Riding in London

[AyBee]

I moved to London (Clapham) at the beginning of November (Home in Cornwall, Uni in Bath) and was cycling regularly before I moved here. I'm currently living out of a suitcase and don't have my bikes with me but as soon as I move into my own place, I fully intend to get back on the bikes, I can feel myself getting fatter by the day

Anyway, what is riding in London like (both for fun and commuting)? Where do people ride? Is it really as dangerous as people make out? It was only yesterday in the Evening Standard that there was another reported cycling death, but I wonder whenever these are reported whether the cyclist was experienced, looking, diving down the inside of a bus/lorry, wearing suitable clothing, had lights etc and was therefore asking for trouble or whether it really is a dangerous place to ride for a competent cyclist?

P.S. I'm a roadie

[hullbilly]

Commuting is fine if you keep your eyes open.

Richmond park is only down the road from you, plenty of us lycra lovers there on a weekend!

[Nigel H]

I'm a fairly experienced cyclist and have recently started cycling in London (I live in the suburbs). I've used a Boris Bike two to three times a day and so far no problems. If you know what you're doing and keep your eyes open then I think you should be fine. So far pedestrians are my biggest worry.

It takes a while to work out good routes, I try and avoid the main bits (e.g. Euston Rd) and find quieter back steets or cycle paths.

YOu can get to places quickly, once you know where you're going

[Mr Will]

About 7 deaths a year IIRC, mostly from people filtering down the left hand side of large vehicles.

An awful lot more than that have more minor impacts though, you do need to have your wits about you and ride defensively (don't be intimidated) but I don't find it particularly dodgy. I've had far worse experiences on narrow country roads than around town.

[neilski]

AyBee said:

what is riding in London like?

This!

I'm an experienced roadie and have commuted a fair bit in my time in a couple of Berkshire towns but when I picked my bike up from Condor Cycles and had to ride to Waterloo to bring it home I accidently stumbled into the war between the cyclomentalists and the taxiists and felt like I must have had a target on my back. Good luck!

[thanetspeedshop]

neilski said:

This!

Now I know that it's wrong, but am I the only one to find that pretty exciting?

Yeah, okay, so they were all real pricks and if I'd been an inconvenienced motorist or pedestrian then I'd almost certainly have decked one of them.

But come on now; it made for thrilling viewing, no?

[louiebaby]

I'm a Clapham based, slightly chubby roadie. I did 3000 miles last year, all but about 300 miles were inside the M25. A good chunk Richmond Park.

Depending on how silly you make me look, I could go out with you and show you a few places with less traffic lights... (That's the real problem for me.)

Just give me a shout when you get your wheels up here.

[OneDs]

Like others have said commuting in London really tests your attention and reading of situations, picking lines and timings so you don't have to stop at crossing & lights and create the safest option, even if sometimes they aren't in line with the highway code.

You'll quickly find the safest routes, through parks, clearways were vehicle speed is quite high but lack of stopping opportunities and no pedestrians make it a good choice, river paths, and safer road junction that may extend your journey by 5 or 10 mins.

Early weekend fun/fitness rides can be great and as mentioned Richmond Park and out to Boxhill are good rides. And even mega early Sunday am's around the city & west end can be absolutely glorious, almost missing it now!

[untakenname]

I never go riding in London with out a helmet cam and a compressed air horn which is rated at 115db, the horn is very useful for getting cars/pedestrians out of the way and making sure car drivers don't try to intimidate me.

I have a hardened steel (used for breaking windows) end cap on the right side of my bars so if a car driver does try to squeeze me then the window shatters

You can see people who ride in a meek/feeble fashion and they are the ones who will be squashed.

When driving I give a lot of leeway to cyclists, other drivers should do the same but sadly they don't.

[Mr Will]

untakenname said:

I never go riding in London with out a helmet cam and a compressed air horn which is rated at 115db, the horn is very useful for getting cars/pedestrians out of the way and making sure car drivers don't try to intimidate me.

I have a hardened steel (used for breaking windows) end cap on the right side of my bars so if a car driver does try to squeeze me then the window shatters

You can see people who ride in a meek/feeble fashion and they are the ones who will be squashed.

When driving I give a lot of leeway to cyclists, other drivers should do the same but sadly they don't.

You sir, are precisely the kind of person who gives cyclists a bad name.

[untakenname]

Luckily I haven't had any contact yet, as a cyclist your always going to come off worse (possibly fatally). Safety is my number one priority, I've gained my mindset having witnessed collisions between cyclists and cars and the aftermath as well

Should the worst happen its best to be prepared imo, any deterrent for making a driver not turn into you is worth it. I don't strap myself into pedals when riding during the day in traffic for the same reasons.

[Matt London]

I stumbled across this site http://www.cyclestreets.net/ recently. It does a pretty good job of planning cycle specific routes for you. You also get to choose 3 filters. Quietest, Fastest and Balanced.
It also has the facility to convert and save the route as a .gpx file.
I loaded a couple of routes onto my Garmin 800. There were a couple of erroneous U-turns in the plan but the overall routes themselves were very good.

HTH

Ps you can also get it as an app.

Edited by Matt London on Thursday 20th January 22:36

[Mr Will]

Matt London said:

I stumbled across this site http://www.cyclestreets.net/ recently. It does a pretty good job of planning cycle specific routes for you. You also get to choose 3 filters. Quietest, Fastest and Balanced.
It also has the facility to convert and save the route as a .gpx file.
I loaded a couple of routes onto my Garmin 800. There were a couple of erroneous U-turns in the plan but the overall routes themselves were very good.

HTH

Looks pretty interesting, good find!

[bga]

I commuted by bike for a while when I lived in London. My experiences were that it was not too dangerous as long as you keep your wits about you. The ride into Central London from Clapham is pretty straightforward and there are lots of other cyclists doing it too during the rush hour periods. I actually find the roads near where I am now in Sussex to by much more dangerous. Instead of cars buzzing you at 20 mph, they are doing it at 50 mph instead.

[ewenm]

If you're going at roughly the same speed as the traffic, obey the rules of the road and enforce your own space on the road then it's generally no problem. I used to ride Highbury to Streatham and back every day, including the Elephant and Castle roundabouts, with no major issues.

Usual stuff applies - be very careful in bike lanes on the inside of traffic as drivers will randomly pull into them without looking (a lorry driver's mate opening the passenger door while stuck in traffic and nearly taking my head off was my closest shave). If you're overtaking, overtake, don't undertake.

Edited by ewenm on Friday 21st January 10:09

[dubbs]

I've been commuting on the bike for a few years now when based in London and I REALLY enjoy it.

Closest call I've ever had was a marshall waving me through traffic lights at the L2B last year as a Mini jumped them... the mini missed my rear wheel by literally a couple of inches at a reasonable speed - certainly enough to catapault me in to street furniture.

So... it just goes to show, if you're in control of your own destiny, don't rely on others and make your own good judgements then I'd say commuting in London is actually pretty safe and damn good fun when it heats up and the commuting "games" begin.

Every ride in becomes a tournament (or torment) and I LOVE IT :-D

[Roman]

Get down to Herne Hill Velodrome (not far from Clapham) and hire one of their track bikes. You can get some quality base miles in a safe and sociable environment:

http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/information/trac...

[Dick Seaman]

untakenname said:

I never go riding in London with out a helmet cam and a compressed air horn which is rated at 115db, the horn is very useful for getting cars/pedestrians out of the way and making sure car drivers don't try to intimidate me.

I have a hardened steel (used for breaking windows) end cap on the right side of my bars so if a car driver does try to squeeze me then the window shatters

You can see people who ride in a meek/feeble fashion and they are the ones who will be squashed.

When driving I give a lot of leeway to cyclists, other drivers should do the same but sadly they don't.

fk me.
Bullied at school?

[angusc43]

thegavster said:

Being an experienced roadie and car fan, I would hope it's safe to assume you have good awareness and are able to anticipate peoples manoeuvres. Equally that you are able to make controlled, deliberate moves to ensure to your required position on the road.

Spot on

thegavster said:

If so then it's not very dangerous IMO, a lot of the traffic is moving quite slowly and there are a hell of a lot of cyclists around centrally, far, far more than you get in the suburbs so drivers are generally aware due to the sheer quantity of us.

This makes a big difference. I first did a bit of cycle commuting in the early 90's and it's SOOOOO much better now due to the sheer number of cyclists. Plus all the cycle lanes help these days (although they can be a bit hit and miss)

thegavster said:

Once you start cycling and see people riding with no lights on a dark rainy night and filtering up the inside of a bendy bus then you'll realise where those 7 deaths come from.

100% agree

I do something like 34 miles a day through N, Central and W London and find it great fun.

I commute 16 miles two or three times a week across central London and that's a fair summary. I've done nearly 2500 miles since I started 18 months ago and have so far avoided a collision or an off. Not that I am in any way complacent.

Since I stared I've barely seen the inside of a tube and wouldn't go back.

[clonmult]

dubbs said:

I've been commuting on the bike for a few years now when based in London and I REALLY enjoy it.

Closest call I've ever had was a marshall waving me through traffic lights at the L2B last year as a Mini jumped them... the mini missed my rear wheel by literally a couple of inches at a reasonable speed - certainly enough to catapault me in to street furniture.

So... it just goes to show, if you're in control of your own destiny, don't rely on others and make your own good judgements then I'd say commuting in London is actually pretty safe and damn good fun when it heats up and the commuting "games" begin.

Every ride in becomes a tournament (or torment) and I LOVE IT :-D

I did the London bike commute for just over a year (Waterloo to Tower Bridge), and thats probably the only part of my job in London that I miss - that bike ride was the most enjoyable part of the day.

By far and away the most inspirational part of the ride was crossing tower bridge. On sunny days when the bridge was occasionally up, waiting at the front with a bunch of other cyclists, seeing the sun rising over canary wharf direction ..... it really was inspirational.

Never felt like I was about to die (apart from one time when my left spd wouldn't release), it was almost always entertaining for one reason or other.

The good : no reliance on the underground, could get to our backup data center in less time than it took colleagues to get to the closest underground station

The bad : the quality of the road was truly dire in places