Honestly those suggesting Sheffield
Sheffield is quite a big place, but a lot of the suburbs to the west, yes
From my front door (in Sheffield) I have to ride at most 1400m of tarmac before I’m on the trails. That then gets me to Totley Moor, Blacka Moor, Houndkirk and Eastern Edges (including White Edge) with no more roads to ride on. OK, maybe another 500m of tarmac to get to Houndkirk and Lady Cannings but that’s it.
Agree that if you live in central or eastern Sheffield it’s a slog but western suburbs it’s doable.
Sheffield is quite a big place, but a lot of the suburbs to the west, yes
Yep. The larger the town, the smaller the percentage of the population that will have immediate access to off-road trails. If there's a rich/not rich thing going on, it's more likely to exhibit itself in the difference between the leafy suburbs and the inner city.
As regards ByC, Keswick, Aviemore etc, it's hardly a surprise that there is good access to the countryside given that's exactly why folk choose to go there on holiday. I can honestly say that not once has anyone told me they are going to Sheffield for an outdoors holiday. Whether you choose to live in a holiday village/town very much depends on what else is a priority for you.
Further up in the thread someone suggested Hathersage too; I lived there for about 7 years before moving back in to Sheffield. In fact the biking from there wasn’t great, and no way near as accessible as where I am now, all the good stuff requires a ride along the valley towards Hope which wasn’t much fun. And yes, in the height of summer it gets mobbed, I’m glad I moved back to Sheffield in fact. Nice outdoor pool though.
900m of tarmac to Blacka, 1km to Limb valley for me in Sheffield, so I’d say that was pretty doorstep.
To be fair, even if you lived in the city centre you would only have 3km of flat road to get to the parks which lead all the way out to the Peak. To the north is Greno etc and there are good gravel trails to the east and south.
Sheffield has the advantage of not being part of a big conurbation in the way that most larger cities are.
My idea of riding from the door is literally being on trails within a few minutes
That's my take as well. In Heptonstall I was 20 paces from a descent that folks travel to Hebden Bridge to ride, and in the Chilterns it was maybe a 100 yard pedal and a road crossing. I don't think Sheffield qualifies really beyond that its often mentioned on these sorts of threads. 🤷♀️
As regards ByC, Keswick, Aviemore etc, it’s hardly a surprise that there is good access to the countryside given that’s exactly why folk choose to go there on holiday. I can honestly say that not once has anyone told me they are going to Sheffield for an outdoors holiday. Whether you choose to live in a holiday village/town very much depends on what else is a priority for you.
The OP question covered a few bases though, not just would you go on holiday there.
Being central in the country has a good few other benefits including motorway and rail access to anywhere, easily. I work all over the country (plus Scotland sometimes), but actually living Lakes/upward would be a massive inconvenience a lot of the time
Everybody knows that Wirral is the centre of the MTB universe, 170mm travel is the bare minimum requirement here.
The problem with touristy places is that they're rammed in high season and dead for most of the winter. Plus everything is set up for tourists, and very little for real people.
At the very least I think you'd need a reasonably sized town that had a year round population.
Chorley for me. Mountain bike riding from my front door with almost zero road riding to get there. Train links to the peaks and lakes and easy road links to loads of riding. On the train line to Manchester so loads of jobs and nightlife. Really good road riding as a bonus.
I wouldn't want to live somewhere where I couldn't ride from my front door. Time is far too limited to be wasting it spent in the car.
Another vote for Cardiff.
With the Taff Trail, you can live near the city centre and ride into the mountains - 98% of it traffic free.
Another Sheffield resident here.
in my humble opinion, the riding isn’t as good as the hype, but it’s ok.
I had a free day in Sheffield about 4 or 5 years ago so posted on here asking about where to ride. Almost every reply suggested getting in the car to go somewhere else. There was rugby on in the afternoon, so I decided to head out to Lady Cannings and do a loop out to Stanage Edge. Lady Canning's was a couple of short undemanding trails so I was genuinely surprised that it's included in anybody's recommendations for good riding. (Other than, park here, warm up on the junior trails and then ride out to some better trails...) Maybe it has got significantly better since I visited? The loop out had nice views and was old fashioned xc riding. Not a bad day of riding but it's not somewhere I'd hurry to visit again. To contrast, after I'd ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion. It's now become a regular trip. I didn't bother suggesting a trip to Sheffield...
To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion.
Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills. Nowt to see here, move along now.
To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion.
Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills. Nowt to see here, move along now.
Oh no, I agree, it's rubbish. But we live in a horrible area for MTBing (S Wales) and improve it slightly by regular trips to Scotland, Ireland, foreign horrible places. To keep our spending down and remind us of even worse places we go to Surrey, where the locals are rude, you can't get a proper cooked breakfast (avocado with everything!) and beer is expensive. Makes us glad to be at home in our MTB-desert. 😀
I didn’t bother suggesting a trip to Sheffield…
Lady Cannings used to be rubbish just to even pass through, never mind anything else. It's better now, but not worth making effort to get there if it's not part of a bigger ride. There's plenty of good stuff around Blackamoor and plenty of good stuff around and beyond Stanage. You just didn't get particularly good advice. You can head deep into the Peak if you want an all dayer. Greno and Wharncliffe are decent too.
Now it's far from the best riding the whole of the UK has to offer, but we are talking decent accessible stuff close to a major city and amenities - for that it's hard to beat.
If others can't find anything decent to ride in the area, then they either aren't looking in the right places or they have very high standards.
I don't live in Sheffield btw
I do plan to try the Surrey Hills next time I'm staying down South though
Now it’s far from the best riding the whole of the UK has to offer, but we are talking decent accessible stuff close to a major city and amenities – for that it’s hard to beat.
If others can’t find anything decent to ride in the area, then they either aren’t looking in the right places or they have very high standards.
👆 This.
Bear in mind the OP I think wanted somewhere with job opportunities as well as doorstep riding. Sheffield city centre is going through a bit of a transformation at the moment so I’d expect the labour market to be getting more buoyant in the coming year or two as well.
I’m somewhat surprised that no one’s suggested Bristol or Bath?
Lived in Keswick for most of the 90s and into the mid-Noughties. Sacked it off because I could no longer deal with the negative effects of tourism. After a decade overseas I considered (and discounted) Scotland, and ended up in Somerset for five years. Loved it there, great cycling, I'd probably still be there if the relationship I'd been in hadn't cratered. Then a spell in South Wales - Merthyr. Good riding, grim town, poor public transport. But the part time job I'd taken to pay the bills facilitated a transfer to Calderdale, which had kinda been the long term plan for a while. I'm carless these days, so riding out the door or using trains is a given, and the Happy Valley pretty much ticks the boxes.
Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills.
could you imagine if the secret got out?
Bristol
Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills.
could you imagine if the secret got out?
Sorry if I've blown the lid off this secret spot guys.
At least you had a good few years of deserted trails, empty car parks and no queues at the Peaslake shop.
I lived in Bath for a couple of years and there is riding from your front door, but there's a huge amount of road slogging - lots of it up really steep hills - and the trails aren't that good. Loads and loads of good road riding though.
Also, Bath is a crazy expensive place to live.
I would imagine most places you can be on trails fairly easily from the door its just about want you want in off-road riding. I live just outside Newbury, I can be off road within 1 min of my house and piece together a decent couple of hours of xc riding, or much longer gravel type loops, can also do some really nice road riding. It's about setting expectations and making the most of what you have around you.
I lived in the Lakes for a while (Montgomery had a car then!), I lived in and around some great riding and enjoyed it. Life has taken me to lots of places since and it has never stopped me riding from the door.
Bristol
Came here to add that too.
You'd be more there for the city, but I'm now living in the Midlands and missing my lunchtime Leigh Woods/Ashton Court shreds more than ever.
Nearly all these suggestions with the exception of Sheffield fall well short of 'lively'.
Bath is OK for MTB but your going to want to do trips away (liveliness borderline)
Bristol maybe slightly better if you can live in distance from the good stuff (almost too lively)
Doesn't tick the great box, although there are some really nice places locally if you have the funds, but you can live on cannock chase and commute into birmingham by train in an hour, bit less on a motorbike, little bit more pedal powered.
I’ve lived in Sheffield and visited loads. It’s amazing. But as Sharkattack says when people say Sheffield they are really referring to quite a limited part of the City.
Surrey which I know, but less well, is also clearly amazing. The greensand means that like round here there is some year round riding. I think the Sussex, Chilterns and Newbury votes might be some what seasonal
My estate agent might say endless gravel riding. Although it’s really not that far to what us southerners call MTB and it work year round
I know a couple that live and work in Fortwilliam surely that must get a look in.
However, i’m probably suffering from winter-gloom. Ask me again in late June and i’ll be giddy with sunburn and good times.
You are.
My family is from the Hope Valley, so its very special to me, and I may or may not have chose to go study in sheffield because of the mountain bike riding. Being able to ride from my door, up the Rivelin Valley and into a National Park in half an hour, was absolutely magic, and I miss it dearly. The plan was always to stay, but job opportunities came. I' m only 40 min up the road but the riding up here in the "flat bit" TM of Yorkshire is very different.
You are very lucky.
Have a photo - thats a 2005(?) Giant Reign, purchased with 1st term student maintenance loan, on a ride from my flat, when I was probably meant to be studying but the sun was out. The best of times.
Nearly all these suggestions with the exception of Sheffield fall well short of ‘lively’.
Well we were always gonna prioritise the riding 😀
But "lively" could mean a moderately busy village pub to some people, or a major city like Sheff to others.
'Lively' in Sheffield looks a bit like this in and around the city centre.
I like Glossop. Western edge of the Peak District National Park with ace riding out of the door. Town has proper shops, decent pubs, bars and restaurants and friendly people plus a half-decent bike shop. It's 30 minutes on the train into the bright lights of Manchester.
I get the love for Whaley Bridge, Hayfield, Marple etc, but the first two are too small village for me, ditto New Mills, while Marple - and Disley - just feel 'urban'. The downside with Glossop is the traffic if you choose to drive into Manchester, which only an idiot would actually do, when you can simply get on a train. And bike commuting into Manchester is tough because you have to ride over a big hills, but that's why the riding's good.
I love that you can stand on the platform at Glossop station and there are big hills on three sides of you.
I like Sheffield, but I actually think the riding is better on this side of the Peak and I don't want to live in a full-blown city or its suburbs, though yes, I realise it's less city-like than most equivalents.
I'm still confused by people who think that 'riding from the door' involves a 30-minute drive 😉
I also sort of get Hebden Bridge, but it always feels like the British anser to Rjukan, set in a valley so deep that the sun doesn't reach it for half the year, but without the world class ice climbing... Nice riding, but I think I'd want to live up above it rather than in the valley itself.
‘Lively’ in Sheffield looks a bit like this in and around the city centre.
Ah, the good old days of living in S2 and kids going to Manor primary. Used to watch Police Camera Action and working out if it was our road or the next one the perps would turn down next....
Chorley for me.
bloody hell, didn’t think I’d see that pop up! Grew up there, learned to MTB at Rivi and surrounds, couldn’t wait to leave. Riding was pretty staid but more importantly Chorley was quite a hole. Almost sad I have to list it as my place of birth on various forms as an adult…
Calder Valley shirley.
As a few other locals have mentioned, it’s a steep sided valley surrounded by fantastic moorland with lung buster climbs and great descents as soon as you set foot outside your door. Transpennine rail in the valley bottom so good access to Manchester and Leeds and at the head of the valley, Halifax is going through something of a renaissance with the Piece Hall now attracting some decent bands and acts and has some great pubs.
Mmm, Three Pigeons tomorrow night...
lived in the Lakes for a while (Montgomery had a car then)
Did I once give you a lift from Junction 40?
I live in Worrall, 5 miles North West of Sheffield city centre, 2 miles from the Peak National Park, 5 minute ride into Wharncliffe. It's in S35 so doesn't command the S6, S10 and S11 postcode prices.
I consider myself pretty lucky to have the benefits of a big city but quiet village location and riding so close.
Did I once give you a lift from Junction 40?
Bingo!
Surrey, where the locals are rude, you can’t get a proper cooked breakfast (avocado with everything!) and beer is expensive. Makes us glad to be at home in our MTB-desert.
It all true, every word. Especially about all us locals being rude. And the bacon, sausage, egg, beans and avocado doesn’t have much avocado in it.
I live in Worrall, 5 miles North West of Sheffield city centre, 2 miles from the Peak National Park, 5 minute ride into Wharncliffe. It’s in S35 so doesn’t command the S6, S10 and S11 postcode prices.
I consider myself pretty lucky to have the benefits of a big city but quiet village location and riding so close.
Worral, Oughtibridge and Middlewood are good alternatives actually to S10/11/17 postcodes as @teenrat says. I lived in the housing development at Middlewood hospital for a while and regularly rode Wharncliffe woods with almost no tarmac involved (just a pleasant woodland trail with a short steep bit of tarmac in between). Added bonus of the tram in to town for work and shopping and enough local shops and restaurants in Hillsborough too.
Hayfield (no good train connection though)
Erm, NO TRAIN CONNECTION full stop! Also a somewhat claustrophobically small local community, a tendency to be over-run by tourists much of the year and a constantly expanding number of Air BNBs. And the ever-present prospect of having Nick Craig float effortlessly past as you struggle to simply stay on the bike up some steep, rocky climb. Nice to visit, I'm not sure I'd want to live there.
“endless gravel riding” is estate agent spin for “there is no MTB”
"... and the roads are catastrophically dangerous".
New Mills is particularly good from a transport point of view with 2 train lines and decent doorstep riding. When I lived there it worked well for work/going out etc in Manchester and riding regularly.
Yeah Hayfield might be picture postcard nice and have immediate hill access... but no trains and touristmegeddon.
Marple/ Furness/ Whaley Bridge would be good too.
Surrey Hills? Well there are some spots with trains and close rides to the well-known trails but it's £££s .
Somewhere like Haslemere would be good for trails and trains . Petersfield for QECP/ South Downs access too. Both are good towns with Petersfield being a bit cheaper, relatively, as both are on London train lines.
There's good moorland xc up and down the country, but actual excellent MTB locations are rare in the UK (imho). Your doorstep riding just needs to be a MTB ride, but if you're hours away from anywhere really good then it gets noticeable. This is a large part of S / mid / N England imho - it's a blessing if you live in the Peak, Pennines, Dales etc for your doorstep riding but none of it is top tier MTBing as of today. I find I miss having that sort of destination riding within easy reach where I am (S Manc).
This is only really an issue if you just purely ride MTBs, which is likely a minority of people. I mean your bike commute is a more important consideration to your general life than how far away the Tweed, say, or BPW is.
Malvern anyone?
Never lived or ridden there, but have walked there a bit. In fact at the end of our NYE walk there saw Evie Richards on her way out for a quick one presumably. MTB must be OK with Tracy, Hattie and Evie living there, and it has a Waitrose plus an unusual concentration of Nepali restaurants and Buddhist temples.
