JeremyZ

I'm pretty jealous of you folks who live a "bikable distance" from work. I suppose my commute is bikable, but I need to have energy actually left for work and I'm not in that great of shape. (5'8" tall, 173 lbs.)

I'm in the far north suburbs of Chicago. Two lane roads about 60% of the way in to work. Gravel shoulders with broken glass in them. So I'd have to ride on the road and trust that I not get killed.

However, I do live 1.6 miles from a commuter train. On the other end of the commuter train, it is about 0.6 miles to work.

I have a Schwinn hybrid with no accessories and a Dahon Curve D3 folder.

TonyS

That makes 2.2 miles... sounds walkable. Or you could try the folder.

My dad does 62 every day, so it can be done...

mikeybikes

I wouldn't ride the whole distance. I'd do bike - train - bike.

If I rode my bicycle the full way to work I'd have a 50+ round trip commute. Right now, I do 3.5 miles to the regional bus stop, grab a regional bus, then its another 1 mile from the bus stop to my destination. It has worked beautifully for me.

Barrettscv 

I commute from Chicago to Carol Stream a few days a week. My car commute is 31 miles one-way. When I bike commute, I take an express bus to Elk Grove Village and use the Busse Woods bike path and suburban streets to reach my office. The biking portion is 17 miles, one-way.

Where do you live and where is your office? You should be able to ride more and still avoid un-safe conditions.

Michael

StanSeven

I used to commute 50 miles round trip. Since I also road weekends I limited my bike commute to two or three times a week.

pharasz

My round trip commute is 37 miles. I don't have the TIME to do that every day, so I only do it two days a week. I'm about to move 10 miles further away, and I don't have TIME to do 57 miles. It is not the distance which stops me, it is the time involved. To cut the time I will probably drive 10 miles to a park 2 blocks from where I live now, then ride my bike the rest of the way, keeping the commute at 37 miles round trip.

zowie

Commute by car or bus is 22 miles roundtrip. By bike it goes up to 48 miles r/t, with a few big climbs and some dangerous traffic. I only bike commute on rare occassions. Just sucks too much out of me, including time, for a work day.

kuan

Ride one way, take the train home. Take the train back to work the next day and ride home.

JeremyZ

You make it sound fun. I live in Round Lake Beach (60073) ad work in Northbrook. (60062)

One time, while driving it in rush hour, I figured my average speed to be 20 mph. It takes an hour and a half or a bit more at that time of day. I figure I could average 10-15 mph by bike and only take a bit longer.

Taking the folder for the 0.6 mile train to work leg doesn't seem worth it. It'd take almost as much time to unfold the bike as it would to ride it, hehehe.

I'm leaning toward bike-->train-->bus, at least until I get into better shape.

But who knows, if you are aware of some great bike route through the woods, I might be all over that.

Torrilin

56 miles round trip is in the neighborhood of 14k miles per year. There are randonneurs who do not ride that many miles a year. And even for them, that's likely to be in the 3.5-5 hour commute range. Building up to riding that on a daily basis would take years. It is a reasonable long term goal, but it is a no kidding long term goal.

I'd start with the more attainable goal of riding in with the train's help. As you get stronger, it will be easy to start chopping train time off the route by getting on a stop later or getting off a stop early.

JeremyZ

I just checked Google Maps, and they have an option for bicycling. It seems to add about 10 miles though.

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...&z=10&lci=bike

Anyway, it seems to be a pretty neat feature; it seems to try to route the cyclist to avoid main roads. However, it makes it into a 60 or 70 mile commute.

JPprivate

Sorry, but I'd drive.

TonyS

Not necessarily true. It took 3 months for my dad to start doing 62 miles per day (he started by riding to the bus, then to a different bus stop, then all the way in) and though he was a serious bike guy, this was a serious amount of mileage for him that he hadn't done in quite a few years.

@OP: If biking is something you enjoy doing, get out there and do it! You only get one life, and you'll waste it if you listen to others telling you what you can and can't do. Get out there and find out what you can do first-hand. If you want to ride the bus at first, great! That sounds like a great plan! If you're a little more adventurous and want to try riding the whole thing, I'm not going to stop you... just give us a report on how awesome it was.

zowie

You can drag the route google gives you to travel on other roads.

scroca

+1 for kuan's suggestion. Maybe you have to build up to this if it seems too much at first. From there you continue to build... no telling how long, if ever, you'd get to doing it full each day. But if you could, you'd have my admiration.

JeremyZ

Is this mileage doable with a recumbant bike? I hear they are much less draining and much easier to ride big miles on. They're super-expensive though, and big & clunky too.

The overwhelming majority of the votes is to use the folder. I haven't tried it before, so I think I'm going to do that. I've been shying away because the roads are so bad here, those little 14" wheels just deliver a punishment to my butt.

JeremyZ

I have some bad math in the poll. It would be 56 miles round trip, not 76.

Snowman219

If I were to do a ride that long I'd need something a little stronger than water and maybe some kind of power bar to get me adjusted. Ick. I'd have to use 2 full water bottles for sure just going one way.

hairnet

I know a guy that something close to that, sounds fun.

I would ride the whole distance if I didn't have to carry too much in my messenger bag.

buzzman

I had a 72 mile round trip commute years ago- and my job was loading trucks- a pretty exhausting job. I was working only 3 or 4 days a week and would sometimes bum a ride at least part way back with fellow employees. But it damned near killed me to do it. Basically, all I felt like I was doing was working or riding to work or eating/sleeping and attempting to recover. And it was brutal in bad weather.

The trick is to break the ride up. Once in a while ride 1 way and get a ride back or take the train. Maybe on a Friday in the midsummer when there's plenty of daylight do the round trip but I wouldn't even try to make it a regular ride as a round trip unless you're in phenomenal shape and/or have no other life.

cooker

If I wanted to use the commute for exercise, I hope I would have the motivation to walk to and from the train at both ends of the train ride. Rides of 1.6 miles and 0.6 miles are trivial, but walking those distances every day would really do you good.

The 1.6 miles could be walked in 25 min and the 0.6 miles in 10 min. If the 25 min first part was too long, then I would ride the Schwinn for the first leg and leave it. You don't need the Dahon at the other end, and it would actually be a pain to have to tote it on the train and look after it all day.

On the way home, you could always take the Schwinn for an extra spin if you felt restless.

opie

I'm in the same boat with a MUCH shorter commute. The best bike route I've mapped out is about 9 miles but always includes at least 1 "dangerous" road at some point. On the other hand I can ride 6.2 miles to the train stop and then make 3 stops on the train and be right under my building.

is there another train stop further down you could ride to? Maybe a 5-10 mile ride then jump on the train? That way if you're tired on the way home, ride it all the way out, if you feel good stop early and ride more?

electrik

At 56miles you are risking some burn-out if you do it everyday. Cherry pick the nice days.

CCrew

Dunno about years. I built up to it in 6 months. But you're right, that's the key.. build up to it.

CbadRider

Can you take your bike on the train? If so, you could get off at a stop a few miles from work and ride the rest of the way.