Obviously some do....
Personally I'm drawn towards hills, trees and scenery, regardless of biking.
The Derbyshire Dales aren't exactly the Mecca of MTB, but they are decent enough and the Peak is on the doorstep.
I'd really struggle to live somewhere flat and featureless for many reasons, unless I really had to. I think I'd lose my mind if I lived in the flatlands of Lincolnshire/Norfolk or the like.
If you do live somewhere boring, what took you there and what's stopping you leaving. Work, family, you actually like it?
No. In fact, we moved two miles so we could be right next to trails and hills. My mum lives near Epworth, Doncaster, the flatness makes me itch when I’m up there…
I live half way between the Bannau Brecheiniog (Brecon Beacons) and Elan valley (Cwm Elan), amazing riding here straight out of the back door. No amount of pay increase could persuade me to live in a city, or somewhere flat!
No.
I’ve always had the benefit of hills on my doorstep. Never really consciously chosen to live with biking out of the front door as there’s lots of other factors when I’ve moved house but as I’ve always wanted to stay in or around Sheffield where I was born it’s never been an issue. When I travel to the likes of Norfolk though I think I’d get itchy especially in summer. The beach is a good substitute for me but get mobbed when it’s nice (never a problem with my local trails).
My location is intermediate. Less good than where you are but better than many southern counties. I’m an hours ride or 15 min drive from Woburn or Chicksands for actual MTB. Usually I ride from the door. The riding from the door is better than when I lived in Darlington
We moved back south during foot and mouth to be nearer family. I often ponder whether we should be nearer the hills or sea. But I’m getting a bit old for a job change
Being a teacher makes a big difference. We are often away from home 8 weeks a year. I think I slept in 29 different places this year
Here’s yesterday ride for reference
https://strava.app.link/wflIpwqAzFb
20yrs ago I'd have said no way, but now I could easily live in north Norfolk. Lincolnshire not so much (but I've had many a good time on that coast as a kid and adult). Mum and Dad had a chalet in Sutton on Sea when were were growing up so we have a connection to the place.
We'll probably retire to the Lincolnshire coast and trundle up and down the sea front on my pimped up mobility scooter! 🙂
Grew up in Cambridge. My passions were MTB, Surfing and Windsurfing, It was a total nightmare. Suffice to say me and my mates wrote the book on 'the road trip' Sleeping in car parks was a staple of my youth.
All of us moved away as soon as we could! One guy moved to Cornwall, another to France - both to follow the endless summer....
I lived in France for a couple of years but ended up back in the UK
Now live in East Sussex about 5 minutes from the South Downs and 20 minutes from the coast. Its not ideal but its a lovely county and there is enough riding and watersports to satisfy me (too old for surfing anyway!).
Retirement plan is Wales or France!
I've lived somewhere rubbish all my life, when i was into kitesurfing the nearest coast was 2hrs away, then I got into biking and the nearest hills were over 2 hrs away. Work/partner/responsibilities meant I couldn't just move to my dream location, just had to make the best of what we had and enjoy the trips to the 'good stuff', on the weekends.<br /><br />Now I spend 2 months of the year in France/Spain/Italy, I ride most days in a lot of epic locations, as well as 2 or 3 other odd weeks of biking trips through the year, kind of evens out the score.
I do. Pembrokeshire is a great place to live and my wife and I love bringing up our kids here and both have jobs we love.
The riding sucks. I grew up in the NE and went to uni in Bradford. Both places had riding near and at the time I never thought I’d be so far from decent riding.
There is riding here but it’s not great. Brechfa is close-ish and there are some little bits of trails in woods and in the Preselis that are fun when conditions allow. Which is rarely!
Somehow I’ve been here 25 years and it’s great but that doesn’t mean that I don’t dream of rocky, all weather trails in my backyard though…
No. When we bought our house in 1990 one of the factors was we could mtb from the door.
I don’t think so. Even before I mountain biked on proper hills, I was always happier in hilly places. Hill, woods, enough people for there to be trail-building and riding groups happening, and if there’s enough people around that means there’s people to make music with and other culture happening.
The military dictates where I live, and at the moment that place is Colchester. On the face of it, terrible for riding. But with a bit of effort I've found some reasonable places to MTB, plus the gravel riding is pretty good. I'm finding I get out more often now, albeit not in the Dales/Lakes that I used to. I think there's good riding everywhere, you just need to adjust what that type of riding is to suit. That said, I know I'm moving away in 18 months time. My answer might be different if id been here 25 years!
No. When we were looking to move house 10-11 years ago we were originally thinking of NW Scotland but access to lots of biking/walking trails was one of the major factors in us choosing Aviemore instead.
Edit: I guess there may come a time when I don't care so much.
Depends how fortunate you are!!!
My regulator was seeing a guy in Baldwin Street (Bristol) lying on the pavement with a single blanket thrown over him in the rain and it was Winter.
To this day, I wish I did something to help. But my excuse was I just left the eye hospital and was in pain. Glad to get home... Still haunts.
Especially other people just stepping over him.
I was on the other side of the road.
And we are worried about insto riding from our front doors 🙁
Nope
The military dictates where I live, and at the moment that place is Colchester.
I feel your pain good sir, I've had that pleasure and up the road in Suffolk.
Absolute killer. Hopefully somewhere hilly next posting!
Moved from Calderdale to Manchester. Kill me now. (only joking) the riding from the door is dull, although the TPT runs practically past my front door, so I can go either way on that, and on a nice sunny day, riding to the coast at Southport has its own charm. I'm less than an hour from Peaks, Calderdale, and less than 2 hours away from the Lakes and North Wales, though so cannot 'protest too much'
I’m in Norwich, so it’s pretty flat, but we make the most of what we have and I’m lucky enough to be two minutes from countryside and woodland. I’d love to be nearer proper hills, but my mum lives near by and I wouldn’t feel comfortable moving away while she’s still alive. Work and most of our friends are here too, and the older I get the more nervous I am about completely starting afresh away from a network of people and things I know.
On the plus side, I really do appreciate a hill when I encounter one.
No, we are on the north east side of Nottingham for many reasons.
One is it's an 8min bike ride to some mountain biking in the woods.
South east side of town would be a 20 min drive to anything other than flat river bank rides
You quickly learn to make the most of it.
"Rubbish" places.
I live in the Thames valley.
I spent about a year in total in Cambridgeshire.
"Supposedly great" places.
I used to live in Sheffield.
I spent a couple of years in Teesside/North Yorkshire
Upsides of my current location, I live 15 minutes from a well paid job that keeps me in bikes, classic cars and and all the fun stuff that makes like worth living without having to drive anywhere.
The office cycling club does lunchtime rides, and there's a huge network of bridleways to enjoy on the gravel bike from woodland (gravel bike) tech, to "The Farley Hill Mini Epic" which is only about 17 miles but everyone we take on kt agrees it feels like a "propper" ride with everything from long dusty farm tracks, grassy fields, a techy climb, and a few miles of trails, and we can do it any day of the week, all year. We also do longer rides because the network of trails and paths goes on seemingly forever in all directions. If I want to jump in a car or train there's the Surrey Hills, Swinley, Chilterns, etc. And the Chilterns road riding is fantastic.
Cambridgeshire, similar I could go out the door and explore quiet roads and gravel tracks for seemingly ever.
Sheffield - it's great but to actually get anywhere takes 40-60 minutes ride each way to Stanage or Warncliffe. So a lot of people drove.
North Yorkshire. Guisborough was great for access to the moors, but again you're not going to ride that every day/week without getting bored, like Sheffield the first/last hour of every ride ended up being the same just getting over the first two hills.
I guess you get into a discussion as to what constitutes rubbish. Quality or Quantity? Is London rubbish, you've got a good network of cycle infrastructure, lots of road clubs, and trains that can take you to good riding anywhere in the country. So even that wouldn't be "Rubbish".
I think I’d lose my mind if I lived in the flatlands of Lincolnshire/Norfolk or the like.
Norfolk is not flat. Let's just get that out of the way. Yes you won't find any mountains, but there are loads of hills. Try riding the Peddars way, then come back and tell me about flat.
I live in Cambridgeshire.
Cambridgeshire, similar I could go out the door and explore quiet roads and gravel tracks for seemingly ever.
This. I can ride from my front door (*) and cycle fifty miles and barely see any cars other than the ones far below me on the A14 as I cross over the bridge towards Hilton.
(*) Assuming my dog will let me, and not guilt me into taking him for a walk instead.
No!
We used to live in a normal house close to all amenities etc. For the last 15 years we've lived in a stone heat sink with no central heating (no access for tanker), no mains water, a rough steep track for access, and if you run out of milk it's a 45 minute round trip in the car. Nearest supermarket is an hour each way. In the winter I find myself waist deep in freezing water fixing the water supply, walking half a mile up a 1 in 4 hill if its icy, and if I don't go out in the storm for firewood, we get hypothermia in the living room.
Every morning I get up and stand on the doorstep to remind myself of just how fortunate I am. Regrets? Not for one second. Maybe the only one is I've ruined myself for living anywhere normal ever again now I'm hefted to this land...
Riding in the Howgills out of the door, and the Dales and Lakes not far away ain't too shonky either...
My parents, my sister and her family moved back to Co Donegal last year. We had the opportunity to join them. One of the (many) reasons we didn’t was the hopeless access situation in Ireland.
The thing about the access laws in Ireland is that we all ignore them and build \ ride whereever we want.
I'm always surprised how compliant people in the UK England are.
I live 20 mins cycle from the Dublin mountains (sic: hills) where there's loads of trails and 30 mins cycle from the GAP (www.thegap.ie) bike park. Consider myself very lucky, would find it hard to move to where I'd have to load up the car to go mountain biking.
Yes. I live on the SW outskirts of Manchester and I ****in hate it. A few dogshit infested muddy paths nearby. Drive 45 minutes to Disley for something slightly better, or 70 minutes to the Peak. To endure endless tedious potato infested mud schlepped ditches.
Or 100 minutes to some decent stuff in the lakes, but just too far for a day trip on a regular basis.
To get to the really good riding in the Cairngorms is a solid 6 hour drive...
Came here for missus' work which since pissed off to Cambridge. Stayed here for kids' school. The question is whether I'll survive the remaining 2 years or just completely lose the will....
I hate this ****ing place.
As long as we have a choice in the matter, no. We ruled out some jobs due to location. Fortunate that we had a choice
If you can find like minded people to ride with them the terrain doesn't matter so much.
There might not be mountains but it's still fun to explore. And the right friends can turn any ride into an epic adventure.
Having lived in south Wales all my life I find I get antsy if I'm somewhere flat for too long. Whenever we visit family on the south coast (of England) after about 3 days I'm pining for some hills. It sounds mad but it's like I feel exposed in the flatlands.
I moved from the East London/Essex borders to the Sussex coast. If I had to return I'd probably leave my bikes here as part of the fixtures and fittings when I sold the house.
No, not unless my life or marriage depended on it. Luckily my wife rides and understands this.
Nope, one main decision in moving back to Devon 20 years ago was decent cycling.
Dartmoor and the Quantocks both 30 mins away, and pretty much endless bridleways, unmettaled roads, FC land and open access heathland out of my door. The hills aren't huge (250m tops) but there's a lot of them!
I moved from Edinburgh to Hull for family and work. I've mostly made sure I live near hills so it's taken some getting used to. We do have the Yorkshire Wolds and the gravel bike is perfect. It takes a change of mindset to appreciate what there is. If I'm on holiday or visiting relatives I'll take the mountain bike but I really miss a short ride to some decent mtb trails. Living here has its good sides away from cycling though
No where within about 8 miles from me is more than 50mtr asl
So I always drive to ride off road
Road cycling is ok from the door, good choice of flat or rolling hills but no mountains
The plus side is that I live on the seafront, so can windsurf or paddle board or open water swim straight from home.
Living in Surrey I'm being drawn to return to Devon for various reasons, and while you may think Devon is great for mountain biking, the kind of places I'd maybe move to are a fair distance from decent riding. Devon has a lot of land but a lot of it is out of bounds. The main decent open space is Dartmoor and cycling off road and off bridleways is forbidden under the bylaw (though largely ignored but things may get clamped down).
While Surrey is not mountainous, I have a huge amount of riding options from the door, and not so far to climb 😄. There are a huge amount of commons around me, public access army land, Surrey Hills of course which is a huge area, and a lot of access. Such a big MTB community around means a lot of trails.
I'd prefer to live in Devon in part for the scenery and lifestyle and for family reasons. Yet I'd be losing a lot of luxury I have where I am.
It's daft though because as I say you'd hardly consider Devon rubbish for riding. It's just it's a big county very spread out and where I need to be is not ride from the door friendly.
Okay, there's car option but I'm driving so little these days and I'm happy not to drive about and ride from the door if I can.
@tjmoore - you're right Devon is a big county, and some of the bits you'd think were great are in fact not so.
My wife's from N.Devon on the edge of Exmoor, and I've always struggled to find decent riding up there (there are pockets of it though).
Dartmoor is good for long, open routes, but you need to look around places like Lustleigh Cleave, etc. for techy singletrack.
Mid-Devon is pretty much barren 😆 again small pockets, but not great.
I'm in East Devon, and for me it has the best of all worlds, lots of riding (MTB, road and gravel) from the door, but with decent access to other places like the Quantocks.
@thegeneralist I'm South East Manchester and it's great for road and MTB from the doorstep. Road wise, got the hills, or head for the flats in the South West. Cycling infrastructure is crap in SE Manc, but I at least have a 80% off road cycle commute route into the city (well a couple of decent routes).
I've resisted moving out towards Handforth/Wilmslow for the reason of easy access to hills, road and MTB.
My mate lifes on the outskirts of Wilmslow, and hates the 'entitled' locals that live there - riding is flat and fast road though.
I do - Glasgow. Have to travel to get anywhere decent.
I’m in East Devon, and for me it has the best of all worlds, lots of riding (MTB, road and gravel) from the door, but with decent access to other places like the Quantocks.
How weird. I've spent years in East Devon (Upottery) over the last half century and found it shit for cycling.
Narrow lanes, overgrown hedges, loose gravel/grass in the middle. Horrible clay muddy clag on the few actual bridleways that exist...
Where are you?
I don't think I would (live somewhere where the riding is rubbish)...it seems like something you can't really put a price on. Even if I go through stages of my life where I'm not riding, the knowledge that I could take it up again at any point I wished would be worth a lot to me.
That said, I only really road ride now so its not like I'd need to live somewhere of outstanding beauty, would only need to live within 35-40mins "commute" to some country lanes, though I would want some hills too.
I live in South Manchester so the peaks and cheshire lanes aren't far away but if it was up to me I'd probably move somewhere where I could pretty much ride from the door, like Lancashire or Bowland. My wife is a city girl though so can't justify moving just to improve my sunday bike rides or whatever.
Glasgow. Have to travel to get anywhere decent.
Yeah, but at least you can get somewhere really amazing in a few hours...
I’m South East Manchester and it’s great for .... MTB from the doorstep
Hmmm. Better than here Defo. Good from a " from the front door" perspective, but I'd hesitate to call it great.
We moved to Norfolk over twenty years ago for Mrs Sandboy’s first teaching post.
I quickly learned that riding on roads was my only viable option, and at first, I enjoyed exploring my new surroundings, going out at weekends in different directions and soon discovered that North Norfolk is far from flat.
Fat biking has given me a lot more options for riding off road and I thoroughly enjoy riding my local beaches and dunes. Gravel is probably what I ride the most often and can easily link together some trails, tracks and bridleways to make a fifty mile loop through some lovely quiet countryside.
I’m lucky to have family on the south coast and in Carmarthenshire so I regularly get my fix of elevation however, the retirement plan is to move somewhere else. I have definitely got to the point where I need some hills!
I do but to outsiders it sounds like I have amazing riding on my doorstep!
I live in the East side of Cardiff surrounded by housing estates and docks so nowhere decent from the door, the best is gravel surfaced cycle paths. Just to the North of the city is some decent riding but to get to it I either have to ride 35-40 mins across the city (via some very bad junctions) or drive 20 mins to the north and park up there. I do have Cwmcarn 25 mins away but that again involves driving and depending upon the time and day it can be hell getting there or back, the record being over an hour to do the 19 mile journey. I have lots of places within an hour, that can get me to Afan, BPW, FOD and the Beacons, but again you run into the issue of traffic times that can really take the shine off going out for a ride. That's the big issue for me: I have to go through some of the worst areas for congestion to get to the good riding. It doesn't help that I'm a country bumpkin at heart but moved here for work (the wage increase was more than enough to cover travelling for rides) and any attempt to escape back to the country has been thwarted by external factors. Currently I'm basically stuck where I am as rents have gone mental and moving would be so prohibitively expensive it's not even worth considering. Doesn't help that my chosen job is almost always based in cities!
I massively long for the days where I had riding from my doorstep of the family home, of the quality that there are two Classic rides that are easily accessible plus loads of bridleways, hills, easy offroad routes and some absolute top grade road riding there too. Basically I was spoilt growing up and that sours anywhere else really.
@thegeneralist - I'm further south in Ottery St Mary.
Upottery is in the Blackdowns which are (I agree!) crap for MTB, as it's so claggy when wet...though I do enjoy the shite country lanes on the gravel bike 😆
I've ridden a fair bit round Hembury fort and Blackdown, but it's really only suitable in the summer.
Around me in OSM the ground is flinty, loamy, sandy and pebbly, so much better drained and we have a decent range of if established trails round East Hill and Woodbury Common.
It's amazing the difference only a few miles makes!
Aha. Wish I'd known that 19 years ago when I did my stint. Ah well.
I’m in South East Cheshire, so it’s not great for mountain biking, slightly better for gravel, but loads of country lanes to get to. <br /><br />
I’ve managed to cobble together a few routes out of my door, but the main issue is that it gets super wet and muddy around here, making most routes borderline unrideable.
If I could live anywhere I’d probably move to Bristol.
I've always lived in the East Midlands so not much good riding round here, usually it's a 45 minute drive to Woburn or Chicksands for the closest decent riding. We have some good jump trails now at Northampton & Leamington and there's a few good skateparks & DJ spots around. Still not sure how I ended up getting into MTB whilst living here tbh!
The good thing is being pretty central you have a lot of options up, down or across for driving to somewhere better. Used to drive to ride somewhere different quite regularly. Unfortunately with 2 young kids and my wife working a lot of weekends there isn't much spare time to do this any more, and it feels a bit selfish when I do as it takes a day out of family time. Would love to be able to ride decent trails from the house and our long term goal is to move somewhere more "outdoorsy". But for now I should probably get a gravel bike and swap the MTB for a DJ to make better use of what's nearby.
Depends. On transport routes.
Riding via train I can cope with just fine.
Having to drive for every interesting ride is an absolute no for me.
No I wouldn't. I feel very lucky living where I do in the South East and having lots of riding right from the front door.It makes something I've always enjoyed doing, accessible and less time consuming and this in turn leads me to be able to do it frequently.
Nope. We did, living in Southampton & it was dull as, spending far too long driving to places.
We moved to the FoD a few years ago now & I can ride from my doorstep, it’s literally 50m into the woods.
In less than 5 mins (on an ebike) I can be at the top of some dirty, steep tech trails, or within 10/15 mins in pretty much any direction, I can be in an area littered with off piste gold.
If we do want to travel, Wentwood is 30 mins away, Risca, Mach, etc is only a little bit more.
We’re lucky with our jobs, keeping the city salary & living a rural life. Wouldn’t ever go back to a flat city, I get the rage even doing a day trip to Bristol, dealing with morons everywhere.
I have done for about 15 years, so yes. Although I obviously rather wouldn't. North east England.
Quite a few old railway lines and wagonways, but they're flat, straight, and don't join up to make nice loops. Very few bridleways. So nothing good for MTB from the door.
There's a woodland with one official trail and a few others half an hour's drive away, riding there and back takes longer than I can spend there. The only thing it's good for really is summer evenings if you drive there.
Further out into the countryside, very few bridleways again.
An hour and a half's drive away there's Hamsterley forest which is great, and really good descending value for your climbing effort. But at this distance it's into a 3-4 hour ride taking up all day.
Then two hours plus there's the Lakes. Great riding but it's a long day to do what would be a half-day ride were it from the doorstep. Three hours to the Tweed Valley, only viable if you stay over at least one night.
If you do live somewhere boring, what took you there and what’s stopping you leaving. Work, family, you actually like it?
Work brought me here, and there aren't many jobs in my field up north generally so I stay. Also the riding I can drive to from here say once a month makes it not quite rubbish enough to make me do something about it.
I even made a thread https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/living-in-the-wrong-place/
Live in Macclesfield so have some okay routes nearby and the Peaks and Wales within easy reach. Not ridden much at all this year though unfortunately. I’d love to live near the Cairngorms but the commute would be a tad tricky.
i have lived in awful riding areas, i don’t plan to do it again. though you can never be too sure what life is going to bring.
the flatness makes me itch
this resonates with me. flat places make me mildly anxious.
i like hills. the bigger, the better
Sadly I do, here in shitty Stowmarket.
There are more important factors for me. I wouldn't live somewhere rubbish just because the riding was good.
I like having a number of good things close at hand. I also like living somewhere that has other like-minded people.
We've got ok riding from the door but it always means a bit of road. Plenty of decent stuff within a reasonable drive. I'm happy with the compromise.
I was born and lived in Northampton which is pretty poor for Mtb riding but not bad for the road bike. For the last 26 years I have lived in the Isle of Man which is brilliant for road and Mtb right from the door.
I did for 5 years, never again.
Did north yorks (epic road riding), to west yorks (good for both, lived a mile or so from open country, 30 minutes from the bottom of holme moss), Derby which is excellent for road riding and you can link some really good/fun XC loops together if you know what you're doing (i usually rode with proper locals, in the area for generations type thing).
Then ended up in a pokey little end terrace in the midlands.
What a dump. No redeeming features for cycling. Flat, busy roads, not much of a trail network, those that did exist were clay covered trenches as soon as it rained... Didn't enjoy it much.
The hit list for the next place included indoors space for bikes and servicing (done) and riding from the door (done, got a network of goat tracks, footpaths, gravel roads and single/double track starting from the door, also got a limited number of very good roads with minimal traffic and a nice amount of climbing. "Lumpy" rather than hilly though).
There's also little enough traffic that even when the weather turns, only the most heavily used trails get boggy.
On paper I already do
Hampshire is flat, bad soil type (green death chalk) and looks a terrible place for riding, especially in winter.
However look deeper, there’s miles and miles of downland bridleways, beaches, the south downs, wales is 3hrs. There are several weather hardened places to ride within 1hr.
i suppose what I’m saying is most places will offer some form of decent riding within reasonable distance, you might just have to look a bit deeper. <br /><br />
or move to wales which is what I would love to do lol
I do, and absolutely despise it. Totally flat, and not a single decent bit of riding (unless you count the tedium of the Ridgeway). Thankfully FoD is only an hour away, and BPW/Dirt Farm less than an hour and a half.
All being well moving to South Wales next year and it can’t happen soon enough.
I do and I hate it.
There are no hills. There's undulations in the terrain but no 'climbs' or 'descents'. I was looking back at some old rides the other day and my biggest to date was 51 miles with a mind boggling 600' of climbing.
It's not just the lack of hills that I hate, it's the lack of RoW that make it even worse. I live right on the edge of a small town in Northamptonshire. I have fields at the end of my road that stretch for miles. It's all farm land with basically no bridleways or byways. There are small sections say a mile long but then your onto the road for a few miles before linking up to the next flat, muddy track that goes nowhere.
There are a few byways that are routinely f'd up by greenlaners ignoring the Oct-March ban on motor vehicles. The mud is the horrible, claggy sticky sort that clogs your wheels and because there are no hills, it's impossible to get enough speed to clear it.
It doesn't matter which direction I drive, it's 2 hours to anything remotely fun. Peak district north, Surrey Hills to the south. Up and left a bit to Shropshire or head that way and carry on for Wales.
I'd love to live somewhere that wasn't here but the reality is that I'm staying put for the forseable.
Nope, lived in very isolated areas of Argyll and Galloway all my life, can’t stand built up areas and get all tetchy/uneasy in cities/large towns. The nearest large town is Dumfries and I hate the place.
@thisisnotaspoon where did you live in Sheffield? Unless you were in the east/south then I can't agree
Not unless it was totally unavoidable & a last resort.
I suppose it wouldn't necessarily have to have riding, but it would at least have to have easy ish access to some other interesting outdoor activities.
As per OP I have no idea how people live in places like the fens. I'd go absolutely mad.
But like @nickjb says - riding isn't everything. I want where I live to have a variety of good things about it.
Personally, I live in a suburb of North Leeds and I love it for many reasons. I can be on trails less than a mile from my house that take me mostly off road out into the aire/wharfe valleys and the Yorkshire dales if I pedal far enough. yet I'm 3 miles from the city centre and all that has to offer.
Great access to other riding locations also. E.g. I can be in the Peak, NYM, Dales, Calderdale and Nidderdale in under an hour by car or train.
I was looking back at some old rides the other day and my biggest to date was 51 miles with a mind boggling 600′ of climbing.
Did a ride a few years ago in proper southern Skåne. About 100km (offroad) the highest point (and the biggest climb) was the bridge over the E22. Think we topped out at about 120m of climbing, total.
“Whenever we visit family on the south coast (of England) after about 3 days I’m pining for some hills.”
I live on the south coast of England on a hill that steep enough that it’s madness to use the car on the rare snow days we have, and I feel a similar thing when I’m back where I grew up in Northamptonshire. Every time you start going up a reasonable incline it soon flattens out and goes back down again, it’s just mild undulations or flatness everywhere.
Thank heavens for the South Downs! Obviously there are much bigger hills elsewhere but 1000’ climbing for 10 miles of riding is pretty typical for my local MTBing, but can double that if lapping the steeper stuff.
Missing hills, eh?
Careful what you wish for. I live at the bottom of an 1100m "hill" so just about any ride from home turns fairly epic whether you want it or not...a mellow ride is not really an option for me.
Still, what goes up, must come down 😉
(I moved 7000km for better mountain biking)
1000’ climbing for 10 miles
Otherwise known as pretty flat. 😛
I do, it’s shit.
“Otherwise known as pretty flat. 😛”
It doesn’t feel it after a few hours on the singlespeed!
Grew up on the Shropshire - Herefordshire border and hung about Haye Park a fair bit. As a young child it was a bit limiting, monster hills everywhere, Sunny Gutter as a passage through the hills was my best friend. Forget going east - Clee argggh!! However as I got older........ Shame I only had BSOs but I still had a lot of fun and love going back there, preferably when it's dry and I am not suffering Silurian seabed mud.
This is an elevation map (from https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-kb57/England/)
Is there anywhere that's not red (350m+) on that, that has good MTB riding?
Not to say that red means it's definitely good riding - e.g. plenty of boggy high moors in Northumberland, mountains that don't suit bikes in north Wales and few rights of way.
No. Moved from S.Manc/Chorlton to Saddleworth about 12 years ago so we could have trails (me) and fells (OH: running) literally out of our door. Something would have to go seriously wrong for us to even consider moving back anywhere flat or suburban, frankly anywhere where I couldn’t get a decent MtB ride done in my lunch hour. I realise we’re in a position of relative privilege to have this choice and it’s not something I take for granted.
Is there anywhere that’s not red (350m+) on that, that has good MTB riding?
Yes. Look at the map again and you’ll see ranges of hills all over England with great riding, without hitting the red heights. North and South Downs for starters.
If you do, you often manage to shift your perception of what "rubbish" riding is. Apart from a year living in Barnsley (which is where my MTB habit really started) I've never lived anywhere remotely hilly. Grew up in The Fens and now am in North Northamptonshire. We have very little big elevation here (rolling countryside mostly - about 300m climbing in a typical 30km ride) but we do have a fair bit of woodland and twisty, rooty singletrack aplenty. From that PoV, our non-rubbish riding is carving between the trees and lots of looping round what short descents we do have. We're not so good on rocks or climbs, but show us mud*, sniper roots and corners and we're happy.
I do love getting out into the proper hills (big mountain rides are probably my favourite side of MTBing), but they're all at least 2 hours away so we find our fun in what we have - I'm more than happy to ride the local a couple of times a week (and have done so for the last 10 years or so).
Admittedly, when we decided to move out of the city a few years back, my only condition was we go to a village on the edge of the woods so I could ride from the door instead of having a 20 minute drive every time I wanted a non-urban ride.
TLDR. Make the most of what you've got if you can't / won't move to the hills.
*I call it Schrodinger's mud round here. Clay-based and simultaneously slippy as hell and claggy as anything and you won't know which until your wheels hit it.
Did briefly live near Salisbury, quickly found my way back to somewhere the hills were taller than the buildings and the ground had some stone in it.
Been mostly living alongside the same ridge line since.