[Closed] What's the furthest you commute, regularly?

**** that shit. 72 miles per day, that's 360 miles per week. You'd never have the energy or motivation to ride for fun at the weekend

Give it a go and see what happens

I have 16 miles each way which seems like a good distance. I seem to commute by bike more in the dark, cold and rain (compared to summer months). Once you are well insulated and lit up its quite a Zen-like experience.

I imagine you will get tired on such a long journey, and if there is a lot of traffic it would probably put me off.

Start twice a week? See where it goes?

What david said!
I'd probably do it once a week as a good way to get some good length base rides in.

Hi

I take the bike in the car to work, ride home 42 miles, ride back to work next morning, put the bike back in car to drive home, there and back in one day is way too far. Only do in the summer.

May work for you?

I used to do 20 miles each way, but most of the time it was one way, with a 5 mile bike + train ride home.

Now I do 12 miles each way both ways all week (it's pretty hilly though so takes a fair amount of time).

It's great being able to get by on one car and not rely on (mostly sh itty) public transport.

One thing I would say (as a father) is that it does consume a fair amount of your time, and you will be tired (I'm now trying to figure out how to fit in marathon training around the work commute!)

Salsa, yep exactly what I've been thinking, if I'm to do it more regularly that is probably my best bet.
I'm not planning on 5 days a week, that would kill me slowly over a few months, I'm leaning towards two regular days and the occasional 3rd. It may be a tough ride but it's pretty nice, not much traffic and follows the a39 from Cornwall, into Devon.

I do 30 each day. 15 in and back. BUT all along flat tarmac ex railway line no hills at all apart from small hill to come up on the home leg. No cars to worry about. But it is all along open estuary and the wind is horrific sometimes.

I'd say 2 days is a lot.

Try 2 one way rides a week.

Sandy 12 miles is a good run for marathon training

I commute 27 miles each way.

I only do it twice a week when the weather's amenable i.e over 5 Celsius, no chance of rain etc....

I am very jealous of those of you who have 15 mile odd commutes. I would love to cycle or run to work every day, year round.
I just have to figure out the best way to partially do it with my distance.

Salsa +1

I either ride in/train home. Or drive halfway and ride the rest.

Riding in is fine (45 miles from Sussex to North London), butcrudinf home is soul crushing I find. Did it once in a day, but wasn't overly effective at work.

20-24 miles return is enough for me is a rather hilly West Cornwall, Try to do 1 day shift and both nights normally ends up and just one.... not done it since the summer though due to health/working away, hopefully find out if I can get back on next month...well been told I should be able to ride a week after the chop.....
Also helps we have a full gym, showers and sauna in work especially when it is cold...get the off going shift to fire it up when you are leaving home...

Cheers, Steve

I do 20 miles each way everyday and that's pretty much as far as I'd go. 36 miles? Flip that.

Maybe if I was single and had nothing else to do with my days but you're talking about 4+hours per day just riding and not even for fun. Nah.

I have an 18 mile each way commute from the Peak District down into Manchester, but only do it once or twice a week for a whole bunch of reasons. In the summer, I have an alternative scenic route in (35 miles x 2900 ft) which is quite enough thank you. I come home the short way though. I'd hate to do the scenic route home as well.

I used to live around 35 miles from work and rode in two or three days a week by driving part-way and cycling the rest. This left with me with approx 18 miles each way along canal towpaths on a mountain bike. Used to love doing this, did it all year round.
I thought I'd try riding all the way, so got a cheap-ish road bike and rode all the way from home to work on the road. Reasoning being that on a road bike I'd be faster and therefore the door-to-door time (including the driving) would be about the same, around 2 hours and much less faff.
What I found was that I only managed once a week mostly as I was too knackered to contemplate it more and still get the off-road fix at home twice a week. The route wasn't so great, several busy roads and less nature to look at.
So I went back to the mountain bike, the car and the canal and enjoyed it much more.
So in summary, 70miles once a week was do-able but not a lot of fun compared to the shorter off-road route even with the addeed faffage which I could do more often.
Nowadays I commute every day on the road for around 10 miles each way. I miss the longer distances and I'm getting bored of the route. I'll aim to extend and chuck in some off-road sections as the weather starts to improve.

Now doing 12 mile commute each way, twice a week. In the summer I stretch one of the journeys to 20 miles.

I usually do 10-20 miles with mates on a Wednesday night, and ride up to 60 miles on road at the weekend. Commuting more than I currently do just left me too knackered to enjoy the "proper" riding.

I definitely wouldn't want to be doing that every day. My commute is 35 km each way, and I generally do it 3 times a week, which leaves me with enough energy and enthusiasm for riding at the weekend. I often extend the distance, sometimes by quite a bit, but the terrain is more rolling than brutal. I find that the frequency gets me more than the distance - doing 3x 100km days a week is a lot easier than 4 or 5 un-extended days. It sounds like something your might want to do once or possibly twice a week, but probably not more. Everyone is different though, so give it a go and find out what sort of frequency suits you.

21 miles each way, twice a week, all year
Tuesday night is MTB night and I might get another 20 miles in at the weekend.

400-500 miles a month keeps me reasonably fit (by normal UK standards - I eat a lot) but work keeps getting in the way of the commutes at the moment.

Presumably a lot of that 72 miles is in the dark, on your own? I like cycling, but that doesn't sound fun. I think i'd rather stick a turbo trainer in front of a good film!

What david said and what salsa said.

You could get an e-bike to make things a bit easier but even at a decent hilly ride pace that's still about 4 hrs on the bike each day.

I commute 22 miles each way three times a week and 62 miles each way the other two days. It's no bother, I just leave a bit earlier two days a week to miss the traffic.

Not quite as much but 48km, so what? 30 miles?

I think the most I managed was 3 times in a week. I was tired at the weekend.

New site I will be based at is a much more manageable 26km each way - 3/4 times a week once the weather picks up.

I'm never, ever going to do it at this time of year unless I absolutely have to for some strange reason (broken car etc).

At 20+ miles each way, especially on a hilly route, would this not be a good reason to seriously think about an e-bike?

Before considering anything else, I suspect you would be making savings over rail fares for cycle/train split journeys in ~12 months, or perhaps even less! 😯

One of my colleagues has some similar distance. He often drives in with bike in the boot then rides home. Then rides in the next day and drives home with the bike.

That way he doesn't have to do it twice in one day but gets a couple of base rides a week through a commute.

I regularly do what salsa and cynic-Al said .
Scenic route home -a variation of 25-40mile route & a slow and steady ,direct return the morning after.
Any more and me & my legs are tired for the rest of my week.
Although I can recommend four year old boys as an alternative to a foam roller .ha.

6 1/2 miles each way every day - its a 700 ft climb as well. I wouldn't want to do more.

Mine is 38 miles each way, I do it at most twice per week though at the moment it's nearer to once. I have the option at half way to get on a train as well so if doing it twice in a week I generally ride all the way home but get the train half way in.

I do 20 miles each way 4 times a week at the moment, sometimes five, but I like a day off the bike mid week in winter.

Friend of mine does 32 miles each way a couple of times a week but he does have the option of taking the train after 10 miles on the homeward leg.

Just built it up steady 2 days a week should be doable easily enough.

Reason is, it's a pretty brutal, hilly 36 miles each way.

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1.8 miles. It's a slog though so I usually take the more direct 1.6 mile option

Presumably a lot of that 72 miles is in the dark, on your own? I like cycling, but that doesn't sound fun

Riding in the dark for months on end is hard going, takes a lot more concentration that riding in daylight. No matter how good lights are you can't really relax very much.

I have just taken delivery of my electric assit kit to mke those climbs at 6am just a bit easier! My route to work is not only uphill but also into the prevailing wind. 37 mins to get to work, 24 to get home is the usual time!

3 miles either way, day in, day out. Commuting to London a bit so its 3 or 4 days a week normally.

Big hill at the end, drag a child up it on a tagalong.

Wakes me up nicely...

TM

Normally:

16 miles each way with around 600ft of climbing, which I do 4 times a week. Drive half way, then ride in from there.
Once a week I do 42 miles each way (the total distance) with around 2000ft of climbing...which isn't much fun this time of year.

The past month or so has been misery, I just can't seem to get warm regardless of what I wear. I've cheated and taken the train once/twice a week since Xmas as I'm struggling a bit at the moment. Riding at the weekend isn't really happening (not a massive deal as I don't have much time at the weekends anyway) but I'm like a zombie on Saturday morning and not much better on Sunday.

For 36 miles I think its definitely doable one a week every week, you just need to eat enough and ensure you get the sleep. More than that and its going to start hurting and properly not be much fun. For me it's the mental side of things I struggle with. 84 miles a day seems mental when I haven't done it for a while, however once you're in the swing of things its no so bad. Sod doing it every day though

Last week I covered 220.4 miles commuting. Drove in on Monday, rode home 34.8 miles. Rode both ways on Tuesday 31.9 and 34.1 miles. Rode in to work 28.1 miles Weds and drove home. Drove in Thursday morning then rode home 43.2 miles. Rode both ways on Friday 22.6 and 25.7 miles, leaving the car at work over the weekend. So I reckon the OP riding both ways on Tuesday and Thursday would be easily possible. I wouldn't want to do it much more than that.

Last week I covered 220.4 miles commuting. Drove in on Monday, rode home 34.8 miles. Rode both ways on Tuesday 31.9 and 34.1 miles. Rode in to work 28.1 miles Weds and drove home. Drove in Thursday morning then rode home 43.2 miles. Rode both ways on Friday 22.6 and 25.7 miles, leaving the car at work over the weekend. So I reckon the OP riding both ways on Tuesday and Thursday would be easily possible. I wouldn't want to do it much more than that.

Great accuracy and detail on the stats there, but it just makes is all the more confusing why your commute distance changes so much day to day, and on the in/out journeys! lol

I used to do 18 ish miles each way but only 3 days a week regularly. That was pretty pan flat though and mostly on cycle paths or forest tracks so nice and peaceful. The things I found that helped were to have a second breakfast when you go to work otherwise I'd be thinking about lunch by 11, and to not feel obliged to do it so you don't think of it as a chore.

Looking back I did a lot less riding at weekends than I do now I work from home.

16 miles each way for me.
Several route options, the easiest / quickest is also the least enjoyable, just A roads into Manchester but with a short section on the Fallowfield Loop.

I can use the canal towpath which is lovely in summer when it's dry and utterly miserable at any other time of the year.

Normally I wouldn't consider doing more than 4 days a week, it's just too tiring and then I don't want to ride at the weekend. I can combine riding in with getting the train home and that's often an option especially if the weather has changed during the day.

Last week I did 112 miles of commuting (3 full commutes, one half-commute)

Some days I feel like going straight home, some days not. I'm single and live alone, I don't need to get home for anything. So if the weather is good and the legs are playing ball the miles increase.

Even at 11 miles or so each way I tend to get a second breakfast (though the first one is pretty small).

I think 36 each way would be doable (except in very foul weather), but you'd certainly have to work up to it and have the free time. When I was house shopping I wouldn't have considered anything more than 20 miles, and 15 was my real sort of target max.

If you managed to work up to riding 36 miles each way every day, you'd be an absolute machine!