On this video we’ll explore the factors that will let you answer the question, “How Far is too far to bike to work?”
For some – 10 miles of bicycling is an easy commute, but for others that would seem too extreme. Watch the video to help you decide for yourself how far is too far.
Check out the link below to see highlight articles of regular people who commute by bicycle:
https://bicycle2work.com/category/regular-bike-commuter/
the question we’re asking today is how far is too far to bike to work if you’re thinking about bike commuting you need to think about the distance it’s gonna take you to get to work and whether it’s actually possible and so what we’re gonna do is I’ve got five different questions that you should think through an answer that’ll give you a better idea of how far is too far to bicycle to work to get a better idea on how far is too far to bike to work for you you need to ask yourself the very first question how much time do you have to bicycle to work do you have 30 minutes do you have an hour how much time and then you have to figure out how much time does it actually take you to ride your bike to work I’d recommend doing a test commute and getting in an approximate time on how long it’ll take you to ride to work and then ask yourself do you have that much time on a Monday Tuesday whatever day you work to get into work alright the next question you got to be asking yourself is are you okay getting sweaty because if you’re not and you don’t want to be sweaty when you show up to work then that’s going to severely limit the amount of mileage that you can do on your bike commute if you have a shower at work or you don’t mind getting sweaty because you can clean up then you can go a lot farther while bicycling to work because the farther you ride the harder is going to be to manage sweat and stink and just getting a little messy the nice thing though is if you’ve got a shorter ride then it’s a lot easier to go slow and take it easy so that you won’t have to deal with sweat the third question is what does your commute route look like is there going to be a lot of wind is there Hills are you going to be dealing with traffic is there a bike path what is your route like if you’ve got a route that’s you know against the wind with a lot of hills maybe some traffic even a few miles can be pretty rough to ride your bike whereas if you’ve got a commute that’s really flat with hardly any elevation or maybe you’ve got the wind at your back most days on the way to work then you could go much farther so you’ll need to determine what your commute route looks like to know exactly how far is too far to bike to work the next question you need to ask yourself is what is your fitness level if you’ve got a twenty mile bike commute one way and you exercise a lot and you ride your bike a lot it might not be that big of a deal but if you hardly ever ride your bike or you hardly ever exercise 20 miles is going to be rough ask yourself what is your fitness level you know where are you at when it comes to fitness even if you don’t consider yourself very fit you should still give bike commuting a try if you’ve got a shorter bike commute one two maybe five miles over time you’re gonna get actually more fit and you’ll go faster and faster I think some people sell themselves short and don’t give up give bike commuting even a try because they don’t think they’ll be able to do it but if you’ve got a shorter bike commute once again you know one two three maybe five miles and you have the right bike you could actually probably do that ride the last factor is what bike are you riding like what time typically the way I think about it is you’re gonna be able to go farther if you have an electric bike because you’re gonna have that assistance next is a road bike which I was easier to go faster and is a little bit more efficient then I would say a mountain bike and then lastly would be some type of Cruiser depending on which of those bikes you have is going to determine how much effort you have to put into cycling thus how far you’re gonna be able to bike to work if I had just a beach cruiser I am NOT gonna be doing a fifteen mile you know bike commute to work whereas if I had an electric bike I might even be open to a twenty mile bike commute lastly I’ve made this chart which shows the distance on miles to the left and then the difficulty on the right obviously this is all relative and you know some people can do 11 to 15 miles and not think it’s hard at all and that’s you know moderate for them or even easy but generally speaking I think this chart gives most cyclists an idea of what it would look like to bike to work at a certain distance I hope you enjoyed this video if you have any more tips and ideas on answering the question how far is too far to bike to work we’d love to hear them in the comments below hit my subscribe button for more bike commuting videos
22 Comments
What's too far to bike commute for you? Share in the comments below and make sure to tell us what kind of bike you're riding!
I have been doing 40 miles round trip AMA
My commute is 8miles each way, On the best days I could do 8miles in around 28mins. Otherwise the average was 30-35mins. On public transport. Trains were about 40-45mins and busses were closer around the 50-60min mark but it really depends on time of day.
I could be a bit faster. But my problem is that I live in a heavily urbanised environment so traffic lights are pretty much on every street and corner.
I used to do 25 km each way. Was good training. Though the odd day if super super grim weather or whatever jump in the car.
20 minutes. Anything past that is going to be a sweaty mess that your coworkers don’t want to be around because you will stink all day.
I do a lot of field work, so getting sweaty is no issue😊
11 miles both ways some hills cooler mornings and windy warmer afternoon. Still well worth. I use a peddles assist still working but not dieing.
I used to bike 15 km to work (one way) 5 days a week. That was 150 km a week just for commuting. Now I moved to a new house and I bike 9 km to work (one way) 3 days a week.
I rode a total of 50 miles daily for 7 years down State Highway 130, which was the most dangerous highway in the country at the time. I was 31 years old back in 1995 when I started. The commute was very hilly with crazy traffic, which on average took me 45 minutes. I had a 27" Schwinn racing bike, with the rear frame stay stretched out to accommodate a 26" fat tire in the rear. The rack system I made allowed me to carry heavy loads at times. That bike was revolutionary, it survived the distance. I finally scrapped it several years ago and regret doing so. I should have hung her on the shop wall to remind me of the incredible challenges I faced on a daily basis!! 😢😢😢😢
my job is 9miles away and almost 200meter higher. constant increase. here and there some 6-10% inc so quite rough for my unfit axx but ill def. gonna workout and ride the bike daily for a month or two before doing it
my folding bike has 16” wheels and I live in a hilly area. that doesn’t stop me from biking 10-20 miles a day if there’s places I wanna go, though!
…still, I’d really love an electric folding bike. some days I really just don’t wanna deal with gasping for air lmao.
50 km a day am i need a reod bike 😂😂😂
You can't ride your bike to work. Only losers ride bicycles to work. We used to have this diesel mechanic that would ride his damn bike to work every day. And so to help him not be such a loser I practically gave him my car.
Between my home and work are 21 miles and 1400 feet of climbing. (Southern CA) So, a couple days a week I might drive, but at least one or 2 days I'll pedal my road bike. (I also have a e-bike for "rest days.") My advice is, if you're going to be sweaty when you get to work and there's no shower, bring clothes in a backpack. I keep a pair of slacks (lighter material- no denim. I like Volcom's chinos), an undershirt, and a shirt (usually a t-shirt) in 3 separate bags in the backpack. The bags that Rapha delivers their products in are PERFECT to hang onto and re-use for this purpose. When I get to work, I keep my bib on underneath my clothes (yes, it's a little sweaty, but NOTHING like the jersey and gloves.) And I put my jersey on a hangar I keep at work and hang it in the stairwell, which is not air conditioned and in the summer months, by the time I get off work, my stuff is dry. (A little stinky, but I don't care- I'm going home.) Anyway, that's my system and it works for me.
I rode my bmx bike 9 miles to work and 9 miles home a few times would not recommend 😂😂
15 miles or 1 hour, for a flat ride across town or city. You need to be able to ride 17 mph for two hours straight without stopping. Or we able to ride 50 miles a day for three days in a row. When you reach that level of fitness. On a non work day ride to your work time yourself, don’t plan your route as your car route look for alternate routes better for cycling, try to ovoid traffic lights. Remember to give your self at least 20 minutes extra for flat tire or other problems.
I work from home, but bicycle 20-40 miles a day. Work doesn't care if I'm drenched in sweat (:
Damn, it depends on a lot of things. For me (before watching the video) the two most important factors are infrastructure, time of day, height gain and climate. If you're in a place going through a season with unpredictable and heavy rain, or with extreme heat, you might want to shorten your range. Infrastructure can make rides much faster and safer during the night or before sunrise. Having to ride at night daily increases your risk a lot, so you should think it through. Finally, if you're going to gain a lot of height, especially carrying panniers, your range will be shorter.
Curisouly, I don't think the bike itself matters so much. Use your carbon racer or a MTB, I don't care, it's not the main factor in your range for commuting.
No one in my city rides a bicycle to work I don’t think so i never see anyone. Even though i think i want to and it’s the best idea, being sweaty at work is never an option. Because we don’t have showers, talking about showers makes me think i am thankful for toilets (you find it less) yaaa!
To go to school for me its only 4 miles and most of the commute time is waiting in queue to just enter the school which unfortunately wastes my mom time a ton and forces even earlier wake up time, the issues is that my city has it so bad for bikes that its bordeline pretty much a deathwish to try to get in bike to school due to multiple crossings with high speed cars and trucks where one mistake and your life is over so its pretty either car in my city or you aren’t going anywhere even if I could get faster than on car
I did a test run for my commute, 22 miles each way. I was able to do it on my e-bike in about 70 minutes, 140 minutes total. That seems like a lot of time, but considering the car commute was about 25 minutes, in, and 45-50 minutes home, the marginal cost was only an extra 70 minutes per day commuting. So I would spend about one extra hour per day to get over two hours of moderate exercise. It could easily replace my morning run, and give me some needed afternoon physical activity.
It was great on paper, and half of the ride was wonderful. I live in San Diego County, and the beach cities have all invested in bike-friendly infrastructure. The problems started when I turned inland toward my office. The shoulders of the streets were so rough and torn up, especially with those ridges made by sidewalk tree roots, that I spent about two weeks recovering from the rough ride with a sore back, bruised bum, and sore wrists…and I was also concerned about how long my bike could handle that kind of daily abuse. I tried an alternate route home, and it was even worse.
All the reasons to bike-commute were great, but the poor quality of the roads made it impossible.
I am 60, overweight, light arthorsis living in Frankfurt which has nearly to none hills in the city. Without training, I rode my bike yesterday 10km and did not even feel it. So every person should be able to do 20 km a day. 10 km in morning and 10 back in evening. Dont forget, if you do this regularly your time comes down, and your range increases. In summer I wanted to do bike tour with a trailer, first day I wanted to do 30 km which was so easy I did another 10 but camping had closed so I had to return which made a total of 50km and i was very surprised with myself. Feeling great. Had to abanone the trip next day cause rain flooded my tent but thats another story, dont go bikepacking with a 20 euro tent …