first attempt at cycling through London

After a dreadful attempt to find my way from Victoria to Euston station last
week I decided to have a go at cycling from UCL back to Victoria station
earlier this evening. Probably shouldn't have chosen the rush hour but there
you go. It looked easy enough on the map; head south down Gower St and head
towards Nelsons Column and then turn West. I noticed that it was very easy
to go at the speed of the traffic so I just went with the flow of the
traffic initially. However this seemed to result in an awful lot of stopping
and starting and rather poor progress. I noticed other cyclists doing the
filtering thing so I had a go at that a bit later on. More successful
regarding progress but with the danger of being out of position at the
junctions. I found London difficult to get around when I wasn't sure where I
was going, as useful signs seemed few and far between and some of the
junctions are awful - four lanes and lots of merging from different
directions. Took me about half an hour to get to Victoria station (ended up
walking the last 100 yards).

Decided I need more practice so will have another go next week.

If anyone has any useful tips for cycling in London I would be happy to hear
them.

Adam

"Adam Lea" wrote in message
...
Decided I need more practice so will have another go next week.

If anyone has any useful tips for cycling in London I would be happy to
hear them.

Experience helps loads - if you know where you're going it's much easier to
put yourself in the right place. (when I was doing similar stuff, if my road
position was wrong for the direction I wanted to go, I used to go the wrong
way and sort it out later rather than trying to swerve across lanes of
traffic).

cheers,
clive

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:54:28 -0000, Adam Lea wrote:
If anyone has any useful tips for cycling in London I would be happy to hear
them.

You may find the london cycle campaign website www.lcc.org.uk useful. They have
some maps in the cycling info section.

--
Stephen Patterson :: :: http://patter.mine.nu/
GPG: B416F0DE :: Jabber:
"Don't be silly, Minnie. Who'd be walking round these cliffs with a gas oven?"

Adam Lea wrote:
After a dreadful attempt to find my way from Victoria to Euston
station last week I decided to have a go at cycling from UCL back to
Victoria station earlier this evening. Probably shouldn't have chosen
the rush hour but there you go. It looked easy enough on the map;
head south down Gower St and head towards Nelsons Column and then
turn West. I noticed that it was very easy to go at the speed of the
traffic so I just went with the flow of the traffic initially.
However this seemed to result in an awful lot of stopping and
starting and rather poor progress. I noticed other cyclists doing the
filtering thing so I had a go at that a bit later on. More successful
regarding progress but with the danger of being out of position at
the junctions. I found London difficult to get around when I wasn't
sure where I was going, as useful signs seemed few and far between
and some of the junctions are awful - four lanes and lots of merging
from different directions. Took me about half an hour to get to
Victoria station (ended up walking the last 100 yards).
Decided I need more practice so will have another go next week.

If anyone has any useful tips for cycling in London I would be happy
to hear them.

My first two points here seem contradictory but good cycling is all about
being adaptable:

1. Be prepared to be fast. The ability to accelerate quickly will often
get you out of trouble or prevent trouble in the first place, particularly
when you find yourself in the wrong lane or wrong part of the lane. At
traffic lights, stopping ahead of the stop line is not legal, but it will
put you in a safer position /sometimes/.

2. Be willing to chill out. Too many cyclists take risks by passing
through narrow gaps that could close at any second. Yes you can do a lot of
filtering, but when in doubt, it's best just to stay where you are and wait
for the traffic ahead to move. You'll overtake the death-wish cyclists
later anyway. Don't copy their bad habits.

3. It would take a whole book to describe all the technical details.
Fortunately John Franklin has written one already. It's called
"Cyclecraft".

4. Enjoy it. Challenge yourself to master all the types situations that
arrise, safely and without loosing your cool. The nearer you get to that,
the more you can enjoy the adrenaline buzz. Then you'll be heading into
central London on your bike even when you don't have to, just for fun.

Personally, as well as for the buzz, I enjoy central London for the flat
roads and warm temperatures. The stop/start thing is a love/hate thing. Of
course it interrupts the pure cycling experience but it does give you lots
of breathers, as well as leg muscle-building exersise.

~PB

Following on from Adam Lea's message. . .
Decided I need more practice so will have another go next week.

If anyone has any useful tips for cycling in London I would be happy to hear
them.

On the few occasions I've done central London I've enjoyed it immensely
because I like a challenge at something where if you need your wits and
can put your cycling skill to good use in a constantly changing
situation. You have to plan ahead eg to see if that bus is going to
stop and if so what will you do and also behind of course so you know
what freedom you have for manoeuvre.

* All the usual stuff about taking the lane, see and be seen,
communicate with other road users applies. 'Going with the flow' in
mental neutral is not a good idea. Another poster has mentioned good
acceleration and that's very useful. It also helps if you're positioned
to take advantage of your burst ability eg *not* stuck right behind or
on the left/behind of a bus.

* On a bike you can stop, get off, and look at the map. (You're not in
a car now.) Also you can stop or detour to see interesting things.

* Often side roads are faster than main roads but they have plenty of
hazards of their own. You may find it easier to cross or join a main
stream from a side road. Experiment. Most cyclists have a handful of
'avoid at all costs' junctions (north sides of river bridges seems to be
a particular problem) and preferred routes.

* Sometimes you can use routes that cars can't. Through parks(some),
towpaths(?) cut through alleys and one-way streets(with contraflow bike
lanes)

* There is of course the London Cycle Campaign that has all sorts of
useful resources including /people/ who are in possession of a lot more
facts and experience than you'll find on a map or in a book.

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the borehole business dried up

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

Patter wrote:

You may find the london cycle campaign website www.lcc.org.uk useful. They have
some maps in the cycling info section.

New editions of the free LCC/TfL maps are out soon.
http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=37

"John Hearns" wrote in message
...
Patter wrote:

You may find the london cycle campaign website www.lcc.org.uk useful.
They have
some maps in the cycling info section.

New editions of the free LCC/TfL maps are out soon.
http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=37

How do you know this? I'm interested to see the changes. Hopefully I won't
have to update my site much ...

http://cycle.elyob.com/

elyob wrote:

How do you know this? I'm interested to see the changes. Hopefully I won't
have to update my site much ...


I'm a member of a couple of LCC local groups. The LCC borough
coordinators were asked for any amendments/suggestions for the new
update of the maps, and put our emails to their lists.

Your site looks very useful - but does it cover only the Sheet 10 area?

"John Hearns" wrote in message
...
elyob wrote:

How do you know this? I'm interested to see the changes. Hopefully I
won't have to update my site much ...


I'm a member of a couple of LCC local groups. The LCC borough coordinators
were asked for any amendments/suggestions for the new update of the maps,
and put our emails to their lists.

Your site looks very useful - but does it cover only the Sheet 10 area?


I covered just some as they take a full day each, and I haven't got a spare
month at the moment. I've done central and south west. I also did maps 1 and
19.

Feel free to give me a hand

elyob wrote:
"John Hearns" wrote in message
...
elyob wrote:


I covered just some as they take a full day each, and I haven't got a spare
month at the moment. I've done central and south west. I also did maps 1 and
19.

Feel free to give me a hand

How does it work? I'll happily forward details of the site to
Greenwich?Lewisham/Southwark cyclists.

Have you also told the Openstreetmap