The Best Place For a Biker To Live In Britain?

[SteveW]

I've always lived in North West England.
But I do sometimes feel slightly envious of those South English puffs, only because they can nip through the tunnel or jump on a ferry and land in France and have a easy couple days on different roads in a different culture, for me it's a near 700 mile round trip to get to the south coast, or two 12 hour ferry overnight trips from Hull.
But then again, Scotland is pretty accessible from Lancashire....Three and a half hours to Loch Lomond.
Plus we've got some great biking roads and some good green lanes locally....The Dales, Cumbria, North Wales ain't far and our own Lancashire Hills and Moors are stunning.
Ireland is a ferry from Liverpool or Holly Head.
Living in the centre of Britain ain't bad!

[sprintster]

Yeah,I think you've got the best of both worlds there,Steve.Some cracking,empty roads up here in the north east of Scotland and only about 150 miles from the west coast but to go abroad is a 500 mile round trip just to get to Newcastle.I'm paying £420 for a sailing in July and that's with a discount!When I read about people going to France for £50 it makes me sick.And there's no greenlanes here either!

[Wapping]

London E1 (thumbs)

[Redmurty]

London E1 (thumbs)

:laugh:
:laugh:
:laugh:
there's always one :whistle:

cheers Spud

[Tonibe63]

1 hour to the Peak District
3 hours to The Lakes, Yorkshire, Wales, The Tunnel
5 or 6 hours to Fort William
No tourists blocking up the roads (thumbs)
Very little congestion on a daily basis
Good access to local greenlanes and most other areas are a day trip in the van
Some good local roads

[devonuk]

The South West - The coast, the moors and ready access to France and Spain

[92kk k100lt 193214]

A lot of folk travel from NW England and Scotland across to Larne/Belfast, down east coast of Ireland and on to ferry from Rosslare to Roscoff/Cherbourg. Irish Ferries Oscar Wilde, excellent ship, docks at Roscoff 11am. Its about a 4 hour ride time from port to port here and a cracking road in good weather. One toll, €1 for a bike.

There is also a ferry from Cork to Roscoff on Saturday afternoons. I live a few minutes from the port and also see a lot of UK registered traffic heading for this one. Brittany Ferries PontAven serves this route and docks at Roscoff 7am. Nothing to choose between the ferries except its a shorter time and 4 hours earlier arrival. Traffic by comparison with south coast UK is a doddle. Motorway the whole way from Belfast down to Cork. M1 M50 M7 M8 and three €1 tolls for the bike.

A third option is an economy service from Dublin to Cherbourg. I think Stena operate this one but its a smaller ship. Spotted them in Cherbourg last year and felt happier to be on a big ship in case of bad weather.

About 1,000 bikes on the ferry coming back, a lot from Europe heading for the ferry to the TT and to Bikefest in Killarney bur some heading back up to Scotland.

You wont do it for £50 but we can get discounted Ireland France returns for not much over €100 for up to mid June. Cabin adds a bit more, about €25 each way or take Pullman seats for free on some sailings, €17 on others. At current rates that's about £75-80 plus the cabin. Not sure of the ferry from Stranraer/Troon to Larne/Belfast but friends up north speak highly of it. Roscoff and Cherbourg at NW France don't have tolled motorways and west side of France is great.

Having said all that I have been to Scotland and the Western Isles and am envious of those who have that part of the world on their doorstep. As for Wales, some of the best memories are of Wales......plus its a place one would never tire of.

[johnnyboxer]

NORTH YORKSHIRE - I've got the Dales & Moors,on my doorstep and the North Pennines and Northumberland are only 1 hour

Biking utopia on and offroad, in the UK.........ferries to Europe/Scandinavia are only 1 hour away at either Newcastle or Hull - so what more could a biker want :whistle:

CamHighRoad2.jpg (43.66 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

Marsett3.jpg (70.98 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

SBusk1.jpg (35.43 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

IMG_3360_2015-05-02.jpg (54.07 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

DSC02638.JPG (47.73 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

DSC02647.JPG (62.03 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

[Wapping]

London E1 (thumbs)

:laugh:
:laugh:
:laugh:
there's always one :whistle:

cheers Spud

tis so.

Free your biker mind.... It's not all about roads :whistle: :laugh:

Two 24 hour petrol stations within a quarter of a mile

No through traffic (at least in my bit)

Integral garage, with power and water

Umpteen cafes, curry houses, Chinky nosh, Tai.... You name it, we got it

An hour and a touch to the Chunnel

30 minutes in any direction to the edge of London (North circular or similar)

Bus ride to Infinity for bike clobber, open on Sunday

Map and book shops in easy distance, open on Sunday

Walk to work. None of that commuting malarkey or being forced to pretend it's great being an all-year-round-biker when it's snowing and -5c for days on end.... Or having to drive....

Amazon Dropbox delivery thingy, just around the corner

Boris bicycle and Whizz (or whatever it's called) hourly car hire within 300 yards

More taxies than you can shake a stick at

Decent cross-section of mainstream motorcycle dealerships reasonably close

Great pubs

Waitrose as our corner shop..... That's true actually (thumbs)

Hi-speed broadband (but no cable, oddly)

Post Office, doctor, teaching hodpital, 24-hour dentist, cinemas, library on the doorstep

The list goes on..... (thumbs)




The really great thing?..... It's not covered with mud and doesn't smell of cow sh1t ...... :laugh:

[coyotedave]

NORTH YORKSHIRE - I've got the Dales & Moors,on my doorstep and the North Pennines and Northumberland are only 1 hour

Biking utopia on and offroad, in the UK

CamHighRoad2.jpg

Marsett3.jpg

SBusk1.jpg

IMG_3360_2015-05-02.jpg

DSC02638.JPG

DSC02647.JPG

A big +1 to Yorkshire in genaral (thumbs)

Great roads, great scenery, great historical sites.

Cheers Dave