Commuting distances

As a site newbie,  thought I

As a site newbie,  thought I’d best join in least one of the postings!

2/3 times a week Gidea Park to West Ham. About 11 miles.  basically straight up the Romford Road to Stratford. At 63 and just returning to cycling, its only a one wayer at the moment, but it keeps the legs ticking over.

I ride a Whyte Suffolk, on the cycle to work scheme,  105 set up with disc brakes. Shimano SPDs with recessed MTB shoes. Had enough of slipping base over apex on my look cleats.

Agreed about the buzz of early morning exercise. When I ride in its usuallybetween 5-530am so little traffic.

Also find I tend to work better than if I come in by train!

Some impressive round trips

Some impressive round trips here.  My commute is only 25min by car but I cycle it once or twice a week to keep fit.  15 miles each way on small bit of town, some gravel cycle path and lanes (Wiltshire).  There are 2 good roads (A & B) but I’m not into busy commuter routes.  Absolutely knackers me out; probably the road surface and ‘up down’ nature of the lanes so takes anything from 70-80 min.  Even worse in the winter with all the sh*te on the lanes.  My winter hybrid is covered in cr*p just after one journey.  Could have a (quicker?) smoother ride on the A or B road but being overtaken constantly by cars just isn’t fun. 

Chuck wrote:

Chuck wrote:

That distance would be at the upper end for me, although as someone else pointed out it depends on your specific circumstances, particularly home life. Depends what you do on the weekend too, personally I suspect doing 200km a week commuting would impact my motivation to go out at the weekends. 

My motivation for weekend rides is to see something other than drab urban roads and the back of a bus for once and head straight in to the countryside.

Farnham to Guildford on the

Farnham to Guildford on the back roads for me. I’m lucky in that it is fairly constant with only a few points where I have to stop for junctions / railway crossings sometimes. It’s bang of 12miles for me which ends up being 40mins +/- 5mins depending on day of the week! I try to do it all the time mainly because my wife and I run only the one car – oh, and I regularly beat cars; the traffic into Guildford can be grim! But it reminds me why I’m on my bike!

Hope you enjoy it, it’s a good distance 🙂

Starting in East London I

Starting in East London I either have a gentle 8km to Canary Wharf or 32km out to Sunbury (just south of Heathrow).  Both pretty flat which helps, but makes a huge difference to my day when I’ve a 80-90 minute ride each way.  In both cases cycling is quicker than any other route which is a nice motivator to cycle whatever the weather 🙂

When I’m doing my longer commute I take the most direct route – which for the portion across London doesn’t tend to be much fun unless I’m really early (well before 7am) or late (after 8pm).  However around 2/3rds of the route is not too bad – just takes a bit of research to find the reasonable roads and in some cases the junctions to avoid.

I go from Chigwell in Essex

I go from Chigwell in Essex to Stockwell in South London 15 miles each way, largely on segregated bike lines through Leytonstone, Stratford, Bow, Aldgate, over London Bridge, Elephant and Castle then through Oval, which is not that great at the moment with all the roadworks, and has slowed my journey somewhat in the 4am commute as the cycle lanes clip your speed a bit with all the chicanes, but in peak times its brilliant being able to go past the traffic without weaving in and out. I don’t have to do it as I get free travel, but due to shiftwork, sometimes it means I’d have to go by nightbus, and thats 3 stinky buses and up to 2 hours to do the journey that takes under an hour. If I have a daytime shift then I use the tube sometimes, that takes an hour or so. I’m lucky, as the only cyclist at work I get to put my bike in the locker room and have an airer for drying my clothes on, if anyone else takes up the idea I might have to compromise somehow!!

Mendes.pms wrote:

I reckon that 20k would take me roughly an hour which is what I do when taking the tram, train and walk to the office… So to still fit 2 hours of exercise a day seems achievable. There is the CS7 from Morden which I can pick up on the way in Balham (where I used to start my commute from).

I’ve never lived anywhere near a CS, but if it helps make the commuting time more stable then all the better.  My commute is about 15km each way, with some decent, wide cycle lanes along the way, some bus lanes, but lots of shared road sections as well.  Time varies between 35 min on a good day with light traffic to over 50 when everybody decides to use their car and I spend half the ride in ‘slalom’ mode.  It helps that the ride to work is downhill in quite a few sections, but it makes the ride home a bit slower!  Try a few different routes on a day off when you’re not in a rush to get your bearings and know your options.  And don’t forget a good set of front and rear lights for the dark n’ rainy season.  Enjoy!