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I'll always drive to places, even if I lived in one of the bike meccas, I'd still want to ride in other places.
Living where I do means I drive an hour to an hour and a half one way most weekends. Even the local stuff is 15-20min drive. Planning on moving at some point.
The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff. I am another Cardiffian, and there is some great riding just a little too far away to ride to (unless you are going for an all-dayer) which I should visit more often. But the faff of packing the car up etc. means you end up going local, like you did last week, and the week before...
I can ride off the doorstep or 25 min drive to my mums and then it’s 30 mins of langsett/cutgate and all the great riding of the Pennines, I just wish northern rail would stop going on strike it’s been 8 Saturdays in a row so no 5 mins to station and train to hebden/Tod and a beer on way home
We've a BW going directly past the house but it doesn't really link up with with much. It's the best part of an hour each way on roads and/or very boggy lanes to get started on the Dales' BWs so a fifteen minute drive is a better use of time.
Seventy five minutes of driving gets me to Staveley and the riding round there, a similar time to Reeth for the Swaledale trails. We've just got back from three days bikepacking in Kielder Forest, three hours each way.
Usually 20 to 45 minutes but the sky is the limit. New Zealand and Canada are ace for riding trips.
I drive, on a regular basis, 30 mins to WindHill Bikepark, or 20 minutes to Rowberrow on the Mendips. Also do BPW about three times a year (2 hours away).
Probably going to offend some people now, but I wouldn't bother going out of my way to ride Swinley; it just doesn't have enough gradient to be anything other than a slog. If I lived near, I'd probably drive a bit further to somewhere like Tidworth.
JP
One hour for me to get to any good riding. I do it almost every weekend in Summer and every second or so in winter. I just have to do it otherwise there will be no riding!
We've got common land 300 yards from our house. Not supposed to ride on it,but chavs tear it up on mopeds & don't get nicked so sod it 😊. There's also the Malvern hills less than a couple of miles away too. Plenty of fun there if you know the trails 😁
I get the wish to keep vehicle miles to a minimum, but driving-for-mtb miles pale into insignificance when compared to driving-for-whitewaterkayak miles. I have done 10s of 1000s of miles many times over. Never again.
I do ride out from home most weeks but I have been doing these trails for 30 years so do like to drive somewhere for a bit of variety. An hours drive is my top limit though.
The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff
Nah, I don't agree. You can always push yourself to go a bit faster or sillier. Once you know the trails and local routes backwards, then you can ride lots of trails combos without having to plan a route.
Or go and build some lines. I've put in quite a few fun lines in forestry land near me this year. Lots of steep, off-camber silliness. Only I'm riding them, so I can try out different line routes and sections. And when that area gets harvested I move to another bit of the hill.
Lucky to have a fully wooded, 5 mile long, 200m high ridge right next to my house. Lots of fire trails for going up, and hardly ever, if at all, see anybody up there.
The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff
There is truth in that. When I lived near Edinburgh I'd ride from my doorinto the Pentland Hills but for variation I really needed to drive further afield.
I'm now in Aviemore though - hence much less driving. There's just somuch choice and variation locally.
I drive to the South Downs on occasion, other than that I ride to the local trails near me on the North Downs. I am still discovering new ones, which is always good.
Once you know the trails and local routes backwards, then you can ride lots of trails combos without having to plan a route.
Agree - great if you're short on time to just get on and go without needing to plan much, plus if you're familiar with an area you get to know the cheeky routes. There's enough around where I live (Durham) to combine road sections with fire roads/railway paths and bridleways to keep it interesting, with the occasional visit to one of the National Parks or Hamsterley (which I do sometimes ride to from home, but I need to commit a whole day to it to make it worthwhile).
I rode to Morzine to go biking a couple of summers back.
Twas a great way to beat the peages and eat loads of pan au chocolates.
I regularly ride to Cannock for a few laps of the dog; its all free saddle time!
I live in Oswestry Shropshire. I drive:
30 mins to llandegla.
75 mins to the Marin
60 mins to penmachno
100 mins to nant yr arian
90 mins to cyb
120 mins to the dark peak
I have local bridleway/cheeky trails I can ride from the door but some need to be all day affairs (Glyn valley/Berwyns)
I live in Leeds...
Before i had kids 1hr 15 mins each way for a day ride (dales or peaks), less than 4 hrs for a weekend (n wales or lakes)and then 4+ for a few days or more (highlands).
Now I have kids i tend to ride from the door to max the time in the saddle. Did a weekend in the lakes in April this year as couldn't be arsed spending too long driving.
Depends where you live I guess...
@Matt_SS_xc I’m also living in Devon and spend quite a lot of time driving to Wales or FOD as let’s face it Dartmoor is quite often in its natural liquid state. In fact I’m on my way to the Forest of Dean now.
I go to the Forest of Dean once or twice a month and BPW about the same amount. Local stuff is mostly for midweek riding.
I'm about 2 minutes away from local trails and there's a good selection of them to ride.
Me and a mate once drove to Provence and back in a weekend to spend a day riding up and down Mont Ventoux. Probably wouldn't drive any further than that to ride to be honest 😂
I’m a 40-45 minute drive from Aviemore/Cairngorms. Mountain biking is better when, you know, there are some actual mountains... Contin is about 20-25.
I do the majority of my riding in the gorms (there’s a variety and scope I’ve not exhausted yet even if I have now done the Burma Road 3x this year 🤣). Plus I’ve mates who live there and, well, plans...
Bikepacking takes me further afield and like Scotroutes my ‘rule’ is riding time > driving time which is easy enough if you’re overnighting. I have left from the house a couple times (a four day away cross the country and back for instance) but my access roads are singletrack with passing places and the highlands seem to be full of people hurtling along in their cars at breakneck speed... also, crossing the Kessock bridge with 750/800mm bars means stopping if there’s anybody coming the other way... 🤪
My roadie scum days are long gone.
I won’t. Which is guess is why I barely MTB anymore. Being time poor means that I need to use every minute available to me, I can be on quiet country roads on my road bike in 5 mins, and can be running on quiet trails in the same time. Local MTB trails are maybe 30 minutes ride away, anything good is the best part of an hour in the car.
15 mins drive to Woburn or 45 to chicksands or Aston.
3 hours each way for afan that I'm doing next week tho !
An hour or so to swinley, which is the kids favourite
15 mins drive to Woburn
Genuine question and not a dig; does that 15 mins include getting the bike in/out or on/off the car and getting changed out of muddy kit? I guess if you are doing it regularly you have it down to a good routine but I can't be bothered with that additional faff for short distances and it would probably mean I rode less.
Agree – great if you’re short on time to just get on and go without needing to plan much, plus if you’re familiar with an area you get to know the cheeky routes.
This is true- jeans & trainers (no special shoes needed) and out the door for a quick blast of urban swerving (as my OH calls it)- hopping up kerbs and riding down stairs can be as good for your head as a big day out and there are fun lines and routes all over the shop if you look for them!
^^^ on that theme, closest all weather riding to me is Cathkin, which is ok for a fitness blast when time short. It’s a 7 minute drive or 20 minute ride. I almost always drive though as riding there and back is all on road and to me, waste of time, given I tend to go there when I don’t have enough time to go further afield.
And if you rode there you'd probably get bum raped and your bike taken off you....🙄😂
😎, an added bonus I guess !
I know you don’t rate the place Greg, but it’s worth having a look at the new stuff that was built for the European champs, linking down to the new pump track. I suspect you would find it annoyingly enjoyable...
30-45 mins for a typical 2-3hrs ride
1-2 hrs for a full day out
2-4 hrs for an overnight trip
Up to 14hrs for a biking holiday
Normally straight from the door, but generally try to apply the rule where if you're driving longer than you're going to ride, it's not really worth it for a day trip.
My worst offence this year was driving to Whinlatter - 3.5 hours driving there and back for well under 2 hours riding.
Done day trip to Afan which is 3 hrs each way door to door, apart from that within 1hr I can be at Swinley , Devils Punchbowl, Whiteways, Stanmer Park, Surrey Hills or its 20min drive to QECP.
Most of which become a mudfest this time of year so I jump on the road bike instead.
50% of weekends either 1hr to peaks, or 2.5 to North Wales. Other weekend - 25% from door or less than 30 minutes, 25% boring as shit family weekends.
Cutting down on family for more wales. Would live there but for work. 🙂
About twice a week, Mortimer forest (15 minutes) or Hopton Woods (25 minutes). A couple of times a month either FOD, Llandegla or Cannock all about 1hr 30min.
Well I did the Swinley thing today with Jnr - 2 laps of everything, 4hrs at his speed. Not so sure anymore its going to be a regular thing for me, p'raps I need to hit 2 laps at my race pace to see if I get more from it.
1hr there this morning 1:07 this afternoon back, 110m round trip but only £4 in the car park - £1 an hour.
Aren't there enough cars on the road already? Why on earth would you want to make a special journey just to ride a bike? If you are going away on holiday or off to a race fair enough.
@martinhutch's comment about his "worst offence" reminded me of mine: drove from Skipton to Tyndrum for the HT550 group start, that's 400km and nearly five hours of driving. Got to Ben Alder Cottage at 80km in five hours, was decidedly ill so scratched and got out to Corrour and the train back to Tyndrum. Another 400km and five hours of driving back home 😖
Cannock Chase and hour away Wales a couple of hours. Local riding a bit crap and even worse in winter, bridleways just turn into sticky sludge.
Aren’t there enough cars on the road already? Why on earth would you want to make a special journey just to ride a bike? If you are going away on holiday or off to a race fair enough.
Fine if you have have endless singletrack outside your front door or are solely a roadie.
Genuine question and not a dig; does that 15 mins include getting the bike in/out or on/off the car and getting changed out of muddy kit? I guess if you are doing it regularly you have it down to a good routine but I can’t be bothered with that additional faff for short distances and it would probably mean I rode less.
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Zafira, may be one fugly car but takes about 30 secs to fold the back seats down and about that to take the front wheel off & load the bike in.
Live close enough to grizedale/coniston to ride from the door and have some nice trails on the doorstep but every now and then you need a change, quite happy to drive to Yorkshire, scotishland, wales for something a bit different although the frau is increasingly reluctant to issue day passes
Zafira, may be one fugly car but takes about 30 secs to fold the back seats down and about that to take the front wheel off & load the bike in.
👍
lovegoinguphills
Aren’t there enough cars on the road already? Why on earth would you want to make a special journey just to ride a bike? If you are going away on holiday or off to a race fair enough.
I love this sort of eco-warrior nonsense. If you apply this sort of reductive logic to everything in life, you wouldn't be able to do anything, the global economy would collapse, and we'd be back to living in mud huts and dying at 30.
The fact is that most people don't live within riding distance of decent trails, hence we drive to ride them. I could go back to my pre-car, teen days of riding miles on the road for a few miles of intermittent bridleway, but, frankly, I don't really want to.
JP
Driving from Sheffield to Leeds Urban Bike Park next Saturday, about 45 mins. Drove over 3 hours to get to G
isburn. Been down to Cannock a coupe of times at about 2 hours each way. It's great to see what the riding is like in new places. If you need to drive to get somewhere good to ride, or to somewhere more weather appropriate, it's just what you need to do.
What JP says.
@martinhutch’s comment about his “worst offence” reminded me of mine: drove from Skipton to Tyndrum for the HT550 group start, that’s 400km and nearly five hours of driving. Got to Ben Alder Cottage at 80km in five hours, was decidedly ill so scratched and got out to Corrour and the train back to Tyndrum. Another 400km and five hours of driving back home
Yes, but I drove with the firm intention of riding about 12 miles around a trail centre. Your intentions were slightly more noble! There's been a few where I've driven for hours then had a terminal mechanical riding around the car park...or found out I'd left a wheel at home...