham is good, not far to Cannock, the Peaks, Wales not far, etc.
South Leeds / Bradford.
The riding from the door isn't awesome (but there's some, and some of it's reasonable) but with great motorway access that makes it easy to get to:
The Dales
The Peaks
Pennines
and fairly easy (but not quite as quick)to get to:
North Yorkshire Moors
Lake District
North Wales
mrmo spot on, a good place to live is where you can ride from the door. All that time you lot are driving, I'm riding.