Marylander

I almost forgot about the guy in south beach florida who has run 8 miles every day at the same place and time for 40 years. People have come from around the world to run with him.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...147121559.html

woodcraft

There are a number of folks that I don't follow on Strava because their rides are

repetitive & boring. Fine for them, but I don't need to see it.

Henny

I ride the same 25 mile ride most weekdays. Why? My entire adult life I never had consistency. As a police officer, I had rotating schedules and no day was ever the same. Now that I’m retired, it’s nice to have something “routine”. It’s something I never had before. It’s kind of nice.

kantquit

I usually leave from my house and do 20-25 mile routes that vary I have a few favorites and I just about know where the high traffic areas generally are depending on the time of day so I try to ride when the traffic is minimal I have a few gravel routes I enjoy but won’t take after a rain I dislike mud!

Fokkerjet

I do, a 30 mile loop that starts/stops from home. For me, the route covers low traffic areas with very few start/stops along the way. The area is popular with other cyclist who appear to follow the same daily route I do, just maybe doing longer rides than I.

Paul Heckmann

One of the issues there is that you can get too comfortable in the saddle and expect everything to be exactly the same as the day before. New routes and new scenery keeps you on your toes and making sure that you know where all the road hazards are.

burnthesheep

That's what I originally thought, folks that had memorized something intricate but low traffic or "just right". But, at the risk of growing complacent.

I tend to do a lot of Google Maps and heatmaps to nail down my entry and exit from the home base. That' I typically do the same few miles every time.

Once I'm "out" though, it just depends on if I want flat or hilly and how far. It's amazing how much you can remember even if totally different if you get to know your locale.

boriska00

For the purpose of performance training and gauging improvements it's probably the best thing to do. Consistency

Stretch44

I tend to do the same basic route when I want a longer ride since I’ve figured out the best way to avoid traffic, lights and stop signs.

I will say that one benefit of the current lockdown is that traffic is so light (in NYC) it’s provided lots of opportunities for exploring different routes. Has also given me more time for riding since other activities are limited.

Paul Heckmann

I was going down a road in Waco when I was at my Moms going toward the Brazos River and Cameron Park. Been down that road dozens of times. Wasnt paying attention and hit a new pothole that happened to have a lot of water in it... didnt realize it was a good 6-8" deep. Stopped me like hitting a wall. I was lucky only with a nasty long scrape - while no fun, much better than the week I spent in ICU August of 2018 at Baylor Hospital in Dallas with a massive elbow reconstruct coming off a trail at White Rock Lake or a few other broken bone casualties.

Was always able to bounce back from these in my younger days. now that I'm in my mid 60s, not so much

viffer

There’s something reassuring about knowing I have exactly an hour before I need to get back and my favorite 20 mile loop takes exactly that long to ride. I know the route, I know the road conditions, I know the traffic patterns and the amount of climbing I have to do, I can just concentrate on the ride and workout itself without worrying about a lot of unknowns. Sometimes I don’t want complicated, I just want to get a quick spin in and be done with it.

Doc_Wui

I'm just a suburban bike path rider, and there's a bikepath that's 5 minutes away and has 25 miles of paved/gravel oath that passes thru woods/water, no houses or traffic signals.. I woukd ride the same 11 miles every day and a longer combination for longer rides. My wife thought I must be bored out of my mind. Then I got her a bike that she liked, and now we both do the same ride.

Last year, we packed up our bikes three times and drove to some other biking path areas, but it's so easy to take the familiar route and just make it 90 minutes out of our retirement day.

This year, with lockdowns, facemasks, social distancing, we're a bit leery of the path, Been riding on the street. Less people, but it;s a lot duller.

PaulRivers

I know people who to relax play the same videos games they grew up with over and over again. Their day job is full of change and novelty, when they want to relax they want something predictable and familiar.

Can see someone doing the same thing with biking.

yukiinu

Every morning I would ride the same 10 miles, at the same cadence in the same gear. It got to where my legs felt like they had disappeared and I was just effortlessly floating down the road. A very pleasant feeling.

RazorD

I am extremely new to biking (just bought my first adult bike la week), but I have been a distance runner for years so I’ll weigh in. I run the exact same route every time (4-6 times a week). I find safety in the same route, traffic patterns, terrain, potential spots I need to stop, my wife and family knowing where I’ll be, etc. it has a good blend of hills and flat terrain and just the right mileage incriminates for me. I will, occasionally, mix it up with another route that had heavy hill work leading up to a race.

My guess is this individual may feel the same.

crobertrose

I too ride routes based on how many miles I want to get in. That means I ride a lot of the same routes. It's all good. Still feels good and never boring.

robbiesd

Like Juan,
I live 1.2 mile from the Silver Comet Trail which is a 96 mile MUP. I ride the SCT to mile marker 15, 20, 30 or 40 five days a week from my basement door.

robbiesd

Looking at all these reply posts, it seems the majority have more of less the same route(s).
Safety is a big factor to many.

sabele

There are many reasons this person rides the same route without deviation. If you don’t like that, follow someone else. Alternatively talk to him/her and you lead. Complaining accomplishes nothing.

notmyke

Plenty of (reasonably) quiet little country roads around where I live (Vancouver Island), but I'd say 97% of my rides follow the same stretch of the four-lane 110km/h freeway, with variance being how long a ride I want - typically anywhere from 40-75km. Why?

Quiet Country Roads:
* not car-free, so I still have to watch for cars, head-on-a-swivel, both ahead and behind because....cars also know these are quiet country roads (read: no cops)
* no shoulder, which makes the previous point even a little more sketch
* intersections and therefore decisions to make
* pavement and road debris varies from "ok" to "oh *****" to chip seal that gets you thinking "I wonder if 60psi in a 700x23c tire would last...?"
* if I get irreparable flat (once got a blade off a logging truck that sliced right my tire bead-to-bead), when's a car coming by? Or if I call for pickup, giving directions can be....difficult

Freeway:
* not that busy, even pre-covid
* 3m-wide shoulder, with rumble strip separating it
* pavement quality: excellent! Pump the tires to 120psi and it's still super-smooth. Hardly any road debris (the de-belted tires off a semi - I can avoid those easily enough)
* enough traffic that if something bad happens, someone will be by soon and offer to help (happens just about every flat)

And maybe most importantly:
* shut off brain, spin pedals, solve problems that I couldn't figure out sitting at my computer for the last three hours.

myisland

Yeah I ride the same route on a California beach bike path with no stinking cars. Never get tired of the sunsets. Now our tyrannical County government says it's illegal to ride. $1000 fine.
They ignore California doctors who say we should open up society.

PaulH

I'm one of those people. I ride to work every weekday,year-round, same route. But, you know -- there is infinite variation. Clear, rain, snow, wind, and calm. Hot and cold. Heraclitus of Ephesus (late 6th century BC) said,, "You cannot step twice into the same river"

Troul 

does the habitual route rider use deodorant?

BadGrandma

My husband knows a randonneur who always rides the same routes with no alterations even when the owner of a route changes it. Same for any local group routes. He just tells the group he's riding the "official" route. Yep, he's nuts.

I think the lady mentioned in the first post likes quiet, soothing time on the bike.

Guntrainer

Guilty. I have a recumbent trike, and my helmet is about level with the rear view mirror on a small car. I ride the Natchez Trace exclusively, but have a number of different rides. 40, 46, 61, 75, 85, or 100 miles. Seems I never get tired of the scenery, and during weekdays, the road is deserted. As the days get longer, I ride the longer routes. I spent a lot of time on a recumbent trainer last winter, until the gyms closed. Kept the legs and lungs in shape for riding season.

Plenty of hills to challenge me.