how long you prepared to ride on roads to get to trails?

I recently moved out of London to countryside (well, Tonbridge) and was disappointed to see lack of bridleways nearby so up until now I’ve been hopping in the car for 20 mins to get to Bedgebury or the North Downs. Both of which are great.

And then this weekend I didn’t have the car so thought I’d ride out to the trails. It took me all of 20 mins riding on the road (on a SS so it’d be faster still on a proper bike) and I’m pretty disappointed with myself that its taken me this long to work it out! Reckon if i was prepared to ride around 40 mins I’d get to even better trails.

So how long are you prepared to ride road to start getting muddy?

15-20 minutes doesn’t seem so bad if you’re going for a good long ride. Beyond that, I’d either drive to the trails or just accept the inevitable and go out no a road bike.

I’m “lucky” in that I can get onto the local trails across the road from my house.

There is something so turgid about riding an mtb with off road tyres on the road for any great distance – especially if you are used to riding the same route on a road bike. My local spot for fun riding is a about 6-7 miles by road but frequently ride double the distance to get there by bridleway….or normally take the car. It’s a bad habit.

I’ll ride 10 miles on road SS or geared to Birdlip in the summer for the start of a great (dry) loop. In winter i wouldn’t bother as Cranam is very muddy and i can ride elsewhere, which is probably 5 miles of tow path / road. Its a good warm up.

[edit] i have been known to cheat and have the wife drop me off by car, and i then start my journey home from there [/edit]

For most of my evening/night rides, it’s 4 miles ish (so 20 mins) from the house to Macc Forest, so not bad at all. I’ve been known to ride the 10 miles down the Middlewood Way to get to Marple and have a scoot round there of an evening too, but that takes about 45 mins each way on top of the ride, so a big night out.

Most weekend rides involve the car as we ride all over tbh, The Peak, The Lakes, Wales, Gisburn, Rivvington, Hebdon Bridge and others.

Carlos

Once you factor in not having to sort out the car and changing etc anything under an hour is acceptable – and in most places they’ll be BW, paths and other off-road routes once you start looking.

But where I live now, its about 50 yds from my place to the start of the off-road trails 🙂

good point b r . reckon i spend at least 20 mins packing and unpacking the car. Not to mention the actual drive of course!

I typically travel 3-5miles to get to the start of off-road trails. Although when on a ride I tend to do off-road sections linked with road sections and end up with a 50/50 split.

Your car sounds rubbish 😉

I’ve been known to ride 15-20 miles (each way) to get to the start an off road route even though I have trails in both directions starting from my front door.
kinda hate driving to ride my bike.

It’s faff time vs draggy tyre time. Maybe I’d ride 30 minutes to get to trails. If I didn’t have bridleways 5-10 minutes out the door depending which direction I go.

It takes me about 45 minutes to get to the North Downs from home by car or I can ride there in just over an hour so I tend to just ride a mix of 80/20 road/bridleway to get to any decent trails.

Similarly it’s about a 35-40 minute drive to Swinley or about an hour ride on road and bridleways so I tend to just ride to the trails.

Sadly there’s no trails any closer than that as far as I’m aware.

20 minutes from Tonbridge to Bedgebury? Really? Fair play to you, especially on a single speed.Are you going straight down the A21?

0 to 5 then to 10 depends on which direction I go on the start.

Wind direction usually dictates initially route selection as I prefer to return home with the wind behind me.

I would ride 10-20 mins max to get to decent trails, there arent any actually within that ride time, so I always get in the car, usually for 30-60 minutes drive:-

macc forest is 30 mins drive
hope valley is about 40mins drive
gisburn, about 1hr
llandegla , about 1 hr
coed ybrenin and surrounding areas, 2.5 hrs
lakes 1.5-2.5 hrs

I have a lot of riding on my doorstep, but generally also ride 30/45min on the road to get to trails. I do it on a ht though, wouldnt fancy it on the heavier, more burly tyred fs.

There is something so turgid about riding an mtb with off road tyres on the road for any great distance – especially if you are used to riding the same route on a road bike.

This ^. It’s awful and I hate it. Partly why the road bike gets used so much more than the mtb.

I ride out to Hamsterley or Reeth for a MTB ride, from Darlington. In fact, I’ve done both as part of one ride before now.

flange – 20 mins drive to Bedgebury from Tonbridge – not cycle! Takes me just over an hour to ride there but not on the SS!

I once rode 18 miles to the wyre forest, 14 miles around the woods & then 18 home, was a lovely sunny day & I had a pub stop on the way home but I’d not want to do it everyday

All depends on fitness 💡 and time available.
Mabie & Ae are 7mls from me. If I have the time I’ll bike out, if not I’ll take the car.
Yesterday I included a cafe stop at Ae on a 36ml route taking in some big hill “tracks/quad tracks” 😆
A bit like Daves blog I will be exploring more of the hills around me this year, I’m on a mission…. 😆

A mile maybe

I am quite unfashionable and like pretty traditional xc riding on a short travel hard-tail so generally things like canal towpaths, tracks, parks, gravel paths etc are all amusing enough to ride until I can get to some ‘proper’ trails. So in that sense, I’d happily ride for 1hr to get to the decent stuff. If it was purely just on the road though, I guess I’d be bored after 45mins.

I live in Manchester and have occasionally rode down to Macc Forest for MTBing but have got the train back…might do the both ways this Summer though.

This ^. It’s awful and I hate it.

Whack 60psi in your tyres and don’t use aggressive soft compound tyres in the first place unless you’re racing gravity events. mtbs don’t have to be all that slow on road.

Honestly depends, though I’ve lived must drive distances and it doesn’t bother me. I’ve lived with a gate out the garden into local trails and it gets dull riding the same stuff too much. Currently it’s a 10-20 min grind up to the local trails and I’m bored of them.

Flippin eck. You’re complaining about 20 minutes riding? It takes me 20 mins to ride to the closest trails and I think I’m pretty damn lucky. I can ride to different trails in about 30 mins, and that’s also pretty good.

You want the moon on a stick don’t you? 🙂

There is something so turgid about riding an mtb with off road tyres on the road for any great distance

Maybe if your bike is some ridiculous enduro 800mm bar job. I ride the road bits on the Patriot and even though it’s slow, it’s a means to an end and it’s fine. Not as good as the road bike of course but then I just relax and I’m there. Better than driving. But then, all my bikes have concessions to climbing and XC riding, even the Patriot, so that probably helps.

12 miles to stainburn from the centre of Harrogate (don’t have a car)

Local trails to me are 20 minutes up the hill on the road, or 10 minutes along the Sustrans, depending how much time I have to ride and where I wanna start..

I used to fairly regularly ride 1.5 hours to the local trail centre, again mainly Sustrans with a nice Tour of Britain KOM on the way there, but I was very much about getting miles in my legs at that time..
When I was living on Dartmoor it would take me 20 minutes to get to Haytor or a bit longer to get to Lustleigh..

I don’t really remember any time when I’ve regularly driven anywhere to ride except for when my youngest was first born and I’d nip up to the local trails in the car of an evening for a quick couple of hours blast..

I used to be a bit snobby about it but I guess it’s all related to time available and location innit.. I’ve ditched the car now so it’s all irrelevant anyway 🙂

I used to be a bit snobby about it but I guess it’s all related to time available and location innit..

So many seem to be, it’s strange.

My two local rides are either 5 miles or 13 miles to the trail start and to me both are a ride and not a drive

all my bikes have concessions to climbing and XC riding, even the Patriot, so that probably helps.

helps with what? I’ve ridden my 37lb short travel DH bike 15miles to a local DH track for a couple of runs and then ridden 15 back. and my BMX back and forth to the local BMX track 12 miles away. it’s all just riding.. You can make as many excuses for them as you want but it seems to me a lot of folk simply aren’t fit or strong enough.

I hate riding my MTB on the road. It’s not slow, I just hate it. I can either do 12 miles each way on the road to get to the best trails, or about 15 on boring bridleways. Nice on a summer day with unlimited time, in reality I usually drive most of the way. Still park at the bottom and ride into the hills though.

Goddamn Mtbel I’m gonna swoon again. It’s such a shame you won’t share your Strava profile to back up your bollocks show us all how awesome you really are.

I’ve ridden my 37lb short travel DH bike 15miles to a local DH track for a couple of runs and then ridden 15 back.

Please stop asking Njee. your stalkiness was originally just a bit creepy but it’s now beginning to get tiresome.
I couldn’t actually care less whether you believe me or not.

riding mtbs on dull roads and bridleways can still be fun. Wheelie up all the climbs, manual all the descents, hop about on and off verges, kerbs or anything vaguely interesting along the way. You don’t have to just sit like a sack of spuds pedalling a smooth cadence you know.

Thank you Mike, I’ll print that out and wear it with pride 🙂

You will have to collect it from the last winner, anyone seen PussyWillow in a while?

Please stop asking Njee. your stalkiness was originally just a bit creepy but it’s now beginning to get tiresome.
I couldn’t actually

I’ve asked twice. I just think someone with so much awesome would want to share a bit with others, y’know inspire them. For shame that this is the only portal to your godliness. Still, luckily for us you can’t post without some utter shit spewing from your mouth, so we get to hear about it plenty!

lol. what in your opinion is “utter shit” about anything I’ve said?

and WTF made you the umpire of the internet?

Singletrack 5 minutes from the door, after 1/2 mile of tarmac as well. DH trail finishes 10 yards from house, got to love the rural life 😉

8km road, though some of it is on Sustrans paths. No off road option, which sucks. Always ride it as I don’t have a car, though it means I can have a post ride beer so that’s a bonus.

lol. what in your opinion is “utter shit” about anything I’ve said?

Well that if you don’t ride 30 miles on your DH bike you’re not ‘strong enough’ is a good one. Not needing more than one bottle for a 200km ride. Your two hour road ride average being ‘only 20mph’. Your ability to ride everything (including all WC DH courses) on a rigid rim brake equipped bike, and more importantly to deride anyone who disagrees with you. You then refuse to back up any of your frankly daft claims with the really obvious source of data which would have me dothing my cap. I struggle to find a post that I don’t think ‘crikey, what a tool’. But we digress. Merely my opinion.