Moving to the UK (London) - advice please

[brendonhatcher]

Hi

I am moving to London from South Africa, and keen to revive my bicycle use from 20 years ago (I am in my forties).
I have only spent 2 months in 20 years in the UK/London, so I need some guidance.

I will be making lots of short trips (roving IT support for home users, freelance work in client offices), mostly around one area at a time.
This means that a bike I can easily get on a tube or bus is essential?
I don't yet have a sense of my mix between bike and public transport.
Am I right that a really collapsible bike (i.e. that can go in a bag is best)?
I'd hate to be that guy struggling to drag a bike onto a busy train etc.

However, I am really keen to see my new home, travelling as far and wide as I can.
The notion of cycle paths crisscrossing the country is really exciting.
It seems to me that the really foldable bikes (like a Brompton) just aren't suitable for long distances (but I have never ridden one).
If I am correct:

Is there a happy medium - a commute+touring bike?

Alternatively, do I go for a commute bike and then hire a suitable bike for weekend and day trips?
If so, what sort of costs and I looking at?

Thanks
Brendon

[JamesE]

You can't take non-folding bikes on any London buses at any time. You can only take them on very limited sections of the Underground (PDF map here) and that only outside peak times. Mind, if you have a bike I don't see any point in ever catching a bus, given how much faster riding would be...

[foxyrider]

The best advice I can give - don't come, especially to London. There are much better places to move to and some even have cycle infrastructure that works unlike the bigoted, over crowded and selfish excuse for a country most on this forum call home.

If you do insist on coming, good luck

[mercalia]

The best advice I can give - don't come, especially to London. There are much better places to move to and some even have cycle infrastructure that works unlike the bigoted, over crowded and selfish excuse for a country most on this forum call home.

If you do insist on coming, good luck

u beat me 2 it

[LinusR]

It seems to me that the really foldable bikes (like a Brompton) just aren't suitable for long distances (but I have never ridden one).

One piece of advice, don't say the above to any Brompton owners in London if you value your life

Seriously, a Brompton is a useful bike in London if you want to hop on the train to cover a greater distance, and during peak times it is your only option. I've ridden a Bromption and it has earned its place as the best folding bike and a reliable steed.

I take a non-folding bike on the train frequently after 10am and at weekends, but for leisure rides only and therefore don't mind the wait if the train is crowded and I can't get on or have to get off.

Plenty of people in my touring cycling club regularly ride 40 miles or more on a day ride on a Brompton, usually after getting a more suitable saddle. I personally prefer to ride a non-folder for that sort of distance.

[brendonhatcher]

Hi

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

The only thing people haven't commented on is renting a bike for touring.
Any comments on that?

Thanks again everyone.

Brendon

[JamesE]

A quick Google suggests you’d be looking at £20-£30 a day to hire a touring bike. To go back to your original question: I reckon a tourer, or possibly an audax bike, is already ideal for commuting – a sturdy bike with mudguards, a rack, sensible gearing and possibly dynamo lighting. That’s certainly what I’d buy in your situation… assuming it isn’t essential to take it on buses or peak-time trains.

[MikeF]

Define London. There are still places within the M25 that seem like the "middle of nowhere"...... but they becoming fewer!

[The utility cyclist]

london is a bloody big place so you need to figure out first what area you are going to be providing your service in and what your response time from point of call to entering premises is going to be (if you have one)
A few runs to see how far you can go in x time in normal every day traffic will give you a flavour as to how feasible timescale and effort wise it's going to be, you'll be better off getting a reasonable standard bike no matter what because it'll come in useful even if it might not work out for all your journeys and also for simply getting about otherwise.

[mjr]

I will be making lots of short trips (roving IT support for home users, freelance work in client offices), mostly around one area at a time.
This means that a bike I can easily get on a tube or bus is essential?

I'm not sure I follow: why does doing lots of short trips mean you need to take a bike on a tube or bus?

But if you want to take it on buses, folding is pretty much the only option. Buses that take full-size bikes are few and far between in the UK, thanks in large part to the inflexible attitude of the vehicles regulator who simply won't allow American-style bike racks on the fronts.

The notion of cycle paths crisscrossing the country is really exciting.
It seems to me that the really foldable bikes (like a Brompton) just aren't suitable for long distances (but I have never ridden one).

I've ridden 60 miles on one, but never toured on it. Some folders are suitable and some aren't. I think Bromptons are probably one of the ones that can be customised for longer distances. The cheap £150 folding bikes from chain stores are not so good.

The notion of cycleways crisscrossing the country is really exciting, but that's probably the Netherlands or Belgium. England isn't there yet. You can piece a tolerable touring network together from Sustrans routes and the National Byway cutting off the less explicable wiggles, ancient ways (Icknield Way, Peddar's Way, Fosse Way, ...) and quieter back roads, which http://cycle.travel/map does a passable job, but plenty of it is not signposted and much of it is open to increasingly ill-behaved motorists.

Alternatively, do I go for a commute bike and then hire a suitable bike for weekend and day trips?
If so, what sort of costs and I looking at?

If you can afford the storage space, a working folding bike and a weekend full-size/touring bike is probably a good mix... but then I would say that because my shed is embarrassingly full.

[John1054]

I've ridden 60 miles on one, but never toured on it. Some folders are suitable and some aren't. I think Bromptons are probably one of the ones that can be customised for longer distances. The cheap £150 folding bikes from chain stores are not so good.

I use panniers and sometimes a rack pack on my Brompton, thanks to Ben at Kinetics, Glasgow - not cheap though, but works on buses and trains.

[mercalia]

on another note. If you intend to drive a car there is the ultra low emssion zone starting next year with the Mayors desire to exend it to include all within the north/south circular

ultra low emssion zone

[TrevA]

A bike is as quick as the tube and quicker than a bus. I once caught a bus from Waterloo to Oxford Street and I could have walked it quicker. My son lives in east London and commutes by bike to the centre. He can do his 8 mile commute in 30 mins and it takes 40 on the tube.

[jgurney]

I will be making lots of short trips (roving IT support for home users, freelance work in client offices), mostly around one area at a time. This means that a bike I can easily get on a tube or bus is essential?

As has been said, only a folder can be carried on buses, most tubes, or peak-hour other trains.

In theory a folder is fine for trips with frequent use of buses or rail but bear in mind that a folded bike plus much other luggage becomes cumbersome and may be difficult to handle on heavily crowded trains or buses. A folder amounts to a quite large bag in itself, so you need to consider how much else you could conveniently carry with it.

While I have met people who have camped with Bromptons, they generally wanted to make one long coach or air journey then ride, so spending several minutes unloading / loading bags from the bike before and after was not a problem, and the coach/plane had somewhere to put it all.

[Vorpal]

However, I am really keen to see my new home, travelling as far and wide as I can.
The notion of cycle paths crisscrossing the country is really exciting.
It seems to me that the really foldable bikes (like a Brompton) just aren't suitable for long distances (but I have never ridden one).
If I am correct:

Is there a happy medium - a commute+touring bike?

Alternatively, do I go for a commute bike and then hire a suitable bike for weekend and day trips?
If so, what sort of costs and I looking at?

If you are going to be in one area at a time, you can probably do everything by bike, and not worry about getting it onto public transport.

If you do feel the need to get a bike on public transport, it pretty much has to be a folder. They can be ridden for long distances, some people like it; some don't. I think you will have to judge for yourself the advantages and disadvantages. Take some test rides at bike shops.

If it were me, I would start out using the Santander bikes and the tube & busses and see what kind of mix I preferred, then base a purchase on experience.

Also, even if the tube is convenient, try it above ground, too (see TrevA's comment). There is little relationship between tube map stops and distance on the ground. I have been quite surprised sometimes by how quickly a distance can be covered by bike or on foot, when it looks far apart on the tube map; even things that are quicker by bike than by tube, when it doesn't seem they would be. And I have never been more than a visitor to London.

Outside of London, the country lanes are often the best places to ride. Ask on here for route advice, or ask local cyclists. You can also use
http://cycle.travel/
https://www.cyclestreets.net/
and https://www.sustrans.org.uk/ but be aware that many off-road facilities in the UK have barriers that can be inconvenient on a touring bike

For touring bikes, there are some wonderful touring bikes available in the UK. How much money do you want to spend?

If you want to take some little trips to explore the possibilities, try Spa Cycles, SJS, Geoff Smith, Bob Jackson, Mercian, Ellis Briggs, Paul Hewitt, ... Pick a part of the country to visit every couple of weeks & find a bike shop or two...

Here are some other threads about touring bikes:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=113786
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=116034
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=115826
and this about classic frame builders... viewtopic.php?f=5&t=121471

You can also have look through the Cycling goods & services - your reviews subforum, the bikes for sale on this forum, and the pictures of your bikes thread for some ideas. Good luck!

p.s. ignore the negative replies; I'm sure a wonderful adventure awaits you