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Okay, so this can be affected hugely by hills and the like, but looking at the radius from where I work the hills are similar in most directions - I think I'd go up to 20 miles each way as a maximum (though possibly not every day, so instead becoming a bit multi-modal, especially when the weather is bad, and using park and rides to come in).
DaveC, how far was your commute from DB to get training for the Snow Roads?
My commute is anywhere between 28 - 31km. I do vary the route out of interest but its never much out of these distances.
I upped my commuting from 2-3 to 5 days a week for my Audax SR. I thought that 3 days a week would be enough and 4 days or more too much but after finding out a mate in the Bay cycled 5 days a week I started cycling in and out with him. I do find I need to be Tucked Up with Teddy by 10pm (sometimes earlier) during the week, as I rise at ~7am, as the commute does leave me tired. I'd consider a longer commute if I were to move to a job outside Edinburgh but its not the distance thats the put off but the time spent on the bike. In lazy summers, a warm sunny cycle home is lovely but over a typical 1 hour 20 min winter cycle in winter is harsh.
I found that upping my kilometreage (sp??) really does help in Audax prep. Hill are a good training aid through so a shorter commute with more hills is just as good in my opinion. Going over the Lecht was hard on the Snow Roads and I don't know how Dave got over on his bedsted?
Depends mostly on the bike I'd be able to use. Assuming there's proper cycle parking at the other end and I could leave supplies/lock etc there I'd be happy to use the road bike with panniers/rack. 10 miles each way on a road bike, even with headwinds/hills etc, is really pretty trivial and not much more effort than having to go say 3 miles each way on a battered beater hybrid with a rugsack - my current commute.
15 miles and above I'd have to get serious about eating/resting/training discipline. The issue I've encountered even on my short commute is that whatever distance you can do comfortably for leisure becomes much more of an issue if you have to do it after a days work, and then the same again the next day, and the next. I could go and ride 30 miles right now even on a slower bike with loaded panniers and not find it remotely tough. Doing that day in day out and mixing in work and mtb on the side and road training/leisure and suddenly you've turned something you love into a chore.
This is true, this year I have ridden less for fun. I did have a goal though, my first AUDAX SR. My food consumpotion went up to start with but i think my body copes quite well now its used to 5 days a week. I don't have to train though, as 5 days a week is training enough.
I'm pretty much at what is maximim (for me), 24 miles e/w Tues/Thurs, 15 miles e/w Mon/Fri, and 6 miles e/w on a Weds.
I know others do much more than I do, suppose it's how fit you are, and how long you are prepared to spend commuting. My Tues/Thurs are nearly 4hours on the bike as it involves off road too. I couldn't give that time every day.
I discovered last week that I NEED the rest (short) day on a Weds, I'm still broken now from being stupid and trying to do another 30 mile day.
Apparently I'm currently at 51km each way, which is a truly idiotic distance. I therefore use a good chunk of train, so do about 30km cycling a day. Still takes far too long, but if you persuade yourself that the train is 'productive time' it's not unbearable.
I've done 19 miles e/w. The distance was less of a problem than the time. The memsahib liked me to use the train in the afternoon.
Interesting comment from a non-cycling partner about her husband's commute by bike (I would guess about 15 miles each way) - she resents the time it takes, but it's worse on Fridays when he drives in and back and comes home in a foul mood...
I work in different schools everyday. A short commute is 15miles e/w and a long commute is 30miles e/w. Don't always get 5 days every week. Last month I got 2 5-day weeks in a row and the nearest school was about 23 miles away. Didn't go near the bike those weekends!
On the 'time' issue, it does somewhat depend on what your priorities are.
I really only commute by bike, the only leisure cycling I do is when my wife is working a Saturday (maybe every 6 weeks).
Personally, I would rather spend all of the weekend with my wife (corny, but the truth), rather than missing one of those days if I am out on the bike, so in a lot of respects although my commute is long, it is also my leisure time.
Definitely the above. Plus cycling is my decompressing time, so the almost two hour transit means although I never get home before half six, I am immediately in home mode on arrival.
For commuting, I reckon an hour each way is enough.
I was commuting 15 miles each way for a while, not a problem in summer, in fact I used to add miles on in summer, but riding through snow and ice in the winter wasn't much fun.
In recent years my shortest route commute has never been more than 6 miles, but I add to that most days. I have been known to do 60 miles on the way home, or on other days I've set off on the Biggar road before 6am in order to take one of the off road tracks over the Pentlands into work.
My longest has been 17 miles each way, which I did 5 days a week for maybe two and a bit years.
I agree that it comes down more to time than distance. I don't want to spend more than two hours a day - currently it takes me about 90-100 minutes for a ~21 mile round trip, so I'm getting my workout from rough terrain more than distance.
I reckon 25 miles each way in the Netherlands in a velomobile..?
I seem to recall reading somewhere that 1 hour each way travelling time is about the maximum that most people are willing to tolerate (of course there are exceptions).
I'm very fortunate that I have options for my commute. My usual commute is bike to Haymarket, train to Livingston North, 10 minute cycle to office. This is what I use the Brompton for. There is actually a minibus to the office (no useful public transport) so I can do without the bike, I just prefer to cycle, but it is nice to have the option especially in snow/ice.
My 'long commute' is 16 miles each way on a road bike. That's about 2h05 - 2h10 total cycling time (over the hour on the way in and around the hour for the return, depending on wind, mostly). I usually do this once a week throughout the year and sometimes twice. In the run up to the Snow Roads (and for other events in the past) I extended the homeward run to take up to 2 hours. I wouldn't want to do that every day - partly because I want to run and swim as well and don't have time (or energy) for everything, but also to do it regularly in winter I'd need a much more weather-proof bike than my current lightweight racer. I'm very nervous/cautious about doing the long comute in snow/ice.
I'm not sure what maximum distance I'd do every day. It would depend a bit on the route, as others have said. If I could be confident that it would be gritted I'd be happier than if it was something that was going to be an impassible ice rink every winter. Also it is nice to be able to commute (short commute) in office clothes - though there's a couple of men who also bike-train-bike who prefer to change when they get to the office.
Thing is, it's not just the time spent commuting. To manage the full round trip of 35 miles on the four days that I work in the office, I'd need to be going to bed earlier (than 11pm) so that I could get up at 6am to to do it again. In effect you lose the time twice - on the road and sleeping.
To be honest, I don't like cycling to work enough to be going to my bed about an hour after the kids. That really would be a groundhog day treadmill of wake, ride, work, ride, eat, get ready for tomorrow and bed.
well as I drive a lorry each day, I can assure you that after nearly 15 hours in the cab,the prospect of biking home, all uphill,in the rain , or worse, invariably in the dark,is less than appealing ! still I do it most days,only 25 minutes home comute,but sometimes I just want to throw the bike away and get a taxi !
cant actually remember the last time I was in a taxi ........
scott
15 hours in the cab! :-O
I reckon 1 hour each way but then again I like being in the centre of town so perhaps only if I was commuting OUT of Edinburgh rather than into it?
I met an audaxer who was going for his SR on Glen Shee on Sunday and he has a 40 miles commute each way from Aberdeen over some mountains or other which he does twice a week.
I suppose it also matters that it doesn't make that much difference how I commute: cycling or public transport takes much the same time. If PT was twice as fast, I'd maybe swap cycling for sleep.
Very true. I've never had a job where it was significantly quicker to get there by any means other than cycling.
Even driving out from Edinburgh to Fife (pretty rapid on the motorway going the opposite way to everyone else) only got me to work 5-10 minutes quicker than cycling, and it was a no-brainer to apply a quality modifier to my time that made driving the worse deal...
Not really about cycle commuting (and 'based on a survey by a bank').
"
Despite being almost 40 miles away, Motherwell topped the list as the most affordable commuter town to Edinburgh, with an average house price of £130,268 compared to £225,133 in the capital.
"
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland-s-most-affordable-commuter-towns-revealed-1-4239856
The downside, of course, being that if you buy a house in Motherwell then you have to live in Motherwell.
Motherwell also has quite fast but not frequent rail connection to Edinburgh.
The electric bike can double your commute. Same time, same amount of exercise, twice the distance.
"Same time, ... twice the distance"
That's optimistic.
I did accept a job in Stirling and thought about cycling one or 2 days a week (or if I could leave the bike safely somewhere one way on multiple days). Would probably be a minimum of 2 hrs 1 way. Again that would be combined commute + leisure time + exercise and probably limited to BST.
(Un)fortunately the job fell through and I got one closer to home. Happy with my ~ 1hr commute and still exploring different ways of extending it. There is plenty of scope still out there...
When the FRB was closed last December I decided one day to commute in to Edinburgh from home in Dunf via Kincardine Bridge, a distance of 46 miles one way. Largely because I was utterly sick of getting the overcrowded train in. Took about 2h45m and I have to say I really enjoyed it, catching the sunrise as I came through Dalmeny. However, once was enough! Was shattered by the end of the day! My current commute is 16 miles each way although I think I'd go to 20 max.
It would depend if was uphill or downhill my commute is currently 8.5 miles but is getting increased to 10 miles when my office moves to Edinburgh but its actually the same time
@chdot that is sort of news coming back from across on the continent.
So maybe i shuld have said in optimal conditions - e.g. a cycle path that extends from the centre say to commuter belt 20km away people are now living 40km away and commuting on the path which is like a sustrans route, but maybe straighter
mAYBE i Exaggerated same time - maybe slightly longer. They go at 16.6mph and think nothing of hills (you can pedal them faster though) so I think would get me up my hill home in 30mins rather than 45mins but maybe only ten mins faster down the hill. If my uphill was twice as far then they would do it in an hour instead of an hour and a half to two hours it would take me??.
my commute is/would be 3km all downhill to The Shore, so I go via Joppa and it's a nice 15.5k. I'd like a longer option going home but haven't managed to work out a nice route yet.
Anyone know of a nice way of getting back from Mussleb / QMU to innocent ?
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