I don't know how King's X used to be. Always heard it was rough but it doesn't seem that bad now. From what I understand the area immediate to the station is being 'gentrified' by Disney!
What mr tom said about Hoxton and Dalston is spot on. I live just between the two and avoid Dalston like the plague! And he should have said "if you can afford to get close to Upper St/Essex Rd," as the Angel seems to be full of the younger city types with money driving up the cost of properties. Although if you go further up the Essex Rd. it gets truly dangerous.
And yea, buy the barman a drink. Tips left on the bar could get picked up by another person.

Being an 'ex-pat' myself, I'd be down for that ride...

Alright so it sounds like there are some people who are down for taking a little trip around the city. Anyone over there down for planning out a route with me? I was thinking Saturday October 8th might be a decent day no? Sounds good for people?

The 8th is good for me. Depending how far out of central you want to go, I could help come up with something good and flowing since I ride the area all day every day. Once out of central, I'm out of my element, so to speak.

thatd be awesome. morning of afternoon ride? Figure like 3-4 hrs light/easy pace? I do wanna see the sights...

Light/easy? Morning definitely since there's less traffic. Could go through midday, like 1030/11 to 130/2 or so. Start out nice and easy, finish up fast and cardodging. Get the blood going and hit the pub. Sounds like a perfect start to a saturday to me!
I can easily come up with a route to most of the attractions. Touristy or otherwise... 3-4 hrs would definitely get outside of central so maybe Momentum could help out with some Brixton/south of the river action, I could work something out around Angel, Camden, Marylebone/Edgeware maybe even Hackney if ya dare. Care to hit the Limehouse Link tunnel (FAST!) and go out to Canary Wharf? It's the most American-like part of London...

BTW, if any of you guys can get some Cinelli 67-39 bars I will gladly repay you and buy you a few pints.

Hell yeah, I'm all about a nice all day ride followed by a few afternoon pints. The more parts of the city the better. Got a link to them bars?

Hell yeah, I'm all about a nice all day ride followed by a few afternoon pints. The more parts of the city the better. Got a link to them bars?

This is a just in case: our experience in getting two track bikes to London.

We wanted to ship 'em cause its hard to catch public transport with bikes in boxes and we need to catch both BART (bay area's poor excuse for a subway) and the tube in London. Also riding to and packing your bike at the airport can be a real hassle - if you don't pack 'em sufficiently well then they just won't survive the 'careful' freight handlers.

This morning we went to a USPS office with the dimensions of our bike boxes and weight and the clerk said it would be fine, postage would be about $70. This afternoon after dragging them over there, they said the boxes were too big!!! Great!

UPS wanted $391 dollars per bike!!! Nice!

So we've just repacked so we can take one bike under our baggage allowance (no extra charge for the bike we're told - joy of international flights) and pay the excess baggage fee for the other - 140 bones from SFO to LHR.

The only other cheap(ish) option is to find a freight forwarder but you'd would want to ship other stuff too as they charge palate consolidation, custom clearance and other fees. For just two bikes the shipping here would probably expensive(ish). But still cheaper than bloody UPS.

I'm also down for any riding around London, especially any before it gets too bloody cold for social rides.

Good god man, that's some pricey *****e. I just picked up a gorgeous (used once) hardshell case for $175 (less than half price heall yeah ny cl). It's cumbersome as **** and gonna be a pain in the ass but at least my bike will get there safe. Figure, a shuttle from the airport might be a good idea. Too bad it's gonna cost me two arms an a leg.

I would be up for Sat the 8th - sounds like a great way to start the day.

Saturday mornings make me think of the track at Herne Hill (near Brixton) which has meetings on Saturday mornings. I haven't been to it yet - have you Techone? The only problem with that is that there isn't a huge amount to see on the way to the track and brixton is better on foot than on bikes.

Could do a sight seeing trip around central, head down to south bank and borough and its market (loads of good quality food), then up through central to camden, angel, islington then head out to the east and Canary Wharf. Could carry on to greenwich if people feel active. Could add Herne Hill between borough market and camden.

Ironically I am about to hop the pond the other way to nyc and maryland for a two week holiday so looking forward to a decent burrito there.

Sounds like a solid ride to me. Is there a velo in brixton? That'd be the jam. If your looking for burritos downtown bakery on 1st ave bet 3rd/4th is the way to be. 4/5 bucks gets you a burrito the size of your head full of deliciousness

Herne Hill would be quite a bit out of the way through not much to see. That's the main reason I haven't been yet. That and the intro session is at 9am!
Momentum, you left out the West End! I know on a sat. morning there's not as much going on there, but still...

Ok so do any of us know how to use one of them route tracer thingies on the net so we can start putting together and editing a route. It sounds like the locals all have ideas about where to go and I think it'd be easier if we could all see it on a map.

Mmm... dunno about a route tracer thingie. But I figure I could come up with a route and send it on to somebody else and they can add or take away things and then send it on, so on and so forth...

Hey, how's the route thing goin?

Yeah. You could always chip Camden, too many angry teeen goths.

Got a central route planned. Just want to find a image to line it out on...

nice. I'm finally here. This city is boss. Cheers! (or so you goofy bastards say)

Welcome to London. Now it's time to start learning Polish so you can get served in the Pubs.

Ha!!!!

speaking of pubs, all of them around UL kinda blow, any good choices?

DO you really tip Bartenders in the States because you have to?

LOL. May I join your ride? I will be in UK Oct.7-8-9 but I do not feel like flying my bike in so I thought about the bar part, especially being able to translate to/from Polish.
v.

The Duke of York at Clerkenwell Rd / Vine Hill EC1. Not a great pub, but the main courier hang out. Friday nights mainly. A bunch of us go to the John Snow on Broadwick St in Soho Tues and/or Thurs nights and we're trying out the Bricklayers Arms on Gresse St off Tottenham Court Rd tonight 'cause they do £1.97 pints.