What is the general opinion for a decent distance for a mountain bike ride?

I guess a weekend long ride and a after work blast?

I tend to get 15 to 20 miles with about 1500ft of climbing in for an after work blast, weekend I can hardly remember as it has been that long but I would look at something around 25 miles.

Depends of terrain, weather, trail conditions etc.
I tend to go by time, rather than distance/altitude. So a “really” good weekend ride would be 2 X 10 hours (chance to do that these days is limited due to family)
After work blast would be 2-4 hours, depending on urgency to get to the pub.

Depends hugely.

I think most people ride based on time, not distance?

So a couple of hours riding in the woods will be a shorter ride than open bridleways for the same time.

what you’re doing doesn’t sound unusual from what I see on Strava and my own experiences.

My after work blast is a fast local loop of about 13 mile which is done in not much over an hour.

A long weekend ride if I have time is about 30 mile but depends on where, who with and how long I have.

<———– string ———–>

When I was fit evening rides were 15 to 20 miles.

Weekend rides were 30 to 45 miles.

15 miles is a big ride for me now though!

Mid-week 15-20 miles 2-21/2 hours.

Add an extra hour and some more miles for a weekend ride.

3- 4 hours is a night ride out. Same or longer at the weekend – time is a better measure than distance IMHO

Would also go by time.
I tend to do about 2.5 hours. If it’s hilly with some techy bits, the distance might be 25km, but if I go for a flatter faster paced blat, it might be more like 45km.

Both are good distances.

All depends where you ride and what you ride.

Midweek nightride anything from 7 to 20 miles, maybe anything up to 3000ft in that and 1.5 to 2.5 hours
Full day out usually 20 to 35 miles but would be more like 5000ft of ascent.

Is that on a 26″, 29er or 650B?

45min

DezB has a point.

Maybe we should be counting number of wheel revolutions per ride?

Too many with 26″, not enough with 29″ just right for 650B.

bike ride quality = number-of-smiles / time-in-hours

I think terrain is more important than distance. I find 15 miles in the Peak is harder than 25 mile locally.

Likewise climbing up a fire road is vastly easier than a rocky/rooty climb were you have to work for traction. Same on the downhills ( which for some reason hurts my legs more than the climbing, really need to relax more but that is another matter).

as above, terrain is more important than distance.

I did a 30-odd miler on Exmoor and was hollowed out. Can do that in under 3 hours on my home turf, and then take the kids swimming before cutting the grass in the afternoon.

This isn’t road riding, distance isn’t the point. Proper bike rides are measured in smiles and jelly beans.

As much fun as I can ram into an hour.

For me evenings are 20-30miles with 1000m of climbing. Weekend rides anything from 30 miles to 70 miles with 100m to 2500m of climbing.

Depends though. Some of my best rides have been short and flat with good mates. Sometimes getting out for an hour after a day of bad weather is bliss.

depends on wheel size really, 20 -30 miles on old technology is good but I find on a new 650b im probably managing 50 miles of “trail alive” time as opposed to 20 – 30 miles in old money….

For me evenings are 20-30miles with 1000m of climbing.

😯

That’d be 4-5 hours around here and assuming a 7pm start, you’d miss the pub. 🙂

Summer 50 to 90 miles of XC fun

Winter 20 to 40 miles of similar, Suffolk has mud but no big hills.

Flatish (read pines area) a good ride is 30miles, peak area i try to count climbing so good ride should be min 1000m climbing.

Typical STW, time, distance, but no mention of fun, it must always be fun whether its 10mins or 10 hours! 🙂

blooddonor – Member

Typical STW, time, distance, but no mention of fun

Don’t know why I bother! 😆

I really need to get out and live somewhere I have a long XC ride on my door step!

Don’t think I could string a fun 2.5 hour ride together without driving for an hour first.

I can’t imagine living somewhere without decent riding on my doorstep, life wouldn’t be worth living.

I can’t imagine living somewhere without decent riding on my doorstep, life wouldn’t be worth living.

it would,…honest….it would

if you go out with other people, you’ll probably do about 5 miles.

if you go out by yourself, about 100 miles.
There’s a lesson there.

It depends how alive the trails are.

I normally find in the Lakes/Calderdale where I almost always ride something around 30km with 1000m of climbing feels like a reasonable ride. But then the longest I’ve done would be about 45km I think.

I really need to get out and live somewhere I have a long XC ride on my door step!

Nah it’s better if you live somewhere with lots of great technical descents within a few hundred yards, but with lots of options for long XC rides as well. 😛

3 hours is a good ride. distance is meaningless really.

45 mins easy ride as a warm up then 45 mins balls out max effort seems to be effective for me. Agree with othess that distance is meaningless.

Also go by time.

2hrs during the week.

4 – 5hrs at the weekend.

When I’ve had enough I go home. Counting mile after mile just for the sake of it is a bit vain imo. 30 bridleway miles is a lot different to 30 mountain miles.

2hrs during week battery run time and having to get up for work next day etc etc
4/5hrs at weekend sometimes at lot longer depends how much fun iam having and how broken were all feeling 🙂

For me evenings are 20-30miles with 1000m of climbing.

That’d be 4-5 hours around here and assuming a 7pm start, you’d miss the pub.

3 to 3.5 hours normally. Go straight from work at 5.

Not bothered about going to the pub…

Distance is for roadies.

A good afternoon with an ordnance survey map, only find the distance when I get home and download. 40 miles is achievable round here on a singlespeed.

due to newborn i get about 2hours on a fri night and cross race every other sunday hope to start a 20m each way commute next year