[Closed] Ride out from home or take the car?

ride from home mostly every time. My local trail centre is Cannock so if we go up there we drive but mostly the local routes we do we cycle from my house. By the time we get to any off road routes we're nicely warmed up.

Definitely riding from my front door, so I can have a beer or two after the ride.
My current record is a 23 mile mix of tarmac and gravel tracks to the start location of a 20 mile ride and the same back. Singlespeed.

I'd love to be able to ride from home, but living in Lincoln this is not really an option, so apart from the occasional 'just bagging some miles ride' most of my biking starts with a car journey.

I normally ride my local trails that start 3 miles away, or sometimes ride 6 or so to the other end. I do like to drive to Cwmcarn though about 20 mins away, for a quick lap.

I also like to ride to Cwmcarn but that takes about an hour and a quarter.

I am currently trying to build a bike that will eat up road better so I can get to the further afield trails more comfortably.

Depends

Local trails ride from my door obvs.

Glentress is 47 miles away though so it might be a bit of a slog getting there on my full-sus if I fancy a day out.

I'm pretty lucky - Woodbury Common is a 20 minute grind up the hill, SW coastpath is a five minute roll along the seafront from here, If I really wanna ride a trail centre then Haldon is just over an hour's ride away (less in summer when the ferry is running) and to top it all off East Dartmoor is £5 return on the train..

I let my ex keep the car

Almost always ride local. I'd hate to [i]have[/i] to drive to get somewhere worth riding.

Almost never, there are some great trails reasonably close to me but it means a 45 min ride though an area notorious for terrible drivers and a 30 ride back - bad as it might sound my time is precious and I'd rather have that hour and a quarter in the wood rather than trying to avoid being hit my some inpatient Boomer.

Usually ride local, but at the moment I'm barely riding at all in-between races, so its seems to be mostly a drive first to some venue somewhere.

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I've got this big lump of stuff on my front door step so generally ride out. But it's nice to go for a drive to somewhere further afield.

Ride from pretty much all the time. Maybe drive down to one of the 7 stanes once or twice a year but generally hate driving somewhere to ride a bike. Local trails a mile down a country road though.

Ride from home 99% of the time. I cut through a small wood then off to a forest or mountain. So total time on road is < 10 minutes. Even better, a pump track and dirt jump track is going into the woods next year... I can see the woods from my window. They are calling me... 😉

The

half decent local terrain

jumping in the car and driving for an hour or so

... to the nearest trail centre.

Excellent to hear so many folks choosing to ride from home, although I do occasionally amuse myself people watching in trail centre car parks.
I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden! 🙂

Pretty much always ride from home, but 10 mins ride from Cwmcarn and all the hill are covered in trails, so could ride all day without riding the same trail twice.
Very lucky in this respect, shame I don't have time for all day rides 😀

@Ecky-Thump -- a man after my own heart!

9-10 of my rides are from the door. Rarely do I drive to a location for a ride.

I almost always ride from home. I've got the Pentlands a mile away and Glentress is a decent ride beyond that via some more hills.

Why the assumption that driving means "to a trail centre"?
Were that true, I'd have to agree with the bike cost/time ridden theory, but it's not.
Loads of us still like to have mountains feature heavily in our mountain biking.

Good question. Almost always from home, it's what makes me the dullard I am. Offroad less than 2' from home and great road riding from the door. Last week I drove to the Peak for a road ride and to Penmachno for MTB. That's probably 50% of my awaydays for the year 🙂

@hairylegs - I 100% agree, and in most cases, in direct proportion to the skills of the [s]poser[/s] rider

95% of my rides are from my front door.
I live in Farnborough (Bromley) and can be on either good trails or quiet country lines in 5-10mins.

Mainly from home.I've put the MTBs in the car three times in the last year.

Strangely enough, I think tomorrow will be the first time in my life that I have driven somewhere to ride my bike, that is, simply to ride a bike, rather than to take part in an organised club event or race. I [i]always[/i] ride from home.
Mrs MTG and myself are taking the tandem about 20 miles to just the other side of Worcester to explore somewhere a bit different for a change, round the lanes and bridleways towards Evesham and Pershore.

I can't remember but think I use to do a bit of both.

Mostly from the door 🙂

Woods, Coast, Bridges, Bridleway, Urban, Semi Urban and Road.

For me, personally if I cant ride to the trail under my own steam it does not seem to belong to me.

So virtually any any trail centre has no spirit for me and feels like I'm constrained all the time. DON'T LEAVE THE PATH 🙁 Feeling.

Driving to natural trails is also good but cant feel very attached them either.

Always drive. I live on the east side of Bristol and experimented with riding out to my Ashton/50Acre/Leigh loop twice. I can't be arsed. My other places I go to, such as the Mendips/Quantocks/FOD/Exmoor, are a bit of a trek on the bike.

have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden!

My bike is a 9yr old hardtail and I have a 12yr old French van. It gets ridden on average a few hours each week.

I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden

STW complete and utter bollocks at it's very best. I ride from home and drive to trail centres.

I have a theory too - the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the owner's disposable income.

both, often from home (near Ridgeway) but as scenery is part of the 'fun' I often travel to places of interest (say 1hr drive each way and much longer if a weekend away)

I'd love to be able to ride from home, but living in Lincoln this is not really an option, so apart from the occasional 'just bagging some miles ride' most of my biking starts with a car journey.

Exactly the same. There are a few alright bits around the South Common or Greetwell quarry and you can string an average XC ride together with minimal road time but Lincoln is mostly flat and boring so its in the back of the car for me too.

To get onto a bridleway is ~ 0.75 miles so mostly ride out from home.

Do go places in the car as part of group rides but 95% is from home.

There are so many great trails out there, why just limit yourself to the ones on your doorstep 🙁

Now I have no choice as I live in central london so its car all the time but when I was outside town it was

XC/local trails - 100% ride from home

"DH"/best trails is was 75% car as it was 45 mins to/from best trails by bike and I didn't have the time/fitness.

The majority of my riding was XC style as I much preferred to ride from home. if I could jump properly there where some very good trails 30 mins ride from home

Usually from the door, but for one local.loop.which.has 10 miles
of road to.get their first I've taken to.getting dropped off my the wife when she goes shopping and.make my own way back home. FoD & CwmCarn both an.hour away but rarely bother solo.

50/50, have a lot of riding within 10 minutes from the home, otherwise book a van for DH shuttles or use the train for XC/AM trails.
Don't actually own a car so not many other options.

Three and a quarter mile climb from my house to the top of the Quantocks, nice warm-up.

Ride mostly, I'm 20mins from Swinley and have a good selection of other routes locally both on and off road. Not ridden much this year though for various reasons 🙁

I live in Sheffield so am blessed with lots of amazing local riding straight from my door. I do sometimes drive out to greno or wharncliffe (sometimes ride too) just so I can spend more time having fun in the woods versus the pretty dull spin out and back.

Living in East Anglia, most of the local riding is rubbish. So, I tend to take the bike in the car for most of my riding. That's why I bought a road bike 18 months or so ago.

hairylegs - Member
Excellent to hear so many folks choosing to ride from home, although I do occasionally amuse myself people watching in trail centre car parks.
I have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden!

dday - Member
@hairylegs - I 100% agree, and in most cases, in direct proportion to the skills of the poser rider

You guys are awesome..... 🙄

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:
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(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 😉 )
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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.