London by bike

A bike, Google Maps and an iPhone are all you need to explore our great capital city

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One of the great things that my bikes have done for me is really open up London. Anywhere within a 20-mile radius of my house is in striking distance, without having to find a route by public transport.

Kenwood House in Hampstead.
Photo by IdoruKnits.

And it’s so easy. All I do is think of somewhere I might like to visit and look it up on Google Maps. Using the bike directions service, I programme the route into my phone, which then attaches to my handlebars, and just follow the blue line. It isn’t perfect, sometimes the route updates rather slowly and I end up missing a turning, and when it’s sunny it’s impossible to see the screen until I cycle through a shaded bit. But it mostly works and it’s mostly great.

What’s really nice about cycling is that the journey becomes part of your day out

So far my adventures have taken me to Victoria Park, an exhibition of bugs made from rubbish at Pitfield Gallery, Kenwood House and Highgate. I’ve also got plans to visit Mudchute City Farm, Greenwich Park, Rye Meads RSPB reserve and Richmond. Tate Modern is within easy reach, which I’ll probably combine with a walk to Borough Market. I always choose places with nice cafes or pubs, where I can have a sit down and a spot of lunch.

I’ve got a couple of favourite shorter rides too. One to Stoke Newington via Walthamstow Marshes and one to the Butler’s Retreat on the edge of Epping Forest. This weekend I'm planning a trip to Battersea Park via Victoria Park, along the Lea River and Hertford Union Canal.

Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.
Photo by IdoruKnits.

What’s really nice about cycling is that the journey becomes part of your day out. My ride to Kenwood House took me past a stunning art deco cinema that I would never have seen had I not been on the bike. The ride to Victoria Park takes me along the River Lea and through Walthamstow and Hackney Marshes – it’s almost like being in the countryside.

I’ve started taking photos while I’m out and about, sharing them on Instagram and Twitter (I'm idoruknits on the former and @IdoruKnits on the latter if you want to find me). I hashtag them #londonbybike and I’m hoping to get others doing the same - wouldn’t it be great to share all our photos of our bike trips in the city? So next time you’re cycling somewhere, take some shots and Tweeting! Remember the hashtag, though, so that I can search for your photos.

Beautiful Rhododendron in the gardens
of Kenwood House. Photo by IdoruKnits.

A new bike and some delivery woes

It was only a matter of time till I bought a road bike, but I didn’t expect actually getting hold of it would be quite so traumatic …

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I love my hybrid – Millicent has been there for me through all weathers and on all terrains, on short rides and long(ish). But I’ve been hankering for a road bike for a while, ever since I got back on a bike really, so it was only a matter of time till I gave in to that desire.

I’ve been sporadically checking out the ladies’ road bikes on Wiggle, searching for one I like the look of. I didn’t want to spend too much – certainly not as much as £1,000 – which cut down my options quite considerably. There was a 2013 model Bianchi bike (the Women's C2C Nirone 7 Dama Sora), but that was £800, and I decided that my limit was £700. The bike was beautiful, but I wasn’t about to break my budget.

This was back in January and I’d been looking for something as lovely ever since. In March I came across the Felt Women’s ZW100 2014. Metallic grey with hot pink highlights, this had to be the bike for me. Even better it only cost £599 – a whole £100 under my upper spend limit. What’s more, my brother (The Cyclist) receives a 12% discount from Wiggle, so ordering it through his account saved me just under £72!

Metallic grey with hot pink highlights, the Felt Women’s ZW100 2014 had to be the bike for me

Unfortunately I then had to wait till the end of April for the bike to be delivered. I don’t know why it took so long. The other frame size was just a couple of weeks, so I’m guessing that the size I needed had completely sold out and Wiggle was waiting for more to be manufactured.

So I waited for the rest of March and throughout April, until I received an exciting text from Wiggle saying the bike would be delivered on 18 April. This confused me somewhat as that was Good Friday, a bank holiday. But I figured that courier companies don’t necessarily stop work because it’s Easter, and even if the office staff weren’t in the drivers might still be out and about.

And that's when everything started to go wrong. It's quite a long tale, and I'm going to recount it exactly as it happened so you can draw your own conclusions. If you're in a hurry, though, you might want to skip to the end.

You had one job
Good Friday had been designated gardening day, so we plugged the doorbell ringer in the kitchen so we’d hear it and went about our business. By 6pm nothing had arrived and I sadly had to accept that I wasn’t going to get my bike in time to ride it over the Easter break. I emailed the courier company, UK Mail, hoping there might be someone in on the Saturday to answer it. No such luck.

My brother then received an email from Wiggle saying the bike would be delivered on Tuesday 22 April. Great – except that there wouldn’t be anyone at home that day. In fact there wouldn’t be anyone at home till the following Friday. But of course I could just go online and change the delivery date using the consignment number that Wiggle had provided. Except I couldn’t. UK Mail still had the delivery date as the 18th and wouldn’t let me change it to the 25th.

I emailed them again, asking for the delivery date to be changed. No response. The delivery driver phoned on the 22nd saying he couldn’t deliver the bike. He put a card through the door and went away. Which meant I could now use the card number to rearrange delivery for Friday. That evening I happily went online, entered the card number into UK Mail’s automated system and … it still had the delivery date as 18th, and I still couldn’t change it.

By this time I was pretty pissed off, and I contacted Wiggle asking if they could sort something out. I also tweeted a couple of quite angry comments to UK Mail’s Twitter account. The following morning I got up early to phone UK Mail as soon as they opened. I spoke to a lady there who, after a couple of attempts – her system crashed every time she tried to do something; not exactly confidence inspiring – said delivery had been rearranged for Friday. I went off to work happy that everything was sorted. I even considered contacting Wiggle again to tell them it was all OK.

Mid-morning, however, I got call from a chap at Wiggle, who was very apologetic. He'd phoned UK Mail and it turned out that the bike was down for delivery that day – Wednesday, not Friday after all. He'd managed to get it changed to the 25th. Come Friday I wasn't convinced the bike would turn up so I asked The Chap for photographic evidence when (if) it did. And at 12.52 the image below arrived.

What could be in the box? A bike, obvs.

Friday evening was dedicated to giant box opening and attaching pedals and handlebars to Florence. The rest of weekend was dedicated to stroking and testing out Florence. I never did receive a reply to my emails from UK Mail.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Florence. 

Review: Shimano Women’s WM34 Touring Cycle Shoes

I test out my first-ever cycling-specific footwear; are they worth the cost?

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Why buy cycling-specific shoes? Well, for those of us terrified at the very idea of clipless pedals – attach your feet to the pedals? What if you lose your balance and don’t unclip in time? – it’s really about power and protection.

The shoes have much stiffer soles than normal footwear, and this transfers more of your pedalling effort directly to the pedals. The more rigid soles and tougher uppers also provide more protection for your feet, which is especially important for anyone cycling on the road a lot. I hadn’t really considered the need for special footwear until I decided to do the London to Cambridge. After some 60 miles of cycling I might appreciate having the right shoes.

I noticed the extra power immediately. For me this translated to higher gears, giving me lots of extra speed. My commute is now under half an hour, and that’s got to be a good thing – a shorter commute means longer in bed! I’m sure I must be burning calories, as well as miles, more quickly, too.

I noticed the extra power immediately – and I’m sure I’m burning calories, as well as miles, more quickly

I love the look of these shoes. Dark grey with pink highlights, they look like trainers. I wanted shoes that I could wear off my bike as well as on, and this pair definitely fulfil that criterion. The hard soles do make walking a bit difficult; you wouldn’t want to go very far in these, but for transitioning between the bike racks and the office, or even popping out to the shops during lunch time, they’re fine. As you’d expect, they’re perfectly comfortable to cycle in.

It did take me a while to get used to wearing these. Those thick, hard soles meant I wasn’t getting the same ‘feedback’ from the pedals as when wearing my usual light walking shoes. I felt I had less control, like my feet were more likely to slip off. This didn’t happen and I feel fine with them now.

The list price is £64.99, but I qualify for a discount with Wiggle and got the shoes for £57.19. Compared to some other pairs out there, this is cheap, but it’s still a tad more than I was planning on paying. However, I do think the shoes have improved my cycling and I’m pleased with my purchase.

Price: £64.99
Available from: Wiggle
Disclaimer: this product was bought and paid for by me

Review: Muc-Off Bike Care Essentials Kit

Winter rain makes keeping your bike clean essential. Find out what I thought of this kit from Muc-Off

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As an all-weather, all-seasons cyclist, my bike tends to get pretty mucky, and obviously I want to keep it as clean and shiny as possible. I had been using just soap and water, but this wasn’t really up to the job. Roads in winter tend to be quite oily and it wasn’t easy to get the layer of black off my bike, especially the wheels.

The kit in full. Cleaner, protector, brush, sponge and tote
bag to keep it all together. Photo by Idoru Knits.

That’s where Muc-off’s Bike Care Essentials Kit comes in. The package includes a sponge, a wheel and component brush, a Nano Tech bike cleaner and an after-clean bike spray, which protects and shines, and it comes with a tote bag to keep it all together. This all represents the first two parts of a three-part programme; the third, lube, is sold separately, and all elements in the kit can be bought separately too.

It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier

It’s really easy to use, especially if you have a garden hose. Just wet your bike, spray it all over with the cleaner and then leave for a few minutes. Give it a good going over with the brush and sponge and rinse it all off with the hose again. Then spray with the bike spray to get rid of excess water and help protect against grease.

It works, too. It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier. The bike spray really does help keep your bike clean between washes. You do use an awful lot of the cleaner, though. About a quarter of the bottle each time, so just four uses until you need a replacement, costing £8.50. There are various other kits to buy, however, which might save you some money.

My only real criticism is the sponge, which after just two uses has started to fall apart, with bits coming off. This is because I used it on the wheel spokes, so possibly my own fault, but I would have expected a sponge meant for cleaning bikes to hold up when attending to the spokes.

The sponge has unfortunately already started to fall apart.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Cost: £25
Available from: Muc-Off
Disclaimer: this product was bought and paid for by me

New bike alert

I’m looking to upgrade, and this is what I want

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I think it’s safe to say that in just a short time I’ve become something of a cycling convert. I’ve had an awful lot of use out of my little hybrid. Commuting to work most days as well as heading out for rides on Sundays, through rain or shine (mostly rain!).

When The Chap bought me this bike we deliberately went for a cheap model as I had no idea if I’d carry on cycling – we didn’t want to spend hundreds of pounds just for the bike to end up in the shed for the next two years before getting Freegled. I also particularly wanted a hybrid so that I could use it for both commuting and for cycling along the River Lea towpath if I so wished.

At £599 this is apparently an entry-level road bike, although 600 quid sounds quite expensive to me

But now I feel it’s time to move on. I’ve always loved road bikes, or racers as I called them when I was a kid. After doing some research and trying out some bikes, including the very lovely Bianchi Women's C2C Nirone 7 Dama Sora, I have made my decision: the Felt Women’s ZW100. At £599 this is apparently an entry-level road bike, although 600 quid sounds quite expensive to me.

The bike has been specially designed for female riders and made for comfort, with a ‘relaxed geometry’, which allows a more upright riding position than some road bikes. This means it should be ideal for regular commuting.

I’ll be ordering the bike after payday (end of the month!), and will of course blog about it when it arrives.

The Felt Women's ZW100

Review: Craft ladies’ performance bike stretch jacket and dhb ladies’ merino zip neck base layer

The winter weather has really tested my cycling kit this month. Find out what I thought of my new jacket and base layer

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The last couple of weeks have provided me with the opportunity to really test out my winter cycling wardrobe. While this winter on the whole has been really rather mild, the last couple of weeks have included at least one very cold day and lots and lots of rain.

The base layer
When I took the dhb base layer out of the packaging my first reaction was “This is too nice to keep as a base layer – I could wear it to the pub!” The fit is absolutely spot on and I love the bright raspberry colour (it’s also available in grey).

The merino mix fabric is so light and thin it seems impossible that it could keep you warm, but so far I’ve mostly only needed the base layer and my winter jacket. In fact I’ve only twice had to wear another layer. It’s also incredibly comfortable to wear, and I speak (type?) as someone with very sensitive skin.

The dhb base layer. Love this colour.

The top is great at keeping you toasty while wicking away sweat. Unlike my other (cheaper) ones it doesn’t start to smell sweaty after a couple of outings, which is a bonus. I tend to push myself pretty hard on the bike, so yes, I do sweat, and I don’t want to start smelling a bit musty after just a couple of rides, or be constantly washing my kit.


My only gripe is the lack of choice regarding colour. All women’s cycling kit seems to be either pink or black/dark grey. Now I actually like pink, but that doesn’t mean I want everything I wear to be in this colour, and I don’t really want to be head to toe in black either. The combination of black leggings and top is just too ‘mime artist’ for me. A nice purple or turquoise would just add to the choices available.

The jacket
Combined with my Craft ladies’ performance bike stretch jacket, I haven’t really needed any other layers this winter. The jacket got a proper testing a couple of weeks ago, when, about halfway home, a light rain turned to a downpour of biblical proportions, complete with hail stones and high winds – I can reliably report that hail stones blown into the face while riding sting a lot.

By the time I arrived home my bottom half was absolutely drenched. In fact my shoes were still wet the next day, despite being left on a radiator all night. My top half, however, protected by the jacket, was completely dry.

By the time I arrived home my bottom half was absolutely drenched – my top half, however, was completely dry

It’s pretty hot in the looks department too: dark purple with turquoise stripes and silver light-reflective accents. I like long sleeves and the jacket doesn’t disappoint. The elasticated cuffs keep the wind out when I’m riding, but what I really like is the long ‘over-cuff’ which covers part of my gloves and provides an extra layer of warmth.

I’m generally not keen on tight clothing, so I’ve had to get used to the ultra-fitted look of cycling gear, and when I first put on this jacket I was a bit unsure. However, on the two occasions that I’ve had two layers on underneath it was fine. The fit is actually really good now that I’m more comfortable with the snugness of cycling clothing.

The Craft jacket. Sorry no photos of me wearing the clothes.
I tried but couldn't do it with my iPhone.

Both these items were given to me by family members as presents and were bought from www.wiggle.com; the jacket is no longer available.

Something to aim for

Never one to do things by halves, I’ve got a rather impressive goal in mind for cycling this summer

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In my last post I mentioned that I was thinking about a particular goal. Well anyone who knows me on Facebook might have noticed an announcement: I'm doing the London to Cambridge ride.

The ride takes place on 27 July, and I've managed to recruit a friend, the lovely Claire, to do it with me. She lives in Switzerland so we're going to set up an online training plan so we can share what we've been doing. It's about 60 miles, mostly over flat terrain. The ride starts at Pickett’s Lock along the River Lea, which is quite near home, and finishes at Cambridge's Midsummer Common. If the weather's nice it should be a lovely.

I've gone from not having even sat on a bike for about 20 years to being A Real Cyclist in just six months

I am, I admit, a bit apprehensive. I've only been cycling for six months, and so far the furthest I've been in one go is 16 miles. This was on Sunday (12 January), a ride from home to Enfield Lock and back along the River Lea tow path. It was really nice: no roads, lots of wildlife and a good distance for a Sunday ride. The important thing, however, is that I did it with ease. In fact I could have gone further. I'm pretty sure I could easily do 20 miles and probably do 25 at a push.

Training day
My training plan is to continue to cycle to work every day and then go on progressively longer rides at weekends. I’d like to be able to do 20 miles by the end of February and 40 by the end of May. This should mean I can do 60 miles by the end of July. But after Sunday I'm pretty sure I can already do 20 miles. I'm extremely pleased with myself about this. I feel like this is a real achievement – I've gone from not having even sat on a bike for about 20 years to being A Real Cyclist in just six months.

The ride is to support Breakthrough Breast Cancer, so I've got to raise some money. I'll be setting up a Just Giving page very soon. You can find out more about it all, and hopefully sign up, by going here.

The London to Cambridge ride: 60 miles of cycling fun.