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Haha, we've had a BTOB wallgate, welcome to stairgate.
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Ahh thanks Marcomarcos, so it is International Way. I just looked at this on streetview and it looked a bit 'no you cannot come through here'
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=International+Way,+London+Borough+of+Newham&hl=en&ll=51.545401,-0.00939&spn=0.000667,0.001725&sll=51.528642,-0.101599&sspn=0.341745,0.883026&oq=international+w&hnear=International+Way,+London+E15+2DU,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.545567,-0.009434&panoid=hzdKS-hvMjnxrOxFq78v_w&cbp=12,88.12,,0,0
So is this an old streetview pic? Can I cycle up International Way to the DLR or shall I go to the end of Roundhouse Lane and walk through?Lovely day for a ride Fasih and Sacredheart, have fun and let me know how the Piccadilly line stretch goes.
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^Hello. I've been in Bristol for 2 weeks with zero cycling and my legs seem to have turned to jelly. The weather has been a bit too 'end of days' for my liking, but the guilty embarrassed looking weathermen and women seem to hint that from Sunday it might just be safe to go outside again.
Sunday may be a bit soon for me though as I've not written out the route notes for the remaining lines yet and I'm a bit busy this weekend, but I am going to be back on this next week. I've just bought a six pack of Tunnocks tea cakes, which together with last nights Magnum Classic 3 pack should provide ample route note cardboard for the upcoming lines.
I've done the Victoria line already but I'd be interested to here any comments on the Piccadilly line as the western section is mostly unknown to me. I think I'm going to do it all in one hit but have'nt decided if I'm starting out in Heathrow or Cockfosters yet.
I'm not 100% yet but I'm likely to do the District line and Hammersmith and City lines next. Likely to start in Richmond then up all the branches and then out to Upminster, and bag the Ham & City line on the way back. The best time for a pub break would be between the serious business of line tracing, so if anyone knows of any good pubs between Upminster and Barking I'd be grateful for any recommendations.
I don't think my phone battery will last long enough for me to do the Piccadilly line and Northern line in one day so they will be given a day each.
After MON mentioned the DLR and Overground I finally sat down and had a look at these yesterday, I've nearly finished the DLR route which looks do-able but finding road access to some of the stations is a tad tricky. Where the hell is the DLR entrance to Stratford International? On google maps I've looked at the roads as near to it as I can get, International Way (surely this is it right?-wrong.) Roundhouse Lane (Family Guy reference pending if its this one) and Hitchcock Lane, but can't see it anywhere. Where is the taxi pick up point, there must be one. Please god tell me I don't have to go into Westfield. It also has another river crossing so hopefully this time the ferry will be open.
And as for the Overground, eeek its mahoosive, and it goes to Watford again, groan. That one I will have to do in sections, it says its in 4 branch lines so I will probably do these individually and then splice the gpx's together.
Anyway by the end of Monday I hope to plot and have full directions for the remaining 4 standard tube lines and will post up on here. I'll then have a butchers at the weather forecast and try and pencil in days for them if anyone fancies joining me, but they will be re-arranged if its raining or hurricaning.
I'm off to the bike show in Excel today so may do a bit of DLR recce'ing.
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Merle Haggard's 'dealing with the devil' ?
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Watched 'ride the divide' last night, very good. Route looks great. Chapeau for trying this Gabes, well jealous, look forward to hearing how it goes, good luck.
@ Howard, I also noted the first major time lost mechanical was a blown seal on a lefty fork :)
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RIP Colonel Meow
What an amazing looking moggy, he's like an ewok, so cute.
Sorry to hear he's gone.
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Pub duly noted, rides so far have had a criminal lack of pub stops, this will be rectified on the remaining lines.
Scorpions in Ongar? Is that a TNRC legend? If its the rock band I hope for all of humanity they are still stranded there.
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In answer to my own question
http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php
Interesting stuff. If it has'nt got an above ground station entrance I'm thinking they don't count.
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What's a ghost station? As if there was'nt enough regular ones.....
Much to my surprise a few people have expressed an interest in coming on the later rides, for all or some of the sections. I'm up in Bristol at the moment, without a bike, *sob*and will be for at least another week. When I return I'm likely to do the District line and the Hammersmith & City line on the same day, and then the Northern line and Piccadilly line on different days. I'll finalise the routes, check for fair weather and then post on here, so if anyone wants to join me they can.
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I've just watched this, and for a regional ITV programme its bloody brilliant. Super cool, inspirational, heroic women, doing awesome cool stuff on bikes? Affirmative.
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Cheers. I was'nt including them at this stage, but the thought had crossed my mind. It will make it more complete. Its got to be worth it just to say, 'and now with added DLR'
Ha! and funnily enough I streetview recce'd Olympia today.
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Don't know if reep, but this deserves a place here
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Clissold+Park,+Green+Lanes,+London&hl=en&ll=51.555298,-0.093317&spn=0.000674,0.001725&sll=51.528642,-0.101599&sspn=0.341745,0.883026&oq=clissold+p&hq=Clissold+Park,+Green+Lanes,+London&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.555298,-0.093912&panoid=0LYKPqeZMH50YD2hzIE_wQ&cbp=12,253.73,,0,0 -
Its a bit lacking in views but for some awesome hedge action you have to look on google streetview at the cat hedge on the corner of Balfour Road, here:
I don't know if they are still cats, I went past it a few weeks ago and remember they are still sculpted, but can't for the life of me remember what of.
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There's some nice views, decent hedges complete with lamposts and bins at the top of Canonbie Road SE23
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Haha well thanks all, glad it caused some entertainment.
As for the great yazoo swindle, it was Northolt so I guess it was wilderness tax. I've never been out that far, for all I know there was just lost souls with no refreshment for miles, and having now ridden it I was'nt far off. I think it was an extra 45p well spent, sensible Ray Mears stuff.
To Ludd, I have'nt ever cycled the Mill Hill area so it was at least a recce, any station with 'hill' in the name signals approach with caution, thankfully it turns out to be no hors categorie climb. The Northern line has the only remaining hills, but they seem a lot closer to home, and won't seem like cycling to the Midlands like the Amersham run did. It sounds like a blessing that all the signs on route to Amersham did'nt include the 'on the hill' bit. I did'nt even check the route profile on the way out to Amersham, which was probably a bit over confident/stupid.
As for the poster, really? Yeah sure, I am broke moneywise but happy to help try and sort if anyone wants one. Its the bit I'm least confident about to be honest, so any help or suggestions with that more than welcome.
Ha I am single, but even it not it would'nt be divorce worthy would it, its only a weeks riding, whats a week? Maybe I'll meet the girl of my dreams in Morden, Cockfosters (don't go there) Upminster (best not to go here either), or Edgware (and relax).
The notes are real directions honest Doc, just your regular left handers god awful handwriting. Mostly just road names with left and right squiggles and roundabout signals. I have'nt got enough cardboard for points of interest! On reflection I should have included some 'shut up legs' additions.
I think you can you tell I have'nt figured out multi quote.
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is that your duvet cover? I like it.
yup, a few years old now, got it from Heal's.
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I posted in the 'tell us about your weekend ride' thread last weekend about my plans to cycle the London Underground network and plot all the gps trails on a single map, and make it into a poster for my wall . I'm as far behind modern tech as Buck Rogers so not sure how I'm going to do this yet, but this thread is to record the rides themselves and the evolution of the map from idea to reality.
So far Freezing77 has pointed me in the direction of Garmin Basecamp for adding multiple gpx tracks in different colours on the same map, and a mate also suggested having a play with scribble maps. I'd quite like to add in photos of the end of line stations too and maybe even a link to this thread, but to be honest I've not played with these much yet as there still seems lot of riding to be done, so the more technical tinkering will come later.
I'm going to copy the first post from last weekend here so its all in one place, this could be the longest TL:DR in history so if you're in a hurry or easily bored jog on by.
Over Chrimbo I decided that I'd like to re-do Harry Beck's famous tube map. Its too easy on the eye and not a true representation of where the stations are in relation to each other. I'm totally useless with the crayons so I shall 'draw' it by GPS tracking each line end to end, cycling to every station along the way. I then plan to upload them all onto one map, have the lines colour co-ordinated like the original, add in all the station names in a much messier fashion, probably in a font that will most people hate, and make it into a poster for my wall.
As it happens its a feck of a long way, lots of lines have seperate branches that I'll have to go down and back in order to 'draw' a continuous line. Some lines I've never even been on and parts of London I've never visited so it will be good for my London geography. My ridewithgps routes have the 11 lines with their 379 station come out at just under 430 miles, not including any or the riding to and from my house and from line to line. The total distance will depend on the order I do it, but I estimate it will be around 500 miles in total. This assumes I don't get killed to death by traffic, overcome with fumes or simply lose the will to live from visiting more train stations than the most nerdy trainspotter. This sounds like more of a summer project but its really mild for January so I thought I'd get cracking yesterday. This would be the biggest test yet of my Tunnocks teacakes scribed sat nav device, but I had an A-Z so as long as I did'nt get lost in the outer limits, ie off map, I'd be fine.
I've never done an audax but I reckon this would be a good audax, in a sort of horrific way. There's loads of control point options and plenty to see. And contrary to what you might think there's plenty of countryside too. I'm amazed I've never even noticed it but the Metrolpolitan line starts in Amersham, which is no word of a lie, north of Watford, which is also on the tube. WTF! How did this happen? I imagine a ye olde London Undergound meeting where a few people called in sick and the office temp wrote up the minutes incorrectly and the whole thing got approved without anyone realising the error.
Day 1- Saturday 18th January
So after 4 hours sleep (urgh) I got up at 5 yesterday and was out of the house at 6. First up was the Victoria line. 6am on Saturday morning at Brixton station is a bit like a scene from Shaun of the Dead, but I managed to escape in one piece.
Going through central London in the early hours is joy, and of all the lines this was probably the one I knew the route from end to end without needing any directions. As it happens I got a bit disconbobulated with the bloody one way system of Tottenham Hale but otherwise it was a good run.
So next up was the longest GPS route line of the lot, the Central line. Luckily it was still early so the drag strip out to Epping was not too busy but I was passed by a few cars along there that were doing well above 100mph.
I know Essex is flat and prone to flooding and with all the rain recently I was a little worried the Essex loop would have lots of flooded sections, but apart from plenty of puddles it was OK. I got carried away enjoying a descent down Bowes hill and went immediately off course before even getting to the 2nd station, and had to do a big loop to get back on track. Immedaitely after the 2nd station station Theydon Bois I missed another turning , grunting up an unneccsarry hill. After 2-3 miles my spider sense is tingling and I know I've gone wrong so decided to check map on phone. No reception, great, thanks for nothing technology. There is no option but to turn around and retrace my wheeltracks and I find my original route. There were a few sections along the A12 which I will try and erase from memory. Its so mild I'm in shorts, I left the house in trousers but was overheating by Green Park so spent nearly 12 hours in shorts in January, which has got to be some sort of record for me. I was getting some funny looks and on my way up Bethnal Green Road a white van man pulled up to tell me to 'put some fucking clothes on, its bloody winter you know' haha. Pfft it was about 9 degrees, positively roasting.Again the central London bits I know but beyond White City was unknown. Hanger Lane was predictably a clusterfuck, I hooned along the A40 for a bit too which was also the stuff of nightmares. As it was a pretend audax I thought I'd give it an air of authenticity by having a made up control on a garage forecourt.
West Ruislip arrived, and I discovered looks just as shitty as a great many other stations.
So onto the final leg, going to Harrow and Wealdstone for the final Bakerloo line leg back to civilisation.
Looks like my bike has wet itself in that pic.
North West London observations, the roads are shit, people in residential areas absolutely do not look before jumping into the road, honestly the bit around Harrow and Brent I must have had about 4 or 5 incidents of people almost stepping into my front wheel without even a hint of looking. So I am more than a little embarrrassed to discover that after berating the locals for their lack of vision I'm struggling to read my tiny written directions in the onsetting gloom, and it dawns on me that being over 40 I probably need my eyes testing. This is confirmed by struggling to read the index pages of the A-Z. All this means I take numerous wrong turns. Also maybe a funny thing to notice but the street lamps in Brent are quite dim, when I got to around Maida Vale the council must have invested in some swanky deluxe streety lights for the rich people as they were much brighter and I could nearly read the A-Z. I finally roll into Waterloo at 6.20, just over 12 hours after setting off.
I think I managed all of the 90 underground stations on this leg. I was covered in road grime which is a close to a tan as I'm going to get at this time of year. It turns out to be my longest singlespeed distance as including the 'transfers' it came in at 141 miles which I'm pretty pleased with for January. And amazingly despite cycling around London with a front tyre on its last legs I had no punctures. 3 lines down and 8 to go, but they're for another time, today I earned the day off.Victoria line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168039
Central line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168037
Bakerloo line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168035
Day 2 - Tuesday 21st January
As the weather is due to get colder and wetter and I'm away in Bristol next week, I thought I'd try and get a bit more of this done yesterday. I could'nt face getting up at 5am again so stayed buried under the duvet until 6.30am. After apprehensively pulling back the curtains I was glad to see it was dry, but was a little worried by the total blanket of fog, apart from ice probably the scariest of cycling weather. Wimping out of a ride in January because of a bit of fog when its usually so much worse seemed lame, so I had a stern word with myself and committed to the cause. I had 2 lines planned for the day and first up was to be the Jubilee line. I head out over to Stratford at 7.20am, a place that 10 years ago would have looked better in thick fog,.but thanks to the Limpics there's more to see now, although maybe not on this day
As the Jubliee line goes back and forth across the river way beyond any bridges, I planned to get from North to South on the Woolwich Ferry, then ride up to North Greenwich station, then come back to Canary Wharf on the Skyline cable car, and then back south through the Rotherhithe tunnel. I was a little crest fallen when I arrived at the ferry to see the road blocked with cones and a sign up saying Ferry closed, I guess due to the fog. The foot tunnel it is then, though it does'nt have the same feeling of adventure or resemble going on holiday like the ferry does. I was also a little worried that the gps would crash and make a mess of my plans but despite this I walked through the tunnel, I was the only 1, the other 3 cyclists I saw were all riding. Surely none of them were doing an important project like me so whats their excuse, I gave each of them my sternest dad-esque frown but said nothing, that showed them for sure, how very British.A quick check at the other side and the gps was still working, good karma I thought, those 3 cyclists must all have had punctures by now mwahaha. I headed onward along the river, looking forward to the cable car as I''d never been on it before. I'm sure the views are good on a clear day, but visibility was so bad I actually spent most of the 'flight' laughing out loud at the comedic lack of views. Feast your eyes upon, well nothing.
Then after the soulless sterile Canary Wharf experience it was through the Rotherhithe tunnel, I've driven it before but never cycled it. Verdict = fumes, lots of them. Probably not wise taking photos on the move but I could keep up with traffic thanks to the 20mph limit so it did'nt feel sketchy.
I got to Stanmore without so much as a wrong turn but was struck with a puncture in Dollis Hill, clearly as punishment for bragging about not having any on Saturday. I was feeling really lethargic, everything seemed more of an effort than usual, maybe I had'nt fully recovered from Saturday. I think this contributed to the fact I forgot to take a photo at Stanmore. Oh well.
At this stage I did consider whether to leave it there for the day but I was already far from home and I've got to do it sometime, so I may aswell get it over with, so it was on with the next leg, the Metropolitan line. As already mentioned I was shocked it goes out as far as Amersham, in fact the next stop Chatham is even further north. So to describe either of these as being part of the Londinium 'Metropolis' is frankly taking the piss. And it did seem odd seeing the underground logo this far out in the sticks, as if someone had been guerilla sign installing.
The section out to Amersham was pretty hilly and draining on a singlespeed and the roads were really greasy, on one short climb after repeated rear wheel slips when out of the saddle I had to dismount and walk, points deducted. I took a wrong turn at a roundabout in Rickmansworth but corrected it and was otherwise on course. I was relieved to get to Amersham, albeit pretty knackered, and I still had 60 miles of the actual Met line to go.
The ride back was a slog, getting to Harrow on the Hill and then having to turn and go all the way to Uxbridge and back was a low point, not helped by the fact its such a boring part of town to ride around and is not very cycle friendly.
I was slow but I made it, but I was spent, I've not been that tired on a ride in ages and I don't think I'll ever be so pleased to see Aldgate ever again. In my exhausted daze I forgot to take a photo in Aldgate. Like Stanmore this grates with me, and at the risk of being OCD I may go and get of photo of in the dark at a later date, but if I do I know I'll have to go and get the Stanmore one too. I got back home at 7pm after 131 miles for the day. It felt like more. I ate a mountain of food and had one beer and was fast asleep by 9pm. I slept right through till 7am this morning, I don't even think I moved in the night, I woke up with a totally rogue left arm. It was my longest sleep in ages so I obviously needed it.Day 3 January 22nd January
Today was due to be another dry day so I hoped to do some more, but with the exertions of yesterday and to prevent me developing the swollen arse of a baboon, I thought I'd have an easy day of it. So an afternoon start and just two short lines today with a total of 40 flat miles. To start with they don't get any easier than the Waterloo and City line as it has just 2 stops.
Then it was across town to Edgware Road for the Circle line
This was a nice and nearly uneventful line apart from coming within inches of being taken out by a non-indicating U-turning minicab just past the Russian embassy on Bayswater road, I unleashed a tirade of pleasantries at the driver, oh no hang on I did'nt do that, this time my British reserve deserted me.Not having the 'knowledge' of a cabbie, doing this without a satnav is a bit of a mission. Although my central London knowledge is alright I don't trust myself to not miss any stations and I don't want to do any lines again. Also regular consulting of the A-Z is too time consuming, so to be sure I'm writing most of the route out turn by turn, apart from the dead cert bits. Besides, doing this and consulting maps was what all cyclists did before satnav. So its a long process of planning on ridewithgps and then looking on streetview at any junctions you're not 100% clear about, or for some road markers to indicate points near turn offs. So far my directions have served me pretty well considering the scope for error in such a massive urban and cough rural playground. To give you an idea here's my notes from the lines so far
Each row is a tube line in the order I've done them. As you can see this needs more Tunnocks Tea cakes boxes than I can safely eat without fast onsetting diabetes, and having thrown away the Chrimbo cards a while ago I had to resort to raiding the cupboards and was cutting bits out of the full teabags and muesli boxes just to meet this rides cardboard requirements. (paper is too flimsy and dissolves in any moisture, a lesson I've learnt the hard way in the past)So 3 days in and I feel I've made a decent dent into this, I've got this far so I'm not stopping now. An achy arse is to be expected after spending all day in the saddle, but perhaps the most alarming physical side effect of the rides so far have been the bogies, sweet Jesus each day I'm excavating enough to start making small squidgy sculptures. I'm sure my lungs have taken a battering too, traffic collisions aside what the life expectancy of a courier I wonder, if they smoked too I think they'd be lucky to get to 50 without developing breathing difficulties.
There are some challenging lines to come, the alpine peaks of the upper Northern line, the sprawling reach of the multi-branch District Line, and probably the one I'm least looking forward to, the one with the most stops and the mind numbing tedium of the wasteland out around Heathrow, the Piccadilly line. These will have a to wait a few weeks until I'm back from Bristol, so I hope we get all the winter out of the way in the next 10 days or so and its nice and mild when I return. I am affording mysef the luxury of not doing this if its pissing it down with rain so if it rains until July so be it.
Victoria line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168039
Central line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168037
Bakerloo line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2168035
Jubilee line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2179359
Metropolitan line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2179362
Waterloo and City line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2181152
Circle line http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2181146
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No reply, I guess the mods are dealing with more pressing matters, I've been getting lots of 504 gateway errors today.
I'm going to start the thread in general for now and if that deemed wrong I'm sure it will be moved.
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Wow, the 100% chocolate diet, how has this escaped worldwide acclaim? It sounds like the diet to end all diets.
100% cocoa-solids chocolate. Most people can eat no more than a small amount of that, which removes the risk of you just nomming the whole bar. But your body gets the signal that you've eaten something rich. Works for me, anyway.
There is also something to be said for learning not to satisfy hunger pangs immediately, if you can do that without being driven to distraction. I get very cranky when I'm hungry in a situation where I have no option to stay hungry (i.e. in a boring meeting), but can ignore hunger when I know I could go eat something.
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Love the website, Clark Kent and Lois Lane's Daily Planet pales into insignificance compared to Universe today.
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Thanks Matt, well it takes a brave man to admit to being a train spotter, and you're not in the closet now, your secret is out!
The underground has seemingly endless amazing stats that even the non-train spotter types can appreciate. I actually hate trains, well not the trains themselves, more like the operators, as I seem to have gad more than my fair share of rail misery over the years.
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Hi mods, I did'nt want to clutter up the weekend ride thread so just wondered if i want to make a thread about me riding the tube network and making a map from the gpx track which section would this go in? Rides and races, general, or misc? It will contain ride reports intitially and then look at various applications and technological stuff beyond my knowledge to try and turn it into a poster.
I may incorrectly have assumed that asking first was better, rather that just starting the thread anywhere and letting the great mergatron sort it.
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blushes Thanks all. Will probs start a thread after the next installment, it would be good to get advice on turning it all into a final map.
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Thanks Oliver. I like that map, thats kind of what I was after, I want a true reflection of the messy London sprawl, but thats easy just printing that, it has extra value as a poster if I actually ride it. Ideally I want it to be overlayed onto a google maps type background, detailed enough to see the street names but not sure how to do this yet, or what size the poster may end up, it could be huge.
The GPS won't work on the underground lines as you say but I wondered if it was possible to get an idea of where the lines go as apparently they do not go straight. I suspect TFL may think I was a terrorist if I asked for it. Wiki mentions they had to get permission in the olden days and if it was'nt granted they had to dig around, there's some crazy kinks and near right turns around Bank so it says.
Tott Hale still looks like there's lots of road works going on so whatever they are doing its far from complete, I did find the signage there useless.
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^Ooof more than your fair share of drama there, but you got back home unscathed and dealt with the unexpected so it still counts as an adventure.
And bah humbug a garmin helps but is not essential, embrace the tunnocks retro method! Its done me well so far, and of course you get a choc, biscuit and marshmallow bonus, but you can deny it gives any personal gratification (lies) and claim to having to eat teacakes for navigational purposes.
I'm just waiting to hear back from Nic on his availability but have done routes for District and Hammersmith and City lines which I plan to do together, either tomorrow or Friday, starting in Richmond and ending at Hammersmith, which including the ride out to the start should be around 100 miles. And weather permitting I plan to tackle the cols of the Northern Line at the weekend.
Anyone that fancies coming and playing with the traffic pm me and we can arrange meeting up times, exchange numbers etc. I'm happy to meet people on route if you don't fancy all of it. I'm trying to only add the final rides on here not the planned routes as I'm bound to go a bit wrong and it will make much mess and confusion, but I have gpx's of the remaining routes so if you have garmin and want to come along pm me and I'll ping over the gpx files.
I'll confirm if next leg is tomorrow or Friday later today.