Riding into London from Surrey/Sussex

njee20

Reposted from Commuting General forum on the advice of Kelsen, although ta for the advice in there...

Morning all, apologies I couldn't see a 'routes' section, please move if appropriate. I tend to reside in the MTB fora.

About to start a new job spending a significant amount of time in London, and to offset the exorbitant travel costs I'm planning to cycle in a couple of days a week. I live in deepest West Sussex, so it'll likely be a half drive/half cycle commute most of the time. Welcome any route suggestions though...

The obvious places to start are anywhere in the 'arc' from Guildford round to Dorking, need to end up near Monument tube. I've had a few suggestions on routes, but would welcome anyone's thoughts on here. Even better... does anyone has a GPX of a route they use I can try?

Had originally thought of going from Dorking through Epsom, Cheam, and then using the Cycle Superhighway from Merton into the City, but people have said they're a bit mental with all the cyclists. It's been suggested that Guildford/Cobham/Richmond Park and along the river would be better, but certainly if I do go via the river it looks to be a lot further.

Will be on a road bike, happy to add small detours to avoid busy roads, but don't want to add miles and miles unnecessarily. Don't want to drive to anywhere inside the M25, rather ride further than drive further! Any thoughts...!?

asprilla

The superhighways are busy, but that's mainly because they are quick.

There are a lot of folks that come in from Surrey va Kingston and Richmond Park and then tend to either go up the A3 (I think there is a cycle track) and then take CS8 to Westminster. The rest of us exit the park into Putney and take New Kings Road to the Embankment joining CS8 at Chelsea Bridge.

There are also loads of folks who come in on CS7, including a mate of mine who comes from Dorking every day. Seems quite happy with it.

njee20

Excellent, cheers. Was planning to ride up there on Saturday so I don't get lost when I'm meant to be at work, probably ride up via Richmond Park and back via Dorking.

sketchley

I'd go a bit further west, Kingston, Thames Ditton, Sunbury, Hampton Court, Walton, or even a bit further out if you wish and then go through Richmond Park > Putney Bridge > New Kings Road > Embankment much better riding than the through town / up the CS7. The park is really nice particularly in the dark in winter and if you want a longer ride just do some laps.

njee20

It's potentially a 43 mile ride each way anyway if I do door to door, laps will not be required :-)

rjsterry

Some relatively quiet roads can get you from Dorking to Chipstead, and thence to Wallington, Hackbridge, Mitcham, Figges Marsh, Amen Corner, then either on to CS7 at Tooting Broadway, or turn off towards Tooting Bec Common and Bedford Hill, before briefly picking up CS7 again, then turning off towards Battersea Bridge and the Embankment all the way to London Bridge/Monument. CS7 is quicker, but not quite as enjoyable as the Embankment.

davis

I'm slap bang in the middle of Sussex, the last time I was doing anything London-ish (KCL) I drove to Caterham and rode from there. Wasn't too hard, and it was fun being the fastest thing on the road (I was arriving into KCL around 10am, so no SCR action as far as I could tell).

njee20

I suspect I'm further East than you David (Billingshurst) as Caterham would be quite a drive for me.

Some good suggestions though, suspect I'll just have to play tunes on it to see what works best!

davis

njee20 wrote:

I suspect I'm further East than you David (Billingshurst) as Caterham would be quite a drive for me.

Ride about 5 miles South. See that cyclist over there? That's me, that is.

*wave

njee20

**waves back**

Interested you chose to drive that far to the north-east, I was certainly planning to ride from outside the M25!

davis

njee20 wrote:

**waves back**

Interested you chose to drive that far to the north-east, I was certainly planning to ride from outside the M25!

Had a buddy who lived in Caterham, so I could park at his house, plus I just plain don't fancy getting out of bed any earlier than strictly necessary, so a longer drive and a slightly shorter ride was fine by me :-)

njee20

Fair enough! I was thinking I'd have to park in different places to avoid upsetting people!

danseur

Train tickets become significantly less expensive if you are within the zone 6 boundary. Cycling in London is much less pleasant than in Sussex/Surrey and with the traffic and lights relatively slow.

A slightly different idea if you are looking to cycle part of the way would be to cycle to Coulsdon South train station (or any other station just inside zone 6) and then jump on the train. You would have to leave your bike at the station if you were travelling in rush hour.

joelsim

danseur wrote:

Train tickets become significantly less expensive if you are within the zone 6 boundary. Cycling in London is much less pleasant than in Sussex/Surrey and with the traffic and lights relatively slow.

A slightly different idea if you are looking to cycle part of the way would be to cycle to Coulsdon South train station (or any other station just inside zone 6) and then jump on the train. You would have to leave your bike at the station if you were travelling in rush hour.

I don't agree. The 4 or so mile schlep between Cobham and Esher is really tedious to me, RP is ok but a bit tedious sometimes, but the roady bits with loads of cars I really enjoy. I feel far more alert and full of concentration. Loads more riders too so there's that bit of unsaid competition too!

If I was the OP I would not even attempt 43 miles per day. The costs of doing a 2 day commute because you are knackered are far more than 2/5 of a travelcard. Stick to 20 each way even less sometimes and you will not get sick of the trek. Loads of places to park in Cobham, Esher, Thames Ditton. And then you get a very varied route in which is perfectly manageable.

alansd1980

I ride in from, Banstead a few days a week which is about 5 miles inside the m25 south. I would have second thoughts about riding in from Dorking regularly. You would need to start off with a climb over the north downs which isn't great on cold legs.

You could look at parking somewhere like Epsom Downs, Walton on the Hill, Tadworth. From there the A217 to rose hill, down into mitcham, across into tooting. I like going over tooting common and up the back roads to clapham north and join CS 7 there. The back roads aren;t as quick but hardly any lights which makes it a nicer ride.

njee20

Cheers for the thoughts everyone.

Danseur, interesting thought, but leaving the bike at the station isn't really an option (doubt it'd be there when I got back!), plus I don't really want to sit on the train in riding kit, nor do I want to ride to the station in 'civvies'.

Joelsim, I certainly don't plan to do the whole 43 miles regularly, I'll try it once for a laugh, but will generally only do half of it, or potentially ride in one morning, leave the bike at work, ride home the next day etc.

Alan, I'm not too worried about Dorking, if you go up the A24 and through Leatherhead (I know the roads outside the M25!) then you can avoid any major hills, even Box isn't that much of a climb really. If I go from further west then I'd be heading over Coombe Bottom or White Down, which I'm less keen on. I'm an Expert cat XC racer, so the distance/terrain in itself isn't really a problem. I often do up to 60 miles on the way home currently anyway.

njee20

Well I tried it on Saturday! Rode up there via Shere/Cobham/Kingston/Richmond Park/Putney/Chelsea Embankment, and back via CS7/Tooting/Merton/Ewell/Epsom/Dorking etc.

The way out was far far nicer, but would be longer door to door. The route back was great on the Superhighway, but pretty crap once I got off it, up to Epsom Racecourse was a real grind with the headwind, I imagine it could be avoided though.

At 105 miles for the whole trip (admittedly I did take a longer route home from Boxhill as I had the time) I'm not sure I'll do it every day, but driving to East Horsley is probably gonna be the route of choice! Thanks for everyone's input.

Route here for anyone who's interested!

joelsim

As I said, free parking near Esher station would cut down your route. 105 miles per day is too much and will leave you drained.

njee20

Cheers there's not a cat in hell's chance of doing 105 miles day after day frankly, I'd be leaving at 5:30am and getting back after 8 even assuming a fairly short day!

Prob gonna park around East Horsley, be 25-30 miles each way then, be a nice little spin!

Low Centre of Gravity

You're not kidding about the price of a rail season ticket... I commute Horsham to Baker Street daily but do most of it on the train. (Bike to station, train to Victoria, Boris bike to Marylebone normally.)

I've done the ride home a few times on a Friday afternoon after work and it's very cool. My normal route is pretty much what you're talking about- Embankment-Kings Road-Putney-RP-Kingston-Hampton-Esher-Cobham-Bookham-Dorking-then back lanes. It's not the shortest line but is probably the least grungy and after Kingston is pretty free flowing. It's psychologically quite weird to spend the first hour stopping every 2 minutes at traffic lights, dodging taxis and white vans, not racing... and the last hour on totally empty country lanes.

Good luck with commuting through the suburbs. All of them!