I have a new commute that is 30 miles / 3000ft a day. The old one was half that. My current bike is a 10.5kg cotic roadrat single speed with drops.

I am struggling a bit with the new commute. Would a £1000 road bike (cycle to work) make it any easier/faster/more comfortable? Or is it all pretty marginal?

You’ll have the halo effect of a new bike but assuming that the new bike has gears then yes, you’ll find it easier.

Yeah I reckon so gears will be the difference.

Love a singlespeed but thats a long way to be doing regularly!

It will have gears. Never ridden a geared road bike, my gut feeling is it might just be different not faster, especially up the short climbs

@joshvegas I think you might be right, after 2 months I am feeling burnt out by the weekend. Really its just the head winds I ride along the coast so can be brutal

I assume that’s 30 miles for the there and back? I.e. 15 miles each way. My commute is 13 miles each way with a similar overall amount of ascent, five days a week is a bit much for me these days.

It will have gears. Never ridden a geared road bike, my gut feeling is it might just be different not faster, especially up the short climbs

Probably but similar speed for less exertion is what you’re looking for?

Yes 15miles each way, 5 x a week.

Yes I guess I just want to have more energy in the evenings/weekends.

If it’s just about gearing, is there any point in spending the full £1000? You can get a 2013 cadd8 on Pauls cycles for £350

Used to commute on a ss cx bike (much shorter distance than you). Geared road bike wasn’t much faster but a lot easier. Made a big difference.

If it’s just about gearing, is there any point in spending the full £1000? You can get a 2013 cadd8 on Pauls cycles for £350

Aslong as it has mudguards or capacity for them and big tyre space I’d go cheaper.

Yes 15miles each way, 5 x a week.
Yes I guess I just want to have more energy in the evenings/weekends.

Don’t do it 5 days a week then? Drive/get the train once a week, means you can take clean shirts in and saves riding with a bag, which is far more pleasant. Gives your legs a day to recover too.

I find commuting deadens my legs totally, I think because it’s a means to an end (even if it’s all time on the bike etc etc), because I ride neither at a pace to recover, nor hard enough to derive any real benefit. So I end up knackered, and not really any fitter.

Good idea. I have to take the bus as part of my commute anyway so there will be no additional cost.

You’ll definitely notice a difference. My main road bike was singlespeed, moved to a geared bike, similar weight and was a lot faster (as measured by Strava 🙂 ) and less worn out on the geared bike

+1 for mudguards and bigger tyres. Oh, and a rack with a small pannier for kit. All of which makes life better!

And yes, a geared road bike will be far more pleasant! Mudguards for winter is a good shout. Personally I’d focus on minimising what you have to carry where possible, but panniers may be an idea if you must carry lots of stuff about.

The difference gears make on journey time/struggleness depends on the profile of the route.
If you are struggling to get up climbs on the route then yes gears help with that.
If the route is snooker board flat and you are just generally struggling with the distance then gears may not make much difference, you might just need to put a larger cog on the rear or something.

I do not struggle up an any of the hills all of which are fairly short and only around 6%, but I have got used to blasting up them out of the saddle.

I have a big backpack on which never bothered me on my short commute, but I am going to try 4 x a week so can ditch it.

Couldn’t you put a hanger(via adaptor) on the back and go 1X11 and get some nice rolling tyres.

Currently commuting on gravel (1×11)bike and a Carbon spec Roubiux(2×11)
Slighty less effort on the roadbike but tbh not much more on the gravel bike
with benfits of tubeless(schwalbe g-ones ab fab tyre imho) and it goes offroad for interesting routes.

There’s quite a few threads on here about commuting by bike.

Basically leave as much stuff as you can at work so you only take in daily things like shirt, socks and underpants. The less you carry the better. Get a saddle bag, I use one of these https://www.evanscycles.com/ortlieb-saddle-bag-EV229694 which is big enough for the above plus waterproof, phone, wallet and pump.

As others have noted, commuting a significant distance every day becomes a grind so give yourself a break, keep an eye on the weather and use a day where the weather’s going to be poo to give you a rest day.

I’ve a Genesis Croix de Fer that I use for commuting, £800 or thereabouts, but there’s bikes like the Pinnacle Arkose which are similar. Definitely put mudguards on.

To go 1×11 I guess I would need:

– brake / shifter levers
– front chain ring
– rear derailleur
– chain keeper
– new chain
– cassette
– gear cable

probably cheaper to buy a new bike?

oh and thanks for all the advice everyone!

Can you get any cuter with your gear to reduce that big backpack? Shoes at work, drop off a batch of clothes every now and again, that kind of thing?

I used to commute about that distance, it takes 2-3 months for it to become ‘normal’ and not leave you knackered at the weekend.

Keep an eye on your weight and eat lots, buy fruit, chocolate, ice creams, cake, anything really that’s loaded with calories. Forget eating healthy for most of the time. The only meals I found that mattered were breakfast (4x weeatabix) and dinner (anything you like, with a side portion of pasta, but avoid chips, bread and pizza as they left me with dead legs the next morning) everything else was just calories. You’ve probably got a deficit of 1200-1500 calories by cycling both ways, and if you have a target weight in mind it becomes quite easy to stick at it.

And ditch the backpack, take a suit into work and some easy iron shirts, then all you have to commute with is a pair of socks and boxers in your jersey pocket.

As for the bike, it’ll make a difference, even my summer vs winter wheels is about 0.6mph, and my winter ones are shimano ultegra wheels, so not anything poor. But doing 600+ miles a month takes some getting used to, so it may be fine once you’re used to it.

To go 1×11 I guess I would need:

Yeah but you wouldn’t need all those gears for the commute, you could do a bit of rearspeeding, e.g. 1×3 just by lengthening chain and jamming on some old cogs, a rear mech, shifter, and cable.

Anyway, it sounds like you are onto a winning strategy – resting on Wednesday and not carrying stuff should make things a lot easier 🙂

Just get a hub gear rear wheel and keep the same bike. Low maintenance, same bike you already like, and it’s the cheapest solution

I used to do a 32 mile round trip once a week, I got quicker when I went singlespeed as I couldn’t pootle up the climbs, but it was pretty flat overall as I’m south

My commute is easier now so I do it about 4 days a week (with the 5th working from home)

this has been scienced, has it not?

http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c6801

conclusion: new light shiny road bikes are not faster than old heavy road bikes.

my geared bike is no faster over 28km / 300m (there & back) but my legs feel much better.

i had a commute almost exactly the same distance and elevation and i never get used to it! Only did it one full week once due to being too knackered. Mine wasn’t on particular nice roads either, and it just felt like a chore after a day at work.

But, we’re all built differently so ymmv.

I’ve been commuting by bike for 20 years. I would say that 15 miles each way is eminently doable for most people.

Lots of good advice above. And I shall reiterate the pertinent bits from my point of view.

Gears:

This will definitely help in the long run. 15 miles with some climbing is, as you’ve found, OK on it’s own. But if you can sometimes sit and spin in a low gear and take it easy, you will find that you don’t get to the end of every week feeling crushed. I incorporate most of my training into my commute, and sometimes that means dawdling into the office at recovery pace. It adds surprisingly little time to the journey.

Luggage:

Depending on what facilities you have at work, and what you’re required to wear, I would get a large saddle bag or rack-top bag to carry your stuff in. Day to day I use a large Ortlieb saddle bag to carry underwear, polo shirt, wallet, and sarnies. Trousers/shorts, shoes, etc all stay in my locker/kit bag at the office and get brought home every few weeks for cleaning.

Bike setup:

At least 28mm tyres, preferably 32-25, with full (looooong) mudguards. While I don’t have them fitted all year, they make a huge difference compared to little crappy clip-on things. A front guard with a deep flap will keep spray off your legs and feet. This makes a huuuuuge difference to how effective rainwear/overshoes are at keeping you comfy.

A £1000 road bike will be lighter and probably sharper handling.

If you’ve got the road rat, I’d go for something at the racier end of the spectrum rather than just a geared version of the road rat. A racy bike will feel faster and less effort, just a geared drop bike might not.

Doesn’t need to fit 28mm tyres as 25mm are fine and depending on rims can be more like 28mm wide anyway. And crud race guards are ok if you really must fit mudguards but have no mounts.