Are you riding more...
 

[Closed] Are you riding more local trails since COVID lockdown?

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Like to hear your thoughts.
Myself, yes, but not exclusively. Though, I have found some little gems on my doorstep the motivation to visit old favourites and new trials is rising to the surface again.
Yes it is a plug for my video, a sequel to one I posted here 6 months ago. This is my take on the question.

Apologies for reposting

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 1:14 pm
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Yes.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 1:16 pm
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Yes

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 1:31 pm
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No. With only one set of trails locally that have any gnar at all I was back in the car at the first opportunity.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 2:05 pm
 Yak
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Yes, but also now a fair bit of short (c15min) drives to other local spots. Not done any longer distance stuff for a while now.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 2:59 pm
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Not really changed my habits due to the lockdown. I'm lucky enough to live close enough to my local trails (Cannock) and blessed with the knowledge of being a local. I abandoned driving to the trails years ago after the realisation it takes around the same amount of time messing about loading the car and driving/parking/unloading as it does to ride there. Don't really have to touch a main road either. Only thing I did change during the initial lockdown was to avoid the canal due to the increased foot traffic. A bell was a good move too!
I haven't ridden anywhere else since August last year when we visited family in South Wales, I do fancy a change of scene now lol

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:11 pm
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No, not made my use local roads more, but I felt it was unwise to try and whittle down my bucket list of places to ride elsewhere in the UK during a pandemic.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:29 pm
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Lockdown made me remember how much I like riding my road bike TBH.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:35 pm
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Yes,

Luckily I can get the missus to pick me up, so that’s helped as I can go out a bit further.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:40 pm
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Hasn't really changed for me

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:42 pm
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Nope, obviously whilst we were in lockdown, and here in Wales we had local lockdowns too, I had to ride local.

We've got some great local trails, but after months of it, I was happen to get back in the and roam a bit.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:43 pm
 DezB
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Lockdown 2020, I did rides from my door with my son every Sunday, so yes then.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:46 pm
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Yes, hence buying a cross bike* as the everything local is super tame.

*Cross bike rather than gravel bike as didn't want to spend 3x the amount to get the same thing.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:46 pm
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No change. thankfully I live within a good trail network

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:48 pm
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Yes more local stuff. Even to the point of buying a hardtail to make the local riding a bit more fun.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 3:54 pm
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I ride a lot more out the door now than pre-covid, lots of stuff I used to ride after school 28 years ago, just more of it now.

All rideable from my door step and 90% off road.

What is class as local.

 
Posted : 11/06/2021 5:27 pm
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I classed local in my mind to be ride to the trail from my door and I used ride a distance at times like 10 miles avg before meeting up and riding a few years back. COVID lockdown did put a good few miles of tarmac on the knobbly tyres. So can do it again. Just the will power and fun factor balance.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 12:18 am
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Mostly, yes. Loads of great stuff from the doorstep plus it saves the faff of loading the van ect

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 12:24 am
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I rode nothing but my local trails for a long time- I can ride from my door to some nice stuff in the pentlands. But I've not been back since restrictions relaxed, I'm catching up on the other stuff further afield that I'd been missing

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 12:25 am
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Local trails are few and far between and massively overcrowded in lockdown.

Road riding is ok for me but not for the kids (too many aggressive canners) and first chance I got I'd headed back out just half an hour or so by car into the Downs, somewhere with limited traffic, park up and ride in a much more socially distanced and enjoyable way than I'd ever do from my door.

I'm also travelling more to meet riding friends, some of who I've not seen in many months. Not big distances, mostly under an hour.

I don't do big air or big gnarr but I crave variety, good company and peaceful trails not crowded concrete jungle.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 12:56 am
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By me, new trails were appearing or being developed from dross into great singletrack as fast as I could discover them. I think a lot of locals were riding much more locally.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 1:04 am
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Yes, hence buying a cross bike* as the everything local is super tame.

*Cross bike rather than gravel bike as didn’t want to spend 3x the amount to get the same thing.

I did the same thing and it's been loads of fun

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 8:48 am
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There's no riding from my doorstep so I pretty much completed my transformation into a roadie during lockdown. Trip to Staveley last week was my third MTB ride in over a year. Would really like the time to get back on it properly.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 9:15 am
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Is there no time as you are road riding instead? Can that not be mixed between the 2 bikes?

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 9:29 am
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i ride locally anyhoo regardless of covid coming etc (haven't had a car for decades).

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 9:29 am
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Is there no time as you are road riding instead? Can that not be mixed between the 2 bikes?

I'm road riding coz that's straight from the door and way more convenient. An MTB ride is a full day out for me, means an hour's drive to get somewhere worth riding, then a ride has to be a decent length to justify the drive.

I didn't drive anywhere because of lock down and I got used to that, can't stand driving now!

Lack of time is just life related.

Could probably cobble together a bit of a gravel ride round here, but I'm not too fussed about that.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 10:01 am
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I tend to ride from my house so probably less than normal due to the ridiculous hours I worked in lockdown 1.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 10:56 am
 nbt
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We've been mostly riding from home for some years anyway, but during lockdown we more or less stopped riding MTB as local trails where we hadn't seen a soul in years were suddenly being used by families out for a walk in flip flops. Put a lot of road miles in on the tandem though.

It didn't help that as soon as the "stay at home" was lifted, half the MTB riders in South Manchester started driving out here to go for a ride

Since the shops and pubs reopened, it's been like the clocks have turned back 2 years though and the trails are empty again, we're even using the canal towpath which previously resembled a motorway full of walkers.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 11:06 am
 DezB
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There’s no riding from my doorstep

None from mine either, so we rode to it. Was good, except when it was properly windy. Wind caused us to turn back one day as there was no enjoyment in it.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 1:35 pm
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I'm just impressed by jimmy748 riding ten miles into the sea.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 9:48 pm
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Most of my mtbing is along the Bavarian / Austrian border or into Italy.

There were also many cases of non-local cars being vandalised by locals (German numberplates indicate where it's from, B for Berlin, M for Munich).

The mtbing directly in Munich is fun on the odd occasion, but it's very samey.

Bought a gravel bike for myself and then another soon after for the GF. You can ride from town, 50km South to the alps and back on gravel tracks or dedicated bike paths.

Covered way more miles on that than I ever would have on my mtb.

 
Posted : 12/06/2021 10:42 pm
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I used to nip to Cwmcarn if I finished work early, could be there and pedalling 30 mins after getting home a lot of the time! Lockdown meant I explored the local stuff so could get some decent loops in from my front door instead. Sadly as things have opened up the ride across Cardiff has become more and more dangerous so I now still ride the local stuff but now drive 15 minutes to Coryton and ride from there, now it's a 5 minute pedal up the Taff Trail to warm the legs up rather than a 40 minute kamikaze mission.

By me, new trails were appearing or being developed from dross into great singletrack as fast as I could discover them. I think a lot of locals were riding much more locally.

It was amazing to see it all appear insanely quickly! A lot of it is becoming disused though as people have gone elsewhere, hopefully it'll evolve into what happens in the FOD where you have spring trails that harden up before disappearing into the undergrowth, summer trails that only ride well when properly dry and winter trails that only work when the foliage is dead. There's a few of the second two types around the Van Rd area already.

 
Posted : 13/06/2021 12:36 am
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Other than having the big bike with me when we stole some time in The Lakes last August and getting it up and down Helvellyn, I haven't ridden anything but local trails since way before the first lockdown last year (probably late summer 2019 TBH).

We don't have much elevation or gnar round here, but I do live right on the edge of the woods and still like some twisty, woodland singletrack so I guess I shouldn't complain too much...

 
Posted : 13/06/2021 1:39 am
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Yes, and almost exclusively on a gravel bike that I didn't own before Covid. It's my mate's fault! Think I've only driven any distance to start a ride once this year and even then it was only 15 miles or so.

 
Posted : 13/06/2021 1:29 pm
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There is as it happens a good article in the latest edition of SingleTrack Magazine called ‘Lockdown Lessons’ where a few of the SingleTrack World team and friends talk about how they handle lockdown riding. Some saw some benefits like fitness.

 
Posted : 14/06/2021 8:34 am
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Pretty much constantly, mostly from the doorstep. I had my first day away from the Dales since August on Sunday, and found that the muscle groups you use for climbing and descending in the Lakes seem to be different to the ones I use for pootling around my local trails...

 
Posted : 14/06/2021 9:34 am
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Having been mostly a roadie the last few years, and getting a gravel bike a couple of years back, I have actually dusted off the MTB and spent more time offroad on the MTB than I have for a while during lockdown. Mulling over a new hard tail....

 
Posted : 14/06/2021 4:47 pm