Where would you live in the UK?

[Mad Doug Biker]

North West of Scotland.

Sam

I'd LOVE to live in the Assynt area for the rugged scenery, the Outer Hebrides so that I could cycle right down all the islands, or the Shetlands, despite the wind!

Some of the remote places on the West coast are supposed to be good but its a bit too wet for my liking.

Acht, there is no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothes!

Cornwall and the Highlands are great but they are too far from everywhere else.

Terrible thing, no imagination

Well, I like it. You can go a very long way before you find a hill, or you can get to the edge of wolds or dales or moors within 10-20 miles. The city is a perfect size for cycling across, and there are quite a lot of regular cyclists.

That sounds like here! You can go towards Glasgow and Central Scotland, or, you can go into the hills nearby!

How very dare you! ;-) there's almost nobody here, man! Abundances of quiet cycling friendly lanes are what N'land does best!

You have obviously never been to the highlands and islands, have you?

Ok, so there aren't many lanes, just roads, but still, you are probably more likely to be run over by a sheep than you are a car!

After where I already am (Northumberland) it would have to be The Lake District or Western Scotland.

Compared with the Assynt area, Lancashire and the Lake District is VERY tame.

Scotland! you know it makes sense!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Oh yes, or Ardnamurchan!

 

[slowmotion]

Nah a man who doesn't like hills

How can you say that? There's a fair incline going over Battersea Bridge you know...

 

[Hacienda71]

How can you say that? There's a fair incline going over Battersea Bridge you know...

Or Tower Bridge when it is being raised!

 

[ColinJ]

Terrible thing, no imagination

I've got plenty of imagination ta, and I use it to imagine that the bloody awful SAD that I suffer from would be even worse in Scotland. Now Cornwall would be better from that point of view, but when I've been down there on holiday, it feels like it is miles from anywhere else, is dead in the winter and over-busy in the summer.

I'm half Scottish so you don't have to sell Scotland to me - I love it! I grew up to tales of crofting and the Massacre of Glencoe.

The thing that struck me when I took my bike up to the Oban area was that the road cycling round there was a bit limited. There are fantastic mountains and lochs everywhere, but in many places leaving room for just one very busy road squeezed in between. I'm looking at my OS maps now and they confirm that. I don't drive so I'd be cycling up and down those busy roads the whole time. Obviously, other parts of Scotland have quieter roads, or a better choice of them.

The other two things that would bother me - the weather and the midges. Yorkshire weather is gloomy enough but I'm sure that Highland weather is worse. As for the midges - biting insects love me! I get eaten alive when people all around me are left alone. I couldn't take the little swines!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I've got plenty of imagination ta, and I use it to imagine that the bloody awful SAD that I suffer from would be even worse in Scotland. Now Cornwall would be better from that point of view, but when I've been down there on holiday, it feels like it is miles from anywhere else, is dead in the winter and over-busy in the summer.

I don't have SAD, but I can see your point when you put it like that.

The thing that struck me when I took my bike up to the Oban area was that the road cycling round there was a bit limited. There are fantastic mountains and lochs everywhere, but in many places leaving room for just one very busy road squeezed in between. I'm looking at my OS maps now and they confirm that. I don't drive so I'd be cycling up and down those busy roads the whole time. Obviously, other parts of Scotland have quieter roads, or a better choice of them.

I must admit that some (but not all) of the roads up there are like that, complete with 'Passing Places', but it would probably still be a lot less busy than roads down south (except for in the Summer of course).

The other two things that would bother me - the weather and the midges. Yorkshire weather is gloomy enough but I'm sure that Highland weather is worse. As for the midges - biting insects love me! I get eaten alive when people all around me are left alone. I couldn't take the little swines!

Just cycle with your mouth open and get some extra and free nutrition!

As an aside, we have friends in Italy, and they simply don't beleive us when we talk about midges becuase they are smaller that mosquitos. ' How can something so small possibly do that?'.

Oh yes, and they look at us as though we are mad when we say that the Mountains are dangerous, because they regularly visit the Alps. Yet again it is down to our mountains being small in comparison.

 

[PpPete]

Lancashire seems to be doing rather well in this thread!

I'd vote for it as well...but avoid the southern end - too close to Merseyside.

 

[snorri]

the Highlands are great but they are too far from everywhere else.

Always felt they were quite central myself, although I would have to admit not quite so central since the ferry links with Norway, Iceland and the Faroes were severed.

 

[ColinJ]

Always felt they were quite central myself, although I would have to admit not quite so central since the ferry links with Norway, Iceland and the Faroes were severed.

Well, it's like Londoners thinking Birmingham is 'the north'! I think of Yorkshire as being northish for England and a bit south of the middle of the UK.

 

[Globalti]

Just cycle with your mouth open and get some extra and free nutrition!


Oh yes, and they look at us as though we are mad when we say that the Mountains are dangerous, because they regularly visit the Alps. Yet again it is down to our mountains being small in comparison.

Midges aren't a problem if you keep moving!

On Scottish mountains, I think it was the famously bluff climber Don Whillans who, when asked by a French journalist how he liked the Alps, retorted "Not bad, they're good practice for Scotland in winter"!

 

[meenaghman]

Northern Ireland.. E coast you have choice of Mournes or Antrim glens/coast rd routes. Mid ulster plenty of nice challenging routes around the sperrins and up and down the drumlins of S Armagh and into Monaghan and Cavan. Fermanagh lakelands (with surprising amount of hills.. quite easy to do 70miles with >1500M of climb. Some great cycling routes out of Derry also. Car traffic not as bad as other places in the UK even in the busy periods. With all these places a little local knowledge helps.
Plenty of Sportives in Ireland over the year - do a search on calendar on www.cyclingireland.ie and download. Not a huge audax scene here. Bike touring does seem to have grown in the last year. Saw many more people touring last year than previous years. In the Republic cat 3/4 events don't have any limit on numbers as far as I know so one can just turn up (Cycling ireland is all Ireland organisation). In the North there are stricter limits. but.. there is protected status for road closures when events are held on the roads (and with a strong motor sport lobby for rallying and motorbike racing to complement cycling in ensuring that piece of legislation remains in place). Road surfaces have taken a pounding from the frost. They'll be jetpatched rather than resurfaced. Winds are more a problem especially toward the coast.. I met up with some Belgians touring on a blustery day who said it was more like Belgium than Belgium. But for those with an artistic bent, its the changing light which is so spectacular, and the fact that after a shower cleans the air and the sun comes out you can see for miles.

 

[ColinJ]

Midges aren't a problem if you keep moving!

This is what I'd end up like if I stopped moving in midge season!

 

[Globalti]

Ey oop ColinJ, I'll warrant that a couple of those lovely photos weren't taken in Lancashire but in West Yorkshire, though I won't tell anybody. I was with you when you took the meandering walls shot, if you remember. Think I'll save that one, if you don't mind?!

Edit: just tried and it's disappointingly small. I have PMd you.

Generally the rural parts of Lancashire are pretty deserted with little traffic. The suburban parts however, around the Burnley - Blackburn - Bury - Bolton area are fascinating for their industrial landscapes but also suffer from being near the conurbation with its resident thieving, cyclist abusing chavs. I seldom venture south of the M65 corridor on my road bike though there's some great MTBing in the West Pennines and Rossendale valley.

 

[ColinJ]

Ey oop ColinJ, I'll warrant that a couple of those lovely photos weren't taken in Lancashire but in West Yorkshire, though I won't tell anybody. I was with you when you took the meandering walls shot, if you remember. Think I'll save that one, if you don't mind?!

Edit: just tried and it's disappointingly small. I have PMd you.

Yes, quite a few were taken 'this side of the border'. I was just trying to emphasise that the countryside both north and south of Nelson, Burnley (etc.) is rather appealing.

I've sent you the original picture which you can crop and process to suit yourself. (I wasn't keen on the fence, sheep and saplings in the foreground so I cropped them out.). I think I adjusted the contrast, sharpness and colour slightly before cropping and shrinking the picture. If you don't have the software to do it, tell me what you want and I'll do it for you. If you'd just like the picture I posted but larger, I think I'd have to redo it because I don't tend to keep the intermediate stages. It wouldn't take me long.