Tell us about your weekend ride

^^Nice indeed, here's a bit of contrast in terms of busy roads....

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 lie north of Watford, which is also on the tube. WTF! How did this happen? I imagine a ye ole 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.

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 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 would have lots of flooded sections, but apart from plenty of puddles it was OK. I did go wrong early and missed a turn and did a totally unneccessary climb up Jack Hill that I'd have liked gears for, but turned around and found 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, 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.

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 step 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