Best TOWNS to live in as a MTBer?

True, kids called Oscar & Betty? Fenwicks storecard? Only you can answer

Didnt realise Fenwicks did score cards…..How tempting. Been eyeing up one of those Barbour jackets. They is all the rage you know.

Dorking’s great, but Guildford would be better (or even Woking to be cheaper)

As well as 30 mins onto the NDW and then over to the Surrey Hills area that you can access Dorking from, 20 mins in the other direction and you’re on all the Gorrick areas.

So what is it you prefer about towns?

Fewer pedantic clever-clogs people tend to live in them.

Tough one this –

Newtonmore – handy for Aviemore/Cair Gorms/Laggan

Llangennith – handy for miles of natural bridle-way and surfing

or Coleford for FoD – but not sure I’d want to be too close with the locals… 😕

Anywhere west of Brum straddled by the M6 – yes that includes Stourbridge.

Good riding from the door – Kinver, Clent etc
Long Mynd, Cannock Chase – within 45 mins drive
Peaks/North Wales/Mid Wales – 1 30 mins
South Wales and Scotland – 3-4 30 mins

sorted

Durango?

Dorking’s great, but Guildford would be better (or even Woking to be cheaper)

Guildford’s a city.

(I wouldn’t pick it over Dorking anyway, but that’s subjective.)

Actually I stand corrected having checked Wikipedia, it says Guildford’s a town despite having a cathedral and university.

Of the places I’ve been through, for their proximity to good trails or promising terrain at the very least, I’d reckon Peebles, Pitlochry, Lewes, Tiverton, or Lake District tourist traps like Keswick or Ambleside. Chapel-en-le-Frith – dunno if that counts as a town or not.

Marple isn’t a town either, it’s a small suburb of Manchester trying hard to be a village…

It used to be a village. However more importantly it’s got doorstep riding and not far from The Peak/s.

It used to be a village. However more importantly it’s got doorstep riding and not far from The Peak/s.

Yeah, but it was never a ‘town’, so that’s Marple out. Besides, my doorstep riding is the Peak. Your doorstep riding is my foul weather option 😉

+1 for Bolton. Rains alot though.

I come from Manchester, have lived in Sheffield an currently have a house in Todmorden. Partner lives in Bury.

I can honestly say that of all the places I’ve lived in, Bury and Bolton are by far the best:

40 odd miles of superb, mixed use trails on the doorstep.
Yes, Tod is wonderful, but after spending 20 odd years there it’s nice to have a change.

If we take cheek into account, I’d say Llanberis has the edge, but for available, safe, fun trails, Bury and Bolton win every single time.

Don’t tell anyone, for god’s sake. 😀

Innerleithen!! Coffee and cakes at I-cycles brilliant trails and it is’nt in Peebles End of!

Glad to see nobody has let slip that it is actually Abergavenny. It would be a shame to let that cat out of the bag.

Skipton.

mattjg
Actually I stand corrected having checked Wikipedia, it says Guildford’s a town despite having a cathedral and university.

Guildford is a city. For a piece of trivia the Cathedral features in the first Omen film. Wikipedia is just a giant forum of stuff posted by members, it’s riddled with errors.

Guildford is a very good place to ride from, best in UK I have to hope not even though I’ve lived there 25 years.

can’t believe SBZ said Penicuik.
As a resident there I must say it’s pretty good.
Pentlands are on the doorstep and local trails are good.
15 mins from Peebles, and also 15 mins from Edinburgh.

Saltaire

Guildford is a city

It’s a town!

Dorking is lovely, Guildford better for going out in the evening, quite attractive too though.

Matlock – nice but hard climbs out
Bakewell – great trail access

No-one has said Penrith – handy for eastern lakes, Lowther valley, 30 mins from Keswick close to M6/A66 , and a real town (with a Booths just open)

mattjg and mudshark – what do I know I just live here. Indeed Guildford is formally a town.

Marple!

Belper

I forgot Wirksworth

mattjg and mudshark – what do I know I just live here. Indeed Guildford is formally a town.

Queenie decides what’s a city or not.

And it is better than Dorking because it’s so close to two great riding areas rather than one.

Actually more than two, because Puttenham / Devils Punchbowl is also easily rideable from my door, although I do have to go on the road a bit.

I’m quite astonished at the UK-centric gist of responses…

And it is better than Dorking because it’s so close to two great riding areas rather than one.

Ah but Dorking’s not close to riding areas, it’s in a riding area. I can be off-road from 300 metres of my front door, and go in 3 different directions for miles and miles. I love that.

I also like Dorking because it’s smaller, more personable (but big enough to have everything I need), other folks will prefer Guildford because it’s bigger. Fair dos.

But a lot of this is subjective, they’re both good. What I am going to do one Sunday is chuck my bike in the car and drive over to the other side of Guildford to see what’s there. That’s what we’re all here for after all.

Freiburg, the Schwarzwald is on the doorstep, just over the border to the Vosges region of France, and within striking distance of the Alps. Big enough to have decent employment prospects and serviced by efficient German public transport.

Durango would suit me (and the wife would be on Right-Move quick as lightning if she thought that was a possibility).

Crawley.

Seriously, it’s ace. I don’t live there yet (I live in a very middle-class Sussex village and my kids go to a great local school) but Crawley is where it’s at:

– For biking, they have painted several white lines down the gutter at the side of some of the main roads. And some of the estates have an excellent network of singletrack ‘rabbit runs’ used by drug dealers escaping from the Police.

– Your trials skills can be developed riding over the many trail obstacles around town (burned out cars, dumped fridges, dead people).

– Your fitness levels will improve too, as you’ll get plenty of interval training when sprinting away from gangs any Saturday night.

It has a major international airport just up the road too – so it’s easy to fly away from to go somewhere nicer, although why anyone would want to do so beats me.

Im sure there are places with more dramatic and demanding landscapes but always feel very lucky living in lewes. Can do offroad loops that take in South Downs Way, river, fast country roads, hills, Friston Forest and Stanmer Park trails, sea, Brighton cafes and Lewes pubs. In one day! I’m a North Downs boy and I love that environment but for off-bike living and diversity of cycling experience I’m where I want to be.

What I am going to do one Sunday is chuck my bike in the car and drive over to the other side of Guildford to see what’s there.

Mostly golf courses, army stuff, and the home of FMD.

Bolton is great for MTB’ing plus I live there!!

But, I’d have to say Keswick. Lovely town, great people and the trails on your doorstep (if you dont just limit yourself to the BW’s) are just utterly brilliant.

Ponty, Merthyr, Caerffilthy 😉

But a lot of this is subjective, they’re both good. What I am going to do one Sunday is chuck my bike in the car and drive over to the other side of Guildford to see what’s there. That’s what we’re all here for after all.

So you’re voting on Dorking without even having been over the other side of Guildford.

Come back after and then agree with me…….

Chill out fella.

Where do I go first?

Penrith, Cumbria Ride out the door off road in to Lakes or up into the Pennines. If you have to drive 20mins to keswick 1h38 mins to Manchester 1hr 45 to Edinburgh 7 stains not far + for the darkside the UK highest bit of tarmac and v quiet roads its perfectley possible to do 60miles and only have 2-3 cars go past I am not moving!

mattjg – the best riding from Guildford is to the East and South East – ie towards traditional Surrey Hills. From Guildford via NDW/Newlands Corner to top of Holmbury/Pitch/Winterfold and back is a 30-35k loop. Plenty of 15-25k options taking in villages like Shere etc. I do a nice pootle along river to Godalming and then across country to a favourite pub (which was very popular with a certain Chris Evans in the day) before returning via disused railway linking Cranleigh to Guildford. You can ride up the Wey Navigation towards London but none of it is as good as the routes/villages and hills mentioned above. Riding towards West (Farnham/Puttenham Common) is generally sandy and a bit dull, there are some loops around Frensham Ponds but that’s a sand est too.

theotherjonv – any better suggestions, I’d be ken to hear them.

I like living in Guildford and riding form there but if it was the best in the country I think I’d have to emigrate !

Cannock would be good but if you want to live in East Anglia try Brandon as you are the dorrstep of the forest.

Epping is decent (for the forest) if you want to live on a tube line.