If I could only ride from my door I’d sell all my bikes and quit riding.
I kind of get what they mean. I've ridden for long enough that I know I'd get bored with the trails from the door after a while. They're fun, but I need a bit of variety. I wouldn't give up in a toys out of the pram style, but likely drift away from bikes and do other stuff with the odd ride now and then. Or I'd move house.
Are many people really that stuck on the idea that riding bikes means lots of travel every weekend?
Fraid so mate. This weekend is FoD on Friday and Dyfi on Sat, possibly Surrey Hills on Sunday.... That's just how it is really. Bikes mean different things to different people, to me, local riding is great and fine... but sometimes/often it's not what's needed.
I'm kind of rediscovering the love of "just riding" whatever we have locally, which is mostly limited to flat bridleways, singletrack through the woods and towpaths. I guess what would be considered "old school xc" or something. I kind of moved away from this over the years as I was always so focused on riding "proper" bikepark style trails with features/jumps/drops/techy bits, which then meant driving somewhere with some elevation was necessary for a proper ride. So yeah without driving I'm pretty limited as we just don't have the hills nearby, but the local stuff is a nice change of pace and I'm happy to get away from the idea that I have to travel miles to ride my bike.
If I could only ride from my door I’d sell all my bikes and quit riding.
Really? you wouldn’t even look at your local area or maybe adapt your riding to suit the opportunities near by?
I have explored everything locally and it's all major roads, bumper to bumper traffic, parks full of empty cans and syringes, scrotes in ninja masks flying around on crossers and surrons.
I am quite fortunate to have high quality riding within a 30 to 40 minute drive but honestly, I've tried riding out from home or going for local missions and it's too grim.
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
As others have stated if I had to ride from home all the time I would quit mtb riding. I might get a gravel bike but the mtbs would go. I would love to live somewhere I could ride form the door but the reality of work means that wont happen.
We have thought about moving to live where we like to ride but that would mean a much longer commute 5 days a week to avoid driving to ride at the weekend. To us it makes more sense to minimise the commute and accept driving to ride than the other way round
I'm lucky enough to have 74km* of forest singletrack 4 miles from home, so I ride there and back and this continues most of my riding But I also drive (a hybrid) to Hadleigh & Swinley to add variety and different perspectives on technical challenges.
On that note I'll also be spending 4 days in South Wales with junior as part fun, part technical experience, I also want to make the most of a road trip to my Gloucester office to ride the FoD trails - its a 20 miles extension to a journey I have to do anyway - in Spring / Summer.
Road rides in Hert's & Essex are always from the door.
*that I know of.
I've loads of riding from my door, I can piece together a 90% offroad 30+mile loop quite easily - we've great riding in the area too. But god I'd be bored if I had to always ride from home.
Part of MTB to me is going to new places and exploring, can be a trail centre or a mountain range.
I'd say at least 70% of my riding this year has started with a car journey to a destination.
Really? you wouldn’t even look at your local area or maybe adapt your riding to suit the opportunities near by?
Although this wasn’t aimed at me, I’m the same. If it was just gravel & flat woodland, I wouldn’t be riding bikes, as that’s not interesting to me.
Like others, in a very flat bit of North Yorkshire so this is avbout the best bit of off-road riding I've got:
Local riding, mixed road/offroad along, if your very lucky, a flat double with bridleway/farm track, usually on a hardtail or gravel bike, is just about a bit of fresh air, exercise etc, but is absolutely not Mountain Biking.
"Mountain Biking" for me has always, and will always, involved getting in the car and going somewhere for a ride, into the hills or dales, or to a trail centre, or a race.
I have absolutely zero environmental guilt in doing this, especially given my massive reduction in recent years of sitting in a traffic jam for an hour every morning and evening in order to sit at my laptop in an office 30 miles away with my headphones.
Although this wasn’t aimed at me, I’m the same. If it was just gravel & flat woodland, I wouldn’t be riding bikes, as that’s not interesting to me.
Ditto. If I never did 'proper' mountain biking Id sell the lot and get fat and lazy, or worse, play golf or fishing.
I'm incredibly lucky to be able to ride from my front door.
Living in Rossendale via the Mary Townley Loop gives access to rolling moors, tight valley climbs as well as the trail centres in the Rossendale Valley.
I'm very blessed and love where I live.
Happy trails.
No "real" MTB riding from my doorstep. It's mostly farm track bridleways and footpaths through the middle of fields. When the conditions are less wet then farm tracks and footpaths through the middle (or edges of) fields are much more preferable to riding on the roads. Most of my riding is commuting so by dedfinition, from my doorstep. We're a single car family and the car isn't always available to me to just go off for a ride somewhere nice with real singletrack - plus there's not time for that, or sometimes not energy after commuting. So I just make the most of what is available to me around here. I took up trials riding which is a great way of keeping general bike handling skills sharp for when I do go back on the trails. Lobbed some pallets, a low wall, etc, in the back of the garden by my shed to practice trails on or jump in car with trials bike and head to the nearest town. If out on the MTB will often head to the same spots and ride the stairsets down the cliffs (even the cliffs lack height around here :crying emoji:). Zig zag across ruts and up and down banks along farm tracks just to make things more a bit more fun/technical/hard work. If I want to treat myself then there's a few metres of singletrack amongst some trees next to a dyke! It's all rather flat in terrain and experiencec.
Lucky enough to have good road and MTB riding from home - close to Peaks (SE Manchester). 99% of the time I ride from home. Occasionally go to a trail centre with mates, but it's usually part of an organised 'weekend' so car share etc and beer ! Much of my cycling is commuting, with weekend 'fun stuff' - Relatively time constrained though, don't often vanish for the day riding, maybe a couple of hours. Not an accomplished MTB'er, so XC with climbing and some descents (slowly compared to some) is fine by me. Can't jump - wheels on ground person.
If I had to ride only from my door I’d quit mountain biking entirely and just get back into riding fixed gear again. Soggy bridleways and an hours road ride to the boring Ridgeway, no thanks.
This topic comes up fairly regularly and highlights some pretty enormous privilege. I’d love to live within cycling distance of FoD or Dyfi Forest but unfortunately (like many) a job that puts food on the table and affordable housing has to come first.
Ride from my door to a mixture of country road, gravel, bridleways - nothing particularly technical but always great fun
I have driven to a riding spot in many years
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
Given the price of petrol it's the other way around surely?
"This weekend is FoD on Friday and Dyfi on Sat, possibly Surrey Hills on Sunday" That's £100* just in fuel! And around a quarter of a ton of CO2 to boot!
*at petrol hatchback rates, considerably more in a van.
My "from the door" is Swinley, and the adjacent MOD forests. A 2 hour evening blast, or I could put together a fun 4-5 hour loop.
Still enjoy a good trip, happily do so every weekend if other commitments didn't get in the way. Surrey hills, south wales, B1ke sites, races... All considered a treat or upgrade.
I enjoy the challenge/excitement of MTB. (Fitness and fresh air is an incidental benefit.) I have selected a bike that allows me to enjoy my local riding. Short travel trail bike and the understanding that I need to pedal for my speed, not rely on gravity.
I have wondered, if my local riding was "gravel" and I bought a suitably fashionable gravel bike to enjoy it, how would that affect my weekend/holiday riding. Would I relish a trip to ride the bouncy bike, or would I go all in on the gravel world?
Another here that moved to a great riding spot.
I used to drive 70000 miles a year with my job and really grew to hate driving. My area was 1/4 of the UK. The car we have now is averaging about 3000 miles a year with two of us using it.
A day away from the Tweed Valley is a wasted day now. 😂
To echo some of the previous comments being able to start a ride from home is a major factor in why I live where I do. It’s not the most impressive spot in the country, or the biggest but in 5-10 minutes (depending on direction) I’m off road and into trees.
Driving to ride isn’t a problem but is reserved for bigger days out and longer trips with local riding friends.
I need to drive 30-45 minutes to get to somewhere I would "need" a mountain bike. I can bang out road or gravel loops from home. Half a mile north or south to a bridleway out the village, and on a gravel bike I can then get into central Nottingham or Derby without going on a road.
When kids were younger and i was pushed for time I simply got out the habit of mountain biking as I couldn’t see the point wasting time driving - still got my 26" Soul as I've not needed anything else.
Keep thinking I'll travel a bit to try and get back into MTB. Keep making local plans with mates instead. The fact that its "better for the environment" is a minor side issue.
That’s just how it is really ... local riding is great and fine… but sometimes/often it’s not what’s needed.
It's not like that everywhere. There are plenty of houses in great riding areas, that you can probably afford as well. The big problem will be wether or not you want to live there or can find work.
I live in a decent city with loads of great MTBing nearby (the road is less good but still not the worst), and I'm quite lucky to be able to do my job here.
i can ride from my door but the hill is slated for housing development.
if i take a 10 minute drive up the mountain i prefer the riding and i’m less likely to get poo on my bike or bump into hikers or runners. not that this is a problem, i just prefer the solitude. if i had an ebike, i could ride these from home, but in my state of fitness it isn’t practical or even vaguely appealing to ride. that said, i don’t think it would be much fun on an ebike,
Do you have riding a stones throw away, that is just too far/inaccessible for a half day/days riding that you refuse to drive to?
the “problem” with having such enjoyable trails on my doorstep is that i never drive to the trails a further away, which aren’t actually that far!
I moved for a job (as an academic) first and foremost - when I was still single - and the decision was based entirely around that. When you’re on a fixed term contract in a skilled profession you can only apply for what’s on offer and not be too picky about geographical location. Whether there was riding from the door was not a primary factor. I recognise that I’m lucky though, that I can ride from my door in many directions on old railway paths (around Durham) and link up with bits of byway and bridleway - not at all technical, but varied enough to keep it interesting and always somewhere with a view and a chance to clear the mind. Riding is determined by family commitments - rides from home when I have a couple of hours on my own, trips to Hamsterley or into the Pennines or dales with my son when we have a bit more time.
I'll drive but the ratio of driving to riding has to be right. At very least the total riding time has to be the same as the travel time (travel time includes faffing and packing the car before/after), and I see that as a bare minimum. I'm not doing a 4 hour round trip for 2 hours riding, that's a terrible use of my time.
I hate the idea of having to drive a car somewhere to ride a bike. I’ve got plenty of decent routes from my door but this was a big factor in deciding where we moved to.
I guess I’m quite lucky in that I enjoy just being out on my bike, I don’t need to be always riding techy/fun single track (all though that would be my preference) to get pleasure from riding.
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
Hardly! A 4 bedroom detached house with a decent bit of land, in the Forest of Dean was 40% of the value of something similar in the part of Hampshire we used to live.
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
I ended up near Matlock by chance, just happens that the riding is ok from the door and better still a little further away. Where I live in Darley Dale is definitely not posh, or expensive.
Apologies this thread turned out similar to one I posted the other week about 'would you live where the riding was rubbish?' That wasn't the intention, but some good answers regardless.
Seems there aren't that many on here who wouldn't drive to ride, which surprised me a bit tbh
This weekend is FoD on Friday and Dyfi on Sat, possibly Surrey Hills on Sunday….
@weeksy that’s an action packed weekend. i’m wondering, will you be with your son? would you travel as much to ride if he wasn’t into bikes? (probably not, suspect you’d be talking him to other activities)
how do the logistics work on these kinds of weekends? to you stay away from home and drive from one spot to the next?
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals.
im very fortunate, mainly because my wife is so capable and motivated and because my dad took the risk from one of the poorest places in the country to where i was born.
my wife and i then lived in some places so unappealing that companies based there struggle to fill positions. then we saved as much as we could and moved somewhere “nicer”. that said, we enjoyed the unappealing places, too.
obviously, that is all privileged stuff as having opportunities is a privilege in itself. it helped not having children till later in life, but that means i’m mid-50’s with a 7 year old boy, so like most people we won’t be retiring anytime soon.
If I’m riding solo I’ll tend to ride from the door. However most of what I would ride isn’t really doable at the moment, without the bike grinding to a halt. I avoid the road where possible these days, too many close calls.
I can get to Swinley in an hour or so by bike as the byways etc are usually better heading that way. A little bit of a slog in winter though being 12 miles each way, but mostly off road. Honestly not that rewarding, but good for fitness.
If work goes to plan I take a bike with me and have ridden most of the trail centres in the UK that way, torture for some I know. Ideal for those of us without local knowledge or time to explore.
I try and book work accommodation near trails, managed Afan Lodge a few times last summer. A great way of staying out of the bar when working away.
Actually there in a couple of weeks, will try and convince my colleague a night ride is a good idea.
If it’s a group ride I’ll almost always drive as it’s usually not practical to get there by bike.
I live in Macclesfield near the forest so have easy access to some half decent natural trails. Marple, Roman Lakes and other areas are a relatively short pootle away. I used to travel to ride when younger but avoid it now due to time constraints and cutting down o unnecessary car journeys.
I used to live in Nottingham. After a break-in where I suspect either I'd been followed or seen loading bikes into the house, I stopped riding from the door to Hemlock Stone and spent time driving to North Nottingham or Ambergate and the Peaks for riding.
Moved to Macclesfield at the beginning of last year, and riding from the door was part of the appeal. Which was great when the weather was good, but over the past couple of months, finding the motiviation has been a bit more tricky, and I've found myself back to riding familiar terrain in Ambergate with the associated drive to get there. Partly for people to ride with, but also partly because it doesn't seem worth driving up to the Forest for riding when it's a 15-20 minute pedal away. As a blow-in to the area, I've found it pretty tricky to find people to ride with, mainly as most people are on ebikes, and those I've met generally are a lot more comfortable on slick nadgery natural riding than I am!
Macclesfield is great for riding from the door, but I think there's a bit more that goes into riding than just how easy it is to access from the house.
I'll drive to ride (MTB) even though I live close by some great trails. However, I'm super-efficient at doing so (bike rack permanently on the tow bar, seat covers in the car so dirt isn't a problem and I'm not precious about the interior, hose readily available at home, secure storage locker) so the ratio of total time used (including faffing) to riding time is pretty good. I'm also flexible enough with time that I can choose different trail systems if traffic is bad in a particular direction.
Mostly I'll drive as my dog comes with me and there's no way he could run alongside me on the road but also because I'd be completely knackered just getting to the trails. They generally involve 300m or so of climbing on roads just to get to the start of the trails (which then involve several hundred more meters of solid, steep climbing). I'm just not young enough/fit enough to do that all the time (I do ride to trails some times when we've got more daylight)
In my defence, I probably ride my gravel bike or my road bike more often than I mountain bike these days (like probably 50% gravel bike/40% road bike/10% mountain bike), and those rides are (mostly) done from home.
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
I don't think it is, Like I said I was relatively "time rich" when I was younger and could travel more to ride, but I don't live in an MTB Mecca now (Reading) so it's mostly gravel and road bikes around Berkshire/Hampshire/Oxfordshire.
These days I lack the time (and surplus income) to sit in a car for hours just so I can get to nicer terrain, time is more of a scare resource. I've never lived anywhere that it's impossible to find (or build) something to ride locally, I find it hard to believe anyone lives in such an urban wasteland that riding from the door is 'impossible'...
I think this thread is just highlighting a poverty of imagination and/or a bit of snobbery about the types of riding people are willing to do or not. 90% of my riding is from my door by necessity not choice.
Some of you have already said you'd turn your nose up at anything that's not 'high quality MTB trails' and I'd maybe have thought like that when I was younger, but I see that as quite a sad mindset now.
I'll accept that most of my riding these days isn't the pinnacle of bike riding, on relatively 'mundane' terrain, but I can't imagine just ditching all bikes because I can't access sexy trails every weekend, that's a bit monocultural isn't it? I've had some pretty great experiences on gravel and road bikes as well as MTBs. I think there's maybe too much bike media/SM/YouTubers sending messages about what constitutes 'valid' cycling experiences.
@whydot I grew up in Macc (started mtbing there) and there is loads to go at outside the forest up in the hills, if big moorland xc/trail stuff is more your bag than forest off piste.
It generally runs well in the wet, too.
Nicely varied riding from my East Devon door 😁
240m high ridge covered in woods 5mins ride away. Loads of singletrack, BWs and various trails within a 10km radius.
Miles of country lanes, unmettaled roads, and gravel.
Dartmoor is a 35-40km cycle away, as is Exmoor, so I can do a 100-150km road ride and take in some proper hills and wild countryside.
I really only drive to ride if it's visiting mates further afield or maybe MTB on the Quantocks or Dartmoor. No more than once a month I'd say.
*Edit...Just looked on Strava. 2 rides I've driven to in the last 6 months. Quite pleased with that.
Another thing not mentioned is you can get a really really long way from your front door if you include an overnight bivvy, b&b or hostel. Keep gear minimal and that could open up all kinds of interesting trails without touching the car or even a train.
This time of year is a GREAT time to start planning such shenanigans for the spring/summer
but I don’t live in an MTB Mecca now (Reading) so it’s mostly gravel and road bikes
Yeah it’s shit. There are some decent routes heading north from Sonning but, not great this time of the year.
You can get to Swinley/Crowthorne woods in about an hour mostly off-road, with one cheeky footpath from Shinfield. If you can be arsed.
I find it hard to believe anyone lives in such an urban wasteland that riding from the door is ‘impossible’…
Riding from the door may not be impossible, but in many cases it's likely to be undesirable. When I lived in Manchester for example I did little riding because it was such an utter ball-ache to get to. It just put me off. When I worked in Birmingham it was grim too.
Yeah it’s shit. There are some decent routes heading north from Sonning but, not great this time of the year.
You can get to Swinley/Crowthorne woods in about an hour mostly off-road, with one cheeky footpath from Shinfield. If you can be arsed.
There's a bit more about than just that, I'm the other side of town from sonning but do get over that way riding with mates from Earley regularly, it's very much roadie territory, but yeah I make do with what I have nearby, I doubt I'll bother with swinley before spring now (and it's only a half hour drive away 😉 ).
I don't think anyone has mentioned the bike yet.
I'm about 15 miles from Innerleithen, so can ride there in about an hour on the XC hardtail, which is fine, loads of trails to ride between here and there, and around there.
However, getting to the Golfie on the big bike with a full face and pads is a pain (I'm not very good on the steeps so I need them!) and I often drive that. I feel guilty about driving such a short distance so tend to make an overnight of it, sleep in the van and get two days riding in to ease the guilt a little.
I'm looking to move to Inners or Walkerburn for proper 'from the door' riding, I'd use the big bike a lot more if it was truly on my doorstep. And having the river in the village would be great, kayak in van, drive upstream, kayak back to house, get warm and dry, ride to fetch van.
I live in Liverpool city centre. No chance I can ride from my door. I do the odd gravel ride from my door, but roads are horrendous, nearest decent mtb is North Wales. Even road riding isn’t particularly nice from my door.
I generally drive over to the girlfriends in North Wales / English border and we take the gravel bikes to Delamere or ride gravel rides from her door. River ride over to Chester is ok for us to bimble around and then back roads home.
Would love to live nearer real mountain bike territory, but work and family mean I’m stuck here for the foreseeable.
We should all chip in to buy a small property or caravan in Swindon. That way we can take it in turns to go ride the fabled trails behind the Nationwide.
But who would run the uplift 😉
