The most DANGEROUS city in England (to cycle in)

nice title huh?
well the video has little to do with that and more about the challenge we set our selves. Visiting all 12 Balfe’s Stores in London. Balfe’s have partnered with WYDB for over two and a half years and thought it would be a cool little idea to try and visit all their shops in one day!

Balfe’s on line store – https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/
Win Your Dream Bike: https://bit.ly/winyourdreambike

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Thanks for watching!

Hey Cam, I’ve got an idea. Go on, Chris. What’s your idea? Would you fancy going around London and having a ride in 34° heat? Why we decide to do this on the hottest day of the year? But it’s it’s better to be 34 degrees than it is to be 5° and snowing. So, here we are, the start of the challenge. We’re down in Bal in Gatwig. Cam’s here. Queen is here somewhere. Queen eight. There she is. Right, we’ve got 11 stores to hit. It’s 9:00 in the morning. Cam, how long do you think it’s going to take us? Um, probably. Now, it’s probably a good opportunity right now just to uh to pause this video and bring more context to this challenge. So, you may or may not know when your dream bike have been partnered by Valves for the past almost 3 years now. And in that time, you may or may not have seen that I purchased a bike from Balves only last month. And I’ve got to admit, I’m still in love with the bike. Absolutely adore it. So, I thought I’d set myself a bit of a challenge. Now, Balves have 12 stores throughout London, ranging all the way from down in Gatwick, all the way up to the top across to Islington, Hackne, uh, Dulich, one right up on the top there. I can’t Islington? I don’t know. There’s 12 of them. And I thought I’d set the challenge of trying to visit every single one of them in one business day. The route was around 120k. Turns out I might have exaggerated that and uh and set a few wrong way points, but that’s by the buy. The point is I’m in the middle of London riding round from store to store. Can I do it in a working day? I mean, technically I should be able to. Luckily, Cam joined me on this. Um I thought he was just being a good friend, but I think really he was just trying to be on a relevant YouTube channel again. Um hey, whatever his excuse was, I don’t care. He came, he saw, and he almost conquered it with me. Turns out he had to to bail. But we’ll get to that part of the story very very soon. Most of the of the day riding free London, do you think? Yeah, I think we we’ll be stopped more than most cycling, won’t we? Probably. Probably. Queenie, how long do you think it’s going to take us? 8 hours? Don’t know. 8 hours? I hope not. You never see You’ve never seen me ride a bike. Queenie, we’ll be back here in 5 hours. I bet you. Why don’t we take Why don’t we take one of these? This This might make things a little bit easier. An electric bike. Yeah. Listen, I said 8 hours cuz 30° out there. 34 34° 34. First uh issue. Road is closed. We should be all right. We should get through. Rules don’t apply to cyclist. Rules don’t apply to cyclist. I like that camera. We’re now off to the store number two, which is Rygate. Can Where’s Rygate? London. Exactly. London. Suckers. We beat you road works. I’ll be honest, gravel riding was not on the bingo card this morning. It might not have been on the bingo cards, but it was a welcome change from the high streets and the busy roads. But before we knew it, we were at our second destination. Here we are, C. We made it to the first one. Where are we? Ry Gate, right? London Rygate. Look at the Rygate store. Look at this little bad boy here. So, we’re going to have a quick look. Let’s go have a quick look inside. Oh, snap. Ry Gate was looking right good. And they had the air con on. It was amazing. Nice and cool. Lovely shop on the high street of Ry Gate. There’s me. Yellow. Let’s uh let’s get to the next one cuz those boys were busy. Crossing the border outside the M25. Inside the M25, inner M25 shop number three, Sutton. Also, check that out. Oldest bike shop in the world this one. So, I think that’s about as nice as the riding is going to get. We’re now into ride right on the outskirts of the center of London. Next stop is Kingston. And between us and that is a lot of city traffic. A lot. It’s going to get busy now. Let’s get busy with busy. Right in the thick of it now. Boo. Yay. Boo. Yay. Boo. Shop number four. This is Kingston. Next stop, Cam, London. So, by about half 11 in the morning, things were going swimmingly. We’d done Gatwick. We’d done Rygate. We’d done Sutton, the oldest bike shop in World. And we done Kingston. It was now heading right into the thick of London. Start as you in no day lading hell. Don’t tell me this new bike doesn’t look absolutely fabidozy. Chris and Cam’s familiar stomping ground. Richmond Park Cam. What video did we make here? We did one on the Boris bike. The Boris bike. Yeah. Oh, he’s away. Looks like people don’t know how to run. In your own time. In your own time. Thank you. There you go. Well done. There we go. Um, well, no, we’ve done a few in Richmond Park. Quite a lad. Yeah, we have, haven’t we? Yeah. I feel like we did one where it went dark at some point in here. Back in Richmond, everybody. Rich. Richmond. And I’m sure maybe the viewers will leave me. Yeah. Leave a comment down below and all that So, while we’re growling up this little hill at Richmond Park, I thought I’d give you the scores on the door so far. 48.2K. 2 hours 5 minutes. Har is a little bit high. That is 23k stuff. That’s a big one. 32°. I can’t tell if I’m suffering from heat stroke or I just feel all right, but my heart rate’s pretty low. And when it’s windy, it’s quite cool with the uh the breeze. So, and then in terms of elevation, you can see coming out of Gwig and a few lumpy bits. Nothing you’d consider climbed really. Not from us from the north. And then we’ve got two like little little lumps to get over now. And that’s it. Easy money. What do you think of this look? Fresh YouTube video. Only subscribe. Say something. Do it. Say come on. You look modern. I look absolutely tipped up. Hey, I remember that first gym session. First mistake made by me setting the wrong route. Uh, for some reason we were heading to the finish, the last one which is in Streatham. Mama Mia, we didn’t want to do that one. We wanted to head up to Fulham. So, we’re going to Fulham now. Small detour. All right, Cam. Mama Mia, how’s motivation? I’m good, mate. I’m I just I just wish the the the leader in this whole situation planned the correct route in the first place. Plan it right. Did plan it right. This is only a small blip. We didn’t go too far off off the course. Here we go. It’s starting to feel a bit more like home now. We’re going north of the water. The air already feels a bit cleaner. Does it nicer? Home is only 150 miles that way. But before we get there, next stop, Fulham. Right, because we’re idiots and we uh are running out of time. There you go. Number five, B Fulham. That’s halfway that. It’s got to be B in Fulham done and dusted. And then 2 and a half miles later, Chisik was our fourth, fifth, I I’d lost count by this point. And um then it was it was on to uh Regent’s Park, I think. Here we are. No idea where we are. Kensington. Kensington. Somebody’s house probably. Yeah, someone’s back garden. Cracked. I’ll be honest. All the guards back garden. Are you done yet, C? The heat’s getting to me. And I know people are going to be commenting like, “Oh, it’s not that hot.” I know for some people it’s not. But what you have to take into consideration we’re normally used to like 15° on average, maybe like a nice summer’s day is 20 22°. to suddenly go from 19 to 35 in one day. It’s insane. Big old shock to the body, you know, big time. Not to this boy, though. Yeah. Look at that. What? What a physique. Weapon. I’m losing the world to live. What’s that? Number six. Seven. Seven. Seven. Seven. Now, for someone who spends the majority of their time riding on rural B-roads, I’ve got to admit, I do love riding in this city. It’s dangerous. It’s hustle. It’s bustle. There’s people everywhere. I love it. Tell you what, Stra, I don’t appreciate coming through the center of bloody London. Not happy at all with that one. We went about a mile further than we should have. We completely missed it. Right here, number about eight. Number eight, maybe. Maybe seven, maybe eight. Seven. It says it here on Cam’s face, but that’s how many numbers there is left. All right. I suggested just missing it. Pretending we’ve been in when we tell you we we have been passing. Just didn’t stop. Yeah. Well, here we go. Yeah. Here it is. So, hopefully that’s like the wor the worst of the traffic. Uh we’re heading to Hackne now. Probably going to be busy in Hacknne, but relatively now I think we’re kind of like skirting the the center of London. So, I’m hoping traffic if it sends us down quiet roads like this, traffic should be all right. I’m hoping. I’ll be honest. I’ve cracked. So, here we are in Where are we, Sam? We’re in happy the best of the the bow stores, would you say? I would definitely say it’s the best. 100%. There’s There’s Cam stood outside. It’s nice and cool in here as well. There you go. Right, we’re picking up some gels and we’re going to go on our way. We’ve got three stores left. You think we’ll do it? I definitely think you’ll do it. I don’t think I will, mate. I think you’re with these gels. I’m already I’ll be honest. I’ve already cracked. Yeah. About half an hour ago. I mean, I’m I’m flying. Absolutely flying. This is where we depart. Why are we departing? Well, I’ve got to go catch a train. So, I’ve got I’ve entered a running race tonight in Liverpool. Only a 5k, but um a couple of my mates are going, so I said I’d be there. And what about the most important of the mates? Well, I know. Failed. But I need to borrow your bike lock, please. Team Glimmer. All right. Yeah. Good shout. Right. Bye, Cam. Say bye, everybody. Bye everyone. Cheers mate. Good luck with the rescue challenge. Don’t need it. Now I know what you’re thinking watching this video. It’s all good and well showing us these amazing Balfs bike stores down in London, Chris, but I don’t live in London. I’m from North. That’s fine. Bikes have got one of the biggest UK online retail stores. Uh free delivery on bikes over 500 quid. parts, accessories, cleaning products, uh security, uh helmets, clothing, shoes, you name it, they’ve got it. So, just cuz you don’t live in London doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy what B has to offer. Right, let’s speed through this because as you can see, Cam went. It’s not as fun when he’s not there. So, uh give me less than a minute and I’ll get through the rest of the shops for you. So, I was back on the road. Three more shops to go all on my own. First stop was Bals down in Waterloo and there was a short hop with a little toe from this guy down to Dulich. Here we are. It’s a penultimate one. It’s Bikes in Dulich. One of the first places we ever came to. In fact, probably the first place we ever came to give away a bike uh with Louie. It was just here. Remember the photo just out here? House bikes. Dulich. That means there’s only one more to go. Strem. There she is. house bikes. So, we made it in plenty of time to get to the last shop before it actually closes tonight. We made it in plenty of time. 5 hours of riding time around the center of London. That’s like 10 hours everywhere else. But the journey hasn’t finished yet cuz I’m now going to get to Clappen to get the train bike to Gatwick. 12’s bikes, all 12 shops, one day. Completed it, mate. My batter is about to die. These batteries are about to die. These batteries are dead. I’m done. But full circle, valves to valves. 12 stores. I only thought there was 11. Should have counted before I set off. 12 stores visited in one day. Cheers, BS. Leave your comments down below. What should we do next? What’s our next challenge? Let me know.