London sight seeing ride

Anyone done this?

Was thinking of doing this one early Sunday morning on my hybrid bike when the roads will be a bit quieter (as quiet as London roads get)

Was thinking of parking up in Richmond near the Hammersmith bridge then riding along the Thames path and heading towards Battersea, Chelsea, Buck Palace, Westminster, Covent Garden, into the City, White Chapel then heading north to Shoreditch, Highbury, then heading back via Camden, Maida Vale, Shepards Bush, Hammersmith then across Hammersmith bridge to Richmond

Done it twice (During afternoon/ rush hour) and it’s the best way to see London, just plan what you want to see in advance and organise your route.

I didn’t find riding in London any worse than cycling in my local area to be honest, just be alert but I felt like I was traveling quicker than most of the cars.

Plot a route using komoot and it will take you through parks and cycle paths.

Head down to Greenwich and head through the pedestrian tunnel to Docklands.

Regents canal through Camden and Kings x

Lea valley is also pleasant early doors.

Good ‘gravel’ around Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park.

I cycle through central London three times a week on the commute, crossing the Thames never gets old.

I did a ride on Christmas Day starting at Tower Bridge and crossing every road bridge in London all the way out to Kingston before calling it a night and heading home via Richmond Park.

Christmas Day cos I did it as part of the Festive 500 and there are no buses which made using the bus lanes much easier. Although all round Westminster was rammed with tourists, people having a Christmas Day walk in the middle of the cycle lanes. 🙄

Santander Cycles app is very good at routes in London and you there are loads of “best London cycling tours” online and a couple of books with suggested routes, eg:
https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/cycling

Just be aware that – especially very early in the morning – there have been some fairly high profile bike-jacking attacks around Richmond and Regents Parks. The cycle lane up near Olympic Velodrome is known as a bit of a hotspot too. Anywhere that city workers go out for a training ride on their expensive road bike on the way to work and up by the velodrome you get a lot of people who are riding to or from a circuit race.

Mostly though, I love cycling in London. I’ve often rented a Santander Cycle simply for the hell of it, not actually needing to get anywhere!

The Santander rental is a good idea for this, because then you can stop and look around stuff without worrying where your bike is locked and out of sight. Once you have the hang of the app or docking stations it takes a couple of mins to change, which is the only PITA because you have to change every 30 mins. But you’re sightseeing, you should be stopping and looking around. And I think you can get a day pass which makes it dead cheap.

Wont be heading into any parks plus im on my 10 year old Hybrid thats worth around £100 so im not likely to be a target, only time ill prob stop and lock the bike up will be for lunch which more than likely will be a Tesco meal deal so just a quick stop

Will look into riding to Docklands, Regents canal and through Camden and Kings

This sounds great. I love riding through central London. The suburbs out towards the m25 where the roads start turning into 40+ mph are awful, but I’d ride around town all day if I could. Might steal your idea!

Back in early May I cycled through central London en route from Canterbury to Barnet. Friday afternoon so not quiet, Thames path from Erith to Greenwich, then A200 to London Bridge, weaved my way through the centre to Kings Cross, canal to Camden then Highgate hill , Muswell Hill etc to Barnet. Not exactly sightseeing territory, and not nearly the route your thinking of, but for a lad from the sticks it gave me a great London variety cross section – Thamesmead to Bermondsey to Highgate. Was nervous about the traffic, but tbh never felt anywhere near as vulnerable as on some of our A roads in west Yorkshire or Greater Manchester. I loved it and I’d repeat it if I got the chance.

I wouldn’t ride along the canal paths – on a summer Sunday they’ll be busy as anything and they’re quite narrow.

You can do better than a Tesco meal deal. Go to Spitalfields or the street food hall at the Old Truman Brewery at least, that’s about halfway through the route. What stuff do you like?

Don’t park here when you’re in Richmond, OP: https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1dlbr3i/the_thames_swallows_car/

I have often done this (Santander version) when I have had time to kill – last time my son was in rehearsal in Pimlico so did a route south of the river, cross via the Col de Blackfriars (changed bike at Waterloo) up to KX for a bite to eat and then back through sort of Bloomsbury, cross Oxford St, through Mayfairish and Victoria and back. Great fun.

I did Euston to teddington via the parks and river, got a bit lost a few times but that’s the fun.  Richmond Park in the light evenings was lovely, loads of runners and cyclists.

Done on a Brompton, each time I thought if I get tired I ll just catch a bus, but loved it.  Part of the fun was route planning, I used to cycle commute it so have a few routes, but that was ages ago.

Next time I may take the boat from Kew pier to vary it up a bit.

If you do it in summer the supercars will be in residence in knightsbridge, just parked up on the road.  Even on a Brompton I was faster than the traffic.

Regent’s Canal and Camden area is painful enough to walk never mind take a bike.

Putney and along the river then heading up to Richmond Park is fairly pleasant.  Follow that with a lap of the outer gravel path in the park and finish up at the Roebuck before sunset.

Thinking a bit further, the Thames path really does depend which section you’re on.  The Chiswick side near Kew is a no go and the Kew Gardens loop from the bridge to Richmond can be too narrow for a bike to pass a person especially when sharing the space isn’t thought of much.

Regent’s Canal and Camden area is painful enough to walk never mind take a bike.

Rather depends on your timing. Early start Sunday, not so busy. Plus if you’re not chasing Strava segments….

Ill be staring at 6am so most canal paths should be nice and clear and im just pootling along on the hybrid

Will purely be sightseeing so will be heading into to central London from Richmond, a few laps to see certain things then head to the City and then maybe out to Docklands before heading back via whatever places that i havent decided on yet

Im quite happy with a meal deal! done Covent Garden, Spitafields, South Bank and various nice places in London for food before, trying to keep the cost of the ride down as the time i factor in fuel, ULEZ and parking it will already cost me nearly £50 just to go for a bike ride!

@escrs Did you do your London ride on Sunday, if so , how was it?

@james-rennie Not yet, weather looked a bit iffy on Sunday, may do it this Sunday

This thread reminded me that I must ride the London Sightseer audax at some point….

Have shared the link below along with the Cycling UK article for anyone interested.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/7800848?lang=en

https://www.cyclinguk.org/sites/default/files/document/migrated/publication/201001034.pdf

thanks for that link, that looks a good fun ride – what happens in the middle though where you climb to 1000 feet up a 38% slope!?

Im still refining my route, will have a look at these links for ideas

If the weather turns out to be nice on Sunday then ill prob head to London

what happens in the middle though where you climb to 1000 feet up a 38% slope!?

That’s a GPS error, there’s nothing like that around there.

The “famous” climb in London is Swains Lane (near Hampstead) which is about 900m in length and has a short section at 15% (average is about 7%) and gets to a whole 70 or so m (about 220ft) in height. There’s nothing in London close to whatever that GPS glitch is showing.

Early Sunday morning is a great time to have a good zig zag around the City of London and Canary Wharf. There’s nobody about -so it’s a very 28 Days Later vibe….

Had to go into work for an emergency during the first lockdown took a very long cycle from Euston to clerekenwell.

Was gloriously empty and felt very 28 days later

I’d recommend getting to at least one viewpoint : ally pally, primrose Hill or Greenwich observatory

Not so much a sightseeing ride but I did plan and ride a route through London crossing over every bridge

Started in Kew, over bridge, along the water to next bridge, over bridge repeat for every bridge up to tower bridge

Pulling slight detours along the way where there might be a landmark or piece of history etc

Ended up being a good 40 mile ride in the end, I’ll see if I can find the originally planned route to share if anyone is interested

So i got round to doing the ride this morning

Parked up for free in Richmond right next to Hammersmith bridge, rode to the bridge and then along the Thames path to Putney, Wandsworth, Battersea, across Chelsea bridge, up to Buck palace, then down the Mall and then on to Westminster and houses of parliment, looping round to take in Downing street, then off to Leicester square, Fleet street, down towards the city taking in St Pauls, back across the Thames so i could cross back over at the next bridge which was Tower bridge, from there i went upto Whitechapel, Shoreditch, Euston, Great Portland street Maida Vale, North Kensington, Noting Hill and back to Hammersmith, across Hammersmith bridge back into Richmond and the van

Did you record your ride at all? Would be interested to see the route taken on a map