How many people have an offroad commmute?

I'm about to move house and one of the options is death to commute from down a rather narrow and high speed A-road – or to commute mostly cross country and with a couple of bits of minor roads in between…

It'll be about 17 miles in total – but pretty flat… Anyone do anything like that regularly and if so – how long does it take you?

Yeah, mine was and shortly will be that again. Dead easy. It's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned, offroad all the way. Took me about an hour each way.

Your issues will be in winter when it gets dark and wet. Offroad causes a lot more hassle then.

I do 17 miles onroad. With traffic etc on the first half and at the latter end it takes c55 mins door to door.

I could do a more (but not completely) off road version, but the distance would go up loads – it follows a river, so is winding. Not sure I'd fancy off road the whole time.

I think Samuri's right – great in the summer, much more effort in the winter (just think of the bike cleaning if nothing else). From that POV, could you scope out decent road bits to combine with the offroad?

My commute across the bottom end of Cannock Chase is entirely off road when it's nice; it's seven miles of fireroad-and-a-bit-of-singletrack, it is an excellent way to start and end the day. Even my "all-weather" normal route has a couple of miles of off road to avoid a big climb on a fairly windy fast road; when it's wet (all winter, and lots of the rest of the year too) it can be filthy and eats bike bits quick. You'll have to learn to love the sound of rubbing, scraping brakes on gritty rims!

My 15 mile commute is across the Quantocks, on quiet narrow country lanes and takes me around an hour, if I go for the 5 mile offroad option the total distance is about the same but it usually takes me 20 mins longer.

25 minutes to do 6 miles on road on the way into work, early doors (at work before 7.45)

Going home at 4pm, I go the longer way round, 9 or 10 miles mostly off road, takes about 55 minutes. Although I don't do it every day, I've aimed for and got an average of at least 2 days per week year round. The only time I every cycled home on road was when we had so much snow the roads were virtually empty, and I would have been carrying the bike through knee deep snow. I don't mind the off-road stuff in the dark but then I know I can always drive the next day if my gear is still wet. Use loads of lights though in the dark

6 miles, 5 of which are off road. It takes between 35 minutes and an hour depending on the wind and the depth of the mud. I can thoroughly recommend hub gears if your going to be doing it day in day out all year round. The best thing is that because you have to do it you don't worry about the conditions but just go out and deal with it.

I can do a 12.5 mile commute off road through woodland and open common if I choose, usually do it once a week and commute on the road the other four days. Off road takes an hour this time of year and up to an hour & twenty in muddy winter. My commute miles add up to about 50 per week this way so with a w/end xc ride and a bit of running thrown into the mix it's plenty for me.

Kev

I work from home and quite often I do a lap of the woods before I make my way down the hall to my office!

17 miles for me each way, either down the delightful A6 into Manchester or following the canal towpath through Marple, bit of jinking through roads and estates then more off-road through Reddish Vale Park. Finish with either tarmac cycle path or a few miles of city roads.

Off road is great in good weather but if it's wet the canal towpaths just turn to horrible gritty mush. On road takes about 1hr (SS road bike), off-road takes about 1.5hrs (CX bike) although I did it a few times in the snow on my MTB and it was getting on for 2hrs each way then.

It's too much to do the off-road route both ways every day. Sometimes I road ride in then off-road home, occasionally I'll get the train in and ride home, if the weather really is vile I'll usually drive.

I would consider the quality of the off-road surface carefully. My commute is 16 miles of sustrans / singletrack / quiet roads at either end. Takes 50mins – 1hr5mins (on way back the next morning !)
But because the surface is hard and well-draining, it's just as quick in mid-winter. Wouldn't fancy it too much rim deep in mud !
Otherwise you can't beat getting off the road