Hello all,
I’ll be moving in to central London for work in a couple of months, and will be getting rid of the car due to the expense/having nowhere to park.
My question is, does any one have a similar living situation and still manage to get out and about on the mtb? Or do I leave it in storage for the foreseeable?
Any insights welcomed.

I used to get the train out to Dorking from Victoria and ride the Surry Hills. Its probably the nearest good riding.

When I moved to London I pretty much stopped MTBing. Didn’t really miss it as I was road riding most days for travel and there was so much else going on. Lots of other sports to do and clubs to join. Probably did more exercise than ever before, but nothing on the mountain bike. Got back into it again when I moved away.

Train from Waterloo/Clapham Junction out to Martin’s Heron and it’s a short ride from there to Swinley.

Surrey Hills to the south has excellent riding and easily reached by train as above.

Or there’s Epping Forest to the north, but not ridden there.

If MTBing is important to you then you can make it work, and it’s a great excuse to get out of the city for a day.

Surrey Hills has some of the best riding in England and there’s a huge area with loads of variety to explore.
Aston Hill currently closed IIRC, but has great short DH trails.
Epping is good for singletrack – if someone’s showing you round.
Ditto Broxbourne, my old local.
Swinley might be your cup of tea, very easy trail centre popular with families & noobs.

Jump on a train out to East Croydon (15 mins from Victoria, couple of mins longer from London Bridge). Can be on trails 5 mins from the station.
More xc than anything gnarly but easily enough to fill a couple of hours in an evening.
Give me a shout if you like and i’ll show you around.

I used to commute from N5 to E1 through rat runs and the suspension was quite useful. It took about the same time as the tube but an infinitely superior start to the day.

Train to Dorking is the obvious answer but it takes a little while before you’re in amongst the good stuff.

Another option worth mentioning is train to Fleet and then up to Caesars camp near Farnham. There’s some good trails there and you can go the whole way without any road riding at all- straight off the train and out via Fleet pond. There’s also Minley in the other direction which is good for a few hours twisty xc stuff.

Welcome to London. An alternative is just riding around; it’s a vast, vast place, with many things to discover and enjoy. And 5 airports if you do want to get away.

Hop on the Chiltern Line from Marylebone and get out to Princes Risborough. You can ride into the Chiltern Hills from there. There’s literally hundreds of miles of really nice woodsy singletrack to get lost in.

Hop on the Chiltern Line from Marylebone and get out to Princes Risborough.

Or Wendover for Aston Hill, Chilterns, Ridgeway or Euston to Berkhamsted or Tring for Ashridge, Chilterns, Ridgeway etc. All depends what you’re looking for and how much you’re prepared to explore.

Used to live in Croydon and was pleasantly surprised how much (albeit fairly tame) ridng from the door I had. Some good loops out towards Woldingham and the North Downs Way. Good road riding as well though i learnt to be wary of how sodding hilly kent can be!!

I think there is a MBUK Woldingham loop that isnt a bad start. https://my.viewranger.com/route/details/MTExNzg4

Thanks people, not as doom and gloom as I was expecting! Good options there.

As above,

Martins Herron is the local station to Swinley, it’s about a mile on a cycle path from the trail car park and signposted (might be sign posted as Coral Reef which is over the road but near enough).

Reading/Pangbourne/Goring have good access to the Southern/western end of the Chilterns as well.

Depending on how temporary it is, just getting a fixie or something might be worthwhile. Cycling around London, particularly the center is actually really pleasant. The big AtoB roads have proper cycle lanes, and the side streets are deserted apart from parked cars as no one in their right mind drives. Worth doing because having driven a lot around London in a van, and commuted by bike, it’s almost a completely different city.

I lived in Raynes Park when I was there. Cycled to work in central London, and easy drive out to Surrey Hills at the weekend.

As others have said Surrey. Hills but don’t discount riding round London ona nice lightweight fixedwheel or single speed of your choice. I am not into road riding unless it was a real challenge in Wales or similar but loved riding around London.

If you’re not too far from Waterloo, you can be in Petersfield in an hour and can ride to Rogate, QECP and the South Downs (depending on what type of riding you wanted). Usually quicker than driving.

Currently trendy option C is to get a gravel bike or something along those lines, then you can get to a lot of stuff that becomes good (because you’re trying to ride it on a rigid 90’s mtb) without getting on trains or driving anywhere.

Loads of options as above, but without trying to put too much of a donwer on things…

London property doesn’t default to loads of space, so finding somewhere to store and maintain a muddy MTB can be the defining issue. A lot of expensive places don’t have any outside space, let alone gardens, and share communal entrances.

London stations are all well and good if you are leaving a Boris bike at the door, but once you get in, trying to navigate a bike to the right gates and platforms is a chore. Made worse by the unexpected London events creating crowds e.g 12pm football, music festivals, Woodworkers Against Alpaca Battery Farming demonstration etc. All add to the hassle and not always avoided, even with planning.

Finally, commuter trains are often busy, even at weekends, and finding somewhere to store a muddy 29er can be tiresome (if even possible). Space for bikes is not a priority on suburban lines.

So overall, give it a go, but I could fully understand if you wanted to turn to the darkside during your stay 😉

First of all though, figure out if you’ve got somewhere safe to put the bike.

Ride from Croydon to oxted then over to Redhill and catch the train home. Far more riding in this area than just about anywhere I’ve been on holiday in the UK.
It’s brilliant.

don’t discount riding round London ona nice lightweight fixedwheel or single speed of your choice. I am not into road riding unless it was a real challenge in Wales or similar but loved riding around London.

As @TheBrick says, riding in London can actually be amazing. Zip round the roads on a road bike or if you take an MTB there are plenty of steps, ramps and so on to play around on. Crack of dawn on a Sunday in and around the City is brilliant, zero traffic.

Also loads of canal towpath options, you can make it a bit more fun by doing history tours or following tube lines – all sorts of random stuff to make it a bit more interesting.

The more I think about it, the more I’m
Talking myself into going down the gravel route.. works fine on the roads for the commute and gives me the legs to go further afield and on to (slightly) rougher stuff.

Perfectly good call. There are good gravel routes up into the Chilterns and to the south. Hell, you could even join RCC for the full London cycling experience…

Lived in London for over 10 years now and as said it all comes down to how much you want to ride mountain bikes if you really want to you will make it work. At one point I had five bikes in a one bed flat and other times just kept them in my room when flat sharing.

Andrewreay makes it sound a lot worse than it is out of all the times I used the train to surrey / swinley less than a handful of times was a train too busy for me to get on.

Gravel bike could be the most useable option, I agree, if you’re not particularly fussed about shredding the gnar

Still some MTB riding to be had, so don’t discount it.  I did same thing as you and live centrally, ride MTB and gravel, Zwift on my balcony, and use the train.  Ideas as follows:-

1. Old Eastway circuit at Stratford has a competition standard XC MTB course.  Keep heading north and you will get to Epping.

2. BMX tracks can be ridding on MTB’s

3. Get an OS map (1:25000) and start linking parks and other urban spaces up.  I can ride from central London to M25 eastbound without riding on a road.

4. Train from Fenchurch St gets you to Benfleet where the 2012 Olympic MTB course is

5. Swinley from Waterloo early is good, never had issue with muddy bike on way back.

6. Train from Victoria to Warlingham gets you on decent single-track.

7. Google / look up on a map the Green Chain Walk, most is legally rideable and will give some options

8. Oxleas Wood / Eltham Common has some decent single-track

9. Cyclopark at Gravesend (train from Stratford / St Pancras is 20 min, and there is some good bridleway stuff nearby

Don’t get me wrong, it’s no MTB Mecca but with some thought, a change of tyres (as XC lightweight as you can), and determination there has been enough to keep me going over the last 6 or 7 years.

Good luck!!

Sleeper to Inverness on a Friday… return Monday morning and ride bike into work.

Also for short term car hire you canjoin a car club.

Some councils have on street bike hangers where only users have keys – might not want to put a mountain bike in one for weeks at a time but nice to have a space so you can lock bike safely out of sight when you get back and it’s in need of a wash.

A gravel bike is a good shout for you. My club (LDN GRVL) do rides every week from different parts out into the country and back.
https://meetu.ps/c/4NxCh/SbQzR/d

As I said before, happy to meet up and take you out on some rides on road, gravel or MTB.

Gravel bike could be the most useable option

No need to be rash!

Get a BMX or Street tails or a DJ bike and go street riding. Trail bike for trips to Surrey hills. If you’re in West London South Wales is day trip able just about as long as you travel at sensible times. And as previously mentioned a non flash fixedwheel or if you must single speed is fun to get around London. As for storage the computer need to be easy assed. The trail bike can be packed into a cheap bike bag. BMX ) dirt jump bike can take up little room if bars turned etc.

train to Sevenoaks. Lots of stuff around there. Good riding east towards Mereworth, West towards Limpsfield, Oxted and beyond. Look up ‘Trace defrein collective’ on Facebook

Lots of food for thought, thanks guys. I’m not the gnarliest of riders anyway so I won’t be missing out on enduro races or anything like that. I think when the flat is sorted and I know how much space I actually have I can take it from there, ie. how many bikes I can get away with.

https://makesweat.com/acc#rides

If you scroll down the link you will see Wednesday evening off road rides and monthly Sunday off road rides.

The meeting point is very close to Coulsdon South train station which is easily accessible from central London.

Obviously covid has buggered up organised club rides so registering is still required for the time being to limit numbers and allow tracing.

There’s plenty of off road on the North Downs but of course unlike road cycling where you simply need to know your destination and follow clearly defined roads some knowledge of the trails is a must. So organized rides would be the simplest way to go.

If you stay on the train for another 30 miles you have the South Downs which is altogether different (and stunning imo). The South Downs Way is a 100 mile easy to follow trail.

Where exactly are you working. If it’s easy to get to from Waterloo my advice would be to move somewhere like Wimbledon as the transport to/from work is easy , and multiple options aid reliability. Then it’s easy to get the train to Surrey and take it from there. You can make this work very well.

When I was doing it I had found that early trains from Richmond to Martins Heron for Swinley were no problem, sometimes a bit of a challenge coming back especially if I’d been a muppet and picked a day when the rugby was on at Twickenham.

Trains from Clapham Junction to Dorking for Surrey Hills were never a problem either way, especially with an early start.

There’s been loads of good mtb suggestions already but if you’re considering gravel/going to the dark side there’s some good routes to check out on the Pearson site.

I did about 8 years heading out to Dorking or Martin’s Heron on the train from the South West before I bought a car. Never had any problem with the Dorking route (except planned maintenance, which I was usually good enough at checking in advance) but a couple of times I did get caught up with Twickenham rugby or Ascot racing crowds on the way to/from Swinley. Still usually got on, though once I did give up and went to Dorking instead.

It’s worth being aware of Gomshall station too, which can take you closer to the Peaslake side of the Surrey Hills after a connection at Dorking or Guildford. It’s a very infrequent line so I only ever used it to start or finish, but it can cut down or give a little more variety to the pedalling you have to do to get to the trails.

Not that I think anything is a bad suggestion above, but you can also consider (a) training out to Swinley (can’t recall closest station but think Birch Hill is the one) or (b) you can train to Haslemere. From Haslemere Station, probably max 10-15 min ride into the hills around Devil’s PunchBowl. You are also near the Green Sands way, so if you are looking for an XC work out, you can do right out to Peaslake (and then train back from Wescott/Dorking).

Also, if you fancy a long pedal with pub stops, Thames Tow Path is fun. Rode from Weybridge to Central London and a lot of it is very pleasant, along the edge of the Thames.

My brother used to live in London and washed his Giant Anthem in his landlady’s bath. 🙁

As well as the train there’s zipcars to rent all over the place, hire is usually by the hour but daily rate isn’t too bad either. Or the usual car/van hire places for a longer trip.

…and there’s where you land in London. 14 years in Hackney. Commuting kept me fit, is dead easy, and it really doesn’t rain much in London. And used to cycle towpaths and tracks up the Lee valley to ride round Epping forest now and again. And Sheffield’s a couple of hours on the train…

I’ll most likely be living in Clerkenwell, and working in Regent’s Park. Hopefully be a fairly straight forward ride to work but will probably want a bit more top end gearing, which has me thinking how big a chainring I can fit on the hard tail..