London - Guildford... eek.

jezmo

Morning all,

I've just taken a new job out in Guildford, starting in January. Really looking forward to it, as part of the great "moving the family out of London to the shires" phase of life (please, nobody say this is a mistake, it's too late now!). Anyway, we're not looking to move house until March which means 3 months of commuting out to Guildford from Streatham Hill. I'm looking at the distances involved (28 miles) and wondering if I might be able to slip in the odd bike commute a few times each week, at least 1 way, every other day, or similar.

Has anybody done this sort of route? Am thinking Streatham Hill, RP, Kingston upon Thames, Esher, Cobham, and then some route (not sure how) to the Surrey research Park in Guildford whilst avoiding the A3... Any ideas?

I wouldn't be so concerned about this in summer, but in Jan, Feb, March, might I be taking on a bit much? Current commute is only 7 miles each way (Streatham Hill - Chancery Lane). Any pointers would be very welcome!

Cheers

asprilla

I don't know anyone who comes that far, but there are quite a few people in the Commuting Chat area who come from the likes of Cobham, Esher, Walton on Thames, etc. You're spot on with your route to get to Cobham but after that it's going to be pretty much back country roads, unless you fancy the A3 for a stretch!

dodgerdog

End bit would be something like Esher - Weybridge - Byfleet - Woking - Guildford or you could go through Esher instead of Weybridge.

The route through Woking to G'ford will be determined by which end of G'ford the scince park is. It is about 10 years since I was living around there so am a bit rusty now! :oops:

stuaff

Gone the other way (Pompey-London) a couple of times, pretty much the route already mentioned. The A307 (Richmond-Cobham stretch) is fine but I'd strongly recommend avoiding the A3- I did by going via Ockham & Ripley. There is a bike path along the A3, but the last time I went down the stretch between Ripley and Guildford (September) it was heavily overgrown, passable with care though.

Dougal_bug

From Walton, you could go via Weybridge and byfleet (sorry can't rememebr if that was mentioned) so cutting out Woking, or from Cobham, take one of the B roads down through Effingham (if you aim for Cobham then the more direct route is through Esher down the A307 rather than through Walton and down seven hills road, plus its less undulating), then towards West Horsley, picking up the A246 just outside Wast Clandon. I would go with your initial thoughts and wouldn't use the A3. Although a 50 mph up to just Hook / chessington area, they are narrow lanes and a lot of people still run with the old 70mph speed limit (changed a long while ago) except at the cameras. From Hook, it changes to 3 wider lanes and 70mph but with people running more at 80 mph like a motorway. Plus coming north from just after Wisley to the M25 the left lane being the feeder for the M25 and the usual last minute gap picking action used by some drivers who want the M25I certainly would not consider doing this on a bicycle.

The advantage you will have is travelling out of London, there are less commuters on the train, so you could easily do on a wymm and take the bike on the train with you in the morning, so if you felt up to it you could consider do more runs home

clarkey cat

from Esher take the A307, turn off for Cobham, head down to Effingham but turn right at the Plough pub and go past the Black Swan - keep following that road heading south-western adjacent to West Clandon and then join A246 to Guildford. I wouldn't go via RP or WoT - will add quite alot of unnecessary miles on I think.

jezmo

This is great - thanks all!
I have 2 weeks paetrnity leave coming up anytime now, so will try and get out and do a trial run while the mother in law is still with us...

jezmo

Taking everything on board and particularly Clarkey Cat's point about avoiding a dog leg through RP, whilst aiming to avoid the A3 at all costs, I think I'm going to try something like this:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/58 ... ew_route=1

Will feed back...

hulla the hulla

clarkey cat wrote:

from Esher take the A307, turn off for Cobham, head down to Effingham but turn right at the Plough pub and go past the Black Swan - keep following that road heading south-western adjacent to West Clandon and then join A246 to Guildford. I wouldn't go via RP or WoT - will add quite alot of unnecessary miles on I think.

I live in Byfleet and do this stretch as well as a lot of the A246 and around Leatherhead and Boxhill, pretty decent roads. Main roads can be a little busy at times, I'd stay to the back roads if it were me for a quieter / safer time.

hulla the hulla

jezmo wrote:

Taking everything on board and particularly Clarkey Cat's point about avoiding a dog leg through RP, whilst aiming to avoid the A3 at all costs, I think I'm going to try something like this:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/58 ... ew_route=1

Will feed back...

Looks pretty much as direct as you'll get and some of those roads (from Leatherhead onwards as I rarely if ever venture towards London) are pretty decent and there are a few options you can take to vary your route.

Let us know how you get on