Offroad from home?

[ton]

i know some of you lot are lucky blokes with regards to where you live, but some like myself live in pretty rubbish locations for riding straight from home on offroad trails.

this coming weekend, i am riding offroad from Leeds to Hebden Bridge, staying the night and then try and ride back a differant (as much as possible) offrod route.

how good is you riding from home.

[Bearbonesnorm]

It's rubbish ... trees, rocks, boggy bits and lots of up and down bits. It takes ages to reach any tarmac !

[Dan_K]

Pretty rubbish in terms of wilderness but I can cut through some public parks and woods to get out on some bridleways and onto the north downs. I'm about 1.5 miles away from woodland which is good for a messing around in.
I'm in Croydon which comes under South London or Surrey depending on who you speak to! It's surprising just how much greenery there is in London though. I rode up to the Excel centre a couple of months ago and barely went on road - it was mainly cycle paths through parks.
There's a fair bit on the north downs (although there is a lack of bridleway and it's mainly footpath or unclassified). Due to the lack of bridleways, most are well used and take a fair bit of churning up from horses.
On the whole though, I rarely have issues with walkers on footpaths etc as this area isn't known for it's hardcore walking so you tend to get less of the rambler type regimented walkers who are keen to claim their paths. I'm pretty considerate anyway and will always stop to let people past and say hello.
I tend to stick to within a 5-10 mile radius from home as i'd rather not use the car to get somewhere and if I do longer miles it's normally on the road bike or i'll drive out to the Surrey Hills or get a train to the South Downs. Despite it's numerous faults, Croydon has really good train links and Southern Rail do a £12 unlimited advance online ticket which makes point to point riding simple.

[Loz394]

I live an hour out from London (by train, a bit beyond Guildford), so can see what Dan means in terms of wilderness-lessness. In the Surrey Hills you're surrounded by roads, horses, ramblers, dog walkers, etc. Even the London air traffic noise can be annoying. Mind you there are a couple of MOD areas that you can pretend are a bit wild (if you squint) with a good few ups n downs and random Army patrols. A few of us going on a newbie 2-nighter taking in bit of the SDW next month, bivvying in local woods first night and then a small campsite just so we can have a proper fire and not get shot at . I get to do a few almost completely off-road rides meandering back from work over 3-4 hours, and night-riding in winter helps make it feel a bit more wild.

[Gari]

I live in Glenmore, just out of Aviemore toward the ski centre. I have a view of the Cairngorm Corries out of my front window and can do the Glenfeshie/Glen Derry/Bynack Mor loop from home with less than 5km of tarmac

[Adrian Brewster]

I'm lucky! I live in the wilds of Northumberland, on Hadrian's Wall (barbarian side) lowest population density in England. Just learning all the routes from front door as I've sold the van. The roads around here are all returning to single track anyway as council is almost bust. Landowners are a bit feudal up here but as long as you smile and tug your forelock (whatever that means) you can go as you please. I used to live in Brizzle (long time ago) so I never take this place for granted but I am sort of envious of Gari in Aviemore, that really is paradise.

[ericrobo]

reading this makes me realise how lucky I am. I'm 4.5 miles from the top of Winter Hill (overlooks Rivington, where the Commonwealth Games MTB course was held, and a few Ironman Triathlons have been staged over here).
To get to Winter Hill I go down the (dreaded ) A666 for 0.3 miles (on the pavement I don't mind saying, but if there are any pedestrians (rare) I get off and give them precedence)... then it's 100% off-road (apart from crossing the Belmont road after 3 miles)... pretty much uphill too !
Often I go the other way - east, and can get all over including Darwen Tower, Peel Tower, and link up with the Mary Towneley Loop... I have a plan to do this when I have all my bike packs sorted in a few weeks, as a test run before trying the big Highland400 thingy...

[royAB]

Straight out the front door and into the wilds of Norfolk. Keeps me sane....

[Cheeky Monkey]

I live in Yeadon rider have ridden round Leeds and west leeds for years. Great riding and easy (imo) enough to ride out a short way and find some decent countryside. It isn't the sticks but compared to west Manc it's cracking. Sadly when I lived in West Cumbria I didn't really ride.

[ScotRoutes]

I've done a few longer rides from home (mostly on-road) and while I appreciate that I can, it still means heading out on familiar roads/tracks/paths for the first day or so and that usually also means through the central belt of Scotland. I now prefer to take a train to the start, or take the van and do a big loop. However, I've a plan to ride over to Glentress for a bivvy sometime soon.

[pistonbroke]

I live 100yds off the Trans Pennine Trail and 2 mls from Cut Gate, Langsett End. I can ride to and from work in Rotherham 80% off road and have a 50 mile loop around Glossop and Edale which has max 5 miles of tarmac. Do I win a prize?

[Kumquat]

I live close to the foot of a spur off the south downs way.
The SDW is about 5 miles away. Across the Road is nutbourne marsh, replete with cheeky camp spots cut off by high tide. (although coughing badgers scuttling across the flints in the night give me the fear).
mixture of terrain on my commuter route probably 60/40 tarmac-fire trail.
plenty of trees.

[tommid]

Really? Rubbish, how rubbish? RoyAB and I live in Norfolk (not together) and we find plenty to ride just outside the door.
Plenty of bridleways and droves and little woods. Link them all up and you have some pretty sweet riding.

[ton]

seriously rubbish.......so bad that chew has moved house to escape it round here.....

my trip to Hebden will be a 30 mile canal/death march on saturday.

[Ian]

A short trip across town will get me to the canal, which after 8 miles gets you into the Brecon Beacons proper. Some of the bridleways immediately around Brecon are so spectacularly muddy they're not really worth bothering with unless its frozen. Most of my riding is off road of some sort, either local with fairly minimal tarmac work to get to the good bits, or a short drive (<30 mins) to access the much larger afforested bits of Mid Wales.

[Blackhound]

I live in Derby. Out the door their is not a lot. The 'North' route is boggy in places most of the year as is the Repton Shrubs area. Some stuff to the East which I did the other day is fairly easy riding and I can get to the edge of Nottingham easily.

In the last couple of months I have done a couple of 2 night tours, one round by Buxton (and passed Pistonbroke's gaff) and back through Sherwood Pines. The other one, just last week went from Sherwood to Lincoln, Wisbech, March, Peterborough and back through Rutland and Leicestershire. 270 miles all in but precious little climbing.

If I get in the car it is not far to Cannock or White Peak and in 2+ hours Wales, Lakes and many more areas are available.

In summary not good from the door but good for getting around the country.

[Ray Young]

I too like riding straight from the door, 20-30 minutes and i'm in The Pentland Hills, follow those south and you can get into the Scottish Borders with not too much road use.

[gairym]

I am one seriously lucky son-of-a-bitch when it comes to riding from the door trails.

We live a long way down a dirt track from the nearest tarmac and my 3 (all off-road) options for leaving the house are:

1. A 2km steep but technically simple climb up to the plateau.
2. A winding and semi-technical descent on a loose rock (badly/not maintained) fireroad.
3. A killer of a insanely technical singletrack descent which I've never successfully negotiated without a dab!

(this is true for leaving by car too which is fun in the depths of winter and 1m of snow I can tell thee!)

Below you can see our house in the middle of the forest:



But.....I count this as repayment for the years I lived in Hackney and had to ride on canal paths for an hour in order to reach the boredom and monotony of Epping Forest.

[dr.binkle]

Reasonably good heading north out of Bath. A mile or two on the road to okay, though sometime boggy, bridleways. I can also cycle to work in Bristol off the road for about 75% of the distance. Rattly descents are a great way to wake up pretty quickly!

will

[zigrat]

Live at the bottom of the Campsie Fells, lots of km's of sweet singletrack around Mugdock and Lennox Forrest. Oh and there's the WHW and the Southern Highlands within a few km as well !

[crewlie]

Rubbish, Northamptonshire..lots of muddy field edge bridleways, no woodland to speak of, and gamekeepers everywhere ready to throw you off their land.

[FLV]

I'm in Glossop so a slog up and over the snake pass or a drag up the A624/Monks road sees me into the Peak.

Its not bad at all to be honest. I'd prefer not to have the road slogs first but you cant have everything can you now...

[Brothersmith]

I am in Uttoxeter (its near Alton Towers) 10mile of quite back roads gets me to the Tissington trail or Staff Moorlands and on into the Peak proper. When I started Bikepacking I start and finished all my routes from home; there is something about starting your journey by bike I find very satisfying.

Bit tricker for quick blasts. Having a family means time is limited to what I can grab for a couple of hours. Cannock Chase is 20min down road by car and Delamere Forest is not far from where I work so its not too bad