alex222 – Member
does any one have a longer commute and drive part of it? anyone managing a 20 mile plus commute purely by bike?

I’ve tried that a couple of times, however –
Ride = 55mins
Drive = 20mins max
Drive + ride = 1hr

Its so much easier to just drive the whole way!

For me it depends on what the ride is like, I would rather ride a longer route away from traffic hotspots than use the shortest route.

I now do roughly, 100 commuting miles a week, mostly singletrack canal paths and a bit of very quiet cheeky, for the last 2 years & no cars!

Compared to my old road route, which was half the distance, suck up the exhaust of every passing bus, lorry & hot headed car driver & suicidal pedestrians.

I feel far less stressed sticking to the quieter route 😉

50Km round trip, twice a week is the most really as I like to stick a bit of running and swimming in at lunchtimes, and maybe enjoy the weekend ride too.

Reckon I could manage 4 times, but it’d kill the weekends and family requirements aren’t compatible with that much.

I commute 12km, 95% off road, each way every day. About 40 minutes in, 50 minutes home.
I can do that every day, no problem.
I often extend my homeward commute to 20 – 30km, 1.5 – 2 hours.
It makes a nice change, but if I had to do it every day, I think it would get a bit much.

For the last 4 years i’ve been doing 15 miles each way but with a train journey in the middle, 4 miles home to station, 11 miles station to place of work, the 11 mile bit being in south to central London.

A month ago i changed work location and have since been 23 miles each way but almost entirely on quite country roads. I also work shifts so only have to do the full 46 miles a day three time a week and then 2 days of 23 miles.

Using the quieter back roads has definitely made for a nicer ride and i do have the option of cutting the journey down to 10 miles a day by taking the train which will probably happen when the snow arrives. Also having a decent road or cross bike will help i wouldn’t want to be doing that distance on a slicked up mtb.

Laughing at those who reckon anything over 6 miles is too much 😆

As is always the case “it depends” – fitness level, roads, route, profile, bike, time available etc etc

Many years ago I used to do 5 days a week (Frome to Corsham via Bradford on Avon) 22 miles each way. Great route, no wife or kids. Easily doable on road or on. Used to love it. Would often extend it or do off-road sections if on knobblies. Was dodgy in the dark until Vista Lites came along (anyone remember them).

These days I do 17 miles each way (Bath to North Bristol) about an hour each way. Occasionally 5 days a week but more often 3 or 4 due to family / work and other riding commitments.

Sometimes I’ll ride it hard (over 20mph) sometimes ‘easy’ (15mph). Sometimes extend it (longest ever commute was 200Km!! finished at midday headed over the bridge into Wales, rode up through the Forest of Dean, across the Severn at Gloucester and then back to Bath via Stroud etc). Most often on the Ribble Audax bike but occasionally on the racer (Colnago) or the MTB or CX..

It depends what you’re used to and how you build up to it. I often do 2+hrs hard on a Saturday (chain gang or hills), 4hrs ride on a Sunday (either 70-ish miles on the road or 4 hr mtb), 4 days commute and do a medium 3hr ride on the MTB on Weds nights.

I don’t think long commutes are necessarily good for fitness to be honest. You use your energy getting to and from work so you’ve not got as much left for properly nailing it in interval training sessions and the like, which is where you get your speed.

Quality is better than quantity.

In various jobs in the past I’ve found that my body quickly adapts to any commute and I stop seeing any benefits. Also when I did Cardiff to Bristol I gained a bit of weight because I was eating loads of carbs…

My commute is 27 miles (total) and I usually do it 3 days per week (tue-thur) Monday I drop off my stuff for the week and Friday I collect it again> This way the only things I carry on the bike are my phone, credit card, work pass and ID and some keys.

It’s currently taking about 35 mins each way which is about double what it takes to drive in quiet times and about the same in peak times.

There’s only about 600-700m of climbing each way, but it’s pretty open and the wind can be a real pain.

this 😉 http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=35431

I don’t do my commute to gain fitness, if i use the car it turns me into a moody arse and being tight i can save £200 a month not using the train, plus i actually enjoy it and seeing as i’m not a serious racer i’m not bothered about getting faster.

Mine is about 25 miles each way along fast A roads, not enjoyable so rarely do it. A friend who lives near and does the same commute near enough has managed to crack it in under an hour

I would have a 24 mile each way commute on very busy A and B roads, and had been thinking of “seeing how it goes”, however from some of the responces on this thread it may be too far in both terms of time and energy expended. I did contemplate the half and half with the car to cut down on the time/energy aspect and still give me savings on fuel but I’m not sure I could find somewhere on the halfway mark I’d be keen to leave the car.
Does anyone do a half distance car/bike commute? any advice?

Roughly 8.5 miles each way here from the edge of the Valley’s into Bridgend, so 17 mile round trip, allow half hour each way, combination of road and cycle path, with some urban town traffic stuff thrown in just to keep me alert, arrive at work pumped and home chilled, don’t think i’d fancy too much more on a daily basis as I switch between singlespeed free and fixed depending on my mood, its even fun in the wet and cold, but i’ll let you know how i get on when it starts to get proper dark, (i don’t finish until 6 in the evening)

Houns – Member

Mine is about 25 miles each way along fast A roads, not enjoyable so rarely do it. A friend who lives near and does the same commute near enough has managed to crack it in under an hour

That’s some pace for a commute your mate has going there Houns

Respect.

I do ~12miles each way and it takes me about 40mins any more and I would be dead at the weekend.

I don’t think long commutes are necessarily good for fitness to be honest. You use your energy getting to and from work so you’ve not got as much left for properly nailing it in interval training sessions and the like, which is where you get your speed.

So you’re saying their not good for fitness or not good for speed?

I would disagree though. Every traffic light start can be an interval session. Commuting is a great way to get bike fit and is a very good use of dead time, there is no way I would have the time to ride 200+ a week otherwise.

I do an hour each way (25 miles total on a fixed) and try not to do it everyday as I get awfully dozy by the end of the week!

so in essence i am better just driving to work then going to the gym or on a night ride when i get home?

Gary, it’s important to remember that more miles is not necessarily better. And yes I am talking about both speed and endurance. You don’t actually HAVE to ride anything like 200 miles a week to get fast.

Every light can be an interval session, or you can do intervals on the open road whilst riding home like I used to – but the extra miles you have to do take away some of your energy so you aren’t doing the intervals with as much power as you could be if you were fresh.

Alex222 – possibly from a speed point of view, but driving is bad for many other reasons 🙂

No, you’re not better driving to work. I feel amazing when I ride to/from work, I never feel happy when I’ve driven. Give it a go at least.

I understand that molgrips but I don’t just ride to work to get fit but I know I’m a faster rider/can ride further than most folk my age and thats through commuting on the bike.

i was planning on doing at least once a week just to see how it goes. i think it will take me at least 1 and a half hours plus i need to leave some time to get showered etc.

I agree with molgrips, if you want to train, then train. Commuting I guess just keeps you ticking over, do it because you enjoy cycling/dont enjoy driving.

If you train whilst commuting, I imagine you feel pretty wrecked when you get into work.

I have a 9.5 mile commute by bike from front door to works bike lockup.
I do this at least three times a week if not more.. otherwise its a bus for 50mins (vs 45 on the bike)

As the winter draws in i tend to drop to two times a week due to not owning enough warm kit that can be washed quick enough.
The number of post work night rides tends to increase in the winter months.

If you train whilst commuting, I imagine you feel pretty wrecked when you get into work.

Best to do it (intervals) on the way home when I’m not riding next day.

Posted 2 hours ago # Report-PostAnalogueAndy – Member
Laughing at those who reckon anything over 6 miles is too much

As is always the case “it depends” – fitness level, roads, route, profile, bike, time available etc etc

Many years ago I used to do 5 days a week (Frome to Corsham via Bradford on Avon) 22 miles each way. Great route, no wife or kids. Easily doable on road or on. Used to love it. Would often extend it or do off-road sections if on knobblies. Was dodgy in the dark until Vista Lites came along (anyone remember them).

These days I do 17 miles each way (Bath to North Bristol) about an hour each way. Occasionally 5 days a week but more often 3 or 4 due to family / work and other riding commitments.

Sometimes I’ll ride it hard (over 20mph) sometimes ‘easy’ (15mph). Sometimes extend it (longest ever commute was 200Km!! finished at midday headed over the bridge into Wales, rode up through the Forest of Dean, across the Severn at Gloucester and then back to Bath via Stroud etc). Most often on the Ribble Audax bike but occasionally on the racer (Colnago) or the MTB or CX..

It depends what you’re used to and how you build up to it. I often do 2+hrs hard on a Saturday (chain gang or hills), 4hrs ride on a Sunday (either 70-ish miles on the road or 4 hr mtb), 4 days commute and do a medium 3hr ride on the MTB on Weds nights.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Cadel Evans is in da house. Welcome, just how hard was the tour this year?

Eventually, I found my old commute wearing, though it was only 10 hours/170 miles a week. It’s more doing it at the end of each day with a busy day in between. I’m certain that’s how I ended up ill in February and then for the next four months.

I used to ride every commute at a tempo pace, sometimes throwing in intervals. I had a fantastic base, but ultimately no speed.

I’ve yet to do the new commute (52 miles round trip) more than once a week. I reckon twice would be plenty (6 hours/104 miles) with the addition of turbo work in the week, or just doing intervals as part of the ride home.

The physical effort of a 10 or 15 mile commute is nothing compared to the boredom of doing it day in, day out. I cycle 8 miles in and 10 home and whilst I try to mix it up,come the weekend I have absolutely no interest in getting back on the bike for fun. If I do force myself out then just getting ready makes it feel like a work day.

Yes, commuting keeps you fit and healthy but it can really make cycling a chore. Unfortunately I have no option as my wife needs the car!

It dose get dull but driving is even duller.

I’ve been doing it this year in a bid to get fit. I don’t have the time to spend nearly 2 hours a day training otherwise.

My route is 28.9km each way, which is what, 18 miles? It’s anything between 45-55 minutes each way, depending on energy levels & motivation to bury myself.

I find 2 days in a row really is my limit to be able to function normally & by the time I get home on the second day i’m pretty wrecked. I try and stick to 3 times a week, and I would say i’ve hovered between 2 & 3 times since March.

It’s made a huge difference to my fitness, and i’ve had to eat like a horse to stop myself from turning into a rake. It can be a pain in the arse, as I play squash to a decent level also, and trying to fit everything around that and county league matches is difficult at times, plus I want to ride XC & DH at the weekend too.

I don’t think I could do 5 days a week and still ride at weekends, sometimes the motivation drops, and i’ll sack it off for a week, but I find now i’m much fitter, i’ve got an abundance of energy so have to get out on the bike. I’m planning on stopping soon when the clocks change as gearing up for winter is going to be too cost prohibitive on a reasonably exposed route, so will break out the turbo and try to build on a half decent base I now have.

The key I find to keeping me sane is some sort of structure. I couldn’t do it on autopilot every day on the same route, and I can’t really vary my journey without adding serious distance on, so depending on feelings i’ll do random intervals, chase down people/cars/mopeds, force minimum speeds on climbs, HR minimum goals etc. Normally i’ll do that one way and have a cruise on the other. I find it seems to work well.

Until you try it, it’s hard to know what your limit is. About 20 miles and an hour max is my limit. For you, it maybe more.

Yeah I found the novelty wore off after a few weeks.

I’ve been commuting by bike for 6 years now, all seasons, and these days i dread having to take the car in. It’s become part of my life and actually miss it when i’m on holidays sometimes, still ride for pleasure on my days off as well. Novelty still intact

Here is mine:

I try and do it 4 times a week, but to be honest with juggling 2 kids and working back to back shifts with the mrs 3 times a week it gets a bit much. Worst thing is I forget to stretch at the end of it, and its virtually all uphill on the way home!

I quite often do half and half. It’s slightly more hassle but no slower in the morning than riding all way in or using public transport (I work in Edinburgh city centre so driving in isn’t a realistic option even if I wanted to). I leave the car in a park and ride (doesn’t seem to bother anyone) and pedal in from there. Have the bike on a rack which saves a lot of hassle and I have a change of clothes and towel in case I get soaked/ flithy on way back. I can do the switchover from driving to riding in about 3 mins now.

Have loads of options from road (20 mins on road bike by most direct route) to an almost entirely offroad loop (albeit a lot is on cycle paths and similar) that takes about 1h 30 mins; there is a great network of paths through west of Edinburgh even ignoring Pentlands. If I loop up into Pentlands gives almost endless possibilities – good for summer evenings (and I reckon I ride Poet’s Glen at least 50 times a year!).

Often use a CX bike in winter so ride in on road in the morning and do something a bit more interesting on way home (I try to never do less than an hour a day if I do anything!). In summer often take the MTB and do a longer ride on the way back to car (longest was 40 miles and 4.5 hours but that was a bit of a miscalculation!).

I do ride all the way in sometimes – about 15 miles by most direct (and by far the fastest) route but that is a busy A road but it has a narrow section for about 5 miles so I only use that in emergencies – takes about 45-50 mins. Quiet roads add a couple of miles and 10 mins or so onto that but is far more pleasant and add variety.

Try to do that a couple of times a week in summer, but rarely after the clocks go back as half of it is unlit.

Main thing for me is variety – same route every day would do my head in, I probably do 3-4 days a week and mix up routes and bikes as I feel like it, and I still enjoy riding at the weekend.

My route is 28.9km each way, which is what, 18 miles? It’s anything between 45-55 minutes each way, depending on energy levels & motivation to bury myself.

24mph is a pretty impressive speed for a commute, pretty impressive for any ride in fact.

My old commute was 23 miles total which I often did 5 days a week.

My new commute was 40 miles total which I managed 2 or 3 days a week typically.

The 40 mile commute was too much to do 5 days a week (4 days was the most I achieved). It was the build up of early starts at 5:15am combined with a full day at work which I found too draining to do regularly for more than a couple of days per week

Gary_M – Member
24mph is a pretty impressive speed for a commute, pretty impressive for any ride in fact.

Amazing number of pro cyclists on here.

i got into the habit of a 24 mile round trip commute 5 days a week during summer left my car at work so i could use it to get to meetings, etc. sometimes if nice weather i would go a long way home on a friday to build up some miles. important for me to do 75% of the weeks riding at pootle pace. anything else and i was gubbed by wednesday. amazing how you adjust to it. didnt really affect my weekend riding as long as i made sure friday was easy paced commute.

unfortunately work committments have meant i havent done a commute since mid-august wouldnt fancy much more than 30 miles round trip though

have a lot or admiration for folks who do it day in day out throughout the whole year

My pb for my 18 mile flat commute was a few seconds under 50 mins including a fair few junctions and some lights etc at the start. I kept up about 23-24mph the whole way but I was disappointed not to get the average much higher than 21. That speed really felt like I was flying though!

Amazing number of pro cyclists on here

I bet they aren’t commuting to work though 🙂

It was the build up of early starts at 5:15am combined with a full day at work which I found too draining to do regularly for more than a couple of days per week

This is exactly what I found on my Cardiff-Bristol. Not so much the cycling itself but the sheer time commitment was exhausting. Pre 6-am starts plus a whole day at work.

I do laugh at some of the claims and the fact folk don’t do it daily. I have no other feasible way of getting to work. when you have to do it day in day out a shorter distance helps greatly.

Many years I have commuted daily by bike – and IMO under ten miles is a must. Day in day out all year round

Related commuting question – will I notice a big improvement if I changed from a 1.5″ slick-tyred hardtail to something more suitable for urban commuting?

My commute is 22km one-way right through a city so my time varies from 60-75mins depending upon my willingness to thrash myself and make the next set of lights. I’m wondering if its worth the investment in something more suitable for road riding, maybe a CX bike with road tyres so that I could still use it for easy off-road too.