OT (sort of) traffic around London

suzyb

There are a couple of bikes on ebay that would be suitable for me but they are all the way down around London. The furthest of the two is in the Sevenoaks which google says is a 7hr journey. But I'm guessing it wont be by the time you get through all the traffic.

Can anyone give me a better idea of how long it would take to get down the M1/M25. I always picture the motorways around London as having one big long tailback.

prj45

It really rather depends.

A journey up the M1 from London to parents in law can take between 25 mins and two hours.

It's more about what time of day/which day you do it, but the motorways certainly aren't always chocca.

Avoid rushhour I figure.

bigmat

Balham (S W London) to Yorkshire can take between 4 and 7 hours, depending on time of day. London traffic can be a killer, although you'd probably be going round the M25.

always_tyred

suzyb wrote:

There are a couple of bikes on ebay that would be suitable for me but they are all the way down around London. The furthest of the two is in the Sevenoaks which google says is a 7hr journey. But I'm guessing it wont be by the time you get through all the traffic.

Can anyone give me a better idea of how long it would take to get down the M1/M25. I always picture the motorways around London as having one big long tailback.

Go down on a Sunday. I guess around 8 hours each way. If you are driving, that's addiing about £80 minimum to the cost of the bike, isn't it?

The east is slower, but less risky. I've done the trip a few times and come to value avoiding the M6. If you are coming from Lanarkshire (I'm assuming, based on your earlier post) cutting across to the A1 Scotch corner on the A66 is a nice interlude.

Plus, you'll be able to come clockwise around the M25, rather than the anti-clockwise M40/M4/M3/Heathrow nightmare. No doubt there will be clever d!cks who will now post about all of the traffic jams on the NE part of the M25. There are no good parts of it, but I think the clockwise option from the M1 is less bad.

All that said, if you have actually bought a bike from Kent, it might not be unreasonable to ask someone to meet you at Watford Gap or somewhere like that.

lost_in_thought

Well, I drive from Ealing (west London) to north Essex and back every week, and have done for 2 years.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I've actually been stopped for more than 5 minutes on the M25, clockwise or anticlockwise, between the M1 and the M11. I can only presume it's a good bit!

Avoid being on the m-ways between 0800 and 0900/1600 and 1900 on weekdays, it'll just take longer in that gap.

Oh and put '1740' into your phone, and listen to the traffic reports. I don't tend to re-route unless the advertised delay is over 20 minutes.

Mr_Cellophane

The M25 was one very slow moving queue yesterday from the crossing past the A127. It depends on loads of factors whether you hit traffic of not. There are plenty of opportunities to miss out bits if you get stuck. Take a good map, but consider the extra cost of your fuel and wear on the car, it is a long way to go for something which doesn't suit in the end.

Clever Pun

The east side of the M25 is pretty easy going, but it backs up a little getting across the river with the toll

suzyb

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

The M25 was one very slow moving queue yesterday from the crossing past the A127. It depends on loads of factors whether you hit traffic of not. There are plenty of opportunities to miss out bits if you get stuck. Take a good map, but consider the extra cost of your fuel and wear on the car, it is a long way to go for something which doesn't suit in the end.

I know but in the two or 3 months I've been keeping an eye on ebay there has been one bike small enough for me even remotely close. And I'd be worried at getting the bike delivered.

I've set myself a budget which includes the bike + delivery or collection. So if I'm going to pick it up it means a lower max bid.

Wallace1492

suzyb wrote:

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

The M25 was one very slow moving queue yesterday from the crossing past the A127. It depends on loads of factors whether you hit traffic of not. There are plenty of opportunities to miss out bits if you get stuck. Take a good map, but consider the extra cost of your fuel and wear on the car, it is a long way to go for something which doesn't suit in the end.

I know but in the two or 3 months I've been keeping an eye on ebay there has been one bike small enough for me even remotely close. And I'd be worried at getting the bike delivered.

I've set myself a budget which includes the bike + delivery or collection. So if I'm going to pick it up it means a lower max bid.

I would not worry about getting it delivered. The seller should get that sorted so that it arrives in the condition that it left. Would be much cheaper getting it delivered.

CiB

Try one of those companies that pairs up empty delivery vehicles returning to base with loads needing to be delivered. There are a couple that are well known (but not well known enough for me to remember what they're called obviously), but the gist of it is that there too many vans & trucks returning from a drop with nothing on board, so it makes sense to use that spare capacity.

Here's one that I just googled - http://www.freighttender.com/ - there's bound to be someone who knows a better option, or better still knows the well-known web site that kicked this all off and was all over the news for doing so.

suzyb

I won the auction but I'm now thinking of making a weekend of picking up the bike. Mother wants to go to London for a long weekend so I thought I could do that then pick the bike up on the way back.

Of course that would mean having to drive in London and even worse, find a parking space :shock:

CiB

Weekend parking in town is a no-brainer. Look for an NCP car park and you'll find it's something around £6 for 24 hours at the weekends. We've used one in The City, and also at the one up near The Tower. Just make sure you don't stretch into the next parking period - typically beyond 7pm on Sunday evening - or you'll get fleeced. Don't forget there's no congestion charge either over the weekend. A lot of people miss that one.

suzyb

Oooooh

* runs off to look at hotels *

CiB

suzyb wrote:

Oooooh

* runs off to look at hotels *

Have a look for Travelodge / Premier Inn deals if you just want somewhere to kip for the night. We've done a family of 4 with full buffet breakfast (fill yer boots time) for £30 in central London before now. 6 quid parking + a tenner's worth of diesel from here and it's the way to go if you just want to start the day in London, rather than spend half of it getting there. Rooms often start from about £19, if you're quick.

RedGT

suzyb wrote:

There are a couple of bikes on ebay that would be suitable for me but they are all the way down around London. The furthest of the two is in the Sevenoaks which google says is a 7hr journey

From where? Now if it was saying 7 hours from Watford, that would be a very conservative estimate, but if you talking from Blackpool then that sounds about right.

If your talking the M25 then that depends on time of day and whether you chose
to go clockwise or counter clockwise.

deptfordmarmoset

I agree with what Always Tyred said - go for the A1, aim for the M11 and take the M25 clockwise if you're going direct to Sevenoaks. The M25 is busy but - provided nobody drives into the central reservation some way ahead of you - it usually flows.

RedGT

RedGT wrote:

suzyb wrote:

There are a couple of bikes on ebay that would be suitable for me but they are all the way down around London. The furthest of the two is in the Sevenoaks which google says is a 7hr journey

From where? Now if it was saying 7 hours from Watford, that would be a very conservative estimate, but if you talking from Blackpool then that sounds about right.

If your talking the M25 then that depends on time of day and whether you chose
to go clockwise or counter clockwise.

Oh yeah! South Lanarkshire. :oops:

andy83

I personally would just arrange your own courier to collect the bike, should be able to get it £30 and saves you hassle and stress of long drive

RedGT

andy83 wrote:

I personally would just arrange your own courier to collect the bike, should be able to get it £30 and saves you hassle and stress of long drive

£30? Add another zero if it's same day courier.

suzyb

It wasn't really the courier I don't trust but the seller to package the bike well enough to avoid damage.

Anyway Mother and I are taking advantage and going to London for a couple of days. Assuming we can get there, I've just seen the weather forecast

PBo

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

I agree with what Always Tyred said - go for the A1, aim for the M11 and take the M25 clockwise if you're going direct to Sevenoaks. The M25 is busy but - provided nobody drives into the central reservation some way ahead of you - it usually flows.

+1

OT - nice avatar RedGT. my 4 year old son listens to it with me! we recorded "minimum-maximum" on bbc4 last year, and he kept pestering to watch that too!!!