Just had a lovely Sunday ride with my gf as we've both became cycling lunatics over the year and coming home to this video was just the icing on the cake! Always here to support this lovely gem of a channel!
Yup, definitely became a lot more chilly over the last few days but today's full day of sunshine was unmissable for a Sunday ride out! P.S: What's your honest opinion on which London borough has the best cycle network as of now?
Thames bank after the brewery does tend to flood, though only really a problem on the spring tide I think. It used to smell great down there when brewing.
in the high tides this week and the extra Storm Ciarán outflow - the Duke Meadows footbridge / cycle bridge was actually under water! it looked like it wasn't too deep and still passable on a bicycle - depending on how precious your bike is!
Gt video - must have been very recent as I had 'nagged' both Richmond and Hounslow Councils for a couple of years to sweep Chiswick Bridge and they finally did last week!! But there is already a new pothole on A316 which causes grit/gravel to be chucked up on the the cycle path annoyingly. If people do Water Lane in reverse in Mortlake it is worth knowing that after the tide has been up there is a lot of mud and the corner can be seriously dangerous, making falling highly likely (I know as it happened to me.). Plus that you might come off the slipway from the bridge to find the tide is up so the road is impassible and there is an alternative route. Also people might want to know that Dan Mason drive Sats and Sundays is very busy w parents who drive their kids to sport so to be really careful on the corners. Finally along Chiswick Mall the tide might be fully up and again it is not possible to cycle along there. Thanks.
Thanks Ruth this is all great local knowledge! and yes I shot it on my day off on Wednesday so very recent. I didn’t realise Thames Bank flooded so regularly, that’s definitely something I should have mentioned!
I do sometimes cycle through the water if I can see that it's not too deep! After the golf and ski club there's a hockey club (on the corner) and a rugby club (opposite the right turn to the new bridge)
I do too but at times of the year it is really too deep and the corner by the pub in Mortlake has a lot of mud which is so risky to cycle over/through. Also in reverse avoid the tiny cycle lane at the western most end of Chiswick Mall as that gets full of mud. @@fToo
@Londoncycleroutes only if it continued to kensington and on to central, I have heard its coming but it'll be an advisory lane and not segregated as it should be.
🤙🏼 *Quite a nice new bridge!* 🤙🏼 Amazin how much if this is "hidden" That cyclist at 11mins 30secs, he didn't even look behind before jumpin into the bike lane, right in front of you 😱 what a ****.
great video, and good to see a brief sensible contra flow rebellion. word to the wise on the junction at 13.18, the timing of the bike and car lights is a little off, the bike light goes amber whilst the cars are also still getting an amber light. so if you are quick off the mark and a driver accelerates to get through before the red it's a disaster waiting to happen.
That’s good local knowledge on the lights, will keep that in mind. I really hope they sort out the contraflows because it would be so easy and make such a difference. And people are already going that way!
The irony of the lack of contra flows is that there are quite a few in that area already, but on a specific LCN route rather than just a blanket exemption. Time to rectify that!!!
Yes it’s odd- I think actually even weirder the specific LCN route has an asymmetrical route in either direction… and some of the contraflows have nothing to do with it!
I watched the vid just to see old haunts. I lived in London from April '67 till May '89. and from early '74 I was in Chiswick, then from about '78 I was in a road off the top of Hammersmith Grove. Watching the vid I felt like a ghost whizzing along roads I knew well but find difficult to recall now. I didn't cycle - I drove or walked. It all looks much more pedestrian and cycle friendly now, which is deffo good. The only bit I really recognised was Shepherds Bush Green, but that'd changed a lot too. That was a great route you took us on, and if I was decades younger and lived in West London I'm sure I'd find it very useful. But I'm in a lil village in the countryside, and I couldn't stand the bustle of city life now, though there are bits of the vid that feel intimate, quiet or quietish, and countrified. London is still an amazing place.
That is fascinating - thank you for joining me on the ride and I hope it jogged some memories! That’s really interesting about it being a bit more pedestrian these days and how unrecognisable everything is
Excellent vid, thank you! I spotted that new footbridge from the other side of the river in Barnes a month ago as I was cycling from Kingston along the Thames Path to Wandsworth. I’d marked the spot on Google Maps to return and investigate and so your video is extremely timely. If you begun your journey a little further East along the river bank in Mortlake you’d have see the plaque marking the site of the house of the C16th mathematician, astronomer, alchemist & magus John Dee.😊 Your description is spot on - it does look like some transplanted from Copenhagen! We need more structures like this along the Thames and also on the Wandle river at Earlsfield.
Lovely work and a very reasonable route. From out here where the distances and gradients are greater, my visits to friends in Mortlake before we had kids, give me a greater appreciation of your product. Meanwhile, I'm working on our LTP in a voluntary capacity and pushing for rural routes (behind the hedge) to link Shrewsbury with the many small towns and villages for those able to leave the car on the drive.
Best of luck- I’ve lived in a similarly rural area before and cycling could be a fantastic mode between and around villages but currently is so under served!
Loved all except Hammersmith King Street, which I'm familiar with as a pedestrian. Just too manic for me to handle as a cyclist imprinted with being on the other side. Route along the Thames was superb! And the rest was great to wonderful. I'd love to do that trip, albeit walk my machine along King Street...which would bring back memories and be very interesting anyway. Watching your channel is not only stimulating, it's therapy!
in case you don't know, you can actually continue beside the Thames (past the Dove pub and through Furnivall Gardens) ... and then use the traffic lights to cross the A4 under the Hammersmith Flyover and into Bridge Avenue ... which brings you onto King Street opposite Primark ... or you could even use Angel Walk and Black Road to get to the Hammersmith Gyratory without using King Street at all
Really interesting! There are definitely lots of pedestrians and you need to keep and eye out… personally I just go slow to make sure I can stop if someone jumps out
at the mortlake brewery, they are currently filming "A Thousand Blows" the new Stephen Graham and Stephen Knight series for Disney Plus, sometimes they are filming on the tow path.
I had always reached Shepherd's Bush by going down Glodhawk Road. That's a much nicer route. Super excited for the CS9 extensions into Brentford and darkest Hounslow
Interestingly, in France, the equivalent of 20mph zones on one way streets automatically allow contraflow cycling by law. This has caused some issues with the generalisation of 20mph areas across entire cities though with some orders going in place in some cities to ban contraflow cycling where it would be dangerous, but contraflow on 20mph one-way roads is very much the rule rather than the exception!
I'm amazed no one has yet pointed out that I misspelt Shepherd's Bush in the title card at the beginning of the video. I'll consider that having got away with it!
I guess everyone is being polite and not mocking you..... (FYI, I have only got round to watching this today. I was tempted to ask for help finding Sherperd's Bush on google maps. LOL). The bridge was opened in January this year.
Just found your channel, i am looking to ride from Lincolnshire to West Sussex via London, so a suitable North to South route through London would be great.
Sounds fun! For this one I think best check the map of past routes in the link below the videos and there will be a few ways of doing it, take your pick!
thanks for this route, i've tried to cycle a number of times around that area and it's tricky with the amount of private roads and chancers who try to limit people's enjoyment of the riverside. as the light fades, would you be able to discuss cycling routes with good lighting throughout?
@15:27 if you're heading for the east end of Shepherd's Bush Green (Central Line / Overground / Westfield), instead of going (the wrong way) down Blyth Road, you can go straight on into Addison Gardens ... and then bear left into Richmond Way ... and at the end there's a lane up to the main round, which brings you to the traffic lights if you want to cross to the north side
@@Londoncycleroutes yeah - it's a confusing sets of roads. i cycle through here regularly, and often have to get out my phone to work out which way i need to turn!
@8:08 i suspect the reason for the huge roundabout is that double decker buses use it to effectively do a u-turn at the end of their route ... and some of the drivers don't like cyclists ... but it doesn't happen too often here
For anyone who remembers playing Top Trumps supercars card game, the Lamborghini Countach was the winning car/card you wanted to hold !! sleek design, awesome performance .... long before the rise of the Tesla... @@Londoncycleroutes
@11:44 sometimes the cars turn across the cycle lane after clearly seeing the cyclists! LB Hounslow put a lot more money into the Chiswick section of the cycle lane to encourage car drivers to behave considerately. the section further east (outside Hammersmith town hall building site) is particularly sketchy at present, but should improve once the works are (finally) finished.
My understanding of Road Traffic law is that there has to be a regulation (or some other written device) that imposes a legal requirement to comply (no parking, or no entry, for example). Changing a one way street to 'except bikes' is more than just putting up a cheap sign, sadly. The lawyers have to get their cut!
yes, they do have to publish a traffic regulation order, but in the grand scheme of things it's not a lot - under £5,000 or so to cover the legal fees, staff costs etc as I understand it
I love your latest video. Your wouldn't be very popular with the people with Conservative party, as they are Anti any further Low Traffic neighbourhoods and anything to do with active travel including cycling. Question what public cycle parking is there in the Shepherds Bush area?
I think that should be "some people with the Conservative party". I know some Tories who are perfectly happy with LTNs, cycle paths and 20mph residential zones - in fact they've campaigned for some of them in the past. The current "culture war" and "war on motorists" nonsense hasn't quite seeped into all the corners of the Conservative party quite yet.
They’re certainly keeping that quiet if it’s the case- I didn’t see any signs and there’s lots of council statements and documentation saying it’s for cyclists too, including the leader of the council this year when it opened