Where do Londoners go riding?

misnoma

Hi all, I've just moved over to London from New Zealand. I haven't gotten my bike over here as yet, as I'm still unsure as to options for riding here, especially living centrally.

However, when passing through Marylebone station today on two occasions, I saw people with bikes, some even muddy, and thought to myself "hey wait.. maybe there's somewhere easy to get to via train that could be good?" Given I'm living stones throw from this station, this seemed quite cool.

So... Are there places reachable via train for people to go riding? (XC/Trail is generally me), and also for interest, do these places hire bikes, or are there places to hire bikes in London? If all things look good I'll ship my Nomad over, but would like to test the water (so to speak) first.

Big Red S

Epping, Dorking, Swinley, the Downs are fairly good. Ideally you want to find some locals.

Best bet for hire bikes is to take a test bike out for the weekend. Ususally costs œ1500 deposit and a œ30 fee. That is if you have œ1500 in the bank.



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ashleymp777

Yep, you can get to Dorking from Waterloo in 40-50min and you'll be in the centre of mountain biking heaven in the South East!

Nirvana Cycles (a shop 10min ride from Dorking Station) run a good ride every Sunday morning. Last approx. 4hrs and goes through some great areas!

S-Works Hardtail:

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/?op=list& ... rid=124988

misnoma

Sounds cool (have been googling!).. I take it the easiest way to get to Waterloo is just ride there through town? (I seem to remember seeing things saying you can't take bikes on the tube?)

thaibog

You can take the marelybone train out to saunderton or risbourough and there is plenty of good riding out here

Thumbs up to the chilterns

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/?op=list& ... rid=148766

Moriarti

take up street riding

Im not Gangsta, I just leanthat way...

Silver Bullet

Esher Shore might be worth a visit, not XC, but still fun I should imagine

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misnoma

Cheers, that definitely looks fun (I'm not adverse to a little airtime at times ).

Scubar

Are you talking about Dorking in Surrey ? Cause i live in Redhill, Surrey and would love to find some new good XC trails, I havent had a chance to get over Boxhill yet but ive heard theres some really good routes there.