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3 or 4 times a year, most riding is from the door. Off-road in 3 minutes!
Done a lot of riding from the door this year. Can be offroad in 20 seconds and have loads of stuff I can link up.
I've driven to Pentlands once this year (about 20 mins drive - though have ridden out three times, takes about an hour each way), plus Glentress 3 times (just under an hour each way) and Lakes once for a 3 day weekend (about 2.5 hours each way).
Generally do more drive-to-ride in summer - probably go up north once or twice a month from March to November, and have driven to the Alps in the summer for 2-3 weeks holiday.
I'm in N.Wales but have little off road/single track on the doorstep. I tend to drive 10 miles or so to ride a couple of times a week.
To get to anything decent I was having to drive at least an hour, mostly 2. Stuck at it for a couple of years or so, but enough is enough now so the MTB is slowly being sold and a road bike, maybe a cx bike, is on the horizon.
Although I'm lucky to have singletrack close by, I yearn for wildlife, scenery, views, bit of history so that meant anything up to 100 mile round trip for an all-day picnic ride. In that time I could get to such a variety of locations and terrain.
Nevertheless these days I'm severely restricting myself due to the high cost of fuel. More map studying really.
Bit crap really. 🙁
Embarassingly today I drove for 5 minutes to get to the local dh trails rather than ride there 😳
About 2 hours/~100 miles each way is my limit. In the summer I do that about twice a month. Can't justify any more as it's too expensive and I hate getting up at silly o'clock to go riding! Does get very annoying and I envy people with good local trails.
I've just found a nice looking local spot for building my own jumps/drops so I think I'm gonna stick to working on that for the time being, save myself some money!
I've cut right down, these days I've been riding from my house or getting the train. I quite like using the train with the bike as it makes solo point-to-point trips considerably easier logistically.
Can everyone near Southampton vote on the survey please. they don't believe people will travel 10 - 20 miles to visit a great location
http://southamptoncycle.wordpress.com/
Can ride from my door and be on the Mendips in 15 minutes, although if pushed for time I have been known to drive when pushed for time or taking the dog.
I'll ride Swinley from my doorstep, and usually road rides too. But sometimes I'll go by car to get the first few miles out of the way and avoid the town.
In a normal* week,
Saturday - Pangbourne, about 17miles away by road
Sunday - Roadie club run or solo ride from my door or Swinley from my door
Tuesday - Farnbrough and surrounding area, about 17 miles
Thursday - as Tuesday
I could ride from my door every day. but I'd be bored very quickly.
*Probably averaging 50-60miles a week of driving to ride.
I drive most of the time. I do some riding from home, but mostly flat road and paths. There's little to no "decent" riding round here, so you have to drive, and once you've loaded up the car, you might as well drive somewhere good.
And yes, I have spent more time driving than riding on quite a few occasions.
I used to work at the Afan (Glyncorrwg) Trail Centre, and I'd ride after work most nights until a few months before I left.
I'd have to drive there to work, so it was all good.
The trails are so poor there now due to lack of maintenance, and the local secret stuff is being destroyed systematically due to the felling program to control the spread of P Ramorum in the area. I gave up riding there and consequently working there.
I'm building my own set of trails in the Swansea Valley now, right on my doorstep. My kids and their friends are loving it.
And I've got a lot of local guys involved in building "our" trails in local woods not controlled by the FC.
It's great, perfect singletrack tailored to our riding styles that we can evolve as and when necessary.
I love riding trail centres, But now I've got my own version, I really can't see a reason to drive anywhere to ride.
And I don't see why anyone else "has" to drive to ride either.
To answer the question about 15/25 min drives...
Stockhill is 15 mins by car and, for me, 40 mins to road ride. The advantage of riding is that I get a reasonably good downhill back to the house. But if I have a small time-window, I drive.
Burrington Combe is 25 mins by car and, for me, 80 mins to road ride. I rarely have time to ride up there. That time is for mountain biking.
It's all open country roads - 60mph (in the car 🙂