Originally Posted by PotatoSlayer

My wife and I are shopping for a house. We both have the same employer but she works a 10 hour shift, I work 8. Respectively she starts at 8pm, I start at 10pm so we get out at the same time.

Right now my commute is 14 miles under moderate (some hills, but nothing major) each way. I ride into work and then when we get out I throw the bike on the rack and we drive home together. On the days our schedules don't coincide, I will go round trip. The 28 mile round trip takes a bit of effort but I get it done.

For a year I did this commute on a mountain bike, A few weeks ago I got a road bike and it's so much easier that I don't really break a sweat on the way to work now and I make better time.

So, as we've shopped for the house I consider my bike commute (which I am set on continuing). We put an offer on a house already and it looked like it was going to go through, but it was bank owned and red tape got in the way. That house was about 17 miles from work.

The general range I'm looking at is about 17-20 miles each way, and we really like a house we looked at which is 20 miles from work. But it's also close to mass transit, the proposed light rail system, and closer to shopping. It's also in a better neighborhood than some other places closer to work. This commute is made easier by a 1.5 mile stretch of pure downhill where I get going to speeds above 30 mph.

Anyone think 20 miles each way is too far? about 90% of the time I'm only going one way and I do have a car to use in the mean time in case it gets to be too much. I just want feedback.

Closer to work the home prices are higher and it's fairly isolated. I figure in case one of us loses our job being near mass transit and a more prevlant business area could come in handy for finding a new job. But I want some other bike commuters input as to whether or not this is too much.