Riding in Central London for a newbie

[chookaburra]

Hello. I am going to start commuting from Nth London (Crouch End way) to Aldwych from next week. Does anyone have any tips or words of advice. I'm a bit scared I am practising my filtering but atm generally just ride with the traffic. Is it wise to continue doing this? Should I just stick to the bus lanes and stay out of general traffic?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[ets]

I grew up riding in a big city (Rome) and have been riding in London for the past 10 years. The only advice I feel giving you is... there is no good advice! It all depends on your riding style and habit.
Start following traffic pretending you're on a car withour much filtering and using bus lanes when possible. Your confidence will build up and soon enough you'll have the nack of it and will ride through traffic as opposed to... in traffic.

[jackthekipper]

yeah, agree with ets, rode the big city for 2 years, nice & steady to start while you get your confidence,then you'll be weavin' in & out like a maniac ;D ;D ;D

[chookaburra]

I rode in today, down Archway Road, Kentis Town Rd, Camden Rd, Eversholt St, along Southamptoon Row and Gt Queen Street. I found it a bit daunting at first but really enjoyed the trip. The cyclists on the roads made me nervous! There are so many of them and they come up and sit right next to me at the lights or they try and race free flowing traffic. Do they not understand that traffic is faster? Apart from that it was ok. mainly sat in traffic and filtered a couple of times but I am still finding my feet and find filtering, the decision of when to filter and if there is space, challenging. Time should fix this though.

[Devo McDuff]

I don't know about Nodnol with me being a Northern monkey and not a Southern fairy ;D, but I commuted close to Manchester city centre (on apparently the busiest bus route for Europe) for 3 years.

The only thing that I found to be a real danger was filtering at junctions, if you do it, do it very slowly. I've had a few near misses (and 1 where there was no miss) in these situations. Our 4 wheeled friends don't always indicate and often pull out without checking properly .

Happy scootering!

[sirscootalot]

well done chookaburra i'm the same as devo(a northern monkey) but 4 wheel drivers a pretty much the same everywhere, allways expect them to not see you and pull out, your confidence will grow everytime you ride but be carefull of overconfidence,
anyway don't worry and enjoy your scoot
ride safe mate

[chookaburra]

I need a bit of advice when it comes to witing at lights with cyclists and other bikes. I was at the lights at Kentish Town this morning on the kerb lane. I was at the front of the queue but as I was waiting more and more cyclists came in front of me in the advance stop line. What enede up was a band of 12 cyclists stretched across the two lanes with me in the kerb lane to merge and a van in the inside lane. I felt really nervous and unsafe ans the cyclists were slow to get off and when they did they meandered all over the road. At the same time I had two other vespas competing with me to get in front (why???I mean why??? I was first). I just weaved through and overtook the bikes but I felt undafe and unsure what is best to do. Should I have been more forward waiting at the lights? Should I have just blared my horn at the cyclists? Should I have not been in the kerb lane? Over to you.