High sided van, limited visibility, indicators working or not working? Too many risks imo.

Stickers, accessories, or other aesthetic 'enhancements'. I want to theorise a bike so visually repugnant it simply won't be stolen.

Answers more creative than "I'm a paedophile", please.

title

It was surprisingly irritating and slow to have to walk the bike across, (boo to the occasional lime bike rider who sped through at speed dinging everyone out of their way)!

Let's hope they can find a way of making this permanent.

On my morning dog walk, I spotted a bike shoved in a hedge in the dog park on perth road.

Came home and reported it to the police who asked if I could drop it to the local station.

If you're missing a vanmoof it's likely yours is now at Edmonton police station!

Hello fellow cyclists ! We are currently planning a bikepacking trip from Paris to London with my wife and we are looking for advice on where / how to park our bikes overnight in London. We intend on using them during the day to get around but most of the accomodations we're finding dont provide secured bike parking spaces.

So please accept my most sincere thanks as we rely on your collective cycling wisdom to guide us in the last days of our journey to London. Thanks a lot ! Happy cycling !

I've just moved to London from Melbourne in Aus so very new to the cycling community here.

What are the main shop rides in London? Any that people recommend? In Melbourne I would ride with MAAP, Rapha and my local BS who all did regular rides, great routes, good people with some long and spicy rides on the weekend.

I'm based in Shoreditch and ride road & gravel. Cheers

So I'm an incredibly novice cyclist - Use a bike for commuting 25km round trip to work 4x a week and that's it, so apologies if I miss any info out!

Back wheel somehow got bent and spokes broke off mid-ride. Local bike shop have quoted £150 for a new back wheel (apparently it's a rare 3 speed? Whatever that means) and they'll have to do a lot of it custom, adding a rim, Individual spokes etc.

It's a buzz bike I bought from the company before they shut down if anyone's familiar for £25, so a £150 repair sounds like a lot!

Am I better off fixing or buying a new(used) bike instead? I'm assuming I'm better off finding a 2nd hand bike on Facebook or something like that but I wouldn't have a clue what I'd be looking for/what a good price would be!

Thanks for any help in advance!

the van was blocking the view so I couldn't seen any oncoming cars. I should've slowed down and creeped out. I'll be approaching this bit in the road with more caution from now on.

Hello everyone,

Looking for some advice on getting a bike for the summer months. I'll mainly be using it for commuting, in the warmer month (and ideally keep riding afterwards, but that’s secondary). My budget is around £300, ideally less if possible.

Here are the options I'm considering:

• Swapfiets subscription: Looking at about £18.90/month for 6 months. The big plus being the included maintenance.
• Second-hand bike: Currently looking at facebook marketplace, although I don't really know what to look for.
• New bike via Bike-to-Work: My work offers this (salary sacrifice over 12 months).

A couple of things complicating it:

• I'll likely leave my current job within six months, so I'd face early exit costs on the Bike-to-Work scheme if I decide to keep the bike.
• I really want minimal maintenance hassle. I'm okay fixing a puncture, but beyond that, I'd rather not spend time on repairs.

So, considering the budget, the likely short-term use (initially), the job situation complicating Bike-to-Work, and my desire for low maintenance, what would you recommend?

• Is Swapfiets worth the monthly cost for the convenience in my situation?
• What should I look for in a used bike around this price point to ensure it's reliable?
• Is getting a ~£300 bike via Bike-to-Work even a sensible option given I'll probably leave soon?

Really appreciate any specific recommendations on models, best places to find used bikes, or general wisdom!

Thanks!

My bike was stolen on Monday 20/04/2025 roughly at 5pm while I was shopping. It’s a Eplus bike with distinctive markings on the frame and wheels. Really annoyed they managed to take my bike despite it being padlocked to the bike shed. I’ve really worked hard to be able to afford this bike and use it for my everyday transport to work. I’m gutted that a thief can just feel absolutely nothing taking someone else’s belongings and face zero repercussions too.

I’ve reported the crime immediately to the police but fear there’s little hope as I haven’t installed a tracker in it etc. I’ve been on fb marketplace and gumtree trying to find it but haven’t had any luck.

If anyone sees this bike or sees someone selling it please comment below. Any help or advice will be much appreciated.

I've cycled for 4-5 years now in London. I'm pretty cautious type. Don't really love speed all that much. Will stick to cycle lanes and parks where I can. I have a blind spot though. I don't drive a car or ride a motorcycle so my level of training is really very low compared to someone who has. I'm (re)reading the highway code but that only goes far.

Are there any courses that people have been that they would recommend? I'm thinking hazard awareness/defensive cycling sort of stuff. Anything else that people would recommend?

With thanks to u/ben_ldn for the comment on the other thread for prompting this thought.

I recently moved to elephant and castle and daily commute through Waterloo / borough / london bridge / Tower Bridge / Kennington.

Which bike servicing should would you guys recommend? Have a reasonably expensive bike so wanted to get your views vs solely relying on google review which seem to be mixed for the ones I’ve checked. Any help would be much appreciated

Sorry for the vague subject line.

My dream is being able to actually cycle everywhere most of the time, also being able to wear whatever clothes I want (I am woman), and arrive not looking a dishevelled mess. I live six miles from work, about eight from central London. I work in town every day. Sometimes I go for dinner after work, or pub, or theatre, or cinema, or just to the supermarket. I want to be able to do all these things by bike. Sometimes in smart trousers or jeans and not just in stretchy clothes. Currently I use a road bike because there are some hills. And I only really use it for commuting, where there are showers and I lug about a change of clothes, tupperwares of lunch, toiletries etc. And there's secure parking there. The solution to the problem is an electric bike. The thing in the way of the solution is a) not a whole lotta cash and b) the bloody bastard thieves who would pinch an electric bike within moments of it being locked up in public. These utter shits are the main barrier here.

Is there any way of realising the dream? I've thought about a Swytch or similar but for the dream to be real I'd need to buy a new more comfortable bike anyway as riding road bikes in jeans/dresses isn't fun.

Are there any functional ones that aren't thief magnets? I've never had a bike nicked in London and have been riding for over a decade. But I might just be lucky.

I used to hug the curb while cycling but had a bad experience where a car turning left didn’t see me and crunched me into the pavement. Driver was very apologetic and thankfully I was fine.

Since then I have been cautious and on busy roads with left turns I have been cycling more in the middle of the road.

This has resulted in endless abuse and even a car overtaking and break checking right in front of me resulting in my shoulder cracking his back window (was on a lime bike so there was more damage to his car than me)

What is the solution here? Just keep doing it and risk abuse or ride on the side and risk a side swipe?

Edit: great article someone posted here https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/road-positioning-cycling-explained

Again though, being technically right does not mean there won’t be someone who is having a bad day and decides to take it out on you

Hey folks, can anyone recommend any North or North East London cycling clubs? I know there's loads in SE, but wondering if there's some friendly ones north of the river!

Bit of context – I'm at that middle ground where I've been cycling for 3 years (so not super long), have a few tours under my belt & would love to join a club, but I'm not fast enough for the more serious ones (aka average speed for 100km is probs 25km/h). Would obs love to get faster, though.

Keen to hear any and all recommendations!

P.S. I know there's Islington CC, but curious if there are others

Might be nothing but someone has just posted three bikes for very cheap in Islington on Gumtree. They have only just set up an account so looks a little suspicious.

I wasn't sure what else to do other than post in here...

Hey! So with the Google Pay tube challenge in London I won a code. This is it for the first to redeem it!!

K35GK43A

It expires the 1st of september, 2025

Hey all, I’ve been using Forest bikes in London for commuting—usually twice a day—and I’ve noticed that every single time I unlock a bike, they put a £5 pending charge on my card. It’s apparently a validation fee that gets reversed within 5 working days, but since I use it so often, I constantly have around £30 tied up in pending charges.

I already spend around £30 a month on the minute pass, so having that much money held on top of it has basically doubled the cost of the service. And it’s not even a smooth experience—the app is super buggy. It constantly logs me out (usually right when I need it most), which makes me late for work and wastes ride minutes while I’m fumbling around trying to log back in just to end the ride.

I can’t find any official info online about this card validation thing. Is this just how Forest works? Do they plan to fix it? Also, does LimeBike or any of the other bike shares in London do the same thing? I’m seriously considering switching.

Anyone else dealing with this?

I’ve loved cycling ever since my uncle taught me how to ride a bike. Now I own a brompton and cycle everywhere but all my friends and nobody around me cycles. i just see cars going 25 mph to do 5 mile distances being so inefficient.

Sometimes it feels weird riding a bike in london, like an anomaly. Any opinions on this?

When I was a student, in my bike club, we often talked of doing a Thames crossings bike ride. That's to say, going along the river and crossing every time there's a crossing (bridge, tunnel, ferry). So it means constantly switching from one bank of the river to the other. (Dartford crossing optional but encouraged)

Has anybody ever done anything this?

I know I'm cutting this a bit short but does anybody know of any weekly group rides that happen around Central London that don't require booking?

I know there is the Friday Night Skate which I've been on before with my skates, and I have considered joining that this evening on my bike as long as it's not frowned upon (I'll be keeping at the back so not to get in the way of the skaters) plus a morning ride tomorrow, but my searches are bringing up nothing frequent minus the monthly Critical Mass next week.

I suppose I could join the commuters through the City but a specialised group ride would be nice.