The 'I don't commute in London' thread

Headhuunter

Bobbygloss wrote:

-spider- wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

roddixon wrote:

I'll put the first bid for the furthest from London prize:

Ahrensburg to central Hamburg; 576 miles from London town via Calais!

Still rubbish city commute though

Hmm - it's a VERY close call - Culbokie is 571 miles from London and no passport needed (at least for now). Probably find if we were talking the East End of London, I'd be further away!

I have a fab commute too despite actually working in a city (albeit probably the newest and smallest city in the UK - EDIT - to say I'm wrong on both counts :oops: )

I'm at the other end of Culbokie so can add about a mile on to the 571. Used to do Culbokie to Inverness too but now working (mostly) from Dingwall. Much shorter commute but equally pleasant (via Conon Bridge not the Cromarty Bridge) there is also, sadly, less hills.

I must be in the lead on this one (at least until NickLouse posts).
Not sure of the direct distance, but Google maps suggests 1800km to drive here.
I start on an island north of Stavanger, bridge to another island, bridge to another island, bridge to the mainland, then through the town and either MTB through a wood or road bike over Ullandhaug hill to reach work.

there's a guy on here who commutes around Hong Kong (Pottsteve?), so he blows you all out of the water...

clarkey cat

if you are riding to work and its not in London then you dont deserve to call it commuting - its just riding to work.

Kieran_Burns

clarkey cat wrote:

if you are riding to work and its not in London then you dont deserve to call it commuting - its just riding to work.

Transparent jealousy :P

clarkey cat

This was last night:

clarkey cat

That's me at the front.

rhext

Kieran_Burns wrote:

rhext wrote:

Belper (World Heritage Site) just North of Derby to factory site just south of Derby. Route can be quite unremarkable (busy A roads), but usually involves slight detours to take in traffic-free route along the River Derwent, plus diversion up the sides of the Derwent Valley into picture-postcard country. Can even manage a mile or so of reasonably good rural single-track if I'm in a MTB mood.

They don't know what hills are in London!

One of my work mates lives in Belper and I kept trying to convince him to cycle in to work when we were based in Derby. He never did as he seemed to think only the A6 was available.

Mind you there was one guy who worked for the Council who cycled 19 miles down the A6 every day (from Matlock) 'cos he liked the view and excitement!

Personally given the choice of having my balls flayed by red hot razor wire or cycle down the A6 like that - it'd be "hello high-pitched voice" for me!

I do the A6 most days and to be honest it's not that bad: I never feel threatened and it's actually quite scenic in places. But there are options: up through Holbrook and down into Little Eaton then traffic-free into the city. Up and over Firestone Hill and then back roads down through Quarndon. No options that don't involve hills though!

cje

I commute from Newcastle to somewhere else in Newcastle. And then back home for t'bread and dripping.

jimmypippa

I do the A6 into Stockport from the Peaks

Lots of quarry lorries

Jay dubbleU

Wallace1492 wrote:

Another beautiful day up here in sunny Glasgow, birds are singing, sky is blue.
Meanwhile in the City of London, the market goes into meltdown, brining the country to it's knees (once again).

Yes, its good to be far from the maddening crowd.

Pedant note: Hardy - Far from the madding crowd - sorry just one of those misquotes that irritates the hell out of me - nothing personal

Kieran_Burns

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

Another beautiful day up here in sunny Glasgow, birds are singing, sky is blue.
Meanwhile in the City of London, the market goes into meltdown, brining the country to it's knees (once again).

Yes, its good to be far from the maddening crowd.

Pedant note: Hardy - Far from the madding crowd - sorry just one of those misquotes that irritates the hell out of me - nothing personal

madding isn't it?

Jay dubbleU

I commute through Swindon - you try the Magic Roundabout on a collapsing bike - I laugh in the face of danger 8)

Too old for this

I do Rugeley to Lichfield into work at night and the reverse back home in a morning, very peaceful, very nice.

Kieran_Burns

Do you do the main road route or loop through Armitage? I think I'd do the latter just for the scenery (and the fact that it is as flat as a pancake!)

Too old for this

Main road on the way in but usually go back through Armitage after a 9hour shift i'm usually a bit knackered and the hill up eastern Avenue doesn't do it for me then.

Jason82

I commute from woking to chertsey and guildford in surrey darling . No I am not rich or posh.

First.Aspect

willy b wrote:

I used to commute in Nottingham, but now work, live and commute in London. Much more fun

London just has a "buzz" and I suspect that many people who have a dislike to it have never lived/worked/commuted through it from a period of time.

Whereas others made a conscious decision to escape, at great financial cost, but to the betterment of quality of life.

That dude in Stavanger has my vote for luckiest bar steward. Until around October that is.

mark63

I don't commute as such more of an audax, as I live in the Brecon Beacons ( that would be Wales to the geographically challenged) so it's all hills & sheep, self sufficient is the requirement out here, mobile phones aren't reliable & we have only had broadband 2 weeks now :shock: anyhow I'm off out now before it rains. :roll:

BelgianBeerGeek

Nice 9.5 miles ride to work (not commuting apparently) along lanes in south Hampshire. Occasional detour home to add a hill or pub stop.

Kieran_Burns

mark63 wrote:

I don't commute as such more of an audax, as I live in the Brecon Beacons ( that would be Wales to the geographically challenged) so it's all hills & sheep, self sufficient is the requirement out here, mobile phones aren't reliable & we have only had broadband 2 weeks now :shock: anyhow I'm off out now before it rains. :roll:

Confusedboy

mark63 wrote:

I don't commute as such more of an audax, as I live in the Brecon Beacons ( that would be Wales to the geographically challenged) so it's all hills & sheep, self sufficient is the requirement out here, mobile phones aren't reliable & we have only had broadband 2 weeks now :shock: anyhow I'm off out now before it rains. :roll:

The Beacons, where there is a proper, easily graded,signed, tarmaced cycle route (Taff Trail? I laugh at the Beacons. You want to try the real hills we have in Cardiff, butty bach. It's a man's world down 'ere....

I am in no way jealous of your scenery, great pubs, lack of traffic, and the general niceness of your home. Alright, I am really.

deffler

Im Deffler and im from nowhere near the big smoke.

my commute currently runs from just outside Durham City to Sunderland via many off road / on road combo's. Altho im about to land a job which is 5 mins walk from my house

Initialised

deffler wrote:

I'm about to land a job which is 5 mins walk from my house

Time to move then.

deptfordmarmoset

I'm in London but I'm out of work again so I don't commute. I do have a signing-on hack though. Or is signing on a form of commuting?

Mr Plum

I don't commute in London! 9.6 mile round trip through Portsmouth. Nice and flat, nice and quick - my average last week was just over 19mph for the entire week.

The Rookie

My name is Simon (as well) and I don't commute in London (what's in a name?), 6.7 miles across the finest parts of Warwickshire (North edge of Leamington to South edge of Cov - Warwick Uni). The only house lined street on my route is the street I live on.

Simon

HebdenBiker

Hebden Bridge to Bradford here - 15 miles each way. There's an easy but boring way, and a hard but pretty way. Guess which one I usually take.

gadgets

10 miles from Brum city center to the southern part of Solihul which is a straight shot on A34/Stratford Road all the way close to junction 4 of M42.

hargo

16-18 (route dependent) miles from Didsbury (South Manchester) to Birchwood (near Warrington).

Nice mix of A-road, parks, bypass with cycle lane, industrial estate, Trans-Pennine-Trail, horrible A-road, dirt track and weird industrial estate suburbs.

Takes me on a good day a shade over an hour on my hybrid, just had to upgrade my tyres to some offering better puncture protection though as I've had 3 in 3 weeks. Not much fun changing a tyre 8 miles from home!

Still, the scenery is nice down the TPT and the bits through the park are quite nice but there's little in the way of other commuters to race against until you get to Altrincham or the edges of Northenden/Wythenshawe.

CycleOfViolence

HebdenBiker wrote:

Hebden Bridge to Bradford here - 15 miles each way. There's an easy but boring way, and a hard but pretty way. Guess which one I usually take.

Hebden Bridge, you aren't a Trades Club type are you ?

Aerozine50

My regular commute is from the North of Hertfordshire down to Stevenage where I work in the "Da - Fence - Idustry" Boo Yaka!!!

It's nice here as our concrete monstrosity of a new town was built with us cyclists in mind.

Keeps us away from most of the traffic most of the time.

Lovelly!!!

Paul