Ride out from home or take the car?

Given the number of threads on here about what car/what van for getting bikes in, I was wondering how many STW forum users actually ride out from home other than for committing? I prefer the 5 to 10 miles of road work to get myself out to some half decent local terrain rather than jumping in the car and driving for an hour or so to the nearest trail centre.

What’s your preference?

ride from home mostly every time. My local trail centre is Cannock so if we go up there we drive but mostly the local routes we do we cycle from my house. By the time we get to any off road routes we’re nicely warmed up.

Definitely riding from my front door, so I can have a beer or two after the ride.
My current record is a 23 mile mix of tarmac and gravel tracks to the start location of a 20 mile ride and the same back. Singlespeed.

I’d love to be able to ride from home, but living in Lincoln this is not really an option, so apart from the occasional ‘just bagging some miles ride’ most of my biking starts with a car journey.

I normally ride my local trails that start 3 miles away, or sometimes ride 6 or so to the other end. I do like to drive to Cwmcarn though about 20 mins away, for a quick lap.

I also like to ride to Cwmcarn but that takes about an hour and a quarter.

I am currently trying to build a bike that will eat up road better so I can get to the further afield trails more comfortably.

Depends

Local trails ride from my door obvs.

Glentress is 47 miles away though so it might be a bit of a slog getting there on my full-sus if I fancy a day out.

I’m pretty lucky – Woodbury Common is a 20 minute grind up the hill, SW coastpath is a five minute roll along the seafront from here, If I really wanna ride a trail centre then Haldon is just over an hour’s ride away (less in summer when the ferry is running) and to top it all off East Dartmoor is £5 return on the train..

I let my ex keep the car

Almost always ride local. I’d hate to have to drive to get somewhere worth riding.

Almost never, there are some great trails reasonably close to me but it means a 45 min ride though an area notorious for terrible drivers and a 30 ride back – bad as it might sound my time is precious and I’d rather have that hour and a quarter in the wood rather than trying to avoid being hit my some inpatient Boomer.

Usually ride local, but at the moment I’m barely riding at all in-between races, so its seems to be mostly a drive first to some venue somewhere.

I’ve got this big lump of stuff on my front door step so generally ride out. But it’s nice to go for a drive to somewhere further afield.

Ride from pretty much all the time. Maybe drive down to one of the 7 stanes once or twice a year but generally hate driving somewhere to ride a bike. Local trails a mile down a country road though.

Ride from home 99% of the time. I cut through a small wood then off to a forest or mountain. So total time on road is < 10 minutes. Even better, a pump track and dirt jump track is going into the woods next year… I can see the woods from my window. They are calling me… 😉

The

half decent local terrain

is about half an hour away in the car. This is the after-work nightride or just got 3 or 4 hours to spare stuff.

jumping in the car and driving for an hour or so

gets me to the Lakes or Calderdale. These would always be my first preferences if I’ve got a whole day to play.

… to the nearest trail centre.

No thanks. Not unless it’s blowing a gale and been persisting it down for a week, in which case it might be the only ridable option left.

Excellent to hear so many folks choosing to ride from home, although I do occasionally amuse myself people watching in trail centre car parks.
I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden! 🙂

Pretty much always ride from home, but 10 mins ride from Cwmcarn and all the hill are covered in trails, so could ride all day without riding the same trail twice.
Very lucky in this respect, shame I don’t have time for all day rides 😀

@Ecky-Thump — a man after my own heart!

9-10 of my rides are from the door. Rarely do I drive to a location for a ride.

I almost always ride from home. I’ve got the Pentlands a mile away and Glentress is a decent ride beyond that via some more hills.

Why the assumption that driving means “to a trail centre”?
Were that true, I’d have to agree with the bike cost/time ridden theory, but it’s not.
Loads of us still like to have mountains feature heavily in our mountain biking.

Good question. Almost always from home, it’s what makes me the dullard I am. Offroad less than 2′ from home and great road riding from the door. Last week I drove to the Peak for a road ride and to Penmachno for MTB. That’s probably 50% of my awaydays for the year 🙂

@hairylegs – I 100% agree, and in most cases, in direct proportion to the skills of the poser rider

95% of my rides are from my front door.
I live in Farnborough (Bromley) and can be on either good trails or quiet country lines in 5-10mins.

Mainly from home.I’ve put the MTBs in the car three times in the last year.

Strangely enough, I think tomorrow will be the first time in my life that I have driven somewhere to ride my bike, that is, simply to ride a bike, rather than to take part in an organised club event or race. I always ride from home.
Mrs MTG and myself are taking the tandem about 20 miles to just the other side of Worcester to explore somewhere a bit different for a change, round the lanes and bridleways towards Evesham and Pershore.

I can’t remember but think I use to do a bit of both.

Mostly from the door 🙂

Woods, Coast, Bridges, Bridleway, Urban, Semi Urban and Road.

For me, personally if I cant ride to the trail under my own steam it does not seem to belong to me.

So virtually any any trail centre has no spirit for me and feels like I’m constrained all the time. DON’T LEAVE THE PATH 🙁 Feeling.

Driving to natural trails is also good but cant feel very attached them either.

Always drive. I live on the east side of Bristol and experimented with riding out to my Ashton/50Acre/Leigh loop twice. I can’t be arsed. My other places I go to, such as the Mendips/Quantocks/FOD/Exmoor, are a bit of a trek on the bike.

have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden!

My bike is a 9yr old hardtail and I have a 12yr old French van. It gets ridden on average a few hours each week.

I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden

STW complete and utter bollocks at it’s very best. I ride from home and drive to trail centres.

I have a theory too – the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the owner’s disposable income.

both, often from home (near Ridgeway) but as scenery is part of the ‘fun’ I often travel to places of interest (say 1hr drive each way and much longer if a weekend away)

I’d love to be able to ride from home, but living in Lincoln this is not really an option, so apart from the occasional ‘just bagging some miles ride’ most of my biking starts with a car journey.

Exactly the same. There are a few alright bits around the South Common or Greetwell quarry and you can string an average XC ride together with minimal road time but Lincoln is mostly flat and boring so its in the back of the car for me too.

To get onto a bridleway is ~ 0.75 miles so mostly ride out from home.

Do go places in the car as part of group rides but 95% is from home.

There are so many great trails out there, why just limit yourself to the ones on your doorstep 🙁

Now I have no choice as I live in central london so its car all the time but when I was outside town it was

XC/local trails – 100% ride from home

“DH”/best trails is was 75% car as it was 45 mins to/from best trails by bike and I didn’t have the time/fitness.

The majority of my riding was XC style as I much preferred to ride from home. if I could jump properly there where some very good trails 30 mins ride from home

Usually from the door, but for one local.loop.which.has 10 miles
of road to.get their first I’ve taken to.getting dropped off my the wife when she goes shopping and.make my own way back home. FoD & CwmCarn both an.hour away but rarely bother solo.

50/50, have a lot of riding within 10 minutes from the home, otherwise book a van for DH shuttles or use the train for XC/AM trails.
Don’t actually own a car so not many other options.

Three and a quarter mile climb from my house to the top of the Quantocks, nice warm-up.

Ride mostly, I’m 20mins from Swinley and have a good selection of other routes locally both on and off road. Not ridden much this year though for various reasons 🙁

I live in Sheffield so am blessed with lots of amazing local riding straight from my door. I do sometimes drive out to greno or wharncliffe (sometimes ride too) just so I can spend more time having fun in the woods versus the pretty dull spin out and back.

Living in East Anglia, most of the local riding is rubbish. So, I tend to take the bike in the car for most of my riding. That’s why I bought a road bike 18 months or so ago.

hairylegs – Member
Excellent to hear so many folks choosing to ride from home, although I do occasionally amuse myself people watching in trail centre car parks.
I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden!

dday – Member

@hairylegs – I 100% agree, and in most cases, in direct proportion to the skills of the poser rider

You guys are awesome….. 🙄