Moved house over the summer, only 5 miles, so not far.
But the trails were always about 7 miles away anyway, which meant that a ride there and back and a loop was a good if a bit predictable ride for an afternoon. So now they're too far and the farm track linking to them too dull to be worthwhile. And while night riding isn't out of the question, groups are now far enough away that riding time would be less than the time in the car!
Do I:
a) sell all my MTB's, eat cake and get fat
b) as a, but become a roadie
c) embrace the fact that as all riding is now realistically a car journey away anyway I may as well use it as an excuse to buy a 'trail'* bike rather than an XC mile muncher and head further afield to ride in Wales/Surrey etc.
*I'd say enduro, but I've done the whole 150mm travel, 65deg HA 30lb+ mini-DH bike thing before and hated it on anything other than a DH track.
How do you cope without being able to "just get out and ride"?
Nah you'll adapt and get on with life.
cake
Nice XC HT under n+1 rules?
Silly boy!
b and drive to trails as required
B and C.
It's all a state of mind!
In my view, all cycling is good cycling. You're lucky to have a farm track as a link to your favourite trail, rather than a busy road full of Audickheads.
Unless you're in central London, you're never more than a few miles away from countryside. Use your move as an excuse to get out and explore.
Or just, y'know, put your bike in the boot and drive to the trail.
already have that for riding from the door at the old house (ditto fat-bike). One's going to have to go as there really is a complete dearth of bridleways withing 5 miles of the house and I'm probably not going to drive somewhere to ride XC often enough to justify it.Nice XC HT under n+1 rules?
Resorted to talking the road bike down the canal towpath to make it interesting last weekend.........
The only trail anywhere near my house is Richmond Park. As any locals will attest, it isn't really anything more exciting than a towpath.
I need to move...
I have nothing near my house, I need to move house out to the sticks really.
I tend to either ride the 6 mile to the nearest trail if I have all day or throw the bike in the car and drive to Cannock.
Moved house and there's no trails from my door anymore, how do you cope?
Move back
Option 'd'- SS hardtail, ride street and do more skids and wheelies 😀
B & C
Surely for most people a blast from the door after work is important. I happily do this on the road some times, even though there are OK trails near my house. Or "Gravel bike" and do mixed rides
When you have longer time slots drive to the trail
So if you want to spend money (I never do my road bike is my old hard tail with slicks) then look at
1. Buying a road bike
2. Setting up for low stress transporting your bike by car. This might mean a new bike rack, buying a van or larger car
3. hen think bout a different off road bike
Or perhaps you've moved closer to the local Synchronised swimming club and you've always fancied giving it a go
Gravel bike and mixed rides!
Not so bad as you but proper mtbing is certainly a bit further away now so short rides aren't really long enough to go mtbing.
CX bike is the answer. You're bound to have routes nearby that are more fun on a CX and it also allows you to cover ground much faster so you can explore further.
I can't understand folk who don't enjoy riding their bikes other places than "trails"
What's stopping you bunnyhopping, manualing, wheelying, skidding, jumping, carving turns, drifting, sprinting about the place WHEREVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE?
+1 Gravel bike
I used to live near the bottom of the uplift road at Innerleithen. I would ride round there most nights. Now I live in north Edinburgh. I dont ride anything like the amount I used to on the MTB. I ride a lot of cross now. N+1 - cross bike for you. 😀
Find new trails.
Dunno, no intention of finding out either! Mate who moved and has to schlep 5+ miles home on the post-ride Thursday night pub stop never looks happy about it though. He doesn't come out so much these days. Hi BG!
I'd ride every day if I could but I have to pack the van and drive at least 40 minutes to Hamsterley or Chopwell to ride anything resembling decent trails. I can ride from home but I'm surrounded by miles and miles of housing estates. Yes we have cycle routes but they're bland, featurless, gravel pits covered in broken glass. I'd kill to have easy access to proper off singletrack and preferably some massive jumps.
What's stopping you bunnyhopping, manualing, wheelying, skidding, jumping, carving turns, drifting, sprinting about the place WHEREVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE?
Because I'd had enough of that by the time I'd finished puberty.
I feel sorry for people like you 😥
Hang on, you moved 5 miles, can I just confirm that a mile is the same in your world as mine and everyone else's
Hang on, you moved 5 miles, can I just confirm that a mile is the same in your world as mine and everyone else's
English or Welsh?
Namibian
Similar situation myself
My job moved me from Scotland to the SE of England. Unfortunately I now struggle to get excited about the riding near to me. (Olympic track being possibly the most underwhelming trail I have ever ridden)
Road bike purchased and loving it... Scandalous I know but I'm here for a while so I'll have to make do.
You haven't got some kinda thing about using the car , have you? OK I am fortunate enough to be 10 mins ride away from my first trail but I am equally happy to chuck bike in car and drive to ride somewhere a bit different. Our riding group has a mate who refuses to put his bike in a car unless its a holiday or an event. We don't see much of him.
When you say, 'there's no trails from my door', what do you mean by 'trails'?
There's bridleways to explore all over the place so unless you live in the middle of a massive city/town there'll be trails of some description.
In this day & age you can still buy things called 'O.S. Maps' & they're available in outdoors outlets & even good bookshops. I know they're old fashioned but they still work. 😉
I did the same 5 years ago and whilst it was a long process, eventually b. happened. I now don't own any MTB's. The faff, the road riding to get to trails and the draw of the road proved too much in the end.
Your not looking hard enough!
Bouncy trail bike to chuck in the car when you can't be arsed to ride to trails, keep the XC to ride there or even take in the car also and then go mince around bridleways, footpaths or even as much urban off road as possible if it's all urban (paths often round and through estates, town centres, all a bit cheeky of course). Make up some local xc loops.
As said, look at an OS map, or Open Cycle Map. Almost everywhere has something to ride.
Or on/off road touring, riding what you can off road and see where you can go, link it up with pub stops 😀
A good book by the way, The Good Mountain Biking Guide, has loads of this kind of stuff. Bought it looking for trail centre stuff but they're the minor sections and the rest is actually more interesting. Okay more so when the natural routes hit the big hills.
explore
Break the law (footpaths)
Where you moved to TINAS, still around Reading I guess? Road bike is the way. Some nice riding to be had North, South and West. Avoid the cake (ok maybe in moderation) and become a lean mean racing machine 🙂
Similar situation here...
...the answer is a train or more usually a car in my case but then I ride somewhere different most weeks and enjoy the variety.
Road bike ok but wouldn't give up the mtb.
When I lived down south it was 7 to 12 miles to the Chilterns. The various ways there were a mixture of cyclepaths, bridleways, cheeky trails and country roads.
They were all riding (and a warm up). Just concentrate on getting there quicker whichever route I took.
Now the nearest trail is just the other side of my fence 🙂 And I can then ride pretty much in any direction 🙂
Im fairly sure this is by definition a first world problem.
. Move back
That is what I did
Just drive. I often keep a dismantled bike hidden in the motor so it's no hassle. Helps that I work all over the country so get to ride a few places. With regards to living in Reading, I've ridden to swinley more than once from south reading but it's a crap road ride which seems to attract lots of trucks.
I would treat it as motivation to break out the map and look around the local area a bit more... Consider a gravel or XC type bike for efficient on/offroad exploration maybe?
And TBF a while your old trails might be a little further away, it's not an insurmountable ride, I'm sure you could get your arse in gear and do it now and then, the extra 10 miles on you round trip might be good for you...
Buy a hybrid bike and strap your mountain bike to your back. Lock the hybrid to a tree when you get to trails. Builds core strength.
I don't know, but it's one of the reasons we're still in our house after 11 years when we planned to stay here no longer than 5. The trails start about 100 meters from my garage door, and the houses stop and the country starts about 200 metres away.
Sorry.
OP's story sounds similar to mine. A lowly 12 mile move meant doorstep mountain biking was nowhere near as convenient as it used to be. Net result was much more road biking.
[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/i-prefer-road-riding-to-mountain-biking ]I prefer road riding to mountain biking[/url]
Occasionally I tell myself that 30 minutes on the road to some cracking off-road riding is a bit of a first world problem.
Can you combine a commute somehow? 5 miles on the road at one end of a ride is not so bad. Both ends is a bit of a PITA though.
Or dirt jumping?
d. CX bike and that farm track (and all the other otherwise non challenging boring psths you will inevitably discover) becomes part of the off road ride
Combine with c. (Sell xc mile muncher to fund bike d. Is now that machine)
Definately a 1st world problem!
Problem is that Swinley was about 7 miles away, now its 14. So thats 2.5hours roind trip before the good bits, 40miles isn't really "I'll be back for dinner" after work riding 🙁
North is Reading then Chilterns, which is good, but again it makes the good stuff at least an hour each way. South and west is a desert of off toad riding, its a warren of small lanes which are great on the road bike but mean what would have stayed a bridleway anywhere else is now tarmac.
Oddly enough drove to swinley for the first time in years at the weekend and actually enjoyed riding it and not being knackered! Although it did feel a little like cheating and really short!
Sharkattack
What about penshaw or beamish? They must be close to you if you're between choppers and hammers. Some good jumps there.
Waves... I am in Reading, you moved to South Berks or
Hampshire then?
TBF swinley isn't exactly Mecca for MTBing, there's obviously not the concentration of trails you get at a trail centre type location round this way, but you can string together a couple of hours riding with some cheeky local trails and winch up on to the Ridgeway for a trundle...
that said most of my riding does seem to be road and "gravel" at the moment...
Should have moved to the south east of Swinley 😛 . I suffer being sandwiched in between Surrey Hills and Tunnel Hill/Swinley/Minley/Caesars/Farnham/Frensham 😉
Some rideable from the house or a quick drive. Rogate 20 mins down the A3, hour up to Aston Hill or any of the Chilterns, not far from M4 to make it 2.5 to 3ish to FoD, Cwmcarn, Afan. Not far from Heathrow or Gatwick, or even the Channel Tunnel for trips to the Alps.
Yeah, sucks 😀
Just move again
Gravelcore. To the power of sick!
Another vote for CX type bike. It won't be as much fun off road as an MTB but sounds like road will make up majority of your miles if riding from your door.
Not as instant as buying a new bike but far more worthwhile...[img] 
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Move house.
If you've bought the house then you've learned an expensive lesson, if renting consider it a cheap one for when/if you do buy.
How long is the drive to the trails? Just ride for longer when you get there.
And you'll probably just get into road riding properly anyway if you're a committed rather than casual cyclist - it's often just the most convenient way of getting the job done.
It's not so much the driving that's the issue, I've a good bike rack and living 1 minute from the M4 it's the inability to get home and think "nothing on TV, I'll go for a hack round Swinley / chiltern / tunnlehill".
Just ordered some of those Nitefighter lights, and some new 18650 cells/case/charger for my smudge lumenator. Might have to invest in a dynamo and StVZO lights too if I'm spending a lot of time on the road.
if it makes you feel better i rode to work off road today - hit the trails 3 minutes from the door and finished up 10 minutes from the office.
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as they say - location location location.
1 min from M4? Shinfield, Spencers wood area? You're an hour or so pedalling to swinley then, break out the road iron and ride the nice quite lanes round this way. There are woods some minor cheeky to be had and plenty of candidate areas for digging in your own trails I reckon.
It's 5 miles ffs, just ride it.
Get an OS map and find the trails / ROW / RUPPs etc. If you can't find solace in riding a bike around the wonder that is the highways and byways of England then yes, give up and eat cake.
I moved away from trails. I explored and found some local riding and got out more on a road bike. It's ALL about exploring out from where you live on whatever bike works best.
Thankfully, I've not been in your situation but I have in the past cycled 10 miles on the road to get to better trails, making sure to put some serious hills in just so I really REALLY know I'm putting some extra miles in my legs..
Also recently, due to illness and injury and consequent lack of motivation, I've got into the habit of taking the long way round to the shops..
Living in an urban environment there's no end of high curbs, sharp hills, sets of steps and peculiar alleys to hoon around on.. Going out late at night, it's been possible to make the 10 minute round trip last a couple of hours, and has certainly helped get my mojo back
cookeaa - Member
1 min from M4? Shinfield, Spencers wood area?
8 miles to edge of Swinley? Various patches of woodland along the way that may have some paths through. I'd be heading to Eversley and then into Yateley, Minley, Hawley etc.
8 miles wouldn't be bad. I do that sometimes from the house to get to Tunnel Hill, though it's a quick blast down the canal. Similar riding to Surrey Hills, though takes longer thanks to big hill to climb to get there.
Just don't do what I did recently...
Drive to the start of my ride, go for a lovely ride. Arrive back home. Panic because the car isn't there.... then remember that you left it somewhere else 😳
8 miles to edge of Swinley?
He said he [u]was[/u] 7 miles from swinners and had moved a further 5, is south of Reading and within 1 minute of the M4 I took an educated guess at his rough location... Your right there are various patches of woodland in the area, not much developed for riding. Certainly nothing on a par with swinley, a couple of months ago sulham woods was torn up and the FC put up signs effectively prohibiting bikes...
There's got to be somewhere viable in the area, mortimer, Silchester ways perhaps?