Commuting by SS/FG

lactic ecstacy.
I know this feeling, not sure I'd use quite the same terminology though!

I do about 30 a day going from near Paddington to Uxbridge for uni along the A4020.
Way there is about 55, way back 45-50, both depending on wind and traffic/bus lanes being open. On 48/17.

Am I alone in thinking an hour and a half commute by bike is a reasonable thing to do?

Depends on the roads. I couldn't do it on congested London awfulness, but if it was free flowing I'd love the mileage. Look forward to it, even.

A move to Chippenham for work might be on the cards in the near future. I'm trying to decide whether 20miles each way from Bristol would be too much to do everyday.

Current commute is about 2miles each way :/

add an extra 18 miles on to your journey home from work every night for a week and see how you feel about it.

I've been doing 26 miles a day on a 44/15 fixed gear for the past 5 years. Did my first year on a geared bike then switched to fixed, and have never looked back.

Distance-wise, a lot of bike people I've talked to have said beyond 13-15 miles each way it can be real slog, even if you're keen. I'm using this as a guide to how far out of town I can move!I currently do a 7 mile each way ride and that's sub-30 mins, so my maths says that's up to an hour each way at a maximum.

I've gone into work at 6am a fair bit recently and the upside is the roads are nicer to ride on. Even zone 2 roads you can ride flat out for 10 minutes plus. (Not as good as late night though!)

@Dynamicalsystem, sounds like we do the same route - though sometimes I duck out of the hill and ride through Lewisham/Deptford instead (particularly if the park is closed).

I am currently riding geared but rarely change gears!

When riding my geared bike I'm the same - I have my comfortable gear, and only change up from that for a burn. The rest I ignore.

Am I alone in thinking an hour and a half commute by bike is a reasonable thing to do?

Nope!

I'm trying to decide whether 20miles each way from Bristol would be too much to do everyday.

Current commute is about 2miles each way :/

Well, when we moved house, I set my limit at 20 miles radius from work. I went from doing 3.5 miles each way to doing 19 miles each way. The first day was a bit of a shock to the system and I admit I did feel like crying for my mum, but by the end of the week I was fine. I was also convinced there was no way I was doing it long term on a fixed gear (due to the 30 mph headwinds that crop up), but due to our cycle2work scheme going down the pan, I've been forced to stay on fixed gear and it's all well so far (over 3 months I've been doing it, 5 days a week).

I've been rocking a Carradice saddlebag for the last month or so and it is brilliant. ... and it is the smallest bag that Carradice make the Barley.

I'm planning on eventually moving away from a rucksack, but that's the cheap option as I already have it. Not sure if I could fit a saddle back on (mudguards and lights in the way). Will have to look into it. Thanks for the tip though.

Distance-wise, a lot of bike people I've talked to have said beyond 13-15 miles each way it can be real slog, even if you're keen. I'm using this as a guide to how far out of town I can move!I currently do a 7 mile each way ride and that's sub-30 mins, so my maths says that's up to an hour each way at a maximum.

I've gone into work at 6am a fair bit recently and the upside is the roads are nicer to ride on. Even zone 2 roads you can ride flat out for 10 minutes plus. (Not as good as late night though!)

@Dynamicalsystem, sounds like we do the same route - though sometimes I duck out of the hill and ride through Lewisham/Deptford instead (particularly if the park is closed).

I am currently riding geared but rarely change gears!

I was doing 13 miles each way for quite a few years, I'd do a further commute but would have to have some sort of option to train one way if desired or take a few days off. I Did a while 17.5 one way 13 back and that was not too bad. If I was living outside London so there for less stop start I'd up the 13 -16 miles limit my a couple of miles.

A guy I was working with this year said he worked in Canary Wharf Evans, apparently there was some guy who worked there that cycled in from Kent, (proper Kent out side the M25) work then cycle back to Victoria and catch a train. Pretty crazy but moust have got him fit!

Depends on the roads. I couldn't do it on congested London awfulness, but if it was free flowing I'd love the mileage. Look forward to it, even.
I do look forward to it, when I'm not knackered. But it includes about 10 miles of steady climbing, never getting above 3%. So looks flat, but means when I'm tired it's harder to get the bike rolling and seems to sap energy. I end up too tired to cycle more than two days in a row.

Still, it beats the train any day!

Surely the 10 miles of 3% steady descending the other way makes you feel superhuman-quick though? :)

I had a hill (not a 'real' hill) that some days I would fly up, but other days it would just destroy me. And crawling up it tired on the way home just made the next morning harder.
I found it interesting just how changeable the hill could be (well, my climbing could be). A direct indicator of when I was knackered deep inside, even though I felt fine.

Funny, I'vebeen thinking that this week, only got a cople of small hills, but when the lights are right it ranges from stopping every 200 yards, to a 2mile stretch, and it's got progressively worse this week. I choose to blame it on the change in the weather

I have to say I much prefer commuting on fixed in high traffic volume, multiple traffic-light areas (basically all of london). When I ride my geared bike all I'm doing is changing gear - total pain in the arse. With fixed you can respond to changes in traffic speed better without needing fistfulls of brake, and track standing means I respond to the green lights much faster and get out of the hole rapidly.

I was commuting 26miles per day in london for a while last year all fixed.

Dual carraigeways are good and safe cycling facilities, cause they have rare and well engineered intersections, plenty of space and good sight distances etc and lack on-street parking etc. Also no consideraton of plugging the traffic, cause they always have the other lane available for overtaking.

Your nation has best-in-the-world cyclist training available. If use have any considerations of handling any type of tarffic situation you should attend it.

You can't just generalise about dual carriageways, as there are very different kinds of dual carriageways, with very different characteristics. There are plenty that I would ride on at any time without any problem, and yes, vehicularly, but on others I just wouldn't, or at least not at certain times of the day, and not just the ones on which I'm not permitted to ride. There are conditions for which even cycle training doesn't prepare you. For instance, I've occasionally quite happily ridden on the A2, but I wouldn't ride the A127 westbound in the rush hour again.

You're obviously right that cycle training helps with the vast majority of scenarios.

Surely the 10 miles of 3% steady descending the other way makes you feel superhuman-quick though? :)
Well, yeah. Some days. When I haven't knackered myself trying to get over the Chilterns from the other side! It's not even 1% for most of those 10 miles.
Here's my route, generally takes about an hour and a half: [ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/32916[/ame
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Looks absolutely fantastic. Apart from that rather fiendish step at the half way point.

That's one of the best bits!

I'm planning on eventually moving away from a rucksack, but that's the cheap option as I already have it. Not sure if I could fit a saddle back on (mudguards and lights in the way). Will have to look into it. Thanks for the tip though.

I have a very large carradice saddlebag supported by the rack (while tie to the saddle naturally), it hold my 15" laptop with room to spare, perfectly doable.

Get a longflap version though, extremely useful when you're carrying large object.

I have a very large carradice saddlebag supported by the rack (while tie to the saddle naturally), it hold my 15" laptop with room to spare, perfectly doable.

Get a longflap version though, extremely useful when you're carrying large object.

I got me a Carradice Nelson Longflap to be able to carry my ThinkPad on my road bike, but I found out that I dislike having so much weight on the bike and I take a backpack on the days I need to haul the computer.

But the Longflap really isn't overkill for just a change of clothes, towels, tools, spares etc and you have some extra space available for little groceries etc.

It's a bit slow to install/deinstall to the saddle loops, but it helps a little if you change the straps to toestraps. Leave the toestraps long; looks goofy but helps a lot when installing especially if you don't have a rack.

Distance is relative, my 15 miles each way from Surrey to tower hill is about right... Particarly as I go in after the rush hour on two days.

But I'd happily do 20 each way if it was proper countryside, or at least a road that doesn't have many juctions or lights... And at the same time 10 miles of zone 1+2 during the rush hour might be too much, if that makes sense.

I recall that you did 15 miles on a polo bike right?

Its 10 miles, and all gently uphill, from Lower Sydenham to Farringdon.

You must live quite a way below sea-level then.