[Closed] Cirencester - tell me about it and the local area

Ciren is a typically [i]Cotswold Life[/i] type town, very pretty, its on the tourist routes of the Cotswolds, lots of farmers, small, surrounded by lovely Cotswold villages. A good range of pubs. Low crime rate. One night club. One late opening kebab van. Wear salmon jeans, brown shoes, shirt & jumper tied around your neck 😉

Where are you coming from?

Great for some road riding on back lanes, main roads are busy. Local MTB = Behind Nationwide in Swindon, Stroud/Selsey/Standish/Cranham, FoD.

Luckily, it's close to Cheltenham

[i]Ciren is a typically Cotswold Life type town, very pretty, its on the tourist routes of the Cotswolds, lots of farmers, small, surrounded by lovely Cotswold villages. A good range of pubs. Low crime rate. One night club. One late opening kebab van. Wear salmon jeans, brown shoes, shirt & jumper tied around your neck

Great for some road riding on back lanes, main roads are busy. Local MTB = Behind Nationwide in Swindon, Stroud/Selsey/Standish/Cranham, FoD.
[/i]

I can't really argue with this, except I will say that Ciren is not [i]quite[/i] as twee as other Cotswold towns. It's an actual small market town kind of place with actual shops, as opposed to the more chocolate boxey places.

Pubs - good (esp. The Marlborough for beer, The Crown for good pub food)
Restaurants - good selection for size of town
Shops - Waitrose 🙂 Plus usual chains and decent selection of independents
Bike shops - Ride 24/7 (a bit cliquey LBS for my liking), Independent Bikeworks (brilliant)

Surrounded by, well, The Cotswolds. Road riding from the door better/more varied than MTB, but MTB from the door is definetly doable. Sling the MTB in the back of the car and within half an hour there's tonnes...

Where are you going to be working?

And you do own red cords though, right?

Greasy Joes by Tesco for a 'Murder Burger'. You used to get a tshirt if you finished it.

[i]Greasy Joes by Tesco for a 'Murder Burger'. You used to get a tshirt if you finished it. [/i]

Greasy Joes is no more...

Riding from ciren is crap, you need to get around 7 miles from town before you pick up much in the way of trails. All the mountainbikes I know in ciren ride road bikes (it's that bad).

My mate lives in Ciren and is part of the Ride 24/7 clique! He did get me a very good deal on my new road bike though. I don't think he has red cords.

I've done plenty of road riding around there and there's some cracking little (and not so little) hills. We always seem to end up going into and out of Stroud at least twice every ride.

EDIT - And I'd agree the MTBing isn't as good as the road riding. Some OK stuff further out from the town.

[i]Riding from ciren is crap, you need to get around 7 miles from town before you pick up much in the way of trails. All the mountainbikes I know in ciren ride road bikes (it's that bad). [/i]

I wouldn't go so far as 'crap', but if you're after gnaar you do need to get a bit away out of town. However, you can be riding some thoroughly pleasant offroad tracks within about a mile (if you head Daglingworth way).

Then again, my bike has 26" wheels, so what do I know 🙂

Independent Bikeworks (brilliant)

My mate Sean, who's shop it is, will be pleased to hear that! 😀
Possibly the best place to go for tips on places to ride. Sean generally goes over to the FoD, probably the closest place for some decent off-road stuff. I really don't know the area at all, but I don't think it's as well served as further south for off-road trails.
I've just had a shufti at the OS map for the area, and for somewhere that's so closely associated with the horsey set, there's absolutely f-all in the way of bridleways and byways around there! You have to go down to Kemble to pick up the Macmilllan Way, which is about the only off-road route of any length I can see, and it doesn't appear to offer any loops or links to anything else.
Pretty crap, actually.

[i]My mate Sean, who's shop it is, will be pleased to hear that![/i]

Pass it on, Sean and Jim run a first-rate shop.

[i]I've just had a shufti at the OS map for the area, and for somewhere that's so closely associated with the horsey set, there's absolutely f-all in the way of bridleways and byways around there! You have to go down to Kemble to pick up the Macmilllan Way, which is about the only off-road route of any length I can see, and it doesn't appear to offer any loops or links to anything else.[/i]

It's not great, but it's also not that bad. If you head North out of town to Stratton, there's a couple of bridleways on the left that link through the back of the park into Daglingworth. From there there's tracks that criss cross the A419 working their way North, and you can cut West into the Duntisbournes, Sapperton, across to Bisley and looping back round. Always ened up riding out and back through the park/Daglingworth, but from there it's easy to string together up to 30 miles of mostly off road or tiny country lane, with a reasonable amount of downwards gnaar and upwards tech/grunt.

Seconded (or is it thirded now?) Went to Independent Bike works for advice about shoes and SPD's spent a good half-hour chatting to them, went through the options, discussed, tried on a pair, discussed fitting and adjustment and they didn't give me the hard-sell or anything.
Was quite happy to go back a few weeks later and get my christmas present to myself from them of a pair of shimano shoes and spd's. would have spent more there too but don't work in the area now 🙁

Best single track head west to stroud/nailsworth/dursley/cranham or north to Leckhampton.
Bridleways across Ciren park are nice (flat), great place to run. The lido is fun in the sun
Greasy Joes is a sad loss, great Thai and usual restaurants in town. Also visit: the rock (nightclub in a shopping centre full of drunk ag students); pakeman, catto and carter tailors (the home of coloured trousers); and Roman amphitheatre and museum. Stroud has award winning farmers market 9mi away, cotswold water park at S Cerney is a few miles south and is great for sailing, paddle boarding, waterskiing/wakeboarding etc, and has some xc (V flat) routes. Bird watching too if thats your thing!

Red trousers are most favoured, followed by salmon, mustard and light blue.

Agghhh, not red trousers! We get enough of that in Bristol (ref to the elected mayor here, who I am not impressed by). Had not realised red trousers were a gentry thing 🙂

Thanks so much for all the advice. I am happy with either road or off road, so all info useful. Info on bike shops helpful.

Any further suggestions of where to eat or drink in the villages round about the place?

Saw the big house park on the map - looks really huge. I see they have some kind of agricultural fair at some point.

Absolutely tonnes of pubs in the surrounding villages. Basically, bar the villages to the North (Daglingworth, the Duntisbournes etc), they all have one and they're all pretty good to excellent.

Of particular note (IMO, obviously):

The Tunnel in Coates
The Elliot Arms in South Cerney
Wild Duck in Ewen
Potting Shed in Crudwell