Welcome to the Ridings

The three Ridings* – North, West, East – are the historic divisions of Yorkshire. My ‘ridings’ are a series of bike trips exploring England’s largest county, as defined by its traditional borders.

* There’s no South Riding, because ‘North Riding’ etc is essentially a contraction of ‘North Thirding’. The Vikings thought in threes, much as I do when entering a Wetherspoon.

This site won't be updated after February 2021. Find the new Yorkshire Ridings site (with everything that was here, and much more) at my new website e2e.bike.

River Rides 2018–2020

The mighty River Don. Not the one running 1100 miles across Russia into the Sea of Azov. The one in Yorkshire that goes past Meadowhall.

The most recent series of rides followed Yorkshire’s eight main rivers from source to mouth. The Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, Calder, Don and Derwent all flow ultimately into, or become, the Ouse not far from York. Their dales and valleys cover the county – see the map top right.

Swale: Keld to Myton   Trekking bike   28–29 Jul 2020
Ure: Garsdale to Faxfleet   Touring bike   7–8, 11 Aug 2020
Nidd: Scar House to Nun Monkton   Folding bike   2, 4 Mar 2020
Wharfe: Beckermonds to Cawood   Touring bike   20–21 Aug 2019
Aire: Malham to Airmyn   Trekking bike   9–10 Oct 2019
Calder: Cornholme to Castleford   Trekking bike   10–11 Jan 2019
Don: Dunford Bridge to Goole   Town bike   26–27 Nov 2018
Derwent: Lilla Rig to Barmby   Trekking/Touring bike   20–22 Nov 2019

Compass Rides 2017

Spurn Point, aka Spurn Head, now aka Spurn Island, Yorkshire's southeasternmost point. Or head. Or island.

In 2017 I enjoyed eight rides that each followed a compass direction from my home in York to the cyclable extremity of the historic border – see the map second-top right.

N: York to Redcar   On-road   3 Apr 2017
NE: York to Robin Hood's Bay   Off-road   31 May–1 Jun 2017
E: York to Bridlington   On-road   21 Apr 2017
SE: York to Spurn Point   Off-road   11–12 Jun 2017
S: York to Harthill   On-road   4 Apr 2017
SW: York to Saddleworth   On-road   5–6 May 2017
W: York to Dunsop Bridge   On-road   25–27 Jul 2017
NW: York to High Force   Off-road   15–17 Oct 2017

Other rides

There are also blog posts for other, one-off, bike trips to various locations. They’re listed by place, and also by date, in the menu bar at the side.

They include visits to the centre of Yorkshire, real genuine fake fairies at the bottom of the garden, home of Britain’s tallest man ever, and the house with more famous novelists than Greece or Indonesia.

Post Office Slip in Easingwold, Britain’s narrowest cyclable alley. Well, cyclable in theory. I had to fold my folding bike up to get through it.