Cycling in London
If you have access to a bike on your travels to London, then that's obviously a very cheap and relatively easy way of getting around small sections of the city. For the more adventurous amongst you, you may even bike your way across London. (Though we wouldn't necessarily recommend it, as you'll have to know the city reasonably well in order to plan a good route and know where you're going!)

There are a number of cycle paths dotted around the city, however, although they're not really all that widespread to be of particular use in getting around or across London. Do check out the excellent website London Cycling Campaign which has some details of these lanes; they also have plenty of advice on cycling in capital as well as details of events and meetups if you'd like to participate in that sort of thing.

Launched in summer 2010, there are two cycle superhighways that run from the outskirts in London into central London. These "superhighways" have a painted blue 1.5 metre-wide path on the road to mark them out to other traffic, and the lanes also have information about the route, times, and so on. As mentioned, only two routes currently exist (one from Barking in east London to Tower Gateway (near Tower Hill), and one from Merton in south London to the City), with two more due to open in 2011 (Wandsworth in southwest London to Westminster, and from Ilford in east London to Aldgate). Further routes are also planned. More on the Cycle Superhighways.

Cycle Hire Scheme
Also launched in summer 2010, London now has its own cycle hire scheme similar to that in cities such as Paris and places in Germany. There are docking stations all over central London, so there's plenty of opportunity to make short trips. Everyone must pay an access fee first (£1 for one day; £5 for 7 days or £45 for 1 year) and there's then a usage charge on top, which ranges from free for up to 30 minutes (to encourage people to keep the bikes for only short periods of time), £1 for one hour up to £50 for the maximum time limit, 24 hours.

All details about the scheme, including a map of docking stations, can be found on TFL's Barclays Cycle Hire website.

Other bike hire options
Of course, many comapnies in London offered bike hire long before the cycle hire scheme came into existence! If you want a bike and want to do a bit more cycling than 30-minute/1-hour bursts, then it might be an idea to contact one of these companies who can assist with longer-term rental. Try Go Pedal, Action Bikes or On Your Bike, or Velorution if you want to hire a Brompton bike (those are the folding ones).

Cycle tours
If perhaps you're a little bit concerned about being let loose out into the big bad world that is London all by yourself, why not join an organised cycle tour? Both the London Bicycle Tour Company and London Cycle Tours offer tours in assorted locations and with different themes. These tours are a great way of sightseeing in London at a faster pace than walking!