There are a couple of motor vehicle spots just to the left of this, including currently free ones.

This is one of very few cycle hire designated spots around...

The breakfast there is overpriced and service has been meh both times I've been but now even more reason to avoid.

When choosing in between a second hand bike from my flatmate and a new bike from the shop I’ve decided to go for the second hand one. It was right there and I justified it mainly by “giving me the opportunity to work in the bike and understand the skills before moving on to a better bike”. Boy oh boy it is a lot of work. Yesterday I’ve decided to change the chain and cables and an attempted to fix my heating problems I’ve been having. You fix 1 problem and you create 1. It’s taking way longer than anticipated and after a lot of YouTube videos and AI telling me what to do (and it’s many mistakes) I’m loosing patient. I underestimated how hard this would be. But I will keep trying! Today I had this thought, is there any training I could do? Maybe a workshop or a small course aimed for riders and not proper mechanics.

Does anyone know or recommend any course in London I could do?

It seems to me the smartest thing to do before giving up and just sending the bike to the shop. I love cycling and I genuinely want to get better at being able to fix my own second hand bike.

Hi all, I've recently been spending a lot of time in Komoot trying to build the most fun gravel/XC loop possible from a south-east London station. Here's a video I made of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCORYO7qkk

I also want to do one from NW and NE London, keen to hear suggestions, I think NW London could be hard.

I bought a chisel frameset and it has a Judy fork with it and it needs a service. I usually service my bikes but never worked on a suspenstion fork so looking to take it to a bike shop, any recommendations in London? ideally SE

If you know someone doing this, please call them out. It's such bad PR for our community.

Hi all,

Long time lurker first time poster!

My work offers a free bicycle service at work that i want to take advantage of and get a bike for.

So i’m posting to see if anyone has an old out of service unused bike that is in desperate need of a fix up that i could take off their hands?

if you’re looking to get rid of a bike, happy to come pick it up!

i’m located in east, hoxton area.

I train a lot and I'm often in town afterwards with plans and nowhere to freshen up, or worrying about my bike on a street rack.

So I'm building a fix: bookable showers and secure bike storage around central London. There's a short video and page to sign up here: https://pitt-stop.vercel.app/

If you sign up now you become a founding member and get 50% off your first month. Honest feedback is much appreciated too!

Best place in London to buy second hand premium road bikes?

Tldr; im looking for suggestions on how i can DIY modify my gloves to make the touchscreen work to its full potential. Im thinking about folding over the end of the finger in question and then sewing or gluing the fold to stay, or cutting a slit in the glove finger, or straight up cutting the end of the glove finger off.

I have a pair of pretty good waterproof, warm and decent touch screen gloves. But due to the uniqueness of hands, my index finger doesnt quite reach the end of the glove finger, the smallest size that fits the rest of my hand without cutting off the blood. the conduction pad is on the face of the finger, It stops at the seam at the tip of the finger, making it very awkward to use thumb and finger to zoom in and out on a map etc. The gloves are good like i said, the thumb works well (but i need two fingers to work). And theyre very waterproof and warm. And i dont wanna keep spending money on new gloves that will probably have similar issues, been there done that last winter. I ended up settling for knitted waterproof gloves that while technically waterproof, held water and got very cold, and the waterpoofness ran out quickly. But they were a snug fit and touchscreen worked. It was just too cold. I dont wanna do that again.

The idea i like the most is folding the end of the finger over and gluing it in place. It would mean my finger reaches the "end" of the glove, but the conduction pad folds over the end of my finger (rather than a nin condicting seem at the tip) so it would make it much easier to use. As i said the glove finger is a bit longer than my index finger so the glove would still fit. I just dont know if the glue will hold under constant force of the glove to go back into shape, and with the elements of a cold wet london winter. Im sure many people will have come across this issue, and im wondering how those of you who overcame it, overcame it? Does the glue sound like a good idea? Im worried sewing would damage the waterproofness or tear a hole in the gloves... and just cutting the end of the glove finger off is a very last resort idea for obvious reasons

As its my job, i cant just not cycle when its raining.

Potentially a long shot, but don't suppose anyone is aware of a store stocking Velosambas somewhat central? Was hoping the Adidas flagship might but no dice

My wife had her bike stolen on a test ride yesterday - it was for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and whilst she's contacted the police, and is unlikely to get it back, I wanted to post here to maybe help others who are approached by this guy.

He's deactivated his account, but he was going by Alex Duster on Facebook. He immediately asked to call after asking if the bike was still available, and said he lived in Paddington with his 8 month old baby, and that his parents and siblings live in Essex.

He's a young lad - told me he was 23, around 6ft, dark hair, acne scars, sparce facial hair. The bike was a Brompton C-Line, stolen from Greenwich. He was wearing a black Barbour jacket, black trousers and black Nike trainers.

If I can get CCTV footage from the local shops, I'll also share.

Thanks so much.

Wrote a little something about the types of cyclists I come across in London, thought this community might enjoy!

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I turn to my head right to see a commuter cyclist on their way home flying up the outside of the bike lane, nearly clipping the wingmirror of a stationary car as they make it over to the other side and through the lights, back home to Walthamstow or wherever they came from this morning. Commuters are the worst species of cyclist in London. As they know the route so well, they know where and how to shirk urban cycling etiquette to reduce their precious commute time from 32 minutes to 28, leveraging both the fact that pedestrians will stop out of fear of being hit, and cars will stop out of fear of hitting. I have seen multiple civilians, that were not quite 100% switched-on, essentially bisected and then screamed at by commuters, that I suppose were technically in the right by the letter of the law, flying round blind corners at 19mph. The same commuters will then violate these laws and not even apologise as vehicles are forced to emergency stop and then swear and beep profusely at the cyclists they would have mown down if they themselves were not fully lucid.

My observational data indicates that commuters tend to stick to bike lanes. I’m not sure why this is. There might be something here about pack safety, hunting as a group perhaps. You would imagine the whole raison of the act of cycling for commuters is to squeeze commute time towards 0, so it’s surprising to me that you don’t see more of them weaving through side-and-back-roads.

This tends to be the territory of couples on e-bikes, amongst others. Invariably the speed and risk appetite of the two parts of these couples will not be equal, so one will always be out in front waiting after junctions, looking backwards, becoming agitated. Note however this is not necessarily the individual with the responsibility of directing the couple; you’ll often hear shouts of “Which way?” from the risk-loving half out in front. These couples are always for some reason attractive, young, and cool. They’re usually heading to London Fields.

Looking left now, a pack of marauding youths, also on (a collection of various) e-bikes do the cycling equivalent of sauntering across the left set of lights, then forcing pedestrians to stop in fear of being separated from the pavement on the other side. Surprisingly, I don’t hear the clicking that would indicate the bikes have been hijacked in some way. Like a lot of things packs of London teenagers do, this is annoying and you find yourself tutting at the youth of today but it’s basically fine if you just stay out of their way. YOEs are the biggest users of the controversial cycling terrain that is usually the kingdom of non-cycling peasants: the pavement. Not that other cyclist species do not utilise this terrain. They do. But YOEs are the only species who do it unapologetically, whereas others cower as they weave very slowly to some cafe or bike lock.

These bike locks are used largely by normal people. Those who just have a bike to get around the city, who don’t particularly care about frame geometry or tyre pressure PSI. In fact, they don’t really seem to care all that much about their bikes, at all. Normal people seem to have converged on the idea, due to the bike theft epidemic, that if you want to lock your bike up out in public, it better be a shitty bike. Thus a divergence in those who deploy a cavalier locking policy and basically let the bike degrade into disrepair before just simply buying another one for a few hundred quid from Facebook Marketplace (definitely not stolen) or a second-hand bike shop (definitely not stolen, either) vs. those who are comically paranoid about bike thieves and so only leave their bikes locked to a rack in a locked room on private property.

You’ll also find, on the pavement, delivery drivers parked outside McDonalds/Nandos/a random chicken shop. I know these guys have a bad rep, but there’s no denying the sheer volume of hours they spend cycling around London. Primarily these cyclists are directed by some type of GPS and so use all types of terrain. Cycle lane, backstreet, pavement, A-road, going the opposite way on a one-way street, etc. Unlike commuters who optimise one path from A to B, delivery drivers optimise for general path speed. They know all the little tricks to save time. They know how to live on the edge of the rules.

Obviously here I am in no way advocating breaking the rules. But just know that a United Kingdom under my control would allow for competent cyclists to shirk some minor technical road laws to greatly improve the overall efficiency of the system. Libertarian cycling laws for competent cyclists, essentially. E.g. if one can combine the fact that all lights are red to cyclists and green to pedestrians + the fact that there are no pedestrians crossing directly ahead at either the first set of lights or the second = the path forward is free and open and so what’s the harm, really, of crossing?

Sure, delivery drivers do get it wrong, often. But my observational data indicates they do so without nastiness. Indifference, apathy, blank stares as they break late as you’re crossing a zebra, sure. But the venom of a commuter throwing a hissy fit as you make a slight error that leads to a 10 second increase in their commute time, no.

I’m sitting here waiting directly behind a MAMIL, kitted-out absurdly in a matching skin-tight Rapha ensemble, one shoe clipped in, the other smacking the ground like a clog.

When one usually talks of the general insufferability of cyclists, one’s mind is typically drawn towards MAMILs. And sure, on country lanes where they fan out in a sort of cavalry charge formation, I sympathise. But in London, they are harmless. More than that, actually. Knowing some of this species personally I really do hate to say it but - they represent the gold standard. Relaxed, competent, communicative, and sensible. If I was cycling behind someone, if I was a pedestrian crossing the road, if I was a car turning right, I’d want to see a MAMIL above any other type of cyclist.

The lights change and I slowly accelerate forward…

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Note this was originally posted on Substack here.

I’ve signed up to do the London to Brighton bike ride on Sunday 20th of June 2027. This is the first time I’ve taken part. I’m coming from West Sussex and looking at ways of getting to the start line on the day. I’ve seen the option for getting a coach and having your bike transferred to the start is that generally the best way of getting there?

Must be 4 or 5 I’ve had stolen now, and not sure what else i can do use a diamond rated lock and they cut through the bike stand at a tube station in the middle of the day 🤷🏻‍♂️

I've been considering getting a Vektron for a good while now, and was really inspired to gain more freedom in travel... unfortunately, I didn't realise how bad the bike theft scene was until I started reading some stuff up online!

This ebike is definitely one of the nicer ones and I just know taking it around would always have such a huge risk of theft involved. I wanted to make it my ride around the city and cut off the use of public transport altogether unless necessary.

I haven't commuted before with a bicycle but wanted to get into the whole thing for better health and exploring.

I have read up on bike insurance and those diamond lock things, but is this whole thing still doable if you're going to be anxious 24/7 that your bike's going to get nicked by a rando with some freaky tools?

I wanted some advice on how people navigate this whole cycling life thing when there's constant stress of things getting stolen. I'd ideally try and keep it locked up in a shelter of sorts, but it upsets me that the fantasy of parking my bike with a lock and strolling into a cafe with no worry isn't really feasible like I'd thought.

The UK Highway Code requires drivers to leave a minimum distance of 1.5 metres when overtaking a cyclist at speeds of up to 30mph, and to give more space at higher speeds.

BBC are showing a video on their live report of Oxford St pedestrianisation of cyclists being told to dismount, and actively refusing.

I can understand why the road needs to be pedestrianised, but can't have bikes coming? Obviously, for now, the road is still physically there, but in the designs they'll be removing. There's more than enough room for a 2m cycle lane that still gives over most of the room for pedestrians.

It feels like we're going from one extreme to the other, and cyclists have been caught in the crossfire.

EDIT:: People are misunderstanding. I know what pedestrianisation is aiming for - car and cycle free. My point remains that people will continue cycling on it regardless, so is it a mistake not to include a dedicated space for cyclists? Unfortunately you can't force everyone off their bike, so people WILL cycle through it. I think we should have space for those people rather than trying to stop them doing they're going to do regardless.

For those who cycle into town for work, gym, or plans: where does your bike live while you’re there? Office bike store, street racks, station parking, something else? Are you happy with it, or is it a constant worry? Has anyone ever paid for secure parking, and was it worth it?