DaleOfCannon

I'm applying for a new job that will allow me to commute, but I'm not sure if it's feasible. It's 22 miles one way which seems a bit much to me as I'm a commute by bicycle novice. Is this doable or are my reservations just?

Papa Tom

To me, it sounds like something you might want to do one or two days a week. I know there are people here with that kind of daily commute, but I would set my personal limit at about 5 miles each way. Mind you, I am 55 years old.

Some things to consider are how flat or hilly the ride is, how much traffic you'll be riding in, and what kind of physical shape you are in. Also, what kind of work do you do? Twenty-two miles will have you sweating and stinking pretty bad by the time you get to the office. And if you get caught in bad weather, is there an alternate way to get home?

Good luck. I hope you figure out a way to commute by bike at least sometimes.

ThermionicScott 

zze86

For me, it would depend on whether the new place has wash facilities or not as I am a big time sweater. Over that distance I would be drenched and require a shower before proceeding with my daily tasks.

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Mista Sparkle

My commute is about the same, 18 in 22 out. It is certainly a bit of a hike. I have a nice set of flat MUPs that are very rarely traveled when I'm on my way to/from work. If that wasn't the case and I had to move to roads I don't think I would be doing it.

At this point I'm in excellent shape, but first few rides in this year were tough. Now I typically do 2-3 days a week even adding in group ride Wednesdays on the way home. It is a good excuse to be a fair weather commuter.

It is a lot of time to be on the bike if done regularly and if that is something you would like, it is excellent. I'd suggest a minimum of a flat bar road bike if you want to keep at it. I've done it a few times on my MTB and that was a bit rough.

Showers may be necessary, depending on you and climate.


It is probably do-able, I would certainly go hunting for some routes and if you get the job try it on a weekend beforehand or maybe an Friday. If you are looking for some good information on what may be good for a route, check out the Strava heatmaps, you may be able to find some less traveled roads great for cycling. https://www.strava.com/heatmap#7.00/....36000/hot/all

CO_Steve

I commuted for 20 years, five days a week. Longest ride was 12 miles each way. 20+ seems like too much to me. Maybe once a week to try.

CliffordK

How Novice? How Old?

If you get a nice bike, you're probably looking at about an hour and a half or so each way, at a pretty good clip. You may be able to push it down to an hour, but to do that you'll have to be really pushing HARD.

It certainly is doable, but it will take quite a commitment.

I'm a moderately long distance commuter, and I wouldn't hardly blink at 15 miles. But, my daily commitment isn't that regular either. I'm not sure where I'd cut off at. I doubt I'd say 15, but not 20, or 20, but not 22.

As mentioned, maybe try a couple of days a week at first, then work up from there.

Another option that some people experiment with are E-Bikes. There are lots of mixed opinions about them, but they may help you average in the 20 to 25 MPH range. If you go that way, get pedal assist to give yourself a bit more connection to the bike, and some actual workout. Otherwise, all you have is an electric motorcycle with pedals.

CliffordK

If you don't do an E-Bike, get a really nice road bike... $1000 to $3000 range new (used maybe cheaper).

Make sure you have secure parking/storage at both ends.

Darth Lefty 

randallr

I ride about this far when I ride in all the way, but that's only about half the time. I love it. The other half of the time I do a mixed ride/bus thing, and one day a week I work from home. A lot depends on route - my ride-all-the-way-in route is quite nice. There's also air quality to think about - I'll shorten my ride if air quality dips too low.

www.airnow.gov

Kedosto

dabac

There are several things to consider in that question:
1) Time. My average speed for solo, open road riding is about 18 mph. Under good conditions, 22 miles would take me 1.15. Together with a (near) mandatory stretch, shower and change, that's a sizeable chunk of morning and afternoon.
2) Recovery. Already as it is, my commute is too long for adequate recovery between daily rides. I've got stamina to spare, but for race season, I commute LESS. I'm consistently faster on Monday than friday.
3) Shower and change. You'd need that for such a length of ride.
4) Personal fitness. My commute is 16 miles each direction. Took a year to ramp up to doing it daily. Starting out doing 22 isn unlikely to end well.
5) Bike storage. You need a decent bike for that kind of use, so you'll want to keep it. Not always that easy.
If there is an easy option for alternate travel you could probably make it work by riding in, travel home by other means, travel in by other means, ride home. Or do every 2nd day. One colleague takes the car half way, then ride. Entirely doable, but takes a lot of dedication.

mgw4jc

My commute is about 13 miles, but I often extend it to 14 or 15 on the way to work. I'd probably do up to 18 if I had to. I think the afternoons - especially hot summer afternoons are when it is toughest for me.

Like others mentioned, you have to consider the time involved. It's possible physically to ride that much, but you'd be getting ready to ride, riding, and cleaning up after for close to two hours each way. You would also have to be pretty diligent about bike maintenance as putting that many miles on will wear things down faster.

Good luck!

Daniel4

If it helps your evaluation, use 1 hour as your rule of thumb for the longest commute time.

I heard it on the radio many years ago that throughout history, commute times had always been about 1 hour. That includes the days of the horse and buggy. Today, the automobile has allowed workers to live further from their work but studies around the world still shows the highest tolerable commute time still to be about 1 hour. And this seems to be true of the many jobs I had throughout my career - and that includes my taking public transit too.

https://news.mit.edu/2014/study-commuting-times-stay-constant-even-distances-change

So on your bicycle, if your body can take it, factor in 1 hour for your maximum commute.

TheLibrarian

As a casual ride it would take me close to 2 hours to do that. Then if your job is physically demanding or even on your feet for 8 hours you don't want to be riding home afterwards. Possibly with an ebike or converted to one. My longest single ride ever was 33 miles and I was in pain for a week after that but that was when I first started riding. I hear plenty of people here who ride much longer for recreational rides. You've also got winter coming up and you should have an option (car/ bus) if you don't want to ride in the snow or the rain or just on any particular day. It takes me an hour now to drive 30 miles in a car. Often that turns into 1.5 hours and there isn't even very much traffic.

surak

You should find out the elevation profile (via Google Maps bike directions, Strava or RideWithGps etc. route builder). If it's mostly flat, I think you could start out doing either a mixed commute, if you can drive or bus part way, or just bike one way.

If it's hilly, then as a beginner it will be very hard unless you are already very fit. I have a reasonably hilly 15+ mile one-way commute. First time I did it back in Ferbruary, it took 1.5 hrs. I'm down to 50 minutes now, riding roundtrip 2-4 days out of the week since March. Hills may be tough, but without any other training, they made me much stronger and faster, so don't be discouraged if that's the kind of terrain you have and your goal is to get fitter.

SactoDoug

Try it one day on the weekend. That will give you an idea how long it will take and the effort. Bear in mind that the traffic will be lighter on the weekend but that should not affect your time too much. If you cruise at 20 mph and it is relatively flat, I would guess it will take you about 90 minutes each way factoring in stops at stop signs, traffic lights, etc. Add another 15 minutes to freshen up and get dressed for work.

If you feel confident after trying it on a weekend, then give it a try once or twice a week. Then bump it up when you feel ready.

Here are the three commutes that I have done over the years and roughly how long they took each way. This is all flat commutes and include city traffic.
7.5 mile (Zero MUPS) - 30 minutes
11.5 miltes (5 miles MUPS) - 45 minutes
16 miles (6 miles MUPS) - 1 hour

base2 

Pretty much what has been already said.

I used to ride 26-27 miles one way 4 days a week. Eventually settling on a Mon-Thurs routine. I'd then take the bus home in the afternoons. That 5th consecutive day was the killer. I just didn't have the recovery time needed. I tried a few variations, but couldn't seem to get 5 in a row no matter how I spaced the "rest" day.

I would like to have taken the bus in to work & ride home, but the bus didn't run that early. The bus home was cheaper ($2.75 total cost) than my car and time spent was about equal at 90-120 minutes.

As far as lessons learned: A shower at work is a huge plus. I wouldn't bike commute that distance if there wasn't a shower available.

Commuting 5-10 miles each way should be doable for most anybody regardless of facilities for most of the time. 10-20 miles everyday adds up with out recovery time. For you: I'd start 1 way with a bus home once or twice a week until you figure out what & how often the commute works for you.

Also, your food bill will go up a lot more than your fuel bill will go down. How much is up to you. I used to hit the factory cafeteria pretty hard on ride days. But then again theres nothing stopping you from packing an extra PB&J to eat when you get to work.

Many people also (Monday) drive in, leave their car at the office, then ride home. Then on (Tuesday) ride in, then pick up their car and drive home. They do this for the back to back training days, but manage an amount of recovery that works for them...Something to consider.

CliffordK

Yep.. a good start. Do a dry practice run. Or, perhaps do an actual Friday commute. Get a good early start, do the ride in, then back home... then you can rest the next two days.

Keep in mind that there is also training issue. So, what is difficult now may not be that hard in the future.

This would be especially true for a newbie of one sort or another.

I've always done a fair amount of riding, but was probably doing 1000 to 2000 miles a year for most of my life. I hit a couple of low years, then about 5 years ago, I noticed that I could do the ride from my house to Mom's house (about 16 miles), but it was hard to do that ride, do stuff, then do the return ride.

Then I decided to go car-free. My annual riding has bumped up to about 5000 miles, 6000 miles, and this year probably closer to 8000 miles. Mostly commuting, errands, and utility riding.

So, I will now ride somewhere, maybe 16 miles or so, and do hard manual labor all day, and ride back, and hardly think twice about it. Other than the fact that I'm much happier to ride at 16 MPH than 20 MPH, with 20 MPH for 16 miles being impossible a few years ago, barely possible now, and hopefully more frequent in the future.

crazyravr

Too far? Only if you have winter where you live.
Too close is more of a problem.... might as well walk

wolfchild

What's too far for one person may be too close for another....What's too close for one may be just right or too far for another...Best thing to do is to ride it few times and see how it fits into your lifestyle. Only you can decide what's ideal for you.

jrbz

"Pete Penseyres was the winner of the bicycle Race Across America, or RAAM, in 1984 and 1986,[1] setting a world record of 3107 miles (5000 km) in 8 days, 9 hours, and 47 minutes. His average speed of 15.40 miles per hour (24.8 km/h) was the record for 27 years, finally being broken by Christoph Strasser in 2013, who averaged 15.58 miles per hour.[2] Penseyres trained for years by cycling 65 miles to work each day.[1]"

Personally I commuted 4 miles each way for 19 years, sometimes I wished I lived further from work, sometimes not. Depends on the individual.

DaleOfCannon

Thanks for all the replies, I think I'm going to put more miles in and slowly ease my way into it. I'll wait until the weather is cooler and try it on a Friday to see how it goes. I'll post back in here when I pull the trigger. Again, thanks.

Khb

I second the suggestion about an ebike. That makes it doable on a daily basis. Invest in a second charger and charge at the office.

rumrunn6

round trip? each day? regardless of weather? ambitious!

that's my distance to work as well (by bike). I've found ways to do 1/2 commutes where I drive in & bike home then next day vice a versa. if we had a shower I would do a round trip but now I need the car at the office to go to the gym to shower & dress