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I've been commuting 250-300km a week for the last 3 months using a mixture of normal bikes and my e-bike. However, my ebike died last week (and will cost many hundreds of pounds to mend) so am now only using leg power.
What are my chances of keeping this going? Sensible thing would be to put some electrons back into my car battery (it hasn't moved for 10 weeks so they've all escaped) so that I could use that a couple of times a week but that would mean buying a battery charger and carrying heavy battery 100 yards to my house to charge it.
I'm going to give it a couple of weeks to see how things go. I used my touring bike yesterday to bring in 2 weeks worth of clothes and will use my light & fast bike to minimise the effort I need to put in.
Anyone else on here commute similar distances?
About 7 years ago I was commuting about 280km a week. I found it meant that I didn't feel like doing much cycling at the weekends. I compromised on cycling 3-4 times a week rather than every day.
Depends on the route and how hard you ride each way. My commute was 20km each way and every day became a bit much (I was in my late 50s at the time). I'd take it easy on the way in and then give it a bit of beans on the way home which happened to be uphill.
I'd get a HRM and make sure you didn't get out of zone 2 otherwise you'll be tempted to race, catch/overtake other riders.
I have a choice of routes (have found more over the last few weeks as I've been trying to avoid new cyclists wobbling through the lanes!) Shortest route is also the flattest - 26km / 100m climbing in, 26km / 250m climbing back and this is the one I intend to use for the next couple of weeks.
Not doing any riding other that commuting - am only leaving the house to go to work, staying inside when not working so being too tired for recreational riding isn't currently an issue.
I'm too lazy to use a HRM so just going on perceived effort - I've knocked things back a notch since the ebike died although my emonda does encourage me to push on a bit more than I should!
Once your up to fitness it's doable (on road I presume?). I did about that for a few years. Fine in summer. Very tough in winter. Get the car going for when you feel tired to give yourself a mid week rest. One day off in the middle will make all the difference if you start to find it too much.
You’ll definitely feel it by Friday of the first week and it’ll get gradually worse long before it gets easier. I do 225-240km per week and occasionally do between 300 and 400. Fridays hurt.
Also I am presuming you don't have a highly physical job? Office or easy workshop based? I.e not builder / gardener / tree surgeon etc.
Well if we get any NW cross season you'll either be really fast or really tired 🙂
It's Saturdays that will hurt, I work Tue - Sat 🙂
Work in a shop, on my feet all day, up & down stairs but not manual labour levels of exertion.
Well if we get any NW cross season you’ll either be really fast or really tired 🙂
I've knocked that on the head, my knees and back are too buggered for cross racing 🙁
TBH you've done well to keep it up - I struggle to stay motivated for 8 miles each way.
Is the shop not knackering in itself at the moment? I've ended up helping with some builds at weekend as our local little shop is swamped / stressed / knackered.
I did 5 days a week 38 miles a day for a while. It's fine in summer on a decent road bike. In winter with mudguards, heavy tyres, jacket etc... it's hard going.
I tend to do 4 days a week now so that I don't need to carry clothes/laptop on the bike very often.
Is the shop not knackering in itself at the moment?
Yeah, it has been but we've run out of stock and so have all suppliers so things should ease off a bit now 😉
I used to do 200 miles a week commuting, it was hard but doable, at least for a bit. I managed about 3 years constantly before it ground me down, I’ve moved onto motorised cycles for work, and I pedal for fun.
I found I was too tired to ride for fun after a while, then I started to get ill and eventually just slowed down and really struggled for motivation so I stopped.
He's had to resort to buying frames and components - hence a lot of extra work......
I used to do that kind of distance commuting. Did it for several years. Rode every day, only stopped because the job went away. Kind of miss it sometimes.
It's not as bad/hard as people reckon. Now's a good time to start, means you're well accustomed to it by winter.
My commute is around 25k each way with the South Downs in the middle (Firle) and it's great at the moment but not so great in the rain. I'm lucky in that I can pick my days and also leave my car safely at work or my bike. I generally do 3 to 4 days a week at this time of year but only 1 or 2 in the depths of winter.
Also variety helps with different routes. Cycling the exact same route day in day out gets really boring.
Yesterday for instance , I drove in as I'd done a long ride on the bank holiday and then cycled home and in again this morning and drove home this evening. Tomorrow I'll cycle both ways with a diversion to make it longer etc etc
I commuted 23 miles each way, 4 days a week for six months. It was knackering and I was sod all use at work. Final straw was one November evening when I got a double puncture, it was raining too hard to use a patch and I had to push the last ~6miles home. I was quite happy to buy a train season ticket for the rest of the winter after that 😀
I used to do that on London roads, awkward commute around the A406 which wasn't easily doable on public transport (tube in and out of Z1 or two buses which just took hours) and in a car meant sitting almost stationary for more than an hour each way. Originally it was N22 to Kingston for a while, then work moved closer to Wimbledon and then to Ealing so "only" 30 miles a day by the end.
I did it 5 days a week, most weeks and it was just something you got used to. Still got the training diary I used to keep with mileage, times, little notes.. used to mix up the routes, sometimes going through the west end, sometimes ragging the TT bike around the North Circ, or extending the ride home a couple more hours into the Herts lanes in summer. Apparently had the energy left to train another hundred odd km on Sundays, I was in my 20s though. Didn't need to wear smart clothes either.
The bad part was spending 10h a week in London traffic.. you knew a driver or the pollution would get you sooner or later.
Don't miss it at all. My current commute is a similar distance but through steep back roads. It's nice, but I tend to run it twice a week, bike an extended version once or twice, - but also take the train (15 mins/€0.90 each way) because that's a bit of a luxury I might never have again!
If my bloody job doesn't get pulled (I've handed my notice in from my perfectly safe job I've been at for 14 years and it's too late to withdraw and my new place put the entire staff on redundancy notice on Friday before I even get there 🙁 ) I'll have a 50 mile round trip to work 6 days a week. I want to bike it as much as possible. Realistically however that might mean drive in, bike home, bike in, drive home and repeat. Or just 3 days a week.
Sorry your ebike is borked - what went pop?
How old are you (without wishing to appear rude)? When I first started at Madison I was commuting 250 miles a week by bike. But I was mid 20s. Now I commute around 150 miles a week and if I don't refuel properly or have a couple of beers one evening I run my body down pretty quickly. Recovery in your mid 40s is much harder.
You must have a mate with a battery charger to sort your car...or give you a bump start 🙂 Might as well get it running as you'll have to buy a new battery if you leave it flat, and that eats into the Ebike repair budget.
When the office was open I would do 240km per week.
Kept me fit and was sustainable although weekend rides were rare as I was knackered.
I did it for two years, on an old Spech Hardrock with slick tyres and panniers. As has already been mentioned, Fridays were hard, especially if it was windy, or wet. Nothing worse than putting wet cycle clothing on, to go home in the dark, while it's raining and windy. I also found that I needed to eat in the late afternoon, as sometimes I would bonk on the way home.
Route choice is another thing, have more than one. Nothing worse than doing the same route everyday. Sometimes I'd take extra stuff with me, so I could cycle in on a road bike the next day, than I could take a different route, or go much, much, faster on the more direct route.
Do I miss doing it? Sometimes, but it really ate into the day, especially as I couldn't guarantee my finishing time, so was getting home when the kids were already in bed etc. It was nice in summer though...
MisterP - yeah, that's one issue, I'm old and fat (although 15kg less fat than I was at the start of the year!) I will be taking out shares in Torq 🤣
Car will get sorted at some point, I have an acoustic guitar here I need to take home and a new amp arriving at work today!
The ebike has a stripped ratchet ring in the rear hub motor.
Lovely bimble into work this morning, I do love warm sunshine 🌞
Try it and if your first post on Sunday is at 3pm and you woke up at midday and spent 3hrs eating everything in the house then yes, it's too much!
I've done it a full 5 days of commuting on occasions including towpath routes when it's been nice and by the weekend I've been shattered. But equally, if it's nice weather, nothing beats riding a bike along a scenic route. Good luck!
Try it and if your first post on Sunday is at 3pm and you woke up at midday and spent 3hrs eating everything in the house then yes, it’s too much!
That's just a normal Sunday for me James!
On another note, why does imgur make embedded photos look so shit? Any other options (other than Flickr which I've ditched)
You can do it, just take your time and don’t push the pace to often. With regards to gear, invest in your commuter set up. Top end group sets won’t last any longer than lower end. I run 8spd Claris and it’s faultless. It’s done 6+ years of what your doing. Full length mudguards all year round with a spray flap on the front. Panniers if you can. Ortlieb are worth the extra money, just for the ease of loading and unloading. Once your set up it’s just personnel motivation. I use the thought of money saved and fitness gained.
I’m not sure anyone can answer this but you. My furloughed club mates seem to be riding up to 650km a week currently. There’s no way I could do that even if I wasn’t working. However 260km seems like an amount many people seem to manage. Many years ago I worked on a building site and one of the lads would ride the 60km there for the 7am start and obviously home again after a hard days work. He was nuts though
Fair play if you can manage it.
I'm cock a hoop right now cos, I clocked 500 miles in a month for the first time!
On another note, why does imgur make embedded photos look so shit? Any other options (other than Flickr which I’ve ditched)
Imgur seems the best option at the mo -
Go to the imgur site, rightclick (or longpress if on phone) the image and choose 'view image' or 'open in new tab' then use the url ending in .jpg
Cheers Bob 🙂
@rents - life is too short to run Claris, I need a bit more refinement 😁
Summer bike (above) is r7000, cross bike is ultegra, winter bike is 5700, touring bike is 9spd xt with dura ace bar end shifters. 2 of them have full guards and I have Ortlieb panniers.
Over half the week done and dusted now 🙂
Legs feel fine, the glorious warm sunshine and lightish winds are helping massively though
@white101 Nice one 🙂
First full week of commuting without an ebike completed. 275km & I haven't died yet! Legs feeling a little tired and I'm eating all of the food but all good so far 🙂
Quick update. 319km this week. The weather has been rather mixed. Quite headwindy at times and got properly soaked a couple of times. Legs feeling pretty good. Bit of a slow plod home on the touring bike yesterday carrying a couple of weeks worth of clothes. Stopped for a quick beer stop 🙂
Well that's another week done. 353km, felt really good riding home this evening despite the unexpected soaking 🙂
Well it was good while it lasted. Have driven to work today for the first time sine March 18th. Couldn't be arsed to get soaked again.
Is commuting 250-300km / week too much?
Cycling that far in a week would be a very good week for me haha! I don't thnik I've ever hit 200kms