Sussex to London commute - good idea/bad idea?
Discussion
Agree with the time bit though, when you hit busy London you'll do well to average 20mph. My commute from Surbiton to London on pushbike is very similar timewise to motorbike, I know this as my neighbour does a similar route on his bike, he makes some ground on me through Richmond Park, but after Putney I have overtaken him many times. So coming from the south I imagine there is a good 15 mile stretch that you're doing to be taking 30-40 mins to do alone, let alone the other miles from Horsham to Croydon way.
Bike or train can be hit with horrible delays, but how they be negotiated varies dramatically.
On Tuesday there was this madness at London Bridge:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-317293...
Same day, the A13 had a huge accident, causing massive tailbacks, was pretty much standstill back to and along Tower Bridge, plus knock on jams on A12 & North Circular. On bike, it wasn't fun, tight filtering, mirrors folded in and slow progress. Still got home in under an hour.
Ultimately, biking into London won't be a stress free walk in the park, won't be massively cheaper and will carry greater risks. But it is still the preferred option!
On Tuesday there was this madness at London Bridge:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-317293...
Same day, the A13 had a huge accident, causing massive tailbacks, was pretty much standstill back to and along Tower Bridge, plus knock on jams on A12 & North Circular. On bike, it wasn't fun, tight filtering, mirrors folded in and slow progress. Still got home in under an hour.
Ultimately, biking into London won't be a stress free walk in the park, won't be massively cheaper and will carry greater risks. But it is still the preferred option!
okgo said:
rev-erend said:
Hi - I used to commute from East Grinstead to Fleet Street which if my failing memory servers me was 30 miles and generally took 1 hour or about 1hr 15mins in the winter and I did it on a ZXR 750 two up and later on a Yamaha 600 diversion but that was not as much fun.
All months were ok except the worst of the winter where lots of rain and cold made it a real chore.
Tyres, punctures, chains and servicing all happen very regularly.
You mentioned you don't have a licence - well London is not the place to learn to ride. It is aggressive and unforgiving. You see big accidents regularly and need to have very good riding skills, knowing where to be, where not to be and sometimes the reactions of a cat.
In short and to be brutally honest - I would not recommend it to a novice.
Meanwhile thousands of people, women, foreigners, etc etc commute by scooter seemingly without issue on a daily basis. I don't think its as bad as you make out Rev..All months were ok except the worst of the winter where lots of rain and cold made it a real chore.
Tyres, punctures, chains and servicing all happen very regularly.
You mentioned you don't have a licence - well London is not the place to learn to ride. It is aggressive and unforgiving. You see big accidents regularly and need to have very good riding skills, knowing where to be, where not to be and sometimes the reactions of a cat.
In short and to be brutally honest - I would not recommend it to a novice.
What route would you be taking to central?
I also work in Liverpool Street, I commute everyday coming from South West London. If you do decide to commute, there is a car park which is free for motorcyclists, located just after tower bridge. It's called 'Minories car park', and has a separate section for motorcycles, which is inaccessible by Van (less chance of being stolen) and has plenty of places to chain your bike up if you wish.
It's about a 10 minute walk to Liverpool Street Station from there
Edit to add: I've been doing it for 4 years now, not had one accident or any punctures etc, no real incidents - and I don't ride like miss daisy either. Get a few near misses, but you learn to anticipate them.
I also work in Liverpool Street, I commute everyday coming from South West London. If you do decide to commute, there is a car park which is free for motorcyclists, located just after tower bridge. It's called 'Minories car park', and has a separate section for motorcycles, which is inaccessible by Van (less chance of being stolen) and has plenty of places to chain your bike up if you wish.
It's about a 10 minute walk to Liverpool Street Station from there
Edit to add: I've been doing it for 4 years now, not had one accident or any punctures etc, no real incidents - and I don't ride like miss daisy either. Get a few near misses, but you learn to anticipate them.
Edited by chrispwill on Thursday 5th March 12:48
There is bike parking behind Devonshire square just off Liverpool street but it gets full quite quick. You would need to be in by around 8am to definitely get a space I think.
As a side note I ride into the city 3 days a week from Bristol through the City to Aldgate. Its pretty taxing and you have to have your wits about you. To be honest I didn't even put any thought into the train when I spotted it was £180 a day or £13k for a season ticket.
Whilst I am used to high power bikes I went for a hot off the press CB500x and kept my R1 for fun. This slows me down, is thin enough for nifty filtering and returns good mpg. The consumables are also cheap - doing approx 30k miles a year I use a couple of sets of tyres / sprockets and chains etc. As I say, not even worth me doing the maths but given you are doing 5 days a week and the train is £300ish - I would consider the train.
As mentioned previously when its hot its awful in all of the gear, sat on what is effectively a radiator waiting for the lights to turn green, which as you will know there are millions! My favourite commuting weather is 12 degrees and dry. It makes for a much more pleasent start to the day!
If you do commute by a bike I would consider one of the CB/CBX/NC range as they are reliable and return very good mpg. Just don't get any Honda bolt ons with them including luggage as they are awful!!
As a side note I ride into the city 3 days a week from Bristol through the City to Aldgate. Its pretty taxing and you have to have your wits about you. To be honest I didn't even put any thought into the train when I spotted it was £180 a day or £13k for a season ticket.
Whilst I am used to high power bikes I went for a hot off the press CB500x and kept my R1 for fun. This slows me down, is thin enough for nifty filtering and returns good mpg. The consumables are also cheap - doing approx 30k miles a year I use a couple of sets of tyres / sprockets and chains etc. As I say, not even worth me doing the maths but given you are doing 5 days a week and the train is £300ish - I would consider the train.
As mentioned previously when its hot its awful in all of the gear, sat on what is effectively a radiator waiting for the lights to turn green, which as you will know there are millions! My favourite commuting weather is 12 degrees and dry. It makes for a much more pleasent start to the day!
If you do commute by a bike I would consider one of the CB/CBX/NC range as they are reliable and return very good mpg. Just don't get any Honda bolt ons with them including luggage as they are awful!!
Sidewindow said:
SteelerSE said:
I'm going to go back to it soon because national rail has completely screwed my journey by closing bits of London Bridge for 18 months so it's now a 2 hour journey door to door, a sardine job on the train and a walk from Waterloo to the city (40 mins). The bike is an hour if I leave early enough and 75 mins if I don't.
.......
London sucks. The job is good but there is no good way of getting here.
Well my train journey would be Horsham to London Bridge with a change at Three Bridges or East Croydon (haven't fully researched it yet). London Bridge seems to be working okay while they do the improvement work or have I missed something critical? Wondering how it has affected your journey so badly? And why walk from Waterloo when you could take the Waterloo & City line (unless you like walking)!.......
London sucks. The job is good but there is no good way of getting here.
Good to hear there are some bikes out there that offer much longer service intervals etc. and tank range would be pretty important!
Some interesting points here. I've been considering riding on my Kent - Canary wharf commute.
Back in 2003-2004 I used to ride into St Pauls area on a kawasaki 500 (can't remember the letters but it was a half fairing twin boring thing). The ride up the motorway until blackwall tunnel was the easy bit, after which it got mental into the city.
Now obviously, being based at canary it should be quite ideal as I'd only have a little bit of mental to deal with. Assuming I can find somewhere to park.
I haven't done it already because apparently everyone has told me I WILL DIE. Strange how I didn't due much before, only came off once when a taxi decided an unannounced u-turn was reasonable (and drove off when he saw I got up ok, the fckr)
The train is crap so I get the coach. It's not a bad commute tbh, but lately it's getting later and later to the point that bosses have asked if I can get alternative transport.
One big advantage is that I buy books of singles, so if it's raining, too hot, I wanted to read a book or just can't be arsed then I'd just take the coach that day.
Being back on two wheels would be interesting / exciting enough so I was wondering if you can get scooters that won't die at the prospect of doing 350 miles a week. Won't need filling up every other day. That used to pee me off as well.
Anyways, just toying (seriously) with the idea currently. Will probably have to wait until I've moved house which will be in the next couple of months anyway.
Back in 2003-2004 I used to ride into St Pauls area on a kawasaki 500 (can't remember the letters but it was a half fairing twin boring thing). The ride up the motorway until blackwall tunnel was the easy bit, after which it got mental into the city.
Now obviously, being based at canary it should be quite ideal as I'd only have a little bit of mental to deal with. Assuming I can find somewhere to park.
I haven't done it already because apparently everyone has told me I WILL DIE. Strange how I didn't due much before, only came off once when a taxi decided an unannounced u-turn was reasonable (and drove off when he saw I got up ok, the fckr)
The train is crap so I get the coach. It's not a bad commute tbh, but lately it's getting later and later to the point that bosses have asked if I can get alternative transport.
One big advantage is that I buy books of singles, so if it's raining, too hot, I wanted to read a book or just can't be arsed then I'd just take the coach that day.
Being back on two wheels would be interesting / exciting enough so I was wondering if you can get scooters that won't die at the prospect of doing 350 miles a week. Won't need filling up every other day. That used to pee me off as well.
Anyways, just toying (seriously) with the idea currently. Will probably have to wait until I've moved house which will be in the next couple of months anyway.
Moospeed said:
Back in 2003-2004 I used to ride into St Pauls area on a kawasaki 500 (can't remember the letters but it was a half fairing twin boring thing). The ride up the motorway until blackwall tunnel was the easy bit, after which it got mental into the city.
GPZ500? I did the commute on one of them, nice enough, fairly upright so not too much weight on your wrists (which gets old when you are commuting long distance). As others have said, the cost of tyres + servicing + chain adjustments etc. all starts to become annoying. While cars often have 18000 mile service intervals and even then need nothing but an oil change, commuting any distance on the bike you feel like you have to adjust the chain every other week. And you need to include the cost of a scotoiler or similar unless you enjoy spending ages lubing (the bike!).
I gave it up in the end because I got fed up with people trying to kill me every day. I died loads of times.
It's worth checking all the train routes, I have a feeling there might be an easier way than changing at Three Bridges. At least on the train for the quiet bit you can sit and read or whatever.
pboyall said:
GPZ500? I did the commute on one of them, nice enough, fairly upright so not too much weight on your wrists (which gets old when you are commuting long distance).
As others have said, the cost of tyres + servicing + chain adjustments etc. all starts to become annoying. While cars often have 18000 mile service intervals and even then need nothing but an oil change, commuting any distance on the bike you feel like you have to adjust the chain every other week. And you need to include the cost of a scotoiler or similar unless you enjoy spending ages lubing (the bike!).
I gave it up in the end because I got fed up with people trying to kill me every day. I died loads of times.
It's worth checking all the train routes, I have a feeling there might be an easier way than changing at Three Bridges. At least on the train for the quiet bit you can sit and read or whatever.
Yeah that's the kiddie, GPZ500s I think. Was a good bike for the job but I did wish I could get four times as much petrol in it. As others have said, the cost of tyres + servicing + chain adjustments etc. all starts to become annoying. While cars often have 18000 mile service intervals and even then need nothing but an oil change, commuting any distance on the bike you feel like you have to adjust the chain every other week. And you need to include the cost of a scotoiler or similar unless you enjoy spending ages lubing (the bike!).
I gave it up in the end because I got fed up with people trying to kill me every day. I died loads of times.
It's worth checking all the train routes, I have a feeling there might be an easier way than changing at Three Bridges. At least on the train for the quiet bit you can sit and read or whatever.
Thinking a scooter may have some advantages without the chain and any oily bits tucked away. Obviously not as thrilling but I'd think of it as a tool for a job.
I've actually cycled in twice last year but at 35 miles and 2.5ish hours, one way, can't imagine I'll have it as an everyday prospect. The 2nd time I done it I actually beat my coach back home!
mattfuey said:
Just as a note on bike parking, if you go to Finsbury Circus, which is a 2 minute walk from Liverpool Street Station, there's bike parking there - albeit limited.
Not too sure on elsewhere in the immediate area.
I'd say you need to be getting there for about 7:30am judging by how quick the (limited) bays fill up.Not too sure on elsewhere in the immediate area.
Plus, scooterists will then push/pull your bike aside to (c)ram theirs in the tiny gap...
It's one thing to ride up to London, and quite another to ride through London. I'd far rather suffer the train day in day out and save the bike for the occasional blast up to a meeting for instance.
On cold days, and cold/wet days, it can be a living sin.
On very warm (I daren't say hot in the UK), it can be very uncomfortable if you find yourself filtering and having to keep stopping as you go up the A24, or A3, or whichever route you fathom out.
I know a guy who commutes and has done so for years to Canary Wharf, day in day out, all weathers, but for doing so, he doesn't now play on his bike at weekends.
But if you do decide to do it - best of luck and for safety sake, really, really have your wits about you.
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