The trick (IMO) is to do a variety of riding

Quite, but in my case I want the speed and movement that comes at race speed, which in mud & clay is hard to replicate. I also want “handling skill” so pushing corners at speed at a wet Swinley which will also me more technical than a muddy grind should be the solution.

My two option I’m given are a club ride, or this type of MTB ride and the latter is of course more specific. I should probably alternate bi weekly.

Sounds like I might be in the minority.
Living in Devon and Dartmoor being wet wet wet I regularly drive to s Wales or mid Wales for the weekend. Trail centres and just guaranteed fun and rideable no matter the weather.
Usually opt to drive to Exmoor or quantocks in the summer so around 1.5 hours there….
However, gf rides too, we go in the camper and always make a weekend of it.

Always do an Alps trip each year and trips to North Wales and Scotland.

Turns out I love a drive…..

Looking back it’s almost embarrassing to admit that every weekend would involve at least a couple of hours drive just to ride a trail centre for a few hours. 3 of us would happily travel from Manchester to Penmachno, Llandegla, Dalby and Cannock on a regular basis and every now and again we would even go to Glentress or innerleithen and back in a day. Madness.

I wouldn’t do it now though. Half an hour tops gets me to plenty of local stuff but even then I prefer to ride on the road from my door rather than spend time in the car.

Rivi is 40 minutes away,south lakes just over an hour,Degla approx 1h 20 mins.
I’ve not been on the MTB for 18 months,purely because I detest driving on my day off.
I’m always out on either the road bike or the gravel bike,it’s great riding from the door step,plus most of my rides are less than 3 hours which leaves the rest of the day free to do other stuff.
I’ve decided in 2019 I’ll be getting back out on the MTB,but I won’t be looking forward to the drive…

Hours of riding from my door. Plenty of gravel, BWs,singletrack and heathland.

Occasionally I might drive 20-30 mins. In that time I can get to Haldon (did 23 miles of off-piste there yesterday for example), Dartmoor, and the Quantocks.

Quite lucky with my local riding really.

I’ll always drive to places, even if I lived in one of the bike meccas, I’d still want to ride in other places.

Living where I do means I drive an hour to an hour and a half one way most weekends. Even the local stuff is 15-20min drive. Planning on moving at some point.

The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff. I am another Cardiffian, and there is some great riding just a little too far away to ride to (unless you are going for an all-dayer) which I should visit more often. But the faff of packing the car up etc. means you end up going local, like you did last week, and the week before…

I can ride off the doorstep or 25 min drive to my mums and then it’s 30 mins of langsett/cutgate and all the great riding of the Pennines, I just wish northern rail would stop going on strike it’s been 8 Saturdays in a row so no 5 mins to station and train to hebden/Tod and a beer on way home

We’ve a BW going directly past the house but it doesn’t really link up with with much. It’s the best part of an hour each way on roads and/or very boggy lanes to get started on the Dales’ BWs so a fifteen minute drive is a better use of time.

Seventy five minutes of driving gets me to Staveley and the riding round there, a similar time to Reeth for the Swaledale trails. We’ve just got back from three days bikepacking in Kielder Forest, three hours each way.

Usually 20 to 45 minutes but the sky is the limit. New Zealand and Canada are ace for riding trips.

I drive, on a regular basis, 30 mins to WindHill Bikepark, or 20 minutes to Rowberrow on the Mendips. Also do BPW about three times a year (2 hours away).

Probably going to offend some people now, but I wouldn’t bother going out of my way to ride Swinley; it just doesn’t have enough gradient to be anything other than a slog. If I lived near, I’d probably drive a bit further to somewhere like Tidworth.

JP

One hour for me to get to any good riding. I do it almost every weekend in Summer and every second or so in winter. I just have to do it otherwise there will be no riding!

We’ve got common land 300 yards from our house. Not supposed to ride on it,but chavs tear it up on mopeds & don’t get nicked so sod it 😊. There’s also the Malvern hills less than a couple of miles away too. Plenty of fun there if you know the trails 😁

I get the wish to keep vehicle miles to a minimum, but driving-for-mtb miles pale into insignificance when compared to driving-for-whitewaterkayak miles. I have done 10s of 1000s of miles many times over. Never again.

I do ride out from home most weeks but I have been doing these trails for 30 years so do like to drive somewhere for a bit of variety. An hours drive is my top limit though.

The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff

Nah, I don’t agree. You can always push yourself to go a bit faster or sillier. Once you know the trails and local routes backwards, then you can ride lots of trails combos without having to plan a route.

Or go and build some lines. I’ve put in quite a few fun lines in forestry land near me this year. Lots of steep, off-camber silliness. Only I’m riding them, so I can try out different line routes and sections. And when that area gets harvested I move to another bit of the hill.

Lucky to have a fully wooded, 5 mile long, 200m high ridge right next to my house. Lots of fire trails for going up, and hardly ever, if at all, see anybody up there.

The downside of living near enough to trails ride from your door is you get stuck in a rut of the same local stuff

There is truth in that. When I lived near Edinburgh I’d ride from my doorinto the Pentland Hills but for variation I really needed to drive further afield.

I’m now in Aviemore though – hence much less driving. There’s just somuch choice and variation locally.

I drive to the South Downs on occasion, other than that I ride to the local trails near me on the North Downs. I am still discovering new ones, which is always good.

Once you know the trails and local routes backwards, then you can ride lots of trails combos without having to plan a route.

Agree – great if you’re short on time to just get on and go without needing to plan much, plus if you’re familiar with an area you get to know the cheeky routes. There’s enough around where I live (Durham) to combine road sections with fire roads/railway paths and bridleways to keep it interesting, with the occasional visit to one of the National Parks or Hamsterley (which I do sometimes ride to from home, but I need to commit a whole day to it to make it worthwhile).

I rode to Morzine to go biking a couple of summers back.
Twas a great way to beat the peages and eat loads of pan au chocolates.
I regularly ride to Cannock for a few laps of the dog; its all free saddle time!

I live in Oswestry Shropshire. I drive:

30 mins to llandegla.
75 mins to the Marin
60 mins to penmachno
100 mins to nant yr arian
90 mins to cyb
120 mins to the dark peak

I have local bridleway/cheeky trails I can ride from the door but some need to be all day affairs (Glyn valley/Berwyns)

I live in Leeds…

Before i had kids 1hr 15 mins each way for a day ride (dales or peaks), less than 4 hrs for a weekend (n wales or lakes)and then 4+ for a few days or more (highlands).

Now I have kids i tend to ride from the door to max the time in the saddle. Did a weekend in the lakes in April this year as couldn’t be arsed spending too long driving.

Depends where you live I guess…

@Matt_SS_xc I’m also living in Devon and spend quite a lot of time driving to Wales or FOD as let’s face it Dartmoor is quite often in its natural liquid state. In fact I’m on my way to the Forest of Dean now.

I go to the Forest of Dean once or twice a month and BPW about the same amount. Local stuff is mostly for midweek riding.

I’m about 2 minutes away from local trails and there’s a good selection of them to ride.

Me and a mate once drove to Provence and back in a weekend to spend a day riding up and down Mont Ventoux. Probably wouldn’t drive any further than that to ride to be honest 😂

I’m a 40-45 minute drive from Aviemore/Cairngorms. Mountain biking is better when, you know, there are some actual mountains… Contin is about 20-25.

I do the majority of my riding in the gorms (there’s a variety and scope I’ve not exhausted yet even if I have now done the Burma Road 3x this year 🤣). Plus I’ve mates who live there and, well, plans…

Bikepacking takes me further afield and like Scotroutes my ‘rule’ is riding time > driving time which is easy enough if you’re overnighting. I have left from the house a couple times (a four day away cross the country and back for instance) but my access roads are singletrack with passing places and the highlands seem to be full of people hurtling along in their cars at breakneck speed… also, crossing the Kessock bridge with 750/800mm bars means stopping if there’s anybody coming the other way… 🤪

My roadie scum days are long gone.

I won’t. Which is guess is why I barely MTB anymore. Being time poor means that I need to use every minute available to me, I can be on quiet country roads on my road bike in 5 mins, and can be running on quiet trails in the same time. Local MTB trails are maybe 30 minutes ride away, anything good is the best part of an hour in the car.

15 mins drive to Woburn or 45 to chicksands or Aston.

3 hours each way for afan that I’m doing next week tho !

An hour or so to swinley, which is the kids favourite

15 mins drive to Woburn

Genuine question and not a dig; does that 15 mins include getting the bike in/out or on/off the car and getting changed out of muddy kit? I guess if you are doing it regularly you have it down to a good routine but I can’t be bothered with that additional faff for short distances and it would probably mean I rode less.

Agree – great if you’re short on time to just get on and go without needing to plan much, plus if you’re familiar with an area you get to know the cheeky routes.

This is true- jeans & trainers (no special shoes needed) and out the door for a quick blast of urban swerving (as my OH calls it)- hopping up kerbs and riding down stairs can be as good for your head as a big day out and there are fun lines and routes all over the shop if you look for them!

^^^ on that theme, closest all weather riding to me is Cathkin, which is ok for a fitness blast when time short. It’s a 7 minute drive or 20 minute ride. I almost always drive though as riding there and back is all on road and to me, waste of time, given I tend to go there when I don’t have enough time to go further afield.

And if you rode there you’d probably get bum raped and your bike taken off you….🙄😂

😎, an added bonus I guess !

I know you don’t rate the place Greg, but it’s worth having a look at the new stuff that was built for the European champs, linking down to the new pump track. I suspect you would find it annoyingly enjoyable…

30-45 mins for a typical 2-3hrs ride

1-2 hrs for a full day out

2-4 hrs for an overnight trip

Up to 14hrs for a biking holiday

Normally straight from the door, but generally try to apply the rule where if you’re driving longer than you’re going to ride, it’s not really worth it for a day trip.

My worst offence this year was driving to Whinlatter – 3.5 hours driving there and back for well under 2 hours riding.

Done day trip to Afan which is 3 hrs each way door to door, apart from that within 1hr I can be at Swinley , Devils Punchbowl, Whiteways, Stanmer Park, Surrey Hills or its 20min drive to QECP.
Most of which become a mudfest this time of year so I jump on the road bike instead.

50% of weekends either 1hr to peaks, or 2.5 to North Wales. Other weekend – 25% from door or less than 30 minutes, 25% boring as shit family weekends.

Cutting down on family for more wales. Would live there but for work. 🙂

About twice a week, Mortimer forest (15 minutes) or Hopton Woods (25 minutes). A couple of times a month either FOD, Llandegla or Cannock all about 1hr 30min.

Well I did the Swinley thing today with Jnr – 2 laps of everything, 4hrs at his speed. Not so sure anymore its going to be a regular thing for me, p’raps I need to hit 2 laps at my race pace to see if I get more from it.

1hr there this morning 1:07 this afternoon back, 110m round trip but only £4 in the car park – £1 an hour.

Aren’t there enough cars on the road already? Why on earth would you want to make a special journey just to ride a bike? If you are going away on holiday or off to a race fair enough.