cockermouth

the view of skiddaw from my lounge window, endless riding in the lakes

crap weather and lack of choice of employment

previous

Kathmandu
endless riding wherever you like, 8 months of sunshine and fantastic climate, cheap tasty food, trekking, paragliding and fantastic kayaking

crap milk, and a long way from family and friends

Northfields, West London

best: Food shopping: Local farmers market, butchers, fish mongers bakers + great for pubs eating out + great neighbours, more community feeling than anywhere I lived previously (N Yorkshire, Co Durham, W Yorks) + great school on my road
worst: no mtb for 27 miles, making mtb at least a half day event, and no mountains for over 2 hours drive.

Too many good things here to trade off moving to some of the above just for better riding though.

Did I mention that I lived in Northfields in 1997? There was a cracking Indian/Balti restaurant there on the main road - not too sure if it's still there though.

Montys?

Yeah Monty's - really rings a bell. Loved it there. Am sure that's the one.

Yeah, still there, still good, but been superseded by papaya which is the second best curry I've ever had. Monthys is 4th

Well you should also try and get to Monafs in Hampton - maybe get a STW SW London curry night organised - or make it a regular event and try out different ones while also being able to chat about all things bike. Can't remember any good ones in East Molesey although there used to be a great pub right on the Thames tow-path.

New Forest:
Worst, f*cking tourists
Best, f*cking tourists 😉

(nah, you're right - neither of those)

Best - climate, nice village to bring up kids
Worst - NF is a bit flat & boggy and you're not supposed to ride in there

North of Bradford

good: ace trails on your doorstep; fantastic curry; Leeds close enough to do the social life thing

worst: well it's Bradford, innit?

deserter - I know what you mean. Just spent a week in Canmore. and a few more days in Vancouver. I know where I'm emigrating to...

Brentwood, Essex
Best - easy for work, close to London, low crime and some local singletrack through the very flat woods.
The road sign "secret nuclear bunker", still makes me smile.....

Worst - miles away from any hills, 4x4's gridlocking the town every morning from 8.30-9.15 and the same on an evening.

Dubai, UAE

Best: Reasonable access to Oman and the mountains of the UAE (good mountain biking), tax free, very close (relatively) to India and the Himalayas

Worst: Most of Dubai sucks; the fakeness of it all, the willy waving (big cars, watches etc) and all of this attracts the worst sort of people.

Overall: I've made some awesome friends out here but we all live for the weekend when we can get out of Dubai and go camping and riding - pretty similar to London then except it doesn't rain... I'll probably leave June next year which will be 18 months - plenty.

Switzerland:

Best the alps and the feeling of safety
Worst Swiss ar a bit creepy and the bars are bland

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

Nice best: The countryside.
Worst the people the fricking useless living human being...

Near Southport

Best Thing The sand dunes and the pinewoods

Worst thing The wind (which blows 367 days of the year)

Best things:
Bikes on buses
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Uplift 1 hour away
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mini DH in local woods
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Great lakes and beaches and woods for the kids and really safe.
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Worst things:
The coming months of Nov till April.
Miss my family, friends and home.

North Devon

Best bit: Cracking beaches, relatively low populace, the odd bit of surf now and again, mega road riding, close to Exmoor & Quantocks

Worst bits: Boring local mtb, local soil that turns to evil clay as soon as a cloud appears, grumpy farmers with snarling mutts, Emmits/Grockles leaving bloody litter everywhere (it's so much cleaner around here in the Winter), millions of tourists in the water gawping at you as you're surfing straight towards their head

I still miss Plymouth. I'd rather live here than That London though.

Edge of the Peak.

Best: ace gritstone trails on your doorstep.

Worst: it does rain occasionally.

Plymouth...

Like:- Dartmoor and the countryside and being by the sea
Dislike:- Plymouth as a whole, being so far away from everything

Really wish i was back in Norway....Bergen would be lovely 😀

Small town in North Yorkshire

Best
National park 5 miles away
Great biking
Good transport links (close to A1M & on east coast mainline)
Family nearby
Friendly LBS

Worst
Sheep are sometimes a bit loud in the field at the end of the road

Can't think of anywhere I'd rather live at the mo

Wellington, NZ

Best
Affordable fantastic view from house - natives trees->blue sea->snow capped mountains
25min cycle to centre of town passing kayak storage shed so can stop and paddle, or 1hr with scenic bays option
4hr mtb from from front door with about 10min on tarseal
Very safe place
Good nightlife, sport, food, friendly people

Worst
Long way from anywhere and family
Bit windy on occasion

Brisbane, Aus.

Best
Weather, beaches, lifestyle.

Worst
Snakes, spiders, jellyfish, sharks, crocs, Aussie beer.

Rossendale, Lancashire:

Best: Superb trails, Lee Quarry, superb ale on tap, great mates, not too far from family, great bike shop, 40 mins from the dales.

Worst: 3 hour road commute every day, lower down in the valley a bit rough, sue is leaving the Buck in a fortnight, it has a weird rainy micro climate

Sunny Bolton

Best : Certain areas are still very nice to live in with nice pubs and nice people. Bank top Brewery is 5 mins walk. Riding from doorstep and Dales, Lakes, Peak and Wales all around an hour away.

Worst : Some areas are inhabited by life forms lower than that found in Leigh. Toss lives here.

small town in Surrey:

best - plenty of local riding you measure the width of in inches not yards!
you can find rideable trails all year whatever the weather
Wisley jumps and Esher shore if I'm feeling 'rad'
local shops/pubs (for local people), plus farmer markets, pick your own etc !
friendly, zero crime rate community with neighbours you actually want to stoip and chat with
trees, lots of them
london half an hour by train plus excellent rail/road links to most places I'd want to visit
15 minute bike ride to work across the fields

worst - ummmmmmmmm, local bike shop would be good I s'pose other than that pretty content 🙂

Malvern -

Best - the hills

Worst - tourists and being so far from a decent beach break.

Wivenhoe, Essex.

Best: better weather this side of the country, peaceful, beautiful scenery (Constable country), good friends 100yards away, girlfriend lives here, a few woods with some fun little trails for a half hour, hour long blatt

Worst: 3 hours a day and £4K a year getting to work and back, no hills to speak of, miles from any "proper" riding, wrong side of London from anywhere we ususally go at weekends, family all South or West of London. Last train back from London 22:18.

i live just across the road from the flouch inn...you know where the people go over mickleden edge t get to cut gate

moved there to go riding ...thought it would be the best bit

the actual best bit is theres few and far people for at least 5 days

worst bit

everyone turning up at weekends

oh forgot to add the woman who NOW owns the pub now does B&B

I am spending lots of time in bicester now though so the quiet week became a moot point

Peterborough:

Worst: There is no best.....and after spending last weekend down in Sheffield, did the Great Yorkshire Run, coming back down the A1 I fancied riding straight past the turn-off for this particular pisshole.

Brixlegg, Tirol, Austria

Best : Mountains

Worst : No chip shop.

Chorley - in general, some nice aresa to live and tsome that aren't so...

Best - Bit where I live is semi-rural, canal boats going past the front of the house, babbling brook at the back, views of Healy Nab, Rivington pretty much out of my back door, lots of good riding close by, Lakes and Dales within an hour, some really good local shops - close to Mancheter, Bolton and Preston for nights out

Worst - Town centre is dying (mobile phone shops, travel agents, hairdressers, charity shops, loads of pubs closed down) still have a good night out but that comes down to friends rather than the place, trains dont run late enough (suppose thats a problem in a lot of places though), walkers that dont like me riding on footpaths 😈

Central London. It's great here.

Ringsted, Denmark
Worst - always windy, no hills or anything resembling a mountain. Introverted, rather unexciting people and stupidly expensive and no decent food shops anywhere
Best - Completely safe, good social security benefits such as maternity leave, inexpensive child care and good public transport.

Looking forward to leaving again, but it's been a good place to live for 5 years and a great place to have kids.

Leeds. I also disagree with Ton, Leeds is a great city.
Best: great access to countryside, great restaurants, good shopping, live v near airport so handy for holidays, nice compact city so doesn't feel too huge.
Worst; 6 hours from my Dad.

British Virgin Islands

Best - Endless summer, Beaches, Social life, Surfing from Oct-April, riding year round,diving whenever i want to, friends who work for charter companies that regulary borrow million dollar boats for the weekends, fairly cheap cost of living, low taxes, easy access to the rest of the Caribbean.

Worst - Overt racism against any white expat. Chance that the next hurricane is going to blow us away. Regular Earthquakes. Very limited possibilities of changing your job due to work permit legislation. Government can and do terminate work permits for no apparent reason. Lots of Gun crime. No Singletrack, driving standard is the poorest in any country i've been too. Cruise ships doubling the population of the island. Infrastructure that barely copes.

Marsden. W.Yorks.
Good - brilliant place to live...
Bad -Veg shop can be a bit hit and miss, as can the curry house......

Was in Marsden with the Mickey Mouse Mountaineering crew on Saturday.

We were on the ale train trip from Stalybridge to 'uddersfield via Marsden.

Right nice drop of light ale in the Riverhead Brewery tap and a last one at the railway before we carried on.

Might have to return me thinks

Village in Wiltshire

Best- Trails from my front door. Wiltshire has more bridleway than any other English county other than Cumbria. Downland scenery.

Worst- said trails not very challenging and turn to unridable crap in winter.
Being in S England which is generally over crowded, over priced, over rated and unfriendly.
Swindon is the nearest city

st andrews

good - cracking little town, great uni, beautiful place to be, in scotland (and therefore relatively accessible quality riding within a couple of hours), lots of friends, relatively good rail links from leuchars (30 min bike or 7 min bus ride away), not too many nationalist scots, low crime and the neds don't seem to cause us any obther, lots of students, always see people you know in the street, the whey pat tavern

bad - EXPENSIVE (aparently the tesco here is or was the 2nd most expensive in the world (in terms of choice of cheaper goods etc), now there is an aldi things are a bit cheaper, but not much) and £300/month/room rent is as cheap as it gets pretty much, and its still a dump (my sofa is held together with ducktape...)
not a particular fan of the lbs (sorry luke) - £4 for 8 thin washers? WTF?!
windy
always see people you know in the street
tourists/golfists
my head of course being a work fanatic, giving us LOADS of work for virtually no credits... grrr...
local riding is somewhat limited (although it just means i buy more bikes to mix it up 8))

Pro's - montgomery mid wales - good riding all within an hour,crime rate almost non existant

Cons - Expensive due to lack of choice,work prospects not to good due to geography, still miss llangollen and berwyns

Manchester

Good: like Ian Brown said, it's got everything except a beach.

Bad: See "good".

Central London. It's great here.

Then again, it's obvious people have different perspectives on things. Several people mentioning wind as a bad thing - as a windsurfer living somewhere without great wind (though it does often blow "not quite enough"), I wish we had more (then again it's more the ponds near here that's the problem - both me and jimster mention distance to beaches).

Meanwhile as a skier, I don't get GEDA showing a picture of a ski slope and putting the months of November to April as a bad thing!

best - Quantocks are only 15mins away my kids are near by.

worst - Quantocks are as much as 15mins away, it has general public, most people are related and this is visually apparent, It's not homely, it's full of freaks, pissheads and druggies is a rut that sucks you in deeper!!!!

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Marin County, Cali

The bad news: the rules are you have to stay on the singletrack.

The good news: there's a lot of it and I can ride to it from my house.

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Darmstadt, Germany (nr. Frankfurt)

Best: Odenwald starts about 10mins ride from the centre.
Even Better: Can drive to the alps after work on a Friday for a weekend skiing or MTBing 🙂
Worst: No marmite here.

Repack Rider - that's the first time I've been on the site in your profile, and it's a fantastic restrospective of mountain biking. I've just spent well over an hour looking at it, good work old chap 😀

Bracknell, Berks; best bit, 5 minutes ride from Swinley Forest.Cheap property,low crime, quiet life.
Worst bits....don't get me started! Souless shithole, zombie population, crap pubs, crap everything.In the over crowded south east.

Chichester - West Sussex

Best - Fantastic trails,close to a great kite/windsurf beach, beaut pubs.

Worst - Too close to Larndon, starting to sink under the weight of East End gold chains.

Chichester - West Sussex

Best - Fantastic trails,close to a great kite/windsurf beach, beaut pubs.

Worst - Too close to Larndon, starting to sink under the weight of East End gold chains.

Eh? 🙄 🙄

Hayling Island

Best. Windsurfing on my doorstep ( literaly )
Choice of electric wheel chair shops

Worst. Crappy pubs
One road on / off means horrendous traffic on chav holiday weekends
Whole island only 10 meters above sea level. Damn global warming.