@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.
Sadly one of the downsides of being a pilot is the need to live relatively close to base. For many years I was based out of London Stansted and living up the road in Cambridge. Sure there are crew members who live much further from base with me, but personally for quality of life I wouldn't want to live much further than 30-45mins driving time. The anti-social hours are hard enough at times without any extra time spent commuting.
Now Cambridge is a great city for cycling, but it's flat, very flat and although I did a lot of road biking, I was really missing the hills, and the challenge of off road. So when the opportunity to transfer to another operator in Manchester came up I took it, and I now live within 30 mins of the Peak, and just over an hour to the South Lakes or Pennines. Perfect location, and although no off-road ride from the door, having such a wide variety of riding within less than an hours drive makes life so much better and I now look forward to my down time an awful lot more.
I live just outside Newbury. The road riding is fantastic. I can do fun MTB rides out of the door in the drier months, or lovely gravel rides. It's not exactly mountainous but hilly enough. Wouldn't fancy a flatter area. Have lived in the Lakes in the past, loved it and loved mtb's but these days I don't MTB much...chicken or egg, not sure...the area works for us as a decent compromise.
Yep, I just like riding bikes. So as long as I don't live in the middle of a motorway with no other roads to ride from then I am okay. I like road riding, gravel riding and off road riding so there is always going to be one of those.
Not a chance - riding from the door is my lifeblood.
Sadly I do, here in shitty Stowmarket.
If I'm riding a bike it's never, ever rubbish. (It can be trying when up to your oxsters in the local clay).
More of this required "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".
I would be more concerned about general land access rights than riding specifically.
I used to live in Leamington spa. I got by but spent too many weekends in the car for hours at a time to get to the biking. It was fine but boring and had a hefty dose of climate guilt. Having now moved, the much bigger effect has been on climbing not biking - you can do biking in any weather but driving 2 hours to find wet rock and turn around really isn't worth it. I do miss the easier access to places like bike park Wales which is now too far for a day trip. Anyway moving was a really close run thing, having left behind some really great friends, but overall my quality of life is improved by easy access to hobbies; I can still visit the friends and come home on the train, not covered in mud!
Ironically Leamington now has decent flow trails in the town centre!
Is there anywhere that’s not red (350m+) on that, that has good MTB riding?
Surrey Hills, North Downs, South Downs
Elevation isn't huge but the hills can be steep. Plus there's tonnes of xc stuff and surprising amount of rights of ways (though not always joined up). Huge MTB scene and trail building.
Comes at a cost. Heavily populated part of the country, overuse of trails, lots of conflict with walkers and land owners.
Also where I am much is army land and it's a constant battle with DIO who want to kick everyone off the land (their playground yes, but they're public access common lands mostly).
Still, I can usually find quiet rides and always stumbling on new areas or trails. Can also link almost everything up around Surrey and NE Hampshire mostly off road.
I've been living pretty much in Cannock Chase (right next to castle ring) for the last two years so been a bit spoiled. Moving to Manchester in the new year and still haven't fully come to terms with not being able to ride straight out my front door into some mud.
Ironically Leamington now has decent flow trails in the town centre!
Where? The whole place was flat as a pancake and full of nimbys.
Though,it's been a decade and a half, maybe they all died.
