[Closed] Best and worst things about where you live.

devizes wilts. best thing:- close to pewsey vale,the ridgeway and salisbury plain. worst thing:- there is no decent record shop in town,(but 500 hairdressers!!!)

Borders

Best - the natural trails.
Worst - ****tish drivers on their way to kitty litter trail centres.

lincoln - best, theres not a lot of crime compared to other cities. its a decent, quiet place to bring up your kids.

worst, theres not a fat sight of inspiring stuff to ride straight out your door.

Bristol,

Good: actual riding to be had <1 mile from the city centre, great hub for all sorts of riding in all directions.

Bad: Bike crime.

Near Welshpool

Pros - low crime, you can leave your doors unlocked and the keys in the car and nothing happens, people sell eggs at the roadside with an 'honesty box', 1 hour from all main trail centres plus heaps of natural trails on doorstep

Cons - Its the 'Valley of Death' average age here is 80, they all like things 'just so', bungalows are for 'old people only' (really?!), ambulances and funerals.

Mid Wales

Good: Sea, Mountains, Trail centres and natural remote trails starting from the doorstep.

Bad: ?

Leith

Good -Everything you need in a city but can ride a bike into the countryside in under an hour

Bad - expensive - £3 a pint, property is expensive, no decent veg shops around

Fremantle, Western Australia

Good: Sea, beaches, weather, work, riding, 3 million people and so much space and some great tasting ales.

Bad: Price of bikes and kit, useless eBay, Aussie drivers, hardly anything open on a Sunday, slack shop staff and "laid back" approach to everything, terrible websites, family and friends back in UK, price of beer.

I'm only here for a max of 4 years though so no doubt it'll be a chapter in my life I'll look back on with great fondness.

Basque country.

Bad - lack of a decent curry house.
Best - Mountains/Sea/city/countryside right next to each other.

Ulverston

Good - Pubs... and the Lake District is just over --> there 😉

Bad - If you go just over --> there, the tourists really get on your nerves by driving everywhere at 20mph and slow for every corner and oncoming vehicle (or stop if it is larger than a Micra... on a normal single carriageway road ffs - if it was a singletrack lane I could understand it!)

leeds

worst is it's leeds

best are all the road's out of it.

Best - the natural trails.
Worst - ****tish drivers on their way to kitty litter trail centres.

Goan - so - err - we wont be seeing you on 26th Kirroughtree and 27th Dalbeattie then? Or are you at least able to NOT include Vauxhall Meriva drivers? 😀

Bicester, 10 miles north of Oxford
best - mmmm not sure I can think of any!!!
worst - no sea, no proper Welsh hills, the only place to buy food is frigging TESCO! I could continue ......

Small village near Stafford

Best - cannock chase within spitting distance, peak district an hour away, great network of lanes for road rides, great apartment, 80 min on the train to London, 4 airports within an hour......

Worst - The phucking shameful and VILE climate, village shop closes at 5pm, best pub is a mile and a half away - that's it really. Love it.

SimonRalli - I'm busy doing family stuff that weekend.

I'll discount the locals from the ****tish drivers bit, they at least know what to expect round the next corner.

Ulverston...
best...Lakes is just a bit that way >>>>>
worst...Barrow-in-Furness is just a bit that way <<<<<

8)

Tamworth

Best thing...nowt

Worst thing see above.

Dundee
worst: the wind, lack of decent eating
best: proximity to the rest of scotland

Norway
Best - it's Norway
worst - not much of a social life and beer is 7 quid a pint but more importantly my family and friends are somewhere else

Hampton
best - London near, seaside not too far, some riding nearby
worst - mountains, what are they?

Stockport
Best thing(s) - I can ride into the Peak District on lovely roads or off road with about 2 miles of tarmac in total between my house and Edale. The River Goyt is just down the road, ace for kayaking.
Worst thing(s) - 1970's architecture and the councils desire to paint everything it owns an awful colour green.

Couldn't agree more with ton!
I'm in Boroughbridge,
Best, 7 pubs & 5 takeaways
Worst, none of them deliver.

Near Oswestry

Best: Loads of riding not too far away (some from doorstep too)
Worst: Oswestry, horrible place

Tavistock, Devon
+
right on the edge of dartmoor. Great Climbing, kayaking, riding
awesome DH tracks five minutes away
north Cornwall coast is only half hour away
pasties

-
it rains. A lot.

Nottingham

Best: - peaks is right on the doorstep.
Worst: - have you ever met the locals?

Purbecks-
best- good riding, scenery, countryside, close to coast
bad- overinflated property prices due to holiday homes, tourists

Balerno(near Edinburgh)

Best - access onto nice trails and good roads without having to drive anywhere

Worst - TJ can make it to here in less than an hour.

Hope, Derbyshire

Best hmm the deserted trails come 3pm on a sunday
Worst still dabbing on The Beast after 5 years

geneva, switz.

best beautiful scenery great rides, mountain trails everywhere

worst the french

Hairychested - used to live in Hampton. Can't believe you have not mentioned Monafs!

Munge-Chick - used to live in Buckingham - you have Bicester Village there I guess.

Druid - used to live in Balerno - in the 70s the best thing was that bouncy thing inside a big plastic dome like in that Rolling Stones video - but there seems to be a big secondary school now built where the park was.

Onzadog - heh - was at Uni at Nottingham - some locals there are quite special (well one of them anyway) 🙂

Ton - used to live in Leeds - there's loads of great things about Leeds - great night life away from the big obvious places.

Raceface - used to live in Chapmanslade not too far from Devizes - at least you have lots of pretty crop circles around you, the aliens must be digging some bits 🙂

Jambo - not good news - am about to move to Devon! If you bump into me out on the trails say hi!

As for Dumfries where I am right now - well simply tons of both natural riding plus the Stanes which are all weather and can be ridden in all this rain no probs.

Worst - well maybe there is quite a drug problem, and the town seems to be dying right now with one heck of a lot of shop closures, but hey, I've lived all over the place and it's not that bad a place at all to live really. Maybe the worst is that in 2005 I tried to look for work here but there was absolutely nothing for me.

It rains almost as much in totnes....

Balerno (near Edinburgh)

Best - Pentlands on our doorstep

Worst - Druidh lives here too (only joking, never met him)
Worst - the only competitor to the Scotmid supermarket is the smaller Scotmid supermarket

Stratford (as in Shakespeare not London)

Best - wherever you go for a weekend's riding away you know the trails are better then here and you'll have a great time. Near Leamington or Redditch if you want a "fun" night out. Two hours from a lot of decent riding. Good lbs.

Worst - most knarly trail is riding off a kerb. Try to get a value for money tradesman? That's if they'll even turn up. Friday/Saturday nights are full of stuck up locals* or "outsiders" looking for trouble. Day times are full of tourists.

* these locals are people who've moved here and think they're better than anyone else 'cos they're "posh".

Best - low crime, nice area.
Worst - two cars stolen from the drive the other night. Out-of-area tea-leaves though - [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/attention-upvc-door-owners-major-lock-vulnerabilities ]http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/attention-upvc-door-owners-major-lock-vulnerabilities[/url]

Simon Ralli - Member

Hairychested - used to live in Hampton. Can't believe you have not mentioned Monafs!

Munge-Chick - used to live in Buckingham - you have Bicester Village there I guess.

Druid - used to live in Balerno - in the 70s the best thing was that bouncy thing inside a big plastic dome like in that Rolling Stones video - but there seems to be a big secondary school now built where the park was.

Onzadog - heh - was at Uni at Nottingham - some locals there are quite special (well one of them anyway)

Ton - used to live in Leeds - there's loads of great things about Leeds - great night life away from the big obvious places.

Raceface - used to live in Chapmanslade not too far from Devizes - at least you have lots of pretty crop circles around you, the aliens must be digging some bits

Jambo - not good news - am about to move to Devon! If you bump into me out on the trails say hi!

As for Dumfries where I am right now - well simply tons of both natural riding plus the Stanes which are all weather and can be ridden in all this rain no probs.

Worst - well maybe there is quite a drug problem, and the town seems to be dying right now with one heck of a lot of shop closures, but hey, I've lived all over the place and it's not that bad a place at all to live really. Maybe the worst is that in 2005 I tried to look for work here but there was absolutely nothing for me.

If I may ask a personal question, are you on the run, Simon?

Me, Sierra Norte de Madrid.

Best: 300+ days of sunshine and dry riding, great riding and few people.
Worst: erm? erm? Sometimes it rains/snows...

Don Simon

Nah - just moved around a lot. I was thinking about contributing to that Scotish thread. As a kid I had quite a Boarders accent, and if I claimed to be English people would have mocked me. Now my accent has totally gone, and if I claim to be Scotish people will mock me so I just tend to say I am British.

I also had 4 years in Ipswich, some time in Holyhead (Anglesey), India, plus the 2 years in Gibraltar of course. Now Gibraltar IS a country with limited singletrack, but it took me over a year to find!

It will be interesting to see where I end up after Devon - I will also be living in Peru for a few months too next year in "my house" I donated some money for in the rainforest.

I live here

I live here

Copenhagen: fantastic architecture, cafes, bars, restaurants, shops, and it's the world capital of totty.

But it f***ing expensive.

Best: It's down south, lots of forest singletrack rather than double track, dreary no-skill required moorland.
Worst: There's some Northerners around 😉

Wrexham
Best things: Close to countryside an on the right side of the border 😉

Worst things: Full of chavs who want to fight everyone

Midlothian
Best thing: Fab woodsie singletrack on my doorstep.
Worst thing: Bloody cats sh1tting evrywhere.

Stoke-on-Trent
Best bits good riding without resorting to the car and some great riding a little bit further afield.
It's friendly.
Against;urban decay
It can be very unfriendly if you stray into the "wrong" areas.
Some wag will say,that's all of it then....oh how we laughed

Bookham, Surrey

Best: A short ride to the best riding around London
Worst: A bit of a pain to get the train to London

Guernsey

Best - Always by the sea and great views along the commute
Worst - No singletrack

York

Best - Beautiful city, easily the best collection of pubs in the country, the local people.

Worst - Flat as a pancake for miles around!! Bloody tourists (I wouldn't mind if they didn't walk so slowly)...

Coburg, north Bavaria.

+ interesting history; Queen Victoria's husband Albert grew up here, hence the royal surname. almost all royal households in europe have at least one member of their family originating in Coburg. last Duke was Queens Vic's grandson; i rode past his grave today.

+ some hills, more than in Essex.
+ some good riding

- Nazi's. large problem here with skinheads/whitelaces. quite blatant about it too...
- lack of work.
- Shit weather...similar to UK at the moment
- no snow in winter

i'm off, hopefully.

Darley Dale, nr Matlock, Derbyshire.........

Best - beautiful countryside with great local riding and the Peak half an hour away, close to Sheffield (great city), not too much unemployment.

Worst - if I had to find anything, there are a few delinquents on a local estate.

Plymouth: see Jam bo's post about Tavistock: pretty much the same here!
iirc Tavi is one of the rainiest places in the yookay. All those clouds off the atlantic bumping into Dartmoor, see?

Simonralli, look us up when you get to Enviro-skool, some ace cheeky stuff round here and a proper quality-and-friendly xc race series all winter.

Gothenburg, Sweden.

Best- low crime rate (for now), endless singletrack, pretty much free to ride where ever off road, stunning females, fantastic city and nightlife, close to the sea.

Worst- rains way more than the UK, restrictive rules concerning alcohol that clearly don't work, the perfect social security system that is far from perfect, introverted Swedes, countryside full of rednecks to rival the USA, its not Leeds!!!

Leeds!!!!!! DIsagree with ton

Best:
Loads of local trails in all directions
Lots of variety of local trails
I can commute to work in the city centre >70% off road with options to extend
Very central - relatively easy to get to all other areas of the country

Worst:
No big hills locally (closest is Otley Chevin, and that's only medium sized)
Property is expensive
Trails turn to sh1t during the winter - North of Bradford is loads better!

on balance, a winner

Leigh (near wigan)

Best: Masses of offroad riding due to the vast tracts of ex-mining land that cannot be built on for another 100 years.

Worst: This is a hard one. Leigh is a complete shithole filled with less than neanderthal gimps for whom getting drunk and kicking a complete strangers head in is a three times weekly occurrence. Not to mention the general populaces suspicion of anyone who can read (and does it for fun) or who does a sport that isn't football or rugby (for example, riding about on a bike).

But if you were to put a knife to my neck (something I'm quite likely to experience just nipping down the shops), I would suggest that the worst thing about living in leigh, is that it has the worst drivers on earth. I'm sure they can all handle a car and understand the mnechanics but they are the most malicious, nasty ****ers going. I can do a 100 mile road ride and not have one problem but cross the Leigh town border and I'll have three near misses, be gobbed at, have a car drive onto the green cycle lane at the lights in front of me and most likely have someone call me something rhyming with 'steer' at least once because I'm on a bike.

Ipswich

Best countryside no more than 10 minutes from the front door.
Worst it's a bit flat, highest point around here is about 100m above sea level.

I have to wonder why so many of you actually live (and continue to do so) in places you describe as being completely crap.

Samuri - my then girlfriend took me out to Ruebins(?) in Leigh about 12 years ago, I'm still surprised she turned out to be my wife. Needless to say we haven't returned. now living on the

Wirral

best...nice to be near the coast all of which is rideable albeit very flat and more like an estuary than crashing waves and wilderness, north wales 15 min drive away, close(ish) to Lancashire and Lakes. Liverpool, Chester both nearby. Penninsula.

worst...birkenhead, its like Leigh (see couple of posts above)

Auckland- best, good weather,great range of food both eating out and groceries, quality of life is reasonable people are friendly, no chavs, cheap cars/petrol
worst- its new zealand and so a day away from the rellies and friends on a nut crushingly dull flight.

village near Malvern

Best: the hills (honourable mentions for the lack of traffic on most roads, and the fact the kids can play out in the street where we live).
Worst: long way from the seaside, or indeed anywhere decent to windsurf (alternatively, the proximity to Brum).

calgary

best; fantastic scenery on your doorstep,and lots of sun

worst; cant get proper bacon for a fry up and no riding for a few months in winter

Clue's in my name! Good, the area is a Mecca for all outdoors. Bad, the village is a tourist trap and can be incredibly busy.

Oh, but, on the whole I'll happily live here forever!

Wellington, NZ

Best- the local pie shop
Worst- The local hirstute women

NO PEOPLE!!
mountains oz style
(not very hight in elevation but still good fun)

i intend to leave.....

Galashiels, Borders.

Best things, lots of riding nearby, Glentress and Innerleithen on way home from work, lots of natural riding also with hills.
Nice friendly people, good primary school for the kids, pretty crime free (compared with my last domicle in Headingley).

Worst things, Town centre is dying a death due to the placing of two massive supermarkets, Tesco and Asda, across a roundabout from each other on the edge of the town centre.

People who don't indicate, never seen such an inability to use the flashing things on the corners of your car than in Gala, it's like some kind of illness, most likely genetic this being the Borders an all.

It's not Peebles, I can't afford to live in the town I come from because of all the white settlers from England/Edinburgh pushing the house prices up!

Brackley. Just up the road from Munque-chick...

Pros: Low crime, good schools, pace of life is relaxed. Easy reach of lots of places, Oxford, Northampton MK, are less than 30minutes away, London and Brum are an hour away, reasonable close to major M-Ways, so day trips are pretty easy. Road riding is quiet country lanes where meeting a car is an event. Countryside is picture postcard English.

Cons: Pretty provincial country-side backwater where nothing ever happens and the annual F1 at Silverstone is/was the year's major event. No real off road riding to speak of at all, unless field edge Bridleways are your bag, Although Chilterns are 30 minutes down the road, so not all lost I guess.

Could be worse, it's not inner city life, and it's not the middle of nowhere

Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Best - It's where I'm from, Ship Inn, Staggs.

Worst - neds. But they leave me alone so can't complain too much.

Love this town...

Brecon Beacons

Best - whole bunch of riding out the door, and when it inevitably rains the mid and south wales trail centres are an hour and a bit away.

Worst - National Parks setup is better for visiting than living in.

Glasgow
Bads- pretty endless really
Goods-It's close to fort William

West Sierra de Madrid,

Best: No rain, sunny weather
Worst: No rain, too hot.

Julian - cheers will do. I already have bought my 2 Dartmoor maps but would very much welcome some local advice on where to ride.

Maybe I should bookmark this thread for when I need to look for somewhere to live in 2010 🙂 I will need a couple of months to write my book and thesis, and due to budgets may be renting a room at a friend's house in Blaenau Ffestiniog. At least the trails are great around there!

[i]I have to wonder why so many of you actually live (and continue to do so) in places you describe as being completely crap. [/i]

Everyone has only given the worst and best things about where they live. There's a hundred other reasons why they live there.

Larbert

Bad:
Nothing it's full of drug dealing and binge drinking scum. The trails and riding are shit, anything that get's built is soon destroyed by Dog Walking Nazis and it's the dog shit capital of Europe.

Good:
It's probably a good place to live if you want reasons to leave Scotland and the UK for good

Balerno

Good: Close enough to Edinburgh for access to work & shops etc. but far enough out that it's quiet. Right on the edge of the Pentlands so decent riding on my doorstep and lots of great riding not far - south or north.

Worst: No really good pubs in Balerno (R.I.P. The Kestrel), house prices are quite high.

East Molesey (Hampton Court)

Best - Small town feel, safe, clean - mins from Surrey hills and Swinley

Worst - Nothing really, could do with a bakers I suppose

Epicsteve - the Grey Horse ain't too bad, they've worked out how to keep their beer. I've not been here long enough to remember The Kestrel unfortunately

Swindon

Best: Cosmos
Worst: Arkells

Manchester

good hills nearby 🙂

always p155ing down though. 😥

Stafford

Best - easy access to Cannock Chase

Worst - easy access to Cannock Chase for all the numpties in the area on a week end 😐

Borders of Berkshire/Hampshire/Surrey.

Best - Swinley Forest but nothing else except easy access to motorways to get away from here. Can't believe I moved back to this area 🙁

Worst - traffic, particularly aggressive drivers. Would love to get away.