Race Across London - Bikes vs Public Transport - video Dailymotion

Cycling Weekly

What's faster across one of the busiest cities in the world - the bike or public transport? James and Rupert use pedal power to try and beat Will in a race from Herne Hill Velodrome in South London to the Lee Valley Velodrome in Stratford in East London.

Transcript

00:00We're here at Hearn Hill Velodrome today and we're going to ride to the Lee Valley

00:21Velodrome in London, two iconic London cycling destinations to show you the

00:26merits of riding your bike in the city. Now to take on this challenge I'm using this

00:31the beautiful Rivel Hybrid ALE, something with a little twist because it does use a little motor.

00:38And I've chosen Cannondale's Topstone Tiagra as my bike of choice here and we're going to be using

00:43Komoot to plan our route from Hearn Hill all the way to Lee Valley. Well we'd better go on with it

00:49really haven't we? Hang on. What are you doing here? There was a memo last night did you not see it?

00:56The boss said we're going to spice this video up and make a race of it. I'm going to use my two

01:01legs and you guys are going to use your two bikes and we're going to see who gets to the Velodrome

01:04first. There is a catch though. The memo clearly stated that you guys have to go via the third most

01:09iconic cycling destination in London, the Mall. Alright well that's not fair because that is so

01:14out of the way. To make this fair again you have to take three different types of public transport.

01:21Okay, alright, you're on. Sounds fair. Sounds fair. Three, two, one, go. Oh he's got a headstone.

01:26Oh, I've got a headstone. Come on, we've got time. Let's go.

01:34Let's go, let's go.

01:55so we've just arrived at hern hill station just checking the live tracking here they're already

02:23about to cross the bridge so they're getting really close to the mall we've got about 10 minute

02:26wait here before we get going up to london bridge so i think this could be a tight race

02:37for today's challenge i've chosen to give myself the best chance of winning as possible by using

02:44an e-bike this is ribbles hybrid a l e and it looks like a beautiful sleek hybrid bike but

02:51was a difference it uses an e-bike motion system that's tucked in the rear hub of the wheel now

02:58that gives me 250 watts of support in three different levels which means you can tune the ride

03:04to exactly how you want it to be comes with all of the other fittings that you would expect on a

03:09commuter bike including mudguard mounts on the front and rear a pannier rack to carry all of your goods

03:15and wide tires the ribble hybrid a l e is going to give me that liquor speed i need to win today's

03:22race

03:39well james we've just crossed over voxel bridge just over there past the mi5 building oh very exciting

03:46it is and uh we're about to go through parliament square um beautiful but notoriously a very difficult

03:53place to cycle yes however we've got this really cool blue super highway can't miss it can you no

04:01we've just been on cs5 which has brought us down from herne hill yes and then we've ridden that

04:06through voxel and now we're on to this one going through parliament square yep

04:36so james where are we well i think this is quite a famous building here on the left uh buckingham palace

04:55well we're here we're at the mall main to the mall so the third iconic cycling landmark of london so

05:08we've achieved our challenge yeah now it's just time to crack on but what a journey we had down here

05:13pretty good actually you know i obviously riding in london is quite an experience anyway lots of traffic

05:20but the cycle highways are so good they're just really well marked out and actually navigating

05:27was good and we saw some great sights as well wait a minute what's that

05:33i've got a message from will oh yeah yes where is he hi boys you can see him at the tube

05:39um second mode of transport where are you guys at i think i think i'm in the lead right here

05:45here comes my train oh he's on the tube so elephant castle he's quite far along yeah we better actually

06:05be able to take on the streets of london than cannondale's topstone tiagra it is a gravel bike but

06:21it's way more than just that a gravel bike is actually perfect as a commuting weapon purely

06:26because it's got such great versatile features the first feature that makes it great as a commuter

06:31is the riding position it gives you a much taller much more commanding position when you're riding

06:37in traffic and it's also got what cannondale call their out front geometry which puts the front wheel

06:43further forwards than on a normal road bike meaning it's way more stable now with the road surfaces that

06:49we have around here that is definitely a plus point then going hand in hand with that geometry

06:55you've got those tires there's big chunky tires on this bike they're still fast rolling but they'll

07:01take on the potholes and all of the cracks and everything that the roads can throw at you with

07:06the dna of a road bike this bike is definitely fast and nimble and we'll make sure that today we will

07:12come out on top

07:31right so we've made it to london bridge um i've got to find another mode of transport but i've got an idea

07:37come with me

07:50so

07:58we were coming by and we just felt like we had to stop really yeah it's not an iconic cycling spot but

08:27it's an iconic spot all together it is isn't it oh hang on i've got a text

08:35hi boys hopefully you can hear me okay on the boat i think to level the playing field

08:39you guys should take on another challenge you keep banging on about how good your commuter bikes are

08:45and how they're so versatile how about you try some off-road on the way to stratford let me know what you

08:49think so we need to hit some off-road before we get to the velodrome some off in london is that

08:56possible yes on the canals so east london's full of canals i see these are at tower bridge

09:03we should be pretty close we can cut up through limehouse i would have thought and onto the

09:09regent's canal cool program it in mate let's plot it in we're just coming down the tower bridge

09:15i've got a sneaky suspicion on the live recording they're just over there there they are

09:20that's so funny we've just seen them go by on the boat we better get going yes

09:37go james

10:07i think we should go and ask the captain if he can put his foot down

10:21i think the captain got a message full full gas full gas

10:37all right we're almost there so

11:07literally just there

11:26i think he's just round the corner he's coming around the corner look there's

11:31there he is so there's us oh yeah and he's right there

11:39welcome easy how did you do that how did you do that uh we have these bicycles my friend we don't

11:49have to then rely on other forms of transport to get here yeah we could do it all ourselves london

11:54transports like the best in the world yeah no doubt but no transport is more efficient than the bicycle

12:01well well done well done fair and square i'll give you that it was a good challenge

12:06it's not bad you weren't too far behind but it was still second place first loser and all that isn't it

12:13yeah yeah thanks guys yeah well sorry will it was a good challenge but here we are

12:19iconic lee valley velodrome behind us and that's a that was a good challenge it was and i think

12:25the one thing that stands out more than anything else for myself is just how small

12:30london becomes when you're on a bike definitely it's just everything is just so close like all of

12:35a sudden one minute you're like oh we're here yeah so good so i've just been thinking the cost of this

12:40trip versus what you can get one of these bikes on the cycle to work scheme it's really quite

12:44impressive i think within you know depending say you're commuting five days a week within six months

12:48you could you know you could get your money back really it's really impressive easily yeah but that

12:53does end this challenge and what a challenge it has been but if you've enjoyed it then please do like

12:59and subscribe to the cycling weekly youtube channel and if you have any tips for riding in the city do let us

13:04know in the comments section below and likewise if you're interested in the route that we took

13:09across london we'll be putting a link to that in the description box underneath this video but

13:14until next time we'll see you then i'll have to get a boris bike

Race Across London - Bikes vs Public Transport

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