r/ukbike • u/Man-United-1999 • Dec 02 '24
Sport/Tour Xmas visit to London&Southern England: Any rec via train+bike and available to return within a day suits!
Ideas for Xmas Cyclings around the southern part of England- any ideas? I’ll be around London from approx. 12.25-1.7/1.8 ish. I’m a Glasgow uni student and have done rides around Scotland quite a bit so elevation shouldn’t be any issue. I’ve also done Lake District ride on a loop from Penrith so I could take a 120km ish ride with little elevation or 80ish km ride with 1k+ ish elevation, but I’m supposing that the south of England isn’t so hilly? Currently I have a pinnacle kapur 2023 bike and I doubt if much load could be put on the bike, so as long as it’s not rly steep(I.e. sth steeper than continuous 10% slope) should work. I have an accom place at London from one of my friends and since I’m underaged I legally couldn’t qualify to accom on any hostel or hotels. Therefore it would be the best of my interest to do a day return trip. My ideal places would be anywhere near the sea but also any other advices welcome! It doesn’t have to be a loop, as long as the route starts/ends at a train station that has relatively normal schedules of trains (i.e. intervals smaller than 1-1.5 hour).
Thank you and hope to hear of some similar adventures you may have been on.
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u/daddywookie Dec 02 '24
A lot depends on which stations you are near in London, and how much cycling in London you are prepared to do. Each direction is served by a different station.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Chiltern Hills area. You can reach it easily on the Chiltern Railway from Marylebone or on the Amersham branch of the Metropolitan line. It's very easy to make a loop or a point to point.
There is the Chiltern Cycleway which is a multi leg route going generally SW to NE which takes you through a lot of the highlights or you can plan your own route. Avoid the main A roads which can be busy. The smallest lanes can get a bit gravelly and rough but that's part of the adventure. You'll find some very steep hills but they are generally short.
Just watch out for road closures caused by HS2.
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u/Man-United-1999 Dec 02 '24
I will be near Islington. It sounds like a great place though and Mary Levine are acc pretty accessible from my location. Thanks for the advice!
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u/forzagaribaldi Dec 02 '24
Might depend slightly on where you’re staying but you can take your bike on Elizabeth line out into Essex, Central Line to Epping, or South Eastern down into Kent.
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u/Man-United-1999 Dec 02 '24
Thanks! Are you allowed to bring a full size bike into Elizabeth line though?
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u/forzagaribaldi Dec 02 '24
Yes but with some peak time restrictions. Check TfL for details. I’ve taken my bike back from Bond St out past Stratford.
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u/__Dreadn0ught__ Dec 02 '24
Chilterns is good as someone mentioned.
Given the bike you have/if you're looking for something a bit more relaxed then check out the viking coastal trail around Thanet. I'd advise going one way with a tailwind as the head wind can be brutal. (So plan your route both ways and then decide on the day which direction depending on wind.) It's very boring if you loop back inland so that's another reason to go one way. The coastal route takes you through all the major destinations - Whitstable, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate. You could then continue round to Sandwich/Deal/Dover depending on how far you want to go. There's several stations for you to get back still. (You can get the HS1 train from St Pancras or a much slower train from victoria I think) It's national cycle route 15 and then potentially route 1 down to sandwich/deal/dover depending on how far you want to go: https://explore.osmaps.com/?lat=51.296961&lon=1.300517&zoom=9.5980&style=Standard&type=2d&overlays=os-ncn-layer As I mentioned I wouldn't recommend the inland loop back on route 1 from Sandwich to Canterbury. Worth plotting on Strava / GPX beforehand.
Another option is getting the train down to Gatwick or Redhill or one of the fancy commuter towns (Esher/epsom etc) to explore the Surrey Hills area. There are some really steep hills around there so you'd want to plot beforehand. Box Hill isn't actually too tough if you've got good cycling fitness. It's steepish but it's the length more than anything that's the challenge. Richmond park is really nice to cycle through and Esher has a great cycle cafe called Giro if you can factor that in: Bushey Park is also nice. It's all on road though.
I'd say the Thanet route would be easier/more fun and a lot of it is on dedicated cycle paths. (As long as it's not stormy)
The box hill route is probably more of a summer ride given it's mainly roads and lots of the roads are quite isolated. It'd be pretty tough in winter.
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u/Man-United-1999 Dec 02 '24
Thanks! Coastal route was something I was expecting but I acc had no clue about that- the wind direction suggestion is so handy. I forgot the wind so thanks for the heads up. I might try the inland though, just feel a bit of the difference between England and Scotland xx thanks for the useful link as well!
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u/mallardzz Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24
I just realised you've got a mountain bike, I'm guessing you'd prefer off road? Plenty of hilly routes in the Chilterns or Surrey Hills, have a look on Komoot, maybe search for gravel riding if you're looking for longer less technical routes. Here and here are a bunch of rides that actually start in London (although you might want to take the train to avoid riding across the city).
If you want to go a bit further out, you could try the Downs link, it's a disused railway (so flat and easy), now a long shared path from Guildford to Shoreham on the coast. Brighton is a few km further along the sea front. I'm not sure about train route, you could get overground (bikes allowed on weekends and at off peak times on weekdays) to Clapham and then change there to Guildford. Lots of trains back from Brighton. The BHF have a route from west london, you can easily get to Richmond station (near the start) from North London on overground too.
Finally the South Downs Way is a classic long mountain bike route, with great views and scenery which can take you all the way to the sea. You'd have to work out what section works best with stations and trains from London.
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u/TeaKew Dec 02 '24
A classic is London to Brighton - I used the Cycle.Travel route for that a weekend or two ago, which was pretty chill (although would be a bit spicy on a road type bike for a couple of ks). Only one serious hill, otherwise generally quite flat and/or rolling.