Riding - where?

[DrDonnyBrago]

Probably a bit of an odd question from someone who has been riding for 9 years, but where do you actually you go when you go out on the bike for a jolly?

95% of my mileage has been commuting, which I no longer need to do so the bikes largely sit around unused. I enjoy spannering on them more than riding them but I've made an effort to get out a bit more this summer, albeit just doing some aimless wandering to find a curvy A road.

Where go BCF?

[Evil Hans]

I commute every day on my bike, but on the odd occasions I do get a chance to go out just for fun, it's usually a blast through the Cotswolds. Or the Forest of Dean.

They're both fairly local to me.
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[chickenstrip]

I have a couple of different routes around the Lake District depending on my mood. A couple of routes for scenery and more challenging passes, and a route for a bit of hooning fun.

Also, it's a similar distance from me to the top of the Pennines. For a longer day, southern Scotland is mostly all within reach, and Yorkshire's finest, and for a really long day, I can get up to about Glen Coe and back with one or two variations on that route.

Lately, it has just been to Tesco and back though, approx a 3 mile round trip
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[Kentol750]

Depends where you live! If you lived in Brecon and worked in Merthyr, then your commute would beat most peoples ride outs. If you live next to the a14 and have a 10 mile ride on it then not so much fun. However there's great roads in Northants if you stay off the arterial roads. If you have to ride miles to find a good road, I feel for you.
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Some bikes.

[DrSnoosnoo]

I visit the Yorkshire Dales, my commute allows me to skirt the southern edge. Then there's the moors, as I traverse Yorkshire to Lancashire, the scenic route is great.

Then slightly more south, the peaks. Only been across there once though.

Then North York moors are within an hour of me.

It all depends where you are but the North has some lovely places to ride. I do need to go up to the Lakes again, only been up there once on the bike too.
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[chickenstrip]

[notbike]

Started riding around Essex a lot.

[DRZ4Hunned]

I typically ride to the peak district and do the same run, started to become a bit repetitive now though so need to mix it up, I might try going the opposite way round my normal route All in all I do about 180 miles.
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[recman]

[kgm]

I live in Scotland so there's lots of stuff to choose from. I have a few regular routes (150-200 miles mostly) but like to go off exploring when I can.

[kgm]

I live in Scotland so there's lots of stuff to choose from. I have a few regular routes (150-200 miles mostly) but like to go off exploring random roads when I can.

[DrDonnyBrago]

[MarJay]

Loomies. The roads between Basingstoke and Loomies are amazing, as are the ones to Reading via Tadley if you go the right way.
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[chickenstrip]

[BrownTrousers]

I have a couple of good twisty circular routes near home that i know well and enjoy just for the ride when the weather is good, but i find I am much more inclined to actually go out on the bike if i have a destination lined up.

So i always keep an eye out for upcoming race meets, shows or just popular cafe's that i can use as an excuse.

Other than the coastline, the scenery isn't very dramatic in east anglia - often wish i lived oop north when i hear about people saying they pop out to the lake district etc.
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[arry]

[recman]

Sometimes I'll explore a bit, sometimes I'll push it to my limits on the roads I know quite well.
Most of the time I sort of have a rough destination but quite often that will go out of the window and I might spend some of the ride on a demo bike from a dealership.
Its the same if I meet my mate for a spin. We'll go somewhere he has in mind and then who knows where after that.

Its quite rare that I'll have a rigid plan.

[AshWebster]

Caton to Hawes is a blinder of a road if youre near Lancashire / Yorkshire
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

I tend to just pick a direction based on the weather report, and head for bacon.

https://www.ifancyafryup.co.uk/cafes/england
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[Evil Hans]

[ThatDippyTwat]

I live in N.Wales, I'm spoilt for choice.

If I wan to get off the usual routes, I tend to go "Ohh, wonder where that goes..." and go find out. It's usually half-decent. Mind you, the VFR is a bit heavy for some of the horse-tracks you sometimes end up on.
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[Hong Kong Phooey]

I discovered better routes to commute, standard is 25 min, twisties takes 45-55 min depending on traffic. With all this great weather lately, I've been arriving at work in an even better mood than normal.

I can just piss off for a ride without any purpose other than looking for mischief.
Download Calimoto to discover twisties in your region (if that's your thing).
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'81 CG125, '97 FZS600 : '99 CBR600F4, '09 KTM RC8

[arry]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I feel like I'm surrounded by brilliant roads - I'm halfway between Hull and York. It's about as rural as it gets. In the evenings I have the roads mostly to myself and even in working hours it's quiet. I have 6 or 7 preferred routes that me and a mate staked out - each around 37 miles long. We do them forwards and backwards, and they're all superb. Each route is a combination of A, B and unclassified roads - and we don't use unmarked lanes. There are numerous dramatic elevation changes and generally a sprinkling of pretty technical sections, leavened with very fast sweepers.

I also like riding up from Squires to Seaways - there are various tweaks you can make to this route to keep it interesting.

At the very end of last year I promised myself I'd get to know four other areas more thoroughly -the howardian hills, the north yorks moors, north lincs, and the dales. I've made some headway with the first - but this area and the dales tend to feature a lot of unmarked roads which I prefer to avoid. For instance, I found myself in darkest Grosmont back in the heatwave, confronted with a quite wide ford to cross. I relaxed my arms and arse and the old ninja got me across - but not without a slither and twitch on the slimy cobbles (ooer mrs). Luckily I remembered the fording tip - concentrate on the opposite bank and nowt else.

The howardian hills have a lot of narrow but marked lanes so there's a bit to go at there - but there are a fair few pretty damn technical bits like those around Yearsley and Easingwold. As for north lincs, it's shit imo - with the exception of the crowle and eastoft road, and the b1225. That's not to say I haven't had a lot of good to great rides out there - so I know it actually is a decent area. But this year it's felt like I've been slogging around avoiding slow, boring back lanes. I personally think there are some overrated roads out that way - and that the yorkshire wolds are far superior to the lincs wolds when it comes to roads and riding.
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[stevo as b4]

Interesting topic especially at it highlights the daily commuter people and the leisure riders or weekend tourers etc. In fact if everyone replied you'd have the whole spectrum from track day riders, off road heroes, sprinters, top speed club riders, competition riders like Binge etc. And just the skint teenagers YBR'ing their way to college and the pensioners who prefer to go to Iceland on their scooters instead of the bus.

I like OP am more of a shed tinkerer than a rider these days. It wasn't always that way, but things change. As for where I ride well it's mostly either between mine and the next town in each direction, visiting family or mates (once in a blue moon by bike) or more likely just an hour squirting my little smoker down the narrow country lanes in circles around where I live.

I've been to one bike night on my bike that's 3miles away, and on the right sunny evening I can see that happening again, just because it's lazily local.

Distance, touring and exploring different counties isn't really on my radar now. And only owning small messed about with two strokes means I don't want to go too far from home, or sit on fast constant speed roads to get places.

I would ride my bikes in other areas, and it'd be nice to ride the rural Welsh roads, and Cornish coastal roads but only if I van the bike to such locations.

If I owned a big 1000cc naked or something then there's only Scotland in the UK that I want to see and experience, or maybe some more 10day trips to France to visit more of the mid West region again. If I had a big capable bike here it'd otherwise just sit unused in the shed, as I don't enjoy traffic, busy cities or the standard of driving in the UK anymore. Im unlikely to do Sunday rides, days out or track days. In fact the only other thing I'd like to do on a bike now is get back into off roading. Green laning and beginners Enduro riding are things I never did, so yeah a pucker Street legal off road bike and some new gear are on my future to do list.