Not sure if there are any other inhabitants of Manchester lurking around here but whilst I live here, I am not originally from here so have very little knowledge of the surrounding areas. I am looking to get out on my road bike for some winter training but beyond circling the city centre via the university and Old Trafford, I’m lost.

Does anyone have any tips for a road loop starting from Manchester City Centre? 30 miles-ish and some scenery would be nice.

Cheers

I work in the city centre and often ride part way home out to Stalybridge and Mossley out via the Ashton Old Road. That road out isn’t great but once your out that way you get to a couple of good climbs at Standedge and the Isle of Skye climb.

I’ve tried it, riding out into Cheshire from the University area. My problem was that you have to ride for almost an hour before you get clear of suburbia and then, in Cheshire, you are into narrow leafy lanes with lots of wankpanzers racing past, cutting you up. Head north and you’ve got to get past towns like Bury and then the poxy satellite mill towns like Blackburn and Burnley before you reach nice riding in the Ribble Valley and Bowland Fells.

You’d do better to jump on a Northern Fail train at Victoria and go to the end of the line at Clitheroe, one hour, then ride from there or join a chaingang from Clitheroe Bike Club or The Green Jersey, the former meeting at the station on Saturdays. The only thing that could derail that plan (sorry!) would be that at weekends Northern Fail drivers often can’t be bothered to turn up for work so trains are frequently cancelled.

Both CBC and TGJ have different rides setting off for different abilities. The riding is outstanding, some of the best in Britain.

The Raphs shop run regular group rides out frmo the city centre, but they’re mostly longer than 30 miles – as above, you’ve a fair way to go to get out of suburbia. Train out of manchester is a good call though – you could head out to marple / hazel grove /wilmslow and hit the hills or th cheshire plans, as takes your fancy. I can knock up some routes in that area if you have a GPS device

You could also try the uni road club, or some of the local shops like Keep Pedalling or Harry Hall

GtiJunior and I went out with the Manchester Uni road club and only three riders turned out then we flogged for miles out into Cheshire for a quick loop of rather unexciting riding. I guess students can’t afford train trips. If you’ve got a railcard, taking the train is a pretty good option and you’ll certainly see cyclists doing it on Saturdays and Sundays at Victoria and Piccadilly.

Yep, I’d hop on the train out and hit the hills.

Going somewhere like Horwich Parkway you could be out riding the West Pennine Moors fairly quickly.

Riding the West Pennine moors is best done on a mountain bike. You are still in the mill town connurbation so the few roads are pretty busy. To get away from the traffic head out to the properly rural areas although conversely, for mountain biking the Ribble Valley and Bowland aren’t as good as, say, Calderdale because the land is all set up for huntin’ shootin’ and fishin’ and bridleways are a bit scarce. Calderdale OTOH is the mecca of mountain biking, hence why STW Towers is there.

Seriously, Clitheroe and Whalley, both on the railway, are great places to start road rides, because from either place you can head west towards the Fylde and flat coastal riding, north to Bowland for big climbs and wilderness or east for the Dales and charming villages with cafes and pubs.

The Cheshire lanes are roadieland but they’re ten miles out of the city centre.

Could do worse than a few loops round Trafford park tbh, if you want something quick from the doorstep. The roads there always seem very quiet at the weekend, as long as there’s no event on like a football match. Scenery has its own charm – world’s first industrial estate.

Surprised at the replies. Manchester is an excellent base for road riding. Not sure it takes an hour to get to the decent riding. IME all you need do is get past the M60 in any direction and you can find quiet roads. To the north and east you’ll be in the hills in less than an hour, to the south the lanes of cheshire. I used to do a loop from Levenshulme (about 4 miles southeast of the centre) which went out via Hyde to Glossop, then over to Hayfield and back via New Mills, Marple and Bredbury which was about 30 miles. Similarly you can get to the hills around Saddleworth and back within 30 miles. If you can push it out to 50 then routes like Holme Moss and Cat & Fiddle come into range.

Look at the ride out and back as an easy warmup/warmdown then do 30 miles once you’re outside the M60.

That’s true as long as you don’t mind spending as much as two hours of your ride inhaling fumes, constantly stopping and starting and battling with taxis, buses, trucks and crashing over what passes for tarmac in the busy parts of the city.

It’s a very easy run south out of the city actually – A34 to Parrs Wood is smooth. (Do not ride the A34 through the M60 / M56 interchange, big, hazardous junction – in case anyone wasn’t aware of that).

nhaling fumes, constantly stopping and starting and battling with taxis, buses, trucks and crashing over what passes for tarmac in the busy parts of the city.

You only get that on the major trunk roads in and out of the city. It’s possible to find quieter back roads which aren’t as busy which run pretty much parallel to the A roads, although they will take you through some of the less salubrious bits of the city so you need to have your wits about you if riding an expensive bike. I guess after spending 20 years riding on those roads I just got used to it 🙂

For instance, many good rides in the Peak start at Stockport. From the city centre, instead of the A6 nightmare, you can go out on Oxford Road through the university, then switch on to Birchfields road, and out to Stockport via Burnage lane and Mauldeth Road. It’s not much further than the A6, not too busy and pretty leafy.

You can get to Bury using NCR paths.
From there, you’ve got miles of top quality road riding.
Ramsbottom is a short, traffic free mixed use path away with access to the Irwell Valley, Calder Valley, Dale’s, Yorkshire etc.

You don’t need to go as far as Clitheroe, lovely though it is.

Half an hour on the train gets you to Littleborough or Hebden and access to the West Yorks classic roads and a different side of Calderdale.

Burnley is surrounded by unbelievable road riding. Calderdale to the south, Pendle and Dales to the north and the Ribble Valley to the west. Some place called Yorkshire off to the east.

Glossop by train to the East gives access to The Peak. Loads of classics out that way…

Cheshire is fantastic for road riding if you prefer things a bit flatter. Relatively. Sort of.
Ribble Valley via Rivington is lovely and flattish in places, 🙂 but the roads can be infested with **** – train to Bolton, cycle path to Rivington.

Stay away from the centres of Blackburn and Rochdale and it’s literally all gravy.

Once you’re at the Sale/Altrincham border you can easily jump onto the back lanes of Dunham etc and then cut across out towards Great Budworth and the like.

As others have suggested, train it to Macclefield and you’re straigh onto the Cat and Fiddle climb fresh off the train

Well last night’s ride home down the A6 was great-

Which way is the idiot standing like a sheep in the middle of the bus lane going to go? Left, right, left. right, emergency stop.

Is that Fiesta really not going to stop at the give way markings? No, it isn’t; it’s going to stop with its nose right across the cycle lane instead. Still, I did get an apologetic wave.

Have you really just allowed your two feral children to run across the A6 at a pedestrian crossing where I had a green light so that I had to go between them and nearly took your little girl’s face off with the crank?

All that in the 10 km from work out to Stockport……………. Fortunately, the next 20 k was much better

The A6 is stressful enough to drive, I can only imagine the terror of riding it.

Riding the West Pennine moors is best done on a mountain bike.

Yes, but if you know where to go there are plenty of quieter lanes, including some decent hills. Just avoid Haslingden Grane at all costs.

I did get knocked off by a dick on a MX bike (on road) last year though, and another motorcyclist killed a cyclist over Sheephouse a few years ago, so it’s not without risks.

How about this? https://www.strava.com/activities/1723214398

Easlily within reach of the city centre, but we started about 4 miles north. Dazh even gets a mention in the title!

wankpanzer

Love this. One to file next to tw*t-chariot.

For instance, many good rides in the Peak start at Stockport.

I’m probably spoiled by living on the Manchester side of the Peak and having cracking road riding from my front door, but I wouldn’t choose to start a Peak District ride from Stockport.

I guess it’s mostly down to your tolerance of urban road riding, but I’d be tempted (outside of rush hour anyway) to hop a train to Glossop or New Mills, Chinley, Whaley etc. Or Buxton. Or out into the central Peak like Castleton or Edale. And start from there. It’s 30 minutes or so of rail time, but it gets you out of the urban sprawl.

Well last night’s ride home down the A6 was great-

Which way is the idiot standing like a sheep in the middle of the bus lane going to go? Left, right, left. right, emergency stop.

Is that Fiesta really not going to stop at the give way markings? No, it isn’t; it’s going to stop with its nose right across the cycle lane instead. Still, I did get an apologetic wave.

Have you really just allowed your two feral children to run across the A6 at a pedestrian crossing where I had a green light so that I had to go between them and nearly took your little girl’s face off with the crank?

All that in the 10 km from work out to Stockport……………. Fortunately, the next 20 k was much better

Do you do that each day dpfr? I’m fine coming in on the A6 in the morning (quickest way for me) but v rarely take it home. Longsight is a circus in the evening and something about that east side of the road makes it feel worse than the other.

I probably average once a week, generally on a day when I can sneak away early and miss the worst of the evening rush hour. I take various routes in in the morning, anything from 1 to 2.5 hours, but I generally just try and get home as quickly as possible, which is straight down the A6. It’s not usually as bad as last night.

I’ve cycle-commuted in and out of Manchester for 10+ years as well as doing the occasional rides from Rapha.

There are some ways out of town that are marginally less shit than other ways, that’s how I’d best sum it up. Pretty much whichever way you go is an hour of solid traffic, shit roads, junctions, lights and threading through random back streets, cycle paths, towpaths etc in a bid to make it slightly less shit.

Save yourself the time and effort and just get the train out of town, do whatever ride you want and it’s not usually as bad going home into town cos it’s downhill all the way. Northern Rail, for all their multitude of faults are pretty good with bikes at any time of day and the trains usually have proper storage areas (one big advantage of the ancient creaking Pacers is the proper cycle racks!)

Honestly, I’ve used dozens of routes over the years to avoid this or that and it all comes down to just wanting to get the journey over and done with as quickly as possible – which means I usually just come straight down the A6 on my commutes.

Thanks all.

I have cycle-commuted from the Little Lever end of Bolton (only for a period of 24 months circa 4 years ago) via the canal paths and the national cycle route into Salford (Old Pint Pot) and from there into the city centre. I wanted to avoid the grim parts of town but I’m quickly realising they may be unavoidable.

I may drive a route to Hollingworth lake and see if that avoids the undesirables.

I cannot quite believe a lot of these replies. Manchester is a great place to base yourself to get out for riding. In any direction you can find good riding and there are so many options that’s it difficult to say exactly.

Go to google maps and put on the biking option and that’ll give you loads of ideas on how to get around the city without using the main roads.

For heading out to the West Pennine moors you can ride along the old railway line starting in Monton towards Bolton. Or further north towards Bury there along the Irwell and then head up to Greenmount near Ramsbottom.

For heading West towards the flat planes towards Liverpool then there is the Transpennine trail.

For heading east towards Saddleworth then use the Fallowfield loop.

All these areas are then great for road riding and I’m sure you’ll end up wanting to do doing more than 30 miles.

If you don’t mind a bit of canal action then just take the Ashton canal out past sportcity and you’re into the hills in no time. my person favorite is out that way, down the peak forest to Marple then back home along the TPT.

Proper road rides tended to be down to stretford -> urmston -> flixton lane then you’re out into the lanes and can head down to Mobberley* etc.

*https://www.mobberleybrewhouse.co.uk/breweryshop

I live in Chorlton. The first 30 minutes of any road ride from the house is infested with awful roads and usually equally bad drivers. My standard loop is out towards Whaley Bridge via the Brickworks, from Cheadle/Pott Shrigley. Then up the Brickworks, swing a right out towards Rainow, and home through Adlington/Poynton.

I feel your pain though, I have put off road bikes because of the battle with the crap roads and traffic at the start.

*

I cannot quite believe a lot of these replies. Manchester is a great place to base yourself to get out for riding. In any direction you can find good riding and there are so many options that’s it difficult to say exactly.

I think mostly people are just saying that there’s great riding in the area around Manchester but it’s not always pleasant getting access to it from the centre.

I cannot quite believe a lot of these replies.

Me neither. 5 flat miles in any direction from the city centre will have you outside the M60 and on quieter roads. Wherever you go, even out in the sticks, there will be cars, and potholes. If avoiding those is a requirement for road riding then I would recommend a move to France 😉

If not averse to bike paths/canal paths on your road bike etc have a look at cyclestreets.net to get you out of town without having to battle the cars too much. I usually adapt what it comes up with but makes a good baseline starting point for route planning.