Great places to live with riding from the door?

Might also add Betws-y-Coed/Llanwrst and I suppose Machynlleth to my list.

Betws is just the Welsh version of Ambleside. Rows on rows of outdoor shops and expensive cafes and every other house is a B&B/Airbnb.

Aviemore is exactly the same but Scotland.

and I suppose Machynlleth to my list.

TBF I’ve only ever been to the town a couple of times, but it looks to me like its on its arse.

Betws is just the Welsh version of Ambleside. 

That’s why I added Llanrwst.

Amazing MTB trails from the door (good road and gravel too) and you could pop to Llandudno for town and seaside things.

Hobart.

1200m of vertical descent within 21km of the city centre, world class riding throughout Tasmania.

Incredible food and drink.

Full of outdoors people.

Great climate (rarely freezes in winter day).

A bit isolated.

Next to the Nationwide in Swindon

Snuck that in nicely 👍

Another Sheffield resident here.

in my humble opinion, the riding isn’t as good as the hype, but it’s ok.

yes, you can ride into The Peak District, but you’ll soon get sick of the slog up through the parks, and when you get to the top, you’re looking at a *lot* of road-riding to then get to, and link up the good bits, and this being the west of Sheffield, those roads are busy with d***heads in fast cars.

yes, Ride Sheffield have done a brilliant job working with the council, and the wildlife trust, to create some really good trails, but… again… you’ll have to really enjoy road-riding to *actually* ride them (regularly) from your door.

However, i’m probably suffering from winter-gloom. Ask me again in late June and i’ll be giddy with sunburn and good times.

You asked for : “Great places to live, with riding from the Door”, and i do think Sheffield fits that.

Sheffield is a great place to live*, and with a bit of effort, you can access some great trails.

*also worth considering: we’re in the middle of the country, making weekend trips all over the country a perfectly  reasonable option – if that’s important.

TBF I’ve only ever been to the town a couple of times, but it looks to me like its on its arse.

I quite like Machynlleth. Cheap housing, some OK pubs and cafes, high street isn’t too bad and it’s close to beaches and mountains. It has a train line, and with CAT, tourism, forestry and farming there’s presumably a reasonable amount of employment opportunities.

I’d say it goes a long way to ticking what the OP has asked for.

However, i’m probably suffering from winter-gloom. Ask me again in late June and i’ll be giddy with sunburn and good times.

Same here, I’m clearly on a massive downer as anyone can see from my recent whinging!

Just need a sunny day at Bolehills or Wharny to turn the tables.

And then a lottery win and a house in Oughtibridge.

Honestly those suggesting Sheffield, Machynlleth etc is it really riding from the door? My idea of riding from the door is literally being on trails within a few minutes, not having to ride 5-10 miles through surbubia or on country lanes or drive for 15-30 minutes to reach them. Maybe we’re spoiled in Calderdale where the trails really are from the door but I’d get very bored having to do that all the time.

I quite like Machynlleth.

Mach is great if you want to live in the middle of nowhere. One of my best mates has lived there for 20 years and he’s bored out of his mind and thinking of moving to Tod for the single reason that it is populated by more than a few hundred people.

Honestly those suggesting Sheffield, Machynlleth etc is it really riding from the door?

See my post on page 2. I can technically ride to good trails but it’s a death defying slog through the urban jungle.

Honestly those suggesting Sheffield

Sheffield is quite a big place, but a lot of the suburbs to the west, yes

From my front door (in Sheffield) I have to ride at most 1400m of tarmac before I’m on the trails. That then gets me to Totley Moor, Blacka Moor, Houndkirk and Eastern Edges (including White Edge) with no more roads to ride on. OK, maybe another 500m of tarmac to get to Houndkirk and Lady Cannings but that’s it.

Agree that if you live in central or eastern Sheffield it’s a slog but western suburbs it’s doable.

Sheffield is quite a big place, but a lot of the suburbs to the west, yes

Yep. The larger the town, the smaller the percentage of the population that will have immediate access to off-road trails. If there’s a rich/not rich thing going on, it’s more likely to exhibit itself in the difference between the leafy suburbs and the inner city. 

As regards ByC, Keswick, Aviemore etc, it’s hardly a surprise that there is good access to the countryside given that’s exactly why folk choose to go there on holiday. I can honestly say that not once has anyone told me they are going to Sheffield for an outdoors holiday. Whether you choose to live in a holiday village/town very much depends on what else is a priority for you. 

Further up in the thread someone suggested Hathersage too; I lived there for about 7 years before moving back in to Sheffield. In fact the biking from there wasn’t great, and no way near as accessible as where I am now, all the good stuff requires a ride along the valley towards Hope which wasn’t much fun. And yes, in the height of summer it gets mobbed, I’m glad I moved back to Sheffield in fact. Nice outdoor pool though.

900m of tarmac to Blacka, 1km to Limb valley for me in Sheffield, so I’d say that was pretty doorstep.

To be fair, even if you lived in the city centre you would only have 3km of flat road to get to the parks which lead all the way out to the Peak. To the north is Greno etc and there are good gravel trails to the east and south.

Sheffield has the advantage of not being part of a big conurbation in the way that most larger cities are.

My idea of riding from the door is literally being on trails within a few minutes

That’s my take as well. In Heptonstall I was 20 paces from a descent that folks travel to Hebden Bridge to ride, and in the Chilterns it was maybe a 100 yard pedal and a road crossing. I don’t think Sheffield qualifies really beyond that its often mentioned on these sorts of threads. 🤷‍♀️

As regards ByC, Keswick, Aviemore etc, it’s hardly a surprise that there is good access to the countryside given that’s exactly why folk choose to go there on holiday. I can honestly say that not once has anyone told me they are going to Sheffield for an outdoors holiday. Whether you choose to live in a holiday village/town very much depends on what else is a priority for you.

The OP question covered a few bases though, not just would you go on holiday there.

Being central in the country has a good few other benefits including motorway and rail access to anywhere, easily. I work all over the country (plus Scotland sometimes), but actually living Lakes/upward would be a massive inconvenience a lot of the time

Everybody knows that Wirral is the centre of the MTB universe, 170mm travel is the bare minimum requirement here.

The problem with touristy places is that they’re rammed in high season and dead for most of the winter. Plus everything is set up for tourists, and very little for real people.

At the very least I think you’d need a reasonably sized town that had a year round population.

Loxley and out towards Low Bradfield (north west Sheffield) ain’t half bad too.

Chorley for me. Mountain bike riding from my front door with almost zero road riding to get there. Train links to the peaks and lakes and easy road links to loads of riding. On the train line to Manchester so loads of jobs and nightlife. Really good road riding as a bonus.

I wouldn’t want to live somewhere where I couldn’t ride from my front door. Time is far too limited to be wasting it spent in the car.

Another vote for Cardiff.
With the Taff Trail, you can live near the city centre and ride into the mountains – 98% of it traffic free.

Another Sheffield resident here.

in my humble opinion, the riding isn’t as good as the hype, but it’s ok.

I had a free day in Sheffield about 4 or 5 years ago so posted on here asking about where to ride. Almost every reply suggested getting in the car to go somewhere else. There was rugby on  in the afternoon, so I decided to head out to Lady Cannings and do a loop out to Stanage Edge. Lady Canning’s was a couple of short undemanding trails so I was genuinely surprised that it’s included in anybody’s recommendations for good riding. (Other than, park here, warm up on the junior trails and then ride out to some better trails…) Maybe it has got significantly better since I visited? The loop out had nice views and was old fashioned xc riding. Not a bad day of riding but it’s not somewhere I’d hurry to visit again. To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion. It’s now become a regular trip. I didn’t bother suggesting a trip to Sheffield…

To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion.

Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills. Nowt to see here, move along now.

To contrast, after I’d ridden the Surrey Hills for the first time, at around the same time, a bunch of my riding mates went up there for the weekend on my suggestion.
Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills. Nowt to see here, move along now.

Oh no, I agree, it’s rubbish. But we live in a horrible area for MTBing (S Wales) and improve it slightly by regular trips to Scotland, Ireland, foreign horrible places. To keep our spending down and remind us of even worse places we go to Surrey, where the locals are rude, you can’t get a proper cooked breakfast (avocado with everything!) and beer is expensive. Makes us glad to be at home in our MTB-desert. :D

I didn’t bother suggesting a trip to Sheffield…

Lady Cannings used to be rubbish just to even pass through, never mind anything else. It’s better now, but not worth making effort to get there if it’s not part of a bigger ride. There’s plenty of good stuff around Blackamoor and plenty of good stuff around and beyond Stanage. You just didn’t get particularly good advice. You can head deep into the Peak if you want an all dayer. Greno and Wharncliffe are decent too.

Now it’s far from the best riding the whole of the UK has to offer, but we are talking decent accessible stuff close to a major city and amenities – for that it’s hard to beat.

If others can’t find anything decent to ride in the area, then they either aren’t looking in the right places or they have very high standards.

I don’t live in Sheffield btw

I do plan to try the Surrey Hills next time I’m staying down South though

Now it’s far from the best riding the whole of the UK has to offer, but we are talking decent accessible stuff close to a major city and amenities – for that it’s hard to beat.

If others can’t find anything decent to ride in the area, then they either aren’t looking in the right places or they have very high standards.

👆 This.

Bear in mind the OP I think wanted somewhere with job opportunities as well as doorstep riding. Sheffield city centre is going through a bit of a transformation at the moment so I’d expect the labour market to be getting more buoyant in the coming year or two as well.

I’m somewhat surprised that no one’s suggested Bristol or Bath?

Lived in Keswick for most of the 90s and into the mid-Noughties. Sacked it off because I could no longer deal with the negative effects of tourism. After a decade overseas I considered (and discounted) Scotland, and ended up in Somerset for five years. Loved it there, great cycling, I’d probably still be there if the relationship I’d been in hadn’t cratered. Then a spell in South Wales – Merthyr. Good riding, grim town, poor public transport. But the part time job I’d taken to pay the bills facilitated a transfer to Calderdale, which had kinda been the long term plan for a while. I’m carless these days, so riding out the door or using trains is a given, and the Happy Valley pretty much ticks the boxes.

Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills.

could you imagine if the secret got out?

Bristol 

Please keep quiet about the Surrey Hills.

could you imagine if the secret got out?

Sorry if I’ve blown the lid off this secret spot guys.

At least you had a good few years of deserted trails, empty car parks and no queues at the Peaslake shop.

I lived in Bath for a couple of years and there is riding from your front door, but there’s a huge amount of road slogging – lots of it up really steep hills – and the trails aren’t that good. Loads and loads of good road riding though.

Also, Bath is a crazy expensive place to live.

I would imagine most places you can be on trails fairly easily from the door its just about want you want in off-road riding. I live just outside Newbury, I can be off road within 1 min of my house and piece together a decent couple of hours of xc riding, or much longer gravel type loops, can also do some really nice road riding. It’s about setting expectations and making the most of what you have around you.

I lived in the Lakes for a while (Montgomery had a car then!), I lived in and around some great riding and enjoyed it. Life has taken me to lots of places since and it has never stopped me riding from the door.

Bristol

Came here to add that too.

You’d be more there for the city, but I’m now living in the Midlands and missing my lunchtime Leigh Woods/Ashton Court shreds more than ever.

Nearly all these suggestions with the exception of Sheffield fall well short of ‘lively’.

Bath is OK for MTB but your going to want to do trips away (liveliness borderline)

Bristol maybe slightly better if you can live in distance from the good stuff (almost too lively)

Doesn’t tick the great box, although there are some really nice places locally if you have the funds, but you can live on cannock chase and commute into birmingham by train in an hour, bit less on a motorbike, little bit more pedal powered.

I’ve lived in Sheffield and visited loads. It’s amazing. But as Sharkattack says when people say Sheffield they are really referring to quite a limited part of the City.

Surrey which I know, but less well, is also clearly amazing. The greensand means that like round here there is some year round riding. I think the Sussex, Chilterns and Newbury votes might be some what seasonal

My estate agent might say endless gravel riding. Although it’s really not that far to what us southerners call MTB and it work year round

I know a couple that live and work in Fortwilliam surely that must get a look in.

@spokebob

However, i’m probably suffering from winter-gloom. Ask me again in late June and i’ll be giddy with sunburn and good times.

You are.

My family is from the Hope Valley, so its very special to me, and I may or may not have chose to go study in sheffield because of the mountain bike riding. Being able to ride from my door, up the Rivelin Valley and into a National Park in half an hour, was absolutely magic, and I miss it dearly. The plan was always to stay, but job opportunities came. I’ m only 40 min up the road but the riding up here in the “flat bit” TM of Yorkshire is very different.

You are very lucky.

Have a photo – thats a 2005(?) Giant Reign, purchased with 1st term student maintenance loan, on a ride from my flat, when I was probably meant to be studying but the sun was out. The best of times.

Nearly all these suggestions with the exception of Sheffield fall well short of ‘lively’.

Well we were always gonna prioritise the riding :D

But “lively” could mean a moderately busy village pub to some people, or a major city like Sheff to others.