06/11/2017 - Roadrat in London

ROADRAT DOES LONDON

Rich and Kelly took their new Roadrats and some GoPros and headed to London to see the sights. They even waved at the Queen. Rich writes about the day....

Aw London! Love and hate the place. Commuting is (honestly) one of the things I miss the most from my few years of living in the big smoke. If you've never ridden a bicycle in the capital then you're missing out. It's easy; it's literally like riding a bike - except the bike's on fire, you're on fire and everything else is on fire, because you're in hell.

Roadrat in London

Not really, but not far off.

This trip was pure sightseeing though with nods to my old haunts. We landed at St Pancras and headed to Look Mum No Hands for a full-on hipster cyclist breakfast. Not disappointed. I can confirm it's never too early for a sausage & black pudding burger.

Roadrat in London

Straight onto Brick Lane to reminisce over my final year uni exhibition at the Truman Brewery then off to Tower bridge because it's my favourite of the 33. And Robbie Madison once jumped on his MX bike it when it was open. We didn't get the chance to jump it but did see some some rad kids pull the best wheelies I've ever seen. I'll go out on a limb and say the cyclists in the South East have that inner-ear perfection that makes their love of the back wheel the best in the country. It'd be nice to be wrong but I haven't been proven otherwise yet...

Roadrat in London

Anyway, it started raining then and didn't stop till we left so imagine everywhere else we visited overlaid with a heavy grey leaden sky and a thick film of drizzle. Fine rain - soaks you through. From Tower bridge our next stop was Greenwich Park to see the majestic views of our nations financial capital. We could barely see the observatory from the bottom of the hill so no canaries or wharfs were spotted unfortunately! And we definitely didn't see any "no cycling' signs in the park either. Or the foot tunnel. Or the bridges later on. Or anywhere really. That was nice.

Roadrat in London

The major soaking came on the Greenwich to Brixton leg of the ride. Brixton was the best place I lived during my time there. The liveliest, most exciting, gnarliest and welcoming place in town. Thoughts of roasting Stockwell skatepark in the sunshine had long since drained away so we headed to Brixton Cycles instead to catch up with my old brother in BMX, Terry Green. After a tea (Yorkshire) and chips with Hendos (imported), we headed back north via the Waterloo graffiti tunnel to see Liz at no1, The Mall, London. Trivia if you live south of the river and someone turns their nose up, remind them that Elephant & Castle is further north than Sloan Square.

Roadrat in London

Darkness was creeping in and traffic was getting exciting so obviously the safest and quietest place to go after that was Piccadilly Circus. ("wow, what a shitty circus!" - Garth Algar) Wishing I'd cut the bars down a little narrower, we dodged, dipped, dived, ducked and dodged through the traffic to Soho Bikes. Remember if you're in a car, you're not 'stuck in traffic', you are traffic.

Roadrat in London

We'd missed the coffee machine by a few hours but to be honest it was well past that time anyway, so after giving Mario a test ride of his new bike (which he took delivery of the very next day) we raced to the station for platform beers (very similar to street beers) and caught the last train back home.

Roadrat in London

he following day dialled the saturation filter all the way from charcoal to azure. Back in Sheffield the sun was blazing, the sky was clear and even though yesterday had put a chill in my core and 50km of terror-commute in my legs, I had to get out again and put the Roadrat on some dry tarmac. It was sublime to be rolling along in October over the moors and sweeping gritstone hills, in a t-shirt, but it wouldn't have been as sweet without the reminder of hectic city life the day before.

Roadrat in London

Never say never but if I do ever find myself back in London, there's only one bike I'd need. And maybe some mudguards. Here's the full video of Kelly and my adventures in The Smoke. The full gallery of all our my photos are over on the Cotic Flickr page.

The new Roadrat is available now. Remember, Go Custom is now available so the stock builds are just the start; we have had some proper lovely Hope'd up 'rats going out recently. Follow the links below to learn more, and to order yours. - Rich Baybutt


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