Ride out from home or take the car?

Trail centre wise, Afan is 20min drive away and some big hills in the way so usually drive there, although I could ride there, all off road from my front door, but that is a lot of climbing! I usually do local trails in the week and then drive somewhere on the weekends.

We bought our house in an area specifically so we could go riding from there as well as get out of town via car and get to/from work and airport. I love being able to roll up the hill, go through a gate and be offroad.

I have what’s called ‘Low Hypo Awareness’, that means I’m really rubbish at telling when I’m having a diabetic hypo. Upshot of that is I’m not allowed to drive because I’d probably swerve all over the UK and kill you all, sorry.

So I do all my riding from home. I’m lucky to have some superb trails starting right across from my front door, but more often than not I’ll use the 10-12 mile road bash into Stirling as a warm up before hitting the big hills behind the town. The ‘warm up’ also doubles as a handy excuse when I’m blowing out me arse half way up the hill. As the smug so and so’s are all waiting for me at the top of a climb I can look pointedly at the southern horizon and claim that I’m keeping something in reserve for the long slog home. 😉

Surrounded by bridleways, towpaths, cyclepaths and less official options here. Not technical but 90% of my off road riding is from the door, can be on bridleways from the edge of the village.

Maybe once a month we’ll use tbe car for the hours drive to Sherwood, Cannock, Hicks Lodge, but that’s often with the kids anyway.

There are worse problems to have in this life.

Wed eve night rides, I’ll grab a lift in a mates van.
Sunday rides will usually be from home, if its local trails (7miles away).

Mainly ride from home with numerous trips away throughout the year. I know folk who spend longer driving to and from a ride than the ride takes and thi sis not for me.

About 4 miles* to get off road and then i can be offroad for as long as i want.

* I could reduce this to about 3/4 miles but its a crap route to where I want to go.

Mix of both, local trails are about 8-10km away but it’s a big hill to get there so I usually ride up on weekends but drive for night rides or if I’m short on time. Also drive for numerous trips further afield.

i moved (an hours ride away) and mtb from the door is now a whole day affair; so i tend to drive, loads of good road biking though.

80% from the door.
Much better like that as you can get proper shitfaced in the pub on the way home without getting arrested. 🙂

Have Alver 2mins from front door – otherwise its a drive to 100 Acres/QECP/Rogate

I only really stick a bike in the car to drive to a race, or to meet up with far-flung MTBer friends for a weekend away a couple of times a year.

Cycle path 50 metres from the door takes me to the trails 10 minutes away, which take me all the way to Cwmcarn (about an hour and a half and a couple of big hills away) if I want.

When I used to live in Birmingham, I got so sick of driving to get any decent MTBing done that I took up road cycling.

Mostly ride from home, lucky to have lots on doorstep. Will sometimes ride to Dewsbury station and get train to Hebden, then I can get a pint in the West Riding on the way back!

Its about 100 yards from my house to off-road trails.

Ride from home:

(not on the same ride!)

Barely have enough time to ride with family and work commitments, I don’t want to waste my free time driving.

Mostly from home. If I had to put the bike in the car every time I wanted to ride I’d probably just give up and go mental. I can’t understand how anyone with an MTB habit could live where there wasn’t anything to ride out the front door 😕

i’m with ir_bandito – driving to go riding seems like such a waste of time! 🙂

99% from home, if I dont ride from home I tend to go somewhere on the way home from work rather than getting in a car just to go and ride my bike.

Would take me an hour or more to ride to local trails. Can drive in 20-40 mins.

That’s a lot of extra riding time. Slogging to and from the trails on the road doesn’t really interest me.

80% from home BUT that’s because they’re all on the road bike. I live in East Anglia so all mountain biking involves driving somewhere – usually Thetford or Woburn.
Previously lived in Bristol and most mtb riding was done from door 😥

Road bike-90% from home.
MTB, I’m guilty of jumping in the car most of the time, even though this is just down the road!
(Ignore the golf course, I ride around that to the good stuff 😉 )

80% from home BUT that’s because they’re all on the road bike. I live in East Anglia so all mountain biking involves driving somewhere – usually Thetford or Woburn.
Previously lived in Bristol and most mtb riding was done from door 😥

Pretty much exclusively from the door, but then the bulk of my riding is the commute to work 🙂

I MTB once a week (Mon night local ride) & very occasionally a weekend ride. I’d maybe drive to a ride twice, three times in a year (if that!)

I used to have a minimum of an hours drive each way to ride.

Then I moved to t’other of the country and can ride from my door.

100% of road rides start on the doorstep, maybe 75% of offroad, although sometimes I’ll ride to the station and get the train somewhere and ride home again.

Next year I need to do more driving and ride some different/new places.

Virtually never mtb from the front or back door here. The riding is at best mediocre within 10 miles of where I live and I ride somewhere different most weeks. Home location is chosen for practical, child care / school and family reasons. I used to be able to be on the south downs in 15-20 minutes by bike but was doing 3 hours a day in the car commuting for five days a week. I would rather shorten the commute and drive to the trails especially as riding time is generally hard to find.
Road and utility cycling goes from the house obviously.

I live in London and work in Heathrow, most of the time bike in the car, drive to swinley, have 2 or 3 hour riding and go straight to work, fortunately I start at 14.00 and can have a shower at the workplace.

Mostly from home during the week, I have a large bit of the South Dales to play with. Occasionally to Gisburn in the car or further afield for some variety at the weekend.