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 to the Lee Valley Velodrome in Stratford.

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.

01:26Come on, come on. We're in good time. Let's go.

01:38Okay.

01:40Good time.

01:53Okay.

01:58so 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

02:26minute wait 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 with

02:51a 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 tyres the ribble hybrid a l e is going to give me that liquor speed i need to win today's race

03:34journey we've just crossed over voxel bridge just over there past the mi5 building oh very exciting

03:47and we're about to go through parliament square um beautiful but notoriously a very difficult place

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

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

04:07now we're on to this one going through parliament square yep

04:31so

04:47james where are we well i think this is quite a famous building here on the left uh buckingham palace

05:01well 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

05:13it's pretty good actually you know i obviously riding in london is quite an experience anyway

05:19lots of traffic but the cycle highways are so good they're just really well marked out and actually

05:26navigating was 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 go

05:53there we better go

06:14could there be a more perfect bike to take on the streets of london than canndale's topstone tiagra

06:19it is a gravel bike but it's way more than just that a gravel bike is actually perfect as a

06:24commuting weapon purely because it's got such great versatile features the first feature that

06:30makes it great as a commuter is the riding position it gives you a much taller much more commanding

06:36position when you're riding in traffic and it's also got what cannondale call their out front geometry

06:42which puts the front wheel further forwards than on a normal road bike meaning it's way more stable

06:48now with the road surfaces that we have around here that is definitely a plus point then going

06:53hand in hand with that geometry you've got those tyres there's big chunky tyres on this bike they're

06:59still fast rolling but they'll take on the potholes and all of the cracks and everything that the roads

07:05can throw at you with the dna of a road bike this bike is definitely fast and nimble and we'll make

07:11sure that today we will come out on top

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

07:37come with me

08:07it's not an iconic cycling spot but it's an iconic spot altogether it is isn't it oh hang on

08:21i've got a text hi boys hopefully you can hear me okay

08:27i think to level the playing field you guys should take on another challenge you keep banging on about

08:43how good your commuter bikes are and how they're so versatile how about you try some off-road on the

08:48way to stratford let me know what you think so we need to hit some off-road before we get to the

08:53velodrome some off-road in london is that possible yes on the canals so east london's full of canals

09:01i see these are at tower bridge we should be pretty close we can cut up through limehouse i would have

09:07thought and onto the regents canal cool program it in mate let's plot it in we're just coming out the

09:14tower bridge i've got a sneaky suspicion on the live recording they're just over there there they are

09:23that's so funny we've just seen them go by on the boat we better get going yes

09:44go james

09:53i think we should go and ask the captain if he can put his foot down

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

10:51so

11:05all right okay we're almost there so literally just there

11:21i think he's just around the corner he's coming around the corner look there's there he is so

11:32there's us oh yeah and he's right there

11:34welcome easy how did you do that uh we have these bicycles my friend we don't have to then rely on

11:50other forms of transport to get here yeah we could do it all ourselves london transport's like

11:55the best in the world yeah no doubt but no transport is more efficient than the bicycle

12:00well well well done well done well done i'll give you that it's not bad you weren't too far behind but

12:08it's still second place first loser and all that isn't it yeah yeah thanks guys yeah

12:15well sorry will it was a good challenge but here we are iconically valley velodrome behind us

12:22and that's a that was a good challenge it was i think the one thing that stands out more than

12:26anything else for myself is just how small london becomes when you're on a bike definitely it's just

12:33everything is just so close like all of a sudden one minute you're like oh we're here yeah so good

12:38so i've just been thinking the cost of this trip versus what you can get one of these bikes on the

12:42cycle to work scheme it's really quite impressive i think within you know depending

12:46so you're commuting five days a week within six months you could you know you could get your money

12:49back really it's really impressive easily yeah but that does end this challenge and what a challenge

12:55it has been but if you've enjoyed it then please do like and subscribe to the cycling weekly youtube

13:01channel and if you have any tips for riding in the city do let us know in the comment section

13:05below and likewise if you're interested in the route that we took across london we'll be putting

13:10a link to that in the description box underneath this video but until next time we'll see you then

13:16i'll have to get a boris bike

Race Across London - Bikes vs Public Transport

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