Living In London Affect Your Cycling?

drewfromrisca

Hi guys, this is probably aimed more at the people in London than anything else so do any of you find living here affects your riding?

I can think of a handful of times I've been out this year (although injury and working hours don't help) and everytime I get the urge to go for a ride I just get reminded of the pain in the a$$ it is to get to a good area to ride.

It takes ages to get to Surrey Hills and enjoy relatively traffic free roads and hills and even going to Richmond Park has become a bit of a chore as I'm finding more and more traffic is in the park these days along with the 20mph speed limit which slows up progress considerably.

Am I being a knob and just need to deal with it? Or do I have a point? Or am I just a plain old whinger!?!?

redddraggon

drewfromrisca wrote:

Am I being a knob and just need to deal with it? Or do I have a point? Or am I just a plain old whinger!?!?

You're Welsh and just used to better places to live and ride in?

I can't say I'd be very enthusiastic about living in London either.

Anonymous

Nope, people living in London does not affect me in Kent at all. Hope this helps. 8)

drewfromrisca

redddraggon your right, especially when I had Cwmcarn MTB track on my doorstep and a host of great roads to ride on.
I told the wife yesterday that I'm fed up of living here full stop so it's two options - move out of city (which is why I asked about Farnham) or move back to California where she's from. At moment option 2 is out as it's so expensive and we only have one wage at moment so she's currently in t'internet scouring the job sites.

Right now I'm itching to get out with the wind on my face and ride but only have a limited time so it'll be Richmond Park. By time I get there after dodging traffic and stuck in red lights, then ride around at a ridiculously slow pace it'll be time to come home after one lap!

dmclite - thanks for your help, you just got to keep avoiding those pikeys

Anonymous

I know, poor old pikeys, makes you feel better about yourself, especially as I grew up in a council estate outside Glasgow and left as soon as I was 16. I love Kent, good equity too.

NWLondoner

What you complaining about. Richmond Park is on your doorstep I have a trek and half to get over to RP. An almost 2 hour round trip.


Although I do know wheat you mean. There was a time I would relish riding through the London traffic, now I damn well hate it. The sooner I get to Richmond Park the sooner a smile appears on my face That is until the Dynamo chain gangs whizz past me up Sawyers Hill and that really takes the p*ss :oops: :shock: :roll:

gbs

drewfromrisca wrote:

It takes ages to get to Surrey Hills and enjoy relatively traffic free roads and hills and even going to Richmond Park has become a bit of a chore a
Am I being a knob and just need to deal with it? Or do I have a point? Or am I just a plain old whinger!?!?

My advice would be

Hammersmith to Clapham Jnctn or Wimbledon BR, 25 mins and take the train to Effingham Junction

Hammersmith to RP, 20 mins - surely a limited time to gain access to such a place

Look on the sunny side - otherwise you will never fit in with the Californians. BTW I spent 2 happy yrs in Santa Monica.

Rich-Ti

You need to ride with others mate, it makes SUCH a difference.

I was in the same boat as you, practically bored to tears of RP after only a couple of months of riding it. A few of us who were in a similar boat came together around October time last year and started riding the Surrey Hills on a weekly basis - there's hardly been a week gone by where at least some if not all of us haven't ridden together since. We've done sportives together, meet up for beers and are off to Italy to watch the Lombardia in October too.

On the back of this a lot of us have also now joined clubs, and various different London clubs at that (Wheelers, Dynamo, Paragon etc.). Part of the reason this came together was that we all felt we didn't really want to join a club at the time but still wanted to ride in groups, learn new routes, meet new people etc - all the stuff that you can and will do through joining a club.

There's even been a few of us start racing on the back of this!

Seriously mate, come along - I'm up for a ride on Monday and there might be a couple of others who tag along. Otherwise on Tues / Wed I'll post up about next weekend's ride plans so keep an eye out for that. Always good to see a new face out and you'd be more than welcome 8)

drewfromrisca

Well I MTFU'd today and went for a short 2hr ride round the park. It was pretty busy but felt ok although being injury riddled for 20 months didn't help

It went without incident until a fellow cyclist decided to forget to give way at a roundabout and pull right out in front of me causing a nice 2 wheel skid by myself and a lucky regain of balance! :shock: Best think was when I pointed this out he was oblivious to it and offered no apology, people these day's

Hard lesson learned to self today - get up early and hit the park...that's what I'll be doing tomorrow morning.

Monty Dog

Drew, if you move to Farnham, you'll be no more than 10 minutes from open countryside. I used to work in Roehampton and trained in Richmond Park at lunchtimes - 20 years ago you'd be lucky to see another bike! I popped by last year on a Saturday morning for some in-line speed skate training and couldn't believe the number of riders and the bad riding! Didn't look like any type of fun for me.

drewfromrisca

Yeah it's not Monty. I'll be def doing it earlier from now on. While I like the fact that more people are riding it is scary the amount of people who have no road sense when riding their bikes. People just stopping in middle of road causing other road users to abruptly swerve around them, very very young kids riding behind their parents wobbling all over the place etc etc. Like I said, I'm all for more people riding their bikes but they have to be a bit more aware and responsible.

I think I'll be pushing this Farnham move on the missus a bit more later

squired

I was finding that commuting into London during the week meant I didn't have the desire to cycle on weekends as well (plus I needed some rest). When I was made redundant I realised that the ride into London had killed my acceleration/top speed. It had also somewhat killed the joy I used to have cycling.

I now have a job that takes me on country roads, with less traffic and hardly any traffic lights. I actually enjoy cycling again and even feel like going out as well on the weekend. I am also getting some speed up again.

For me, only riding in London is something I never want to have to do again.

Inovache

NWLondoner wrote:

What you complaining about. Richmond Park is on your doorstep I have a trek and half to get over to RP. An almost 2 hour round trip./quote]


NWLondoner, why on earth would you want to go from Colindale to Richmond Park when you have the lanes of Hertfordshire on your doorstep?!

drewfromrisca

NWLondoner, I was thinking that too? Where do you ususally ride?

cock_sportif

Yup - just moved to Islington, which puts me about an hour from anything resembling good riding country. Currently exploring the roads out to and around epping, but still a schlep - (going though Walthamstow, ugh!)

drewfromrisca

(going though Walthamstow, ugh!)[/quote]

Good Luck in bandit country

Porgy

cock_sportif wrote:

Yup - just moved to Islington, which puts me about an hour from anything resembling good riding country. Currently exploring the roads out to and around epping, but still a schlep - (going though Walthamstow, ugh!)

You should be able to hop on the Central Line from around Leyton - once the tunnel section is cleared - as long as it isn't midweek rush hour -

On the Underground, bicycles are completely banned between 07.30 and 09.30 and 16.00 to 19.00 Monday to Friday.

Outside these peak hours, bicycles are permitted anywhere on the surface or near-surface lines:
Bicycles are ...permitted on surface sections of the following deep tube lines outside the central London area:
•Central Line White City - West Ruislip or Ealing Broadway . Leyton - Epping . Woodford - Hainault

cock_sportif

Good idea, thanks - seems a shame to have to resort to 'mixed mode', though.

Porgy

cock_sportif wrote:

Good idea, thanks - seems a shame to have to resort to 'mixed mode', though.

True - but the way i look at it - the more time i get to cycle somewhere nice the better. I used the train from Gravesend to Bexleyheath yesterday to give me and extra hour cycling round Kent. 8)

NWLondoner

drewfromrisca wrote:

NWLondoner, I was thinking that too? Where do you ususally ride?

I usually cut through Cricklewood,Willesden Green, Scrubs Lane, Wood Lane then over Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith (one way system) then over the bridge down to RP.

To be honest not too fond of riding in north of the London Border, strange I know :?

Mad I know but i do like enjoy RP as i can push myself without worrying too much about traffic.

Plus should the worst happen and have an injury/accident/mechanical I can at least get home relatively easier than if the same happened in the lanes of Herts.

I have also met up at RP and gone on a few RPCC rides as well. Again the route into Surrey i prefer.

ColinJ

Nope - you living in London has had no effect on my cycling whatsoever. I still have to do battle with the traffic up here, mind...

cock_sportif

Looks awful

NWLondoner

I agree it looks awful. Look at all that rush hour traffic in the last photo

DavidBelcher

Porgy wrote:

You should be able to hop on the Central Line from around Leyton - once the tunnel section is cleared - as long as it isn't midweek rush hour -

On the Underground, bicycles are completely banned between 07.30 and 09.30 and 16.00 to 19.00 Monday to Friday.

Outside these peak hours, bicycles are permitted anywhere on the surface or near-surface lines

A further point to add to this, you can actually take bikes on the stretch north of Queen's Park on the Bakerloo in peak hours, but only against the direction of the main traffic flow (i.e. OK towards Harrow in the morning, OK towards Queen's Park in the afternoon).

See also;

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11701.aspx

Back to the original post - being on the west side of London, it might also be worth considering heading out to the Chilterns. Easily doable outside of the peaks, H&C line to Baker Street, then round the corner to Marylebone for a main line service out into Bucks.

David

Rich-Ti

For anyone who took note of the RPCC link I posted, here's the link to this week's thread: http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12647339 8)

Le Commentateur

West of Central London (Hammersmith, Kilburn etc) is still a long ride from the edge of town. Can't beat SE London, IMO.

always_tyred

drewfromrisca wrote:

I told the wife yesterday that I'm fed up of living here full stop so it's two options - move out of city (which is why I asked about Farnham) or move back to California where she's from. At moment option 2 is out as it's so expensive and we only have one wage at moment so she's currently in t'internet scouring the job sites.

Sympathies. I had a similar experience living back in the south east. I lasted precisely 12 months and moved to Scotland!!

California is about the size of the UK, so it would depend entirely on where you ended up. I have been sorely tempted to try to o back to N. America, but a couple of things put me off -

1) 10 days' annual leave; no point living in paradise if you can't use it.
2) the cities are very spread out. There are some fantastic roads " near" nice cities in CA (at least the northern/middle mit near Pebble Beach where we used to have a conference) but if you have to work in a city, you may find yourself about as close to the nice roads as you are now!

Mind you, neither of these are unsurmountable......

drewfromrisca

Hi Always Tyred, she's from San Fran and I've already ridden some roads out there. We are looking at re-locating to Sausalito and the roads there in Marin County are great. Also Santa Rosa is nearby so I can always go join Leipheimer on a training ride
Her folks live in the wine country so it's nice riding there as well.

I've been looking into the train scenario a bit more and I live right next door to Ravenscourt Park tube so I can jump on tube to Ealing Broadway to overground then head out to Twyford/Goring and explore more around there. I've ridden there whilst at injury rehab centre with work and it's a nice area only hour (ish) away.

Rich-Ti - I'm planning on getting out with the RPCC rides, I did one way back in April but due to just getting back into proper riding I struggled badly. I'm a little fitter now so hopefully I can keep up!

prawny

I'd love to live in california, me and the mrs looked into emigrating a couple of years ago, but neither of us has any family or friends over there and now we've got kids so it looks like it aint gonna happen

n1_pete

First time poster long time lurker


The only way I can enjoy London riding is getting out at sunrise. Try to start as soon as enough light to be visible to drivers still half asleep. If I do this I can be out of islington, up holloway road, through muswell hill and out into semi rural Epping in 30 mins without worrying about the traffic. But I avoid evenings now as the pollution and traffic pi$$ me right off. Being a Yorkshire lad I still hanker after those long rides in the dales. So OP you are a whinger, but you're definitely not alone.

drewfromrisca

Nice idea but unfortunately I'm in work for 7am!!! I do try get up at 5am then go for quick ride which I guess is better than nothing but is tiring after doing for few days with 10hour shits on top.