This is good advice, though beware the increasingly common 2 months notice clause. This is (ironically) the problem the couple buying our house have run into, having (wrongly) assumed that they only needed to give 1 month.
They moved the Peak District to Yorkshire?
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You lot like to try and claim everything else surprised you haven’t tried that one yet.,
If riding a bike is one of the key considerations then you ought to consider not living in London.
Towns and villages to the north (Hertford, St Albans, Harpenden, Welwyn Garden City, Berkhamstead, Hitchin, Ware, among many others), are with in 30 minutes by train from Kings Cross / St Pancras, but are all in reach of very nice countryside (notably the Chiltern Hills).
I’ve commuted into London many times and from central London, it is over 10 miles until you leave London. Most of the journey is horrible and full of traffic lights. It’s probably 20 miles before you reach anything that could be considered a nice cycle and not nice for living in London.
Again, if you want somewhere good for bike riding then live outside of London!
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I covered this.
I think between commute town, my cycling needs and safety/nice neighborhood I’m gonna weigh my girlfriend’s needs more. I can always hop on a train or add 10-15 miles to my rides to get where I need to be.
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You’d still be in the city.
I’m 30 minutes outside of SF. Sure it’s crappy everywhere but it’s still vastly different than downtown
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You’ve had loads of good advice above I don’t think I have much more to add, but I was born in London (proper London - South London) and I’ve lived in all four corners of it. It’s a city where lots of people come from somewhere else so everyone can find their niche, imo, and cycling is still on the rise. 
I saw that, but you kept recommendarions for places further and further away. It probably is just a personal issue for me - until about a year ago, my commute was about 1.5 hours each way, but its now about 15 minutes by bike. I can’t stress enough how much my quality of life has improved by having a shorter commute!
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I am not sure we are any less of a fan of Americans than we are of any other nationality to be honest 
But in seriousness, I don’t really think this is true. Possibly it depends exactly where you go though. In London a lot of workplaces are quite multinational, especially if your partner had a job offer in London when they currently work in San Francisco I’d take that to kinda imply that her workplace at least will be pretty multinational.
North Wales, The Lake District, any of the towns/villages surrounding the Peak District should all be considered If your GF can work remotely. London is easy to get to from just about anywhere. Hertfordshire is a super county if preference is to live close to London. Devon, Somerset, & Cornwall are out southwest. All are beautiful places to ride a bike.
BTW, you don’t need to join a club, you’ll meet lots of riders who are more than happy to welcome a new riding buddy.
Best of luck.
I understand the concern and don’t worry, we have a good, healthy relationship with my girlfriend and we’re not selfish. That’s how we made it work for 6 years and trust each other so much that we co-signed a loan on our house here 50% - 50% without being married
I’d have no issue quitting outdoors cycling for her if it even came to that. Not that it would or she would ask.
I have commuted 2.5 hours everyday to work in 2014 from San Jose to San Francisco. Not kidding you. 4 hours was spent on the road every day. I know how much your life can suffer from that. I literally made myself sick from the 4 hours sleep everyday and getting back on the road back to the office.
As I mentioned before, we’re super lucky that we’re gonna have a chance to “try it out” in a few neighborhoods before committing. I don’t even know how it works. Kinda blew my mind that her work will be able to provide that.
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Is that Pilgrims Way?
YES.
I am partisan, and I can see the appeal of somewhere like St Albans if your commute goes to King’s Cross. But I wouldn’t rule out South (of) London as there are places there which go directly by train to St Pancras International which is basically the same as King’s Cross. And South (of) London is just great.
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I wouldn’t presume to speak for all my countrymen, but I’d like to think most Brits are pretty neutral in terms of attitude towards those from overseas. Sure, there are still some jokes about national stereotypes, though I think those are dying out with the older generations. Likewise, I think some of the ideas expressed by those on the right of US politics (MAGA etc) won’t fit terribly well with those of the typically more liberal London urbanite, but I don’t think there’s much in the way of genuine prejudice.
As a fairly average Brit (I think), I personally don’t care where you’re from or what you believe, so long as you live and let live. Alternatively put, just don’t be a d1ck and we’ll be fine 
Maybe stating the obvious but London is about 10x bigger than SF in terms of both population and area. There’s an awfully big sprawl of urban and suburban areas in every direction before you get to anything that could really be described as good riding country. There are cycling oases like Richmond Park or Regent’s Park which are good for laps (but still pretty badly congested at certain times). But in a lot of directions the more interesting, varied and quieter riding options don’t really start until you get near to or outside the M25 (M25 is basically a giant ring road around the whole of London, >100 miles circumference). I’ve lived in central and semi-central London, and I’ve stayed with my bike in downtown SF for work a few times. London has an awful lot more crap to get through before it starts to get enjoyable!
If you ignore the actual route, most of the area screenshotted if pretty good cycling country:
The second image gives an idea of where that is in relation to London:
The southernmost point of the route is just over 20 miles to Kings Cross (as the crow flies).
A quick google shows that Greater London is 3x bigger in area than the city of Los Angeles and 20% bigger than the LA area. (Population of London is just under 9 million). UK population is roughly 63 million so a proportionately sized American equivalent would require a city of around 54 million!
Being a (small ) northerner I can’t help you with suitable areas in London but like everywhere there’s good and bad bits, often very close to one another.
If you like climbing then generally going north and west will get you to hillier terrain. Obviously there are exceptions. The flattest area of the UK is around Cambridge and Norfolk (the bulging bit on the middle-bottom right of the map) but away from the mountainous* areas there’s a lot of rolling terrain where you get quite a bit of elevation gain without realising it. I have a circuit close to home, never more than 5km from the house: 30km with 1100m of climbing - that hilly enough for you? However with the UK being so small it’s not that difficult to get somewhere interesting quite quickly, also UK trains are pretty good but you’d have to pre-book a bike on some services.
*All relative - if you stood on the top of our tallest mountain you would still be underground in Reno 
No, just a lane in Hertfordshire
Honestly, after cycling into the city from Surbiton this morning, will suggest it again, move near one of the velodromes, Herne Hill velodrome is a long outdoor tarmac track, very aerobic in effort (good for a roadie) with a great community, lots of sessions and far more relaxed than the indoor one at the Olympic park. The Olympic park does also have a crit circuit that has open sessions if you want car free training.
Vacation in the Alps.