Ride London (August 2015) logistics

pmcclure

Travelling down to London for the events over the weekend.
For those people who have done the event before, which area of London did they stay at prior to the ride on the Sunday, how did they get to the start, and after they'd finished how did they get back to the start/hotel they'd stayed at?

Thanks in advance.

Peter

cougie

Not done it but friends who have said it was a pain getting round on the day. Staying near the start was the best idea.

thegreatdivide

Head over to this thread viewtopic.php?f=40007&t=12978496

carbonclem

Don't underestimate the difficulty of getting into London to accommodation or to the Excel as the roads are all closed for the Freeride on the Saturday. It's a pain of the highest order!
We stayed at a Premier Inn near London Bridge and I rode to and from the start which was fine. It's all doable but make plans and allow time.

Anonymous

Stayed (from Friday to avoid Saturday closures) at Premiere Inn Stratford, had cooked breakfast at 4.30, then cycled the short distance to the start.
First year our car was parked in the city, and last year we used the £5 transport for bikes back to Stratford/QEOP.
We used public transport between hotel and Exel.

Have had hotel booked since the week after last year so its probably full now, but guess they will have cancelations as people find out they did not get in on the ballot.

Where's ugo today. This is one of two rogue RL threads :shock:
Maybe he has got in on the ballot and is out tracking down a gorilla suit 8)

pmcclure

Carbonator wrote:

First year our car was parked in the city, and last year we used the £5 transport for bikes back to Stratford/QEOP.
We used public transport between hotel and Exel.

Is the £5 bike transport bookable? If so would go for that.

AndypG800

Stayed at the Travelodge on Straford high street. Train into kings cross then caught the high speed train to Stratford international as they allow bikes on. End of the event caught the water taxis back to Stratford. Had about a 10 min wait.

bigmat

Rode in from South East London last year, the ride through the Blackwall Tunnel was great! The ride back afterwards was a bit of a pain, finding somewhere to cross the route, I think it was Vauxhall Bridge I ended up taking. Not a massive problem though, wouldn't have minded at all if the weather hadn't been so bad.

pipipi

Parked at o2 (millennium dome in old money)
Rode through Blackwall Tunnel which is closed for Southbound traffic that morning

After finish rode back in to o2 with traffic which instantly took the broad smile off my face as I negotiated traffic once more.

kentphil

Plan to park at o2 and ride to start through the Blackkwall tunnel as pipipi did. (although 2013 I got majorly lost and ended up leaving my car at an Esso petrol station!)

benmac75

Stayed in Bayswater (where I usually do when in London). Rode to the start (nice 10 mile warm up and oddly enjoyable). Rode back the 3 miles or so from the finish.

Anonymous

pmcclure wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

First year our car was parked in the city, and last year we used the £5 transport for bikes back to Stratford/QEOP.
We used public transport between hotel and Exel.

Is the £5 bike transport bookable? If so would go for that.

Yes, must be booked/paid for in advance.

Pick up point was a long and odd route from Finish last year.
Also although the vans were there ready, we waited over an hour for the officials to arrive for hand over of bikes.
Downside to starting and finishing early I guess.
Hopefully they will be better organised this year.

BikingBud

Stayed at West Ham, yes the football club, cycled to start and then got DLR back from Tower Hill. All worked well

saftlad

I'm booked in to Premier Inn at Beckton. Figured the 3-4 mile ride to the start should act as a good loosener. Family can spend the day in town before meeting me at the finish

southdownswolf

Carbonator wrote:

pmcclure wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

First year our car was parked in the city, and last year we used the £5 transport for bikes back to Stratford/QEOP.
We used public transport between hotel and Exel.

Is the £5 bike transport bookable? If so would go for that.

Yes, must be booked/paid for in advance.

Pick up point was a long and odd route from Finish last year.
Also although the vans were there ready, we waited over an hour for the officials to arrive for hand over of bikes.
Downside to starting and finishing early I guess.
Hopefully they will be better organised this year.

I used the same service last year too, never again...
Were you one of the people I was speaking too while we waited for ages for someone to turn up that had authorisation to load the vans? It really was a debacle. I made an email complaint and they said that they would get back in touch to see how I thought it could be improved. Suffice to say I never heard from them again :roll:

My bike got transported back in the first van, but I spent a few hours in London with the family before going to pick it up at the Olympic Park. When I got there, they just told us to go get my bike and didn't even bother checking my number to the bikes number. I could have taken any bike and they would not have questioned it.

e17blade

pmcclure wrote:

Travelling down to London for the events over the weekend.
For those people who have done the event before, which area of London did they stay at prior to the ride on the Sunday, how did they get to the start, and after they'd finished how did they get back to the start/hotel they'd stayed at?

Thanks in advance.

Peter

Get a black cab with your bike. Money well spent - quick and easy.

Chris87

When I did it the first year me and my brother stayed at the Limehouse Holiday Inn (it has parking but not much)

The hotel was great, they were more than happy for us to take out bikes into our room and the manager even put breakfast on earlier than usual as there were so many people doing the ride.

It was just a short ride down the canal to the start point which served as a good warm up.

After the ride we used the free water taxi to head back down the river to Canary Wharf which was only a short roll back to the hotel.

Anonymous

southdownswolf wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

pmcclure wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

First year our car was parked in the city, and last year we used the £5 transport for bikes back to Stratford/QEOP.
We used public transport between hotel and Exel.

Is the £5 bike transport bookable? If so would go for that.

Yes, must be booked/paid for in advance.

Pick up point was a long and odd route from Finish last year.
Also although the vans were there ready, we waited over an hour for the officials to arrive for hand over of bikes.
Downside to starting and finishing early I guess.
Hopefully they will be better organised this year.

I used the same service last year too, never again...
Were you one of the people I was speaking too while we waited for ages for someone to turn up that had authorisation to load the vans? It really was a debacle. I made an email complaint and they said that they would get back in touch to see how I thought it could be improved. Suffice to say I never heard from them again :roll:

My bike got transported back in the first van, but I spent a few hours in London with the family before going to pick it up at the Olympic Park. When I got there, they just told us to go get my bike and didn't even bother checking my number to the bikes number. I could have taken any bike and they would not have questioned it.

Yes that was me lol. I was in first van too.
It was a shambles re. organisation but once the officials arrived it was a pretty good service I thought.
I would hope they sort that this year.
I was the guy that put his bike in the van walked to the end of the road to watch all the riders approaching The Mall.
I saw two of the three people I knew go by so the delay was quite good for me.

I went back later with my wives bike and the pick up was much more organised and secure at that time.

I had forgot about the collection set up :shock:
We watched the pros finish and so I had to run through the Olympic park to make the pick up time cutoff and there were not too many bikes left when I got there.
The pick up point was a bit remote with just a couple of what seemed like volunteer youths keeping guard, and you are right, it felt like I could have taken any bike and I now remember being pleased that mine was still there.
Probably still going to use it this year though, but might look into river boat option.

When I was walking back to The Mall (from collection point) the second time I saw a guy ride straight into the back of a parked transit van.
It looked pretty bad. Does anyone know how he was?
I was very disappointed in how the officials responded to me telling them that there was a serious incident.
They could have got help quicker but seemed to disbelieve how serious I was saying I felt it was and unsure what to do.

pmcclure

Staying at Travelodge at Docklands. I'm assuming its a short ride to the start area.

The problem is in my original post. How do I get back to Docklands after the event.

I've found this website that implies that after the event I can get the underground/DLR back to Docklands with my bike (non folding).

https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/bicycle-tube-map.pdf

Could anyone confirm this please?

ManOfKent

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19650212#p19650212]pmcclure[/url] wrote:

Staying at Travelodge at Docklands. I'm assuming its a short ride to the start area.

The problem is in my original post. How do I get back to Docklands after the event.

Ride? It's not very far and depending on what time you finish you may be able to retrace your route on closed roads for at least part of the way.

I've found this website that implies that after the event I can get the underground/DLR back to Docklands with my bike (non folding).

https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/bicycle-tube-map.pdf

Could anyone confirm this please?

I'm fairly sure there will be extensive restrictions in place on the day. Have a look at the Tours & Organised rides forum: there's a long thread there about RideLondon.
viewforum.php?f=40007

ben@31

Ah this old chestnut. I looked into the Ride London Sportive a few years back. When I worked out all the costings... Travel, accom, the shear extortionate charity place minimum fee. It worked out cheaper going on a cycling holiday abroad. A few people begrudge paying £100's just to cycle on public roads. Some other sportives that ive paid for dont even close the roads off, what am I paying for?

JohnW52

I don't quite see your problem here Ben. Assuming you get a place in the ballot there is no need to raise any money. The entrance fee is bigger than many other events but most of that cost presumably goes into the cost of closing a lot of roads for a long time. Travel and accommodation would apply to any sportive that is not close to you, so that's no different to any other. the chance to ride on closed roads is only available in a very few events in the UK so presumably that is a big factor for many.

Anyway if you don't want to do this then don't. It seems there is currently more demand than places so you not coming will marginally help things. Just enjoy your riding wherever you do it.