Riding up north

[Cookiemonster...]

I may be moving to Manchester soon. What is like?- can you go outside of the inner city and find plenty of twisties- are there plenty of green countryside areas nearby to enjoy a good ride?

[Suntan Sid]

21 miles south of Manchester city centre, is the Peak district, full of winding roads and greenery.
Unfortunately as soon as the sun comes out, you'll find yourself having to share the road with lycra clad knobheads riding 4 a breast, every single caravan and camper van in the UK, ramblers wandering down the middle of the road, tractors with massive queues of, myopic, Sunday drivers too scared to overtake.
All the NSL roads have now been designated as 50mph, lots of mobile speed cameras and lots and lots of unmarked plod cars.
And a queue of dickheads, in MX5's, trundling along in the average speed zone, over the Cat and Fiddle

Personally I wouldn't bother!
____________________
"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[Cookiemonster...]

What about Leicester and the general midlands area? I could be moving there instead. Surely that's pretty good?

[ThatDippyTwat]

North Wales is less than an hour west of Manchester.

The Cat and Fiddle, though a good road, got so popular that it has been stomped upon by the constabulary. I think there's average speed camera's there now, not to mention the usual plod cars. They used to have unmarked bikes on that stretch as well, my mate got a stern telling off and was suitably "yes, sorry officer" enough to get away with "doing 90" past one.

As a result of said stomping and people avoiding the area, the Cat and Fiddle itself shut, and I'm pretty sure it's still shut.
____________________
'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[kgm]

This is why I want to move to the Highlands. That and the fact there's less people in general.

[Chuffin Nora]

[linuxyeti]

The pennines are just up the road as well, go up through Rochdale, Hollingworth Lake and keep going, by the way, the White Hous at the edge of the Pennine Way, does cracking food !! Also, Saddleworth Moor as well, close by, go up to there via Oldham is probably best.
____________________
Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them

[stinkwheel]

As above, my experience is that the peak district area is full of 50 limits and twats. I get held up and frustrated on a 350 bullet when I venture there, never mind a sports bike.

Go to the Yorkshire dales or North Wales. Or Northumberland. In fact, the further North you go, the better it will get in terms of motorcycling..
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Freddyfruitba...]

[doggone]

I wouldn't recommend Manchester, but it isn't much more than an hour to places worth visiting, North Wales, Lake District, Pennine Dales (north of the Peak District!)
The Peak District is OK if you don't go on the only fine weekend, or any weekend preferably. And avoid fine days...

[Cookiemonster...]

Ok I might avoid it- it was always too far up north and I thought fun riding would be a redeeming factor but it's not.
So what about the midlands then like Leicester?

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Rutland TT is popular.

https://rigsville.com/the-rutland-tt/
____________________
Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[GTR1400]

There's some half-decent riding around Leicestershire, but not as good as the Peak District. The Melton to Market Harbrough road (B6047) is probably the best in the Midlands. Many of the roads around the Charnwood area north of Leicester are lovely too.
____________________
Current ride: Honda VFR 800 (Pre-VTEC) Previous: Honda CBF600, Kawasaki ER5, Derbi Senda 125

[Teflon-Mike]

The UK 'mainland' is barely 1ooo miles long, north to south, aprox 100 miles wide, east to west, and has, an astounding 250,ooo miles of public roads... its NOT an enormously big island!

At an average road-speed of 30mph, you could, do Lands-End to John O'Groats, and back, via each coast, about two and a half, three-thousand miles, in all, in about 100 hours, or a weeks pretty comfy 'touring' on a bludy moped! with plenty of coffee-stops and arguments with tent-poles.... like I say, it is NOT a very big island!

Plonk 30-million people on it though.... it IS a little crowded!

Quarter million miles or road, thirty million people.... that means that for every mile of road, there's approx 120 people.... but worse; most of them roads are outside their houses; something like 4/5 of our roads are suburban cul-de-sacs, housing estates, industrial estates and retail parks.... that dont leave many miles of road that actually go anywhere, even remotely interesting, let alone are interesting in themselves!

But... off the top, 120 people per mile of road. There are 5280 feet in a mile, and the average car is apox 15 foot long... so at an average occupancy of 1.8 people per car... that's about 70 cars per mile of road.... but... half of them are all trying to get some-where interesting, on that 1/5th of road that goes any-where but past thier house! SO, you get something more like 150 cars per mile... 150 times 15 feet is 2,225 feet of cars per mile, or half a mile of cars per mile or woth-while road.... which MEANS, that none of them can have the obligatory two-second gap between them, or they wouldn't fit... or they would all be chugging along at a snails-pace.... which PROBABLY isn't far off... especially if you have had to travel the length of Brum on the M6 in the last couple of decades!

B-U-T... other than to point out that this is NOT a very big island, that has an inordinate population for its size, with an inordinate proportion of car-ownership, leaving not a lot of space on the roads for any-one; up-shot is that there's NO particularly better place to be than any other.

I like the Midlands... well... I dont... but, it does have the asset of being in the middle, and there's not a lot of the country outside of a two-hour travel radius, even at sub-l;egal journey speeds!!!

But... most of the country is the same!!! Its barely 1000 miles long and 100 wide FFS! I can stick a pair of compases into the map on my house and draw a circle 100mile radius, that cuts the sea in four or five places, abd gives a circle that covers 90% of the land-mass of the island.

Issue is not WHERE so much as WHEN.

Peak travel times during the week. are around 8-9 in the morning and 5-6 on the evening. IF you want to get away from the traffic... rather than trying to go to the limits of our shores.... get up early! USe the roads when every-one else is a-bed!

You'll probably run into a few hundred other bikes, ghettiong thier early morning jollies in too... but... like I saidf, its a little island with a lot of people!

IF you are searching for them challenging scratching lanes? Well, yup... they are public roads, and we have to 'share'... and with a LOT of other folk. And IF its the challenge of a high-speed dash down dem lanes? Yeah... its not really all it could be... and for the challenge you would be much better of NOT trying to treat it as your private race track, but goiing and finding, and paying for a real race track... either track-days or actual club-racing.

They remomove the other traffic and most other hazards when you do it, and put a St John's on stand-byt for when you eff-up... rather than leaving it to local rozzers, if they have the inclinatuin to come poking about in the fields when they have spotted a fresh hole in the hedge... IF they have spotted fresh hole in the hedge... and can be arsed to go poking about in it!!!

No GATSO's, no tractors parked on blind bends, no slurry pouring out the cowsehds into the road when you pass.... A-N-D real racing, or track-days actually needn't be all that expensive, when you dont need to tax and insure a bike to do it,. and points mean prizes not fines!

Otherwise? Public roads is for pubic to go places' we have to share, and we should NOT expect them to be ouyr personal private race track.

Now? How twisty or challenging they are, is rather secondary. Riding them for leisure, we aught be taking outr time, and enjoying the sights along the way... not rushing at them turning them into a blurr. A-N-D..... now its not what the roads are like, or even how over-used they may be at whatever time of day or year; but whether there is anything 'interesting' to see as you go.

The citiy, often isn't all that intereting. suburgan housing estates aren't either; and kitch rural developments actually churn my stomouch! But... you got a map, or google earth... go have a look see what is out there woth having a look at.

VERY VERY little of Britain, is much beyuond 100 miles of either Birmingham or Manchester, and you got a bike, which means you can go explore a heck of a lot of it; and not a lot is more than two or three hours from your door-step!

So, how much 'fun' the roads around any particular cityu may be, is a particularl subjective and piece of string question.

What kind of 'thrills' are you looking for? How much time have you got to go indulge in them? And how much of that time are you prepared to spend looking?

Its STILL a very small island we live on.....

Tip here is the plannning. IF you want high adrenaline kicks, go road racing! Teraclks are rarely more than a coupole of miles long at most; but you get non-stop low ridk thrills for the riding of them, and compared to road riding, its actually quite ecconomical per saddle hour. If you want to go explore and see stuff... doesn't matter where you live, that's just where you start and finish your ride, and theres little in this country more than a couple of hours away from anywhere else... and if that's still not enough? Well, take it over-seas, and give yourself the added time to explore further afield.

Birmingham to Paris is only 500 miles or so. Birmingham Berlin, 800, Birmingham to BArcelona 1000.

There's a LOT of Europe that isn't all that far away and less miles than LE-JOG, IF you plan your time, and your rouytes and you know what you are looking for.

But, that;'s the key... locationl, location, location, is for estate and travel agents... you got bike, you want to go places, not ones the estate agents want to sell, or the travel agents want to stick you on a bus to... so, do your leg-work, and dont expectr the fun served up on a plate like with a play-statrion.... go find it... THAT ius often where the fun is to be had, NOT trying to drag our knee round the bend where a hidden tractor has been abandoned!
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Kentol750]

Winter is coming. Peak district is a poor mans Brecon beacons. There's great roads everywhere, just go looking for them. Right bike for them is more important. A fireblade/zx10/gixxer thou/ r1/ s1000 will make anything seem boring/scary depending on wrist. Go look locally and enjoy.
____________________
Some bikes.

[ThunderGuts]

I've lived in and around Manchester for 22 years, previously lived down south.

Manchester itself (or the suburbs/commuter belt) is a good place to live - lots of things going on and places to eat/drink, so it ticks that box (and that's why I live here rather than in a remote village/small town). Flipside is crime is higher and the roads snarl up for fun.

Outside of the city itself (which isn't particularly pleasant to ride in), there are some cracking roads; you've got the Cheshire lanes, North Wales isn't far away and obviously the Peak District, but with the latter choose your times carefully; it's mega popular for everything and is strewn with commuters crossing from the West Yorkshire / Derbyshire area to Manchester and vice versa. As a result the roads are often busy . . . very busy! Good for cruising, not so much haring around although again it depends on when and where (there are quieter routes which are less well known). Pennine moors further north are quieter than the "official" Peak District.

Personally - I think it's a good balance. I like hills as well as twisty roads, so I'd be less satisfied down south, plus Manchester is well located to get to the Lakes. Manchester housing is undergoing a bit of a price spurt though; probably a good place to buy as an investment but depending on your personal circumstances you might not get what you want.
____________________
TG.

[Cookiemonster...]

[linuxyeti]

[Cookiemonster...]

Where are you based and where are you recommending then?
My point and I think many people's was not that Birmingham/Leicester/Manchester are great places to live-

it was:
a) are they well located and close to places where there are great rides?
b) is the commute to these places of great rides itself fun as well?

does that make sense? otherwise I quite agree. Birmingham is a shithole! Possibly Leicester too that's why everyone wants to escape to find a ride out !!

Edit: BTW Teflon-Mike did you know all the Gatso's are turned off in Birmingham because the local council were pissed off at central government that all the money from Gatso speed cameras was going entirely to central government. Saweeet

[linuxyeti]

The truth is, the mainland UK is really quite small, and if you were so inclined, you could ride the length of in a 24hour period, adhering to speed limits, nowhere is far from a decent ride.

The question is, what's a decent ride? the answer to that will vary alot of dependant on a number of things. For example, the idea of a good ride at 5:00am, for me, is a nice clear run on the motorway to work. Come 2:30pm, a decent ride could well be the scenic route home, picking routes at random. For some, a good ride, will be the 'elation' of cutting through rush hour traffic, whereas somebody else's good ride will be avoiding rush hour at all costs. Other's it will be a run along the coast, someone else will prefer riding through the valleys. then you have your city dwellers, who don't like the 'smell' of the countryside and vice versa. Either way, each of these types of rides, are easily obtainable, no matter where you are on the mainland
____________________
Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them

[G]