Best place to live / ride?

[Andy XRV]

In the UK I think Hexham or Corbridge would be a lovley place to live and ride and also around Hereford.

In Europe the Eifel regoin of Germany is stunning with roads to die for as is the area around Cochem.

[STe_rsv4]

Biased but Id say county Durham.

From my house I can be in weardale / Pennines within half an hour using some good B roads, Hartside in under an hour (trust me I know, I've set a personal best)
North Yorkshire & the dales within 45 minutes.
Northumberland. Rothbury etc. in 45 minutes
Scottish borders in under 60 minutes
Coastline is only 25 minutes ride away too.

Only problem I have now is that I've ridden these roads so often I end up venturing further and further to find "new" roads to ride

[Steve_H80]

Much as I like going to the IOM it is kinda rubbish for motorbike riding other than going very fast over the mountain, the place is far too small and crowded.
I think I'll stick to where I am for my motorbiking, even though it's grim up north and I'm surrounded by slag heaps and whippets with flat caps.
Friends always tell me how popular the M25 is though, apparently tens of thousand of people go there every day so it must be good

[srob]

Steve_H80 said:

Much as I like going to the IOM it is kinda rubbish for motorbike riding other than going very fast over the mountain, the place is far too small and crowded.
I think I'll stick to where I am for my motorbiking, even though it's grim up north and I'm surrounded by slag heaps and whippets with flat caps.
Friends always tell me how popular the M25 is though, apparently tens of thousand of people go there every day so it must be good

O/T: I once got a note in a fortune cookie that said, "Confucius say, M25 go nowhere".

Original quote apparently

[Biker's Nemesis]

Andy XRV said:

In the UK I think Hexham or Corbridge would be a lovely place to live and ride and also around Hereford.

No, its crap, for 2 shakes I'd move from here and live in the South.

[Biker's Nemesis]

Steve_H80 said:

I think I'll stick to where I am for my motorbiking, even though it's grim up north and I'm surrounded by slag heaps and whippets with flat caps.
Friends always tell me how popular the M25 is though, apparently tens of thousand of people go there every day so it must be good

Good man, we don't want anymore of them up here.

[Biker9090]

Probably somewhere on the Welsh Borders for me. Shropshire etc as it's not tooooo far away from London etc.

I can't stand pretty much anything East of Bracknell. Absolutely enormous amounts of traffic and terrible roads.

[J__Wood]

Biker's Nemesis said:

I'd move to Cornwall or somewhere in the south. It rains too much here in the far north and there are no jobs. It's grim, cold, wet and full of whippet owning flat capped northerners

Fort William has 1504 mm per year, Keswick 1471 mm whilst Cornwall has around 1200mm per year. So not much drier or even wetter depending how far North/West you are. Just warmer rain.

Add in all that sea salt eating your bike.

Nice unforgiving granite hedges waiting to kill you when you lose the back wheel on cow st.

Over average house prices (301k V 282k nationally) unless you want to live in the bad lands.
Few jobs and most of those have dire pay.

Chocked full of moaning pensioners from the South East, doddering around after they retired their driving skills when they retired to Cornwall.

[slopes]

Biker's Nemesis said:

I'd move to Cornwall or somewhere in the south. It rains too much here in the far north and there are no jobs. It's grim, cold, wet and full of whippet owning flat capped northerners

Just don't. You'd hate it.

Cornwall is okay, Devon is nice, Somerset is not bad.

Personally i prefer Dorset but as a general rule of thumb, the North is full of much nicer people or it is in my experience.

[Killboy]

John D. said:

Killboy said:

Folkstone, quick and easy access to the Eurotunnel

I was going to make that gag.

While it's a bit of a gag, I've just booked our yearly long week be away with a crew that has for the last 10+ years gone to Wales. We're going to the Ardennes and Luxembourg. Wales doesn't want the business that's for sure.

[hiccy18]

Killboy said:

John D. said:

Killboy said:

Folkstone, quick and easy access to the Eurotunnel

I was going to make that gag.

While it's a bit of a gag, I've just booked our yearly long week be away with a crew that has for the last 10+ years gone to Wales. We're going to the Ardennes and Luxembourg. Wales doesn't want the business that's for sure.

I get envious of people who live an hour or two from the ferry ports and chunnel, it's definitely a major plus compared to having a days travel. And you get better weather.

[KurtFlew]

I live the English side of the England Wales border in Chester, North Wales to the left, Peak district to the right. My favourite of them all mid Wales an hour away. Some great runs down into Shropshire and Staffordshire. I've never rode in Scotland but this takes some beating.

I'm off to Aberystwyth tomorrow via Rhayader, and back via Bala. Very good.

[Ken_Code]

hiccy18 said:

I get envious of people who live an hour or two from the ferry ports and chunnel, it's definitely a major plus compared to having a days travel. And you get better weather.

My London place is an hour from the tunnel.

I have children, a job, a house to take care of, things to do. The idea of jumping on my bike on a whim and heading down to the Alps is a fantasy for me.

[hiccy18]

Ken_Code said:

My London place is an hour from the tunnel.

I have children, a job, a house to take care of, things to do. The idea of jumping on my bike on a whim and heading down to the Alps is a fantasy for me.

Of course, for riding on a whim then places like Northumberland or Central Scotland are pretty good. But for planned continental trips they've got a day each way riding on motorway through Britain, which is two days less holiday.

[Jimjimhim]

hiccy18 said:

Ken_Code said:

My London place is an hour from the tunnel.

I have children, a job, a house to take care of, things to do. The idea of jumping on my bike on a whim and heading down to the Alps is a fantasy for me.

Of course, for riding on a whim then places like Northumberland or Central Scotland are pretty good. But for planned continental trips they've got a day each way riding on motorway through Britain, which is two days less holiday.

If possible that's when you make those 2 days part of the holiday, rather than making it a chore.

[hiccy18]

Nice idea, but not realistically possible. I could avoid the motorways and do some sight seeing, but that's two or three days each way. The alternative is heading for the Newcastle ferry, that's four hours taking interesting roads, but that changes where you head for on the other side.

[catso]

MrBig said:

Moulder said:

Purely location in the UK; Bradford. Surrounded by Peak District, Yorkshire Dales/Moors, Lake District, and The Borders. To add a quality of life element Harrogate or York.

In the world, similar to Bradford; Florence. Italy, Sardinia, Corsica easy(ish), lots of other bits of Europe comparatively not far away.

This is not a sentence I ever thought I would hear

Indeed, whilst I don't have much experience of Bradford, I did live in Florence for 5 years and the similarities never occurred to me (except perhaps the standard of driving of the locals?). There are indeed some great biking roads around there, can't comment on Bradford though...

[Biker's Nemesis]

scunnylad said:

Ingleby arms,still there.

He grew up in Garthorpe, Ian is his name, he'll be 61 now, sister is a bit younger.

I spent a good 3 hours messaging Ian yesterday, good God, he remembered my parents names, what colour and model their car was and he knew myself and my Sister stayed at his Grandparents. He also said my Father had trained him at work. So many other things that blew my mind from nearly 50 years ago.

[KTMsm]

MrBig said:

In the UK, I would probably go up around the Broads area. Relatively flat, lots of water to ride alongside and plenty of places to stop for an ice cream.

That just shows how different we all are, I always head for somewhere with hills, preferably mountains

[Krikkit]

KurtFlew said:

I live the English side of the England Wales border in Chester, North Wales to the left, Peak district to the right. My favourite of them all mid Wales an hour away. Some great runs down into Shropshire and Staffordshire. I've never rode in Scotland but this takes some beating.

I'm off to Aberystwyth tomorrow via Rhayader, and back via Bala. Very good.

Same here, fantastic spot