Ride London - where to stay?

king_jeffers

Can anyone recommend a hotel/area in London to stay before the event? Looking for something close to Kings Cross but not all that far from the start line at Olympic Park. Don't know London at all, was thinking about a budget hotel in Stratford but have no idea what the area is like.

sungod

fwiw i live in the area, london hotel rates are volatile, for any of the major chains, even budget ones, they can have eye watering rates when there's an event drawing people into london

for cheap, there's the generator, about 5 minute walk fron kings x, it's a hostel, but they also have private rooms...

http://generatorhostels.com/en/destinat ... don/rooms/

the imperial on tavistock square looks pretty good for the rate, i pass it most days, seems popular...

http://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/tavistock

...still less than a 10 minute walk from kings x

otherwise there're loads of b&b places in the kings x area

ben@31

St Paul's cathedral has a nice campsite and it's not too expensive.

Stick8267

Holiday Inn Express at Stratford?

Right next to Olympic Park

Gizmodo

Stick8267 wrote:

Holiday Inn Express at Stratford?
Right next to Olympic Park

Just checked that one, no rooms. This is going to be tough.

Edit: OK I don't understand hotels. Holiday In Express web site said the hotel had no rooms. So I searched using LateRooms.com and it has allowed me to book a room on the Saturday night, at the Holiday Inn Express Stratford for £70.50.

Also if you were unlucky in the ballot, I've just phoned Cancer Research UK to confirm my place with them and they said they still have lots of places available. They charge £50 booking fee and a minimum commitment to raise £650
http://running.cancerresearchuk.org/eve ... ondon-100/

Kingston2711

Thanks for the heads up re Cancer research, also managed to get a place having failed in the ballot. Was going to raise money for them anyway so just need to be a bit more driven to reach the target.

Regarding accomodation choices we will be coming from Scotland arriving at Kings Cross would the local bods reccommend staying near the park and travelling back for the train home or staying around Kings cross and travelling to the event on the day?

Bit concerned how easy it will be on the Sunday to get from Kings cross to the Olympic park by public transport. Staying local to Kings cross just makes it less hastle making train connections coming home but want t minimise headaches on the event day too.

secretsam

King Jeffers wrote:

Can anyone recommend a hotel/area in London to stay before the event? Looking for something close to Kings Cross but not all that far from the start line at Olympic Park. Don't know London at all, was thinking about a budget hotel in Stratford but have no idea what the area is like.

King's X is miles from Stratford, easy to get to on the tube/DLR/choo-choo, mind. Or you could ride.
There's a TravelStodge-type thingy on York Way next to KX station
Or there's an Ibis cheapie near Euston (just up the road)

thegreatdivide

I started this thread over on the Rides forum:

viewtopic.php?f=40007&t=12904468

Get in fast.

Cleat Eastwood

slightly OT, but I dont get why a big charity like cancer research has a minimum for fundraising - 650 is a lot, and london isnt the cheapest place - they should cut the good folks who are taking part some slack.

chrisaonabike

Where do people put their bikes when they stay in a hotel or similar before an event?

sungod

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

Where do people put their bikes when they stay in a hotel or similar before an event?

i've just kept mine in the room when staying at a hotel

they probably won't like it if you arrive with a crud encrusted bike oozing all over the floor, but if the bike is in a bag, or even if you take a big plastic bag to ensure there're no tyre or grease marks on the walls etc. there's no reason it should be a problem

ben@31

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

slightly OT, but I dont get why a big charity like cancer research has a minimum for fundraising - 650 is a lot, and london isnt the cheapest place - they should cut the good folks who are taking part some slack.

This suddenly dawned on me too, I'd struggle to raise £650 without paying a lot for a 100 mile bike ride on public roads. It would be cheaper going on a cycling holiday to somewhere warm and sunny.

Surely some money to the charity would be better than no money?

It seems to me the charities have sold their soul to the devil. Knowing the laws of supply and demand dictate that keen cyclists out there will pay for limited places.

chrisaonabike

sungod wrote:

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

Where do people put their bikes when they stay in a hotel or similar before an event?

i've just kept mine in the room when staying at a hotel

they probably won't like it if you arrive with a crud encrusted bike oozing all over the floor, but if the bike is in a bag, or even if you take a big plastic bag to ensure there're no tyre or grease marks on the walls etc. there's no reason it should be a problem

Yes, I was kinda hoping this would be Ok. I've booked the Ibis at Stratford, now, having looked at the times of the earliest trains and realised that it would be fairly impractical to get over there on the morning of the ride, without driving over at something like 5am.

The bike will be immaculate, having had a lot of checking over before such a big day, so no danger of crud or ooze of any kind

Gizmodo

OK so I've got a room on the Saturday night. Do I go down by car (anyone between Cannock and London want to share a car on the Saturday evening?) or by train?

Train would be nice as I wouldn't have to drive after the event, just get in a taxi back to the station and relax on the train home. But then bikes on trains can be a pain - they might not have room and then I've got to get from the station to the hotel. I could use a bike bag/box which means I could put some clothes in too.

How are you thinking of travelling down?

Omar Little

Will be coming down from glasgow and probaly be taking the train - less of a ballache than driving and it takes similar to flying down when you consider checking in, security and travelling from the airport plus id rather be in charge of my bike bag than check in into the hold.

Not sure where to stay yet though...the nearer the start the better it is for the ride but the more inconvient for the train home

king_jeffers

Hoping on getting the train, booked in the Holiday Express @ Stratford, 6+ miles from Kings Cross - not sure how the train carriage works hopefully all okay. Probs just cycle from the station to the hotel *gulp!*

thegreatdivide

King Jeffers wrote:

Hoping on getting the train, booked in the Holiday Express @ Stratford, 6+ miles from Kings Cross - not sure how the train carriage works hopefully all okay. Probs just cycle from the station to the hotel *gulp!*

Book the bike into the luggage carriage. On East Coast trains afaik they don't have any places to put bikes in the passenger carriages. You can fit a complete bike into a black cab - I've done it before - but that might be up to the cab driver.

I'm getting the train direct from Dundee to Kings Cross with the bike in a bike box. Much cheaper and only an hour and half longer than driving to Edinburgh airport, paying for three days parking, a return flight on Sleazyjet, Gatwick Express to Victoria then a cab to Stratford.

Gazzaputt

thegreatdivide wrote:

King Jeffers wrote:

Hoping on getting the train, booked in the Holiday Express @ Stratford, 6+ miles from Kings Cross - not sure how the train carriage works hopefully all okay. Probs just cycle from the station to the hotel *gulp!*

Book the bike into the luggage carriage. On East Coast trains afaik they don't have any places to put bikes in the passenger carriages. You can fit a complete bike into a black cab - I've done it before - but that might be up to the cab driver.

I'm getting the train direct from Dundee to Kings Cross with the bike in a bike box. Much cheaper and only an hour and half longer than driving to Edinburgh airport, paying for three days parking, a return flight on Sleazyjet, Gatwick Express to Victoria then a cab to Stratford.

I traveled from London to Yorkshire last week.

I bought a cheap bike bag on Ebay (Avenir £39.99 - http://tinyurl.com/czhftxw) and used this to take the bike onto the underground to get to Kings X. Great thing was only needed to remove the wheels and pop the rest in the bag. On East Coast trains I stored this in the guards van with no hassle. Don't forget you can use the high speed link from St Pancaras (next door to Kings X) to Stratford or go by tube via northern and jubilee line.

Word of advice if cheap enough book 1st class on East Coast I found it more than worth the £9 upgrade I got it for.

Omar Little

Can you still only book train tickets 12 weeks in advance or is there a way around this?

Gazzaputt

Omar Little wrote:

Can you still only book train tickets 12 weeks in advance or is there a way around this?

Looking on East Coast this morning there were certain trains available to book that were more than 3 months in advance.

ben@31

Omar Little wrote:

Can you still only book train tickets 12 weeks in advance or is there a way around this?

Last time I bought tickets online, I couldn't get them any earlier than 12 weeks, but the train company emailed me on the days the tickets went on sale.

oldhairylegs

Double room and breakfast for 2 at this place for less than £50:

http://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/45/L ... ooms-rates

Just a short ride to the start and 24 hour parking available on site for a few quid extra.

Monkeypump

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

slightly OT, but I dont get why a big charity like cancer research has a minimum for fundraising - 650 is a lot, and london isnt the cheapest place - they should cut the good folks who are taking part some slack.

I agree. I didn't get in through the ballot, but I won't be doing it for charity (I raise money away from cycling and can't keep asking people for cash). £500-600 seems ridiculously high to me, and there a lots of charities with spare spaces. I can't see them all being filled, TBH.

Kingston2711

Not booked up yet but am likely to book somewhere near to Kings cross for ease of train access particularly for the return journey.

My geography is horrible so can someone give me a heads up on how easy is it going to be to get from Kings cross to the start (high speed link or tube) and getting back to Kings cross from the mall after the event (tube I assume)

Not overly keen on riding in London though the distances between each point seem fairly straight forward.

With regards the charity places this is how I got in and its going to be a real struggle to reach £650 as I work in an office with 2 people and have used up my goodwill from friends and family by doing something for charity at the end of the year. I plan to leave it till comic relief is out of the way and will gently start chasing the target. Can only do my best, yet to recieve the details from the charity to suss out how strict they are with the total and what action they take if I fall short.

Annoying thing is that if I had got in on the ballot I would have been raising money for the same charity though without the pressure of this total.

mroli

To the people discussing charity places and the price for these.

Just to let you know, the base price for a charity place is £150 plus VAT - ie £180. I think this may even be more if you are a large charity and have lots of places. The charities have to pay for these up front.

So minimums range from £400 upwards and will have to cost in a number of things - charities will no doubt provide people with shirts to ride and ongoing support and for each entrant will only be making £220 or a little more. They are running this as the cycling counterpart to the London Marathon, for which minimums are often as high as £2k - charities need to make as much as possible. You also need to take off stuff like justgiving fees etc.

My wife and I run a small charity and with something like buying limited places for an event such as these, you are really gutted if someone takes a space and raises £20 when it could have been someone who raised £1000 - these fundraisers are massive both in terms of exposure and bringing in money.

Charities are also running the risk of people turning round and going - "sorry, I could only raise £30" - they'll lose money on that. Don't blame the charities - they are doing good with the money after all.

Gazzaputt

Kingston2711 wrote:

Not booked up yet but am likely to book somewhere near to Kings cross for ease of train access particularly for the return journey.

My geography is horrible so can someone give me a heads up on how easy is it going to be to get from Kings cross to the start (high speed link or tube) and getting back to Kings cross from the mall after the event (tube I assume)

Not overly keen on riding in London though the distances between each point seem fairly straight forward.

With regards the charity places this is how I got in and its going to be a real struggle to reach £650 as I work in an office with 2 people and have used up my goodwill from friends and family by doing something for charity at the end of the year. I plan to leave it till comic relief is out of the way and will gently start chasing the target. Can only do my best, yet to recieve the details from the charity to suss out how strict they are with the total and what action they take if I fall short.

Annoying thing is that if I had got in on the ballot I would have been raising money for the same charity though without the pressure of this total.

See my earlier post in this thread.

Get a bike bag to transport your bike to the start. The organisers are transporting your stuff to the finish so you can pickup the bag there to use the underground to transport it back.