This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Sounds like you and Skully have a similar route... You should bribe him with something to get him to show you it.

I go from Lee in Lewisham up to the middle of Soho, I've just been going the OKR route because it's the most direct according to the googlemap route but any detours would be welcome. I don't find it all that bad really, from things I've read I thought OKR & E&C would be much much worse during rush hour....

Legs are already adapting to the exercise, I'm not really out of breath at all when I get to work/home, just sweating from the heat at the moment!

Already fed up of the sweaty bag back and strap lines on my top half, so ordered a large saddlebag and carradice bagman so I can say goodbye to the over the shoulder bag I'm currently using.

So nice to be out in the (not very fresh) air in the mornings, I can't ever go back to public transport commuting, when I used to do it on my old work commute it just made me so miserable for that first hour of being awake!

I walked to work today - 10 minutes - and I had a HUGE sweat patch on the back of my shirt. Some funny looks at work, because they all drive in inside air-conditioned cars by the look of the car park. Meh.

I'm always sweaty when I get to work....and when I'm at work....

You bleeding office types have it good. Harumph.

I work in an office and I'm sweating to, from and at. It's not all coke and hookers ya know?! :P

I work in an office and I'm sweating to, from and at. It's not all coke and hookers ya know?! :P

speak for yourself, the coke and hookers are what make me sweat.

I prefer to let them do the work..

It's not all sweetness and light? WTF IS that saying?

I've just moved to SE4/14 borderland and did my first new commute up to bloomsbury/holborn today. Took OKR from New X to Bricklayer's Arms then did Great Dover St (lovely bit of tarmac on that as SE beers bods will know) to Southwark St by way of Marshalsea and Southwark Bridge Rd, then over Blackfriars, left up that little cycle way to Holborn Circus and all the way along High Holborn. Got there in about 30 mins. Nice direct route, but I have to say coming back I noticed the terrible surface on OKR much more than in the morning.

I used to go up from southern end of Peckham Rye by way of Camberwell Green/Walworth Road/E & C and then over Waterloo Bridge. Queens Road/Peckham Road is a better surface than OKR no doubt, but it'd add another ten mins on the journey to go all that way west from New X before heading north from Camberwell. The only roads that provide a little shortcut are Southampton Way or Peckham High St/Trafalgar Ave, and they're all shocking surface wise.

Anyone ever gone through Burgess Park and up the middle of Walworth? I believe there's a numbered cycle route that goes that way...

If you go across the square by Peckham library there is the surrey canal path that takes you to Burgess park and OKR.

Need to pick your time in Burgess Park, personally happier on the road than in the Park.....

Already fed up of the sweaty bag back and strap lines on my top half, so ordered a large saddlebag and carradice bagman so I can say goodbye to the over the shoulder bag I'm currently using.

I'm normally OK for sweat except when I have bag. Was thinking of getting a bum bag as don't need a lot of storage but maybe saddlebag better.

Riding back home, I like crossing Lincolns Inn Fields, down the big swoop of Fleet Street and up to St Pauls cathedral, down Cannon St, over the bridge, left into Tooley St and then follow your nose all the way to Deptford/Greenwich, where you'd cut right and head into Lewisham probably. Jamaica Rd/Evelyn way has bus lanes but hardly any buses. As opposed to OKR which has about 487 bus routes you have to share the bus lanes with.

Going in, maybe not so good. Traffic gets tight in the run-up to London Bridge.

One option for when the foot tunnel isn't fucked is go to Cutty Sark, dive through the foot tunnel to Island Gardens, up the Isle of Dogs to Limehouse DLR, behind the station and then there's a little jink behind a church takes you neatly to Limehouse Basin which leads you along Spirit Quay right to the north side of Tower Bridge without ever touching a road. It's beautiful along there - best bit of commute I have ever done.

If you're interested, drop into SE beers sometime and I'll show you.

If you go across the square by Peckham library there is the surrey canal path that takes you to Burgess park and OKR.

I've never found that one. Nice!

scurries off to check maps

that path is nice. not sure I'd take it in the dark though...

Yeah will deffo come to SE beers at some point soon, trying to drag flatmate along too :D

But will have to give the Bermondsey/Surrey Quays/Deptford route a go going home when i'm in the mood for an adventure next.

Joni showed me that path last night on the way to se's it's awesome, although I worry about going down it quite as fast as she was! :)

How was it?

I had a bloody dreamy time, working in Oxford and staying in a little Village about 12/15 miles away meant a leisurely ride along singletrack paths right into the heart of the city. What days like today were made for & definitely beats Stoke Newington to High St Kensington...

Mine was good, but then I left pretty late. I rode to London Fields and then took the canal to the Isle of Dogs which I do when I'm running late, lovely day for it. Marred only by the repetitive clink from my BB.

In my first 400 yards I had a car pull out across me and stop dead blocking the lane so they could join oncoming traffic, A woman who not being able to see due to the low sun merely covered her eyes with her hand and continued to step out right in front of me as I was about to pass through the junction, immediately after a bendy bus pulled out on me from the bus garage under deptford bridge dlr blocking all lanes completely. the rest of my commute continued in much the same vein with a potential 'incident' every half-mile or so.

oh i miss cycling around oxford, have very good memorys from getting up at 4am and cycling from wantage into oxford to see the may day celibrations.

Commute today is going to be savage, blowing a gale in the wrong direction and i just know the wind will have stopped when i finish at about midnight so i won't even get a push home! Serves me right for moving to sweden, good cycle paths though.

There's some great cycling in Oxfordshire. Dracula, where do you commute from?

I nearly puked on my handlebars.
Mach 5 Hypersonic on the flat.

@Booga - my friends live just past Witney - so I rode through South Leigh, Eynsham and Farmoor... It was sweeeet

@Booga - my friends live just past Witney - so I rode through South Leigh, Eynsham and Farmoor... It was sweeeet

Lucky! That's a nice area. Reminds me of the countryside in the Mint Sauce cartoons in MBUK! :)

There were a lot of numpties. But it were a great ride, even though I came through Vauxhall - my least favourite junction.