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.
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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. Come on. We've got time. Let's go.
01:38All right.
01:42All right.
01:48We'll see you next time.
01:53So we've just arrived at Hearnhill station, just checking the live tracking here.
02:22They're already about to cross the bridge, so they're getting really close to the mountain.
02:26We've got about a 10 minute wait here before we get going up to London Bridge, so I think
02:29this could be a tight race.
02:37For today's challenge, I've chosen to give myself the best chance of winning as possible
02:43by using an e-bike.
02:45This is Ribbles Hybrid ALE, and it looks like a beautiful sleek hybrid bike, but with a
02:51difference, it uses an e-bike motion system that's tucked in the rear hub of the wheel.
02:58Now that gives me 250 watts of support in three different levels, which means you can tune
03:03the ride to exactly how you want it to be.
03:06It comes with all of the other fittings that you would expect on a commuter bike, including
03:10mudguard mounts on the front and rear, a pannier rack to carry all of your goods, and wide tyres.
03:17The Ribble Hybrid ALE is going to give me that lick of speed I need to win today's race.
03:26Well James, we've just crossed over Vauxhall Bridge, which is just over there, past the
03:43MI5 building.
03:44Oh, very exciting!
03:45It is!
03:46And we're about to go through Parliament Square, beautiful, but notoriously a very difficult
03:51place to cycle through.
03:52However, we've got this really cool blue superhighway.
03:57Can't miss it, can you?
03:59No, no.
04:00We've just been on CS5, which has brought us down from Herne Hill, and then we've ridden
04:05that through Vauxhall, and now we're on to this one going through Parliament Square.
04:09Yep.
04:10We're on to the Parliament Square.
04:11Yep.
04:12And we're on to the Parliament Square.
04:13This is what we've done with thealnya.
04:15This is probably very close to theleg.
04:17But I'm ready to talk about it, and here let's cross.
04:22That's me!
04:28This is the type of candle light can't be fixed for pages.
04:36Off bridge jacks are now connected toing the cen D reductions, how it can be cut out of no
04:41James where are we? Well I think this is quite a famous building here on the left, Buckingham
04:54Palace. Well we're here, we're at the Mall. Made to the Mall, so the third iconic cycling
05:07landmark of London. So we've achieved our challenge, now it's just time to crack on,
05:11but what a journey we had down here. Pretty good actually, you know obviously riding in London
05:17is quite an experience anyway, lots of traffic, but the cycle highways are so good. They're just
05:24really well marked out and actually navigating was good and we saw some great sights as well.
05:29Hang a minute, what's that? I've got a message from Will. Oh yeah? Yes. Where is he? Hi boys,
05:37you can see him at the Tube. Second mode of transport. Where are you guys at? I think I'm in the lead
05:45right here. He comes to my train. Oh he's on the Tube. So Elephant Castle. He's quite far along.
05:51Yeah. We better actually go there. We better go. Could there be a more perfect bike to take on the
06:16streets of London than Cannondale's Topstone Tiagra? It is a gravel bike, but it's way more than just
06:22that. A gravel bike is actually perfect as a commuting weapon purely because it's got such great
06:28versatile features. The first feature that makes it great as a commuter is the riding position. It
06:33gives you a much taller, much more commanding position when you're riding in traffic and it's
06:38also got what Cannondale call their out front geometry, which puts the front wheel further forwards
06:44than on a normal road bike, meaning it's way more stable. Now with the road surfaces that we have
06:50around here, that is definitely a plus point. Then going hand in hand with that geometry, you've got
06:56those tires. There's big chunky tires on this bike that are still fast rolling, but they'll take on the
07:02potholes and all of the cracks and everything that the roads can throw at you. With the DNA of a road
07:07bike, this bike is definitely fast and nimble and we'll make sure that today we will come out on top.
07:14Right, so we've made it to London Bridge. I've got to find another mode of transport, but I've got an idea. Come with me.
07:37Come with me.
07:38Come with me.
07:39Come with me.
07:40Come with me.
07:44Give me a second.
07:45Have a good time.
07:47Come with me.
07:54Tower Bridge
08:21Tower Bridge
08:22We were coming by and we just felt like we had to stop really
08:25Yeah it's not an iconic cycling spot but it's an iconic spot altogether
08:29It is isn't it
08:30Oh hang on
08:30I've got a text
08:34Hi boys hopefully you can hear me okay on the boat
08:37I think to level the playing field you guys should take on another challenge
08:41You keep banging on about how good your commuter bikes are
08:44And how they're so versatile
08:46How about you try some off-road on the way to Stratford
08:49Let me know what you think
08:50So we need to hit some off-road before we get to the velodrome
08:54Some off-road
08:54In London
08:55Is that possible?
08:57Yes on the canals
08:59So East London's full of canals
09:01I see these are at Tower Bridge
09:03We should be able to
09:04We're pretty close
09:05We can cut up through Limehouse I would have thought
09:08And onto the Regent's Canal
09:09Cool
09:10Program it in mate
09:11Let's plot it in
09:12We're just coming under Tower Bridge
09:15I've got a sneaky suspicion on the live recording
09:18They're just over there
09:19There they are
09:21There they are
09:25No look
09:26That's so funny
09:32We've just seen them go by on the boat
09:35We'd better get going
09:36Yes
09:37Go James!
09:45I think we should go and ask the captain if he can put his foot down
10:13I think the captain got a message
10:23Full gas
10:25Full gas
10:26Thank you
10:40Thank you
10:45all right we're almost there so literally just there
11:15i 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 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
12:00oh well well done gents well done well done i'll give you that it was a good challenge it's not bad
12:07you weren't too far behind but it was still second place first loser and all that isn't it yeah yeah
12:13thanks guys yeah well sorry will it was a good challenge but here we are iconically valley
12:20velodrome behind us and that's a that was a good challenge it was i think the one thing that stands
12:26out more than anything else for myself is just how small london becomes when you're on a bike
12:32definitely everything is just so close like all of a sudden one minute you're like oh we're here yeah
12:37so good so i've just been thinking the cost of this trip versus what you can get one of these bikes on
12:42the cycle to work scheme it's really quite impressive i think within you know depending
12:46say 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 comments section below
13:06and likewise if you're interested in the route that we took across london we'll be putting a link to
13:10that in the description box underneath this video but until next time we'll see you then i'll have to get a boris bike