moving to the UK, but where??

weldingfellow

hi, i'm considering moving to the uk from canada, can anyone make a suggestion as to where is the best place to cycle and also keeping in mind the need to work. i'm a welder/fabricator if it makes a difference.. i've been up to the yorkshire dales area, very nice, no work though, what about down south, bristol? devon? surrey?

thanks

Roberto badgio

I dunno about work - but lincolnshire is a pretty good place to live - the houses are cheap - in fact most things are cheaper - alot of the county is flat, there are hills - the wolds area (haven't really gone there yet - so can't tell you about them - only been into cycling the last year. I love it for cycling. but then again, it's not everyone's cup of tea - the pace of life is really slow here - I love it. very rural place. about 160 miles from london in lincoln.

gelyk

I'm an Australian living in Sheffield and have just gotten back into cycling. It's close to the peak district which has some fantastic cycling and plenty of people to train with. And depending on what you do you should be able to get work.

gelyk

Missed the welding bit. Sheffield has always been well known for its steel industry and whilst the industry has been scaled back quite a bit since the 80's there is still welding jobs and the like to be had.

beltabout

Yorkshire is the place loads of work and all of those hills on your door step. Great public transport for bikes into the peaks and N York moors and like a prvious post said the Wolds for those lazy days when the miles are more important than a polka dot jersey.
http://www.yorkshirevisitor.com/
http://www.yorkshire-forward.com/view.asp?id=2353&pw=

Cheers
Nick

bobbingjim

i live in dorset myself which is next to devon, i live in a place called weymouth and it is not great for riding but there is lots of other good places to ride in dorset.ther is a place called puddletown forest which is quite good for a few downhill trails and abit of sigle track. i hope this has narowed your search down abit

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DiRt JuMp RuLeS!!!

Ironfist

Generally the further north you are the nicer the cycling and the cheaper the living expenses, but the less work there is. However, I would suspect that there is plenty of work for welder/fabricators in any of the major cities, so how about finding somewher to live just outside of say Sheffield, and you'll be able to commute inon your bike but also be on the doorstep of some great cycling in th Peak District.

20" is king

This is true, but also the colder/wetter it is ( not that you care cos your from Kanadia ).
Bristol is a southern city, that is a great location for getting to a huge range of different types of environment, its fairly central, with great transport to everywhere else. Also its very cycle friendly, being on several major cycle routes.

Good luck with the move!

Pidea

My vote would have to be for South-East Wales. Living and working as I do close to Abergavenny in the Brecon Beacons National Park I'm spoiled for choice whether it's off-road riding or on-road.

Communication links to Cardiff, Bristol and the rest of the UK are good. The cost of living is slightly lower than the rest of the UK and, because South Wales was the cradle of the industrial revolution, there's still a reasonable amount of heavy industry around (although not as much as there used to be).

Wales has some of the best mountain biking in the UK with seven man-made trail centres spread through-out the country. Reviews, write-ups and some helmet-cam videos of the Welsh trails can be found here:

MTB-Wales.com

We've got some excellent bike shops too including my local bike shop (BikeBase in Abergavenny) who have a number of free downloadable route maps on their site for this part of the world so you can see the quality of the riding that we have here:

BikeBase route maps

There's also another free MTB route in the Brecon Beacons National Park here too:

Route-Source.com

As well as info on mountain biking within the National Park here:

MTB Brecon Beacons

If you're not into MTB too much there are plenty of very active road racing and touring clubs in the area.

Hope this help !

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Pidea

My vote would have to be for South-East Wales. Living and working as I do close to Abergavenny in the Brecon Beacons National Park I'm spoiled for choice whether it's off-road riding or on-road.

Communication links to Cardiff, Bristol and the rest of the UK are good. The cost of living is slightly lower than the rest of the UK and, because South Wales was the cradle of the industrial revolution, there's still a reasonable amount of heavy industry around (although not as much as there used to be).

Wales has some of the best mountain biking in the UK with seven man-made trail centres spread through-out the country. Reviews, write-ups and some helmet-cam videos of the Welsh trails can be found here:

MTB-Wales.com

We've got some excellent bike shops too including my local bike shop (BikeBase in Abergavenny) who have a number of free downloadable route maps on their site for this part of the world so you can see the quality of the riding that we have here:

BikeBase route maps

There's also another free MTB route in the Brecon Beacons National Park here too:

Route-Source.com

As well as info on mountain biking within the National Park here:

MTB Brecon Beacons

If you're not into MTB too much there are plenty of very active road racing and touring clubs in the area.

Hope this help !

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http://shopping.outdoor-equipment-review.com

Always Tyred

Dude, don't do it. I lived in Vancouver and moved back a couple of years ago. Comparatively, the UK is high tax and cost of living is expensive. Very densely populated too. Property is comparable to Vancouver itself, even up in Edinburgh where I am - which is a fraction of the price of London. The road manners here for cycling here are fearsome by comparison. There also aren't the expanses of regional parks close to cities like Canada either. If you are in the know you can carve out a facimile of your life there (am trying at least) but it aint' easy.

If you are thinking UK because its all year round cycling, you probably have better options out west or south.

If you MUST do it, try parts of the UK with significant shipping/naval links. Up here, there's the Clyde and Rosyth shipyards. If you like warmer/wetter, there's the naval dockyards in Plymouth - shitty city but right next to great coastline and Dartmoor, so good outdoors opportunities by UK standards.

Avoid the south east at all costs. Flat, crowded, agressive, rude. I grew up there.

ianhargreaves

You forgot to mention if you're a rodie or mounty. Assuming you're a rodie then peak district is good. As it's name suggests it's hilly, glossop is like 35mins by train from Manchester by only like 10 mins from the peak district. I've only rode there a few times mind. I can also recommend cheshire, flat rodie heavan and Lancashire where I ride just north of Manchester is v.hilly and contains Cragg Vale... the longest gradient climb in the country. it's a fairly big city, big enough to find work easy but it's not so big so you can cycle to the real green countryside within like just 30 mins from where ever you live.

Halcyon1

A lot of Aussie industry is crying out for welders - have you thought of DownUnder.
Year round cycling and the cost of living is lower...don't know about the wages though.
Halcyon1

yukiko

North East is a nice enough place if you keep out of the big towns. Should get work as a welder easy enough and some excellent cycling both on and off road. Given a choice, though, I'd head down under. Preferably New Zealand. Easy to get work and a much better quality of life. Do yourself a big favour and get yourself there. I guarantee you will not regret it.