Completely agree - London's not that big, and it's great to travel around on the surface and experience all the different neighbourhoods and seasons. Generally,

Completely agree - London's not that big, and it's great to travel around on the surface and experience all the different neighbourhoods and seasons. Generally, any distance inside Z1/2 will be faster, or at least competitive, by bike. My usual King's Cross to Kensington was around 20 mins by bike, same trip on the Tube was 40 mins + £3.50 (or whatever it was), and bus, well, bring a book... Despite the good cycling infrastructure, it definitely helps to have some confidence and road sense, which I can see would put some people off, but with more and more people cycling that gets better too. I didn't really like London, but getting out on the bike changed that considerably - it's a beautiful city, with a lot more greenery than is normally credited. The Tube map, great as it is, inherently distorts distances and directions and learning how the city is really connected is enlightening.