Longest Feasible Commute

I have two lights front and
I have two lights front and back, one each with li ion which get charged at home or work as necessary, and one each that takes regular rechargeables. I also keep a full complement of alkaline batteries in my bag. Belt and braces and three sets of pants.

For routing, it can be useful

For routing, it can be useful to check Strava’s heatmap – for anything around London/M25 etc, it’s pretty clear where people are cycling. Not guaranteed to be lovely routes but probably not revolting. 

I ride 22 miles in when the weather isn’t too foul. I leave early (6am) because I prefer quieter roads and take the train home, as I’m in by 7:30 I then get the train home before 4pm or after 7pm (cycles aren’t allowed on my line (Thameslink) between 4pm and 7pm). Depends on what I’ve got to do, being self-employed does give me the luxury of some flexibility. 

kil0ran wrote:

If you are going to do it budget for dyno lights or an extra set of battery lights (or even two sets). One at home, one at work, one on the bike – by the time you’ve done that you’ll probably find that dyno lighting is cheaper. Keeping lights charged for 3+ hours riding per day is a right chore.

Exactly this. Dynamo lights are a must, invest in a decent front light with a properly shaped beam like a B&M Luxos/Cyo/Eyc or a Son Edelux. You’ll need the extra light and never run out of batteries.

Yep as others have said, it’s
Yep as others have said, it’s doable and will probably become an enjoyable hour or so bookend to each day. My longest commute was a downhill in, uphill home 18 across Manchester and it both set me up and wound me down mentally for the bit in the middle.

Just take getting into doing it at your own rate and treat it as the fun bit of the day, if it gets to be a chore or if you just fancy a day or two or… off riding then no biggie.

If it’s a nice sunny evening & you’ve nowt pressing then you’ll find having 40 odd miles a day in your legs means you can follow your nose for a few hours and have a nice evenings pootle without breaking much sweat.

Last year I got the wife to

Last year I got the wife to run me in to work – 35 miles one way – on  friday during the school holidays and I’d cycle home.

I was looking at train + bike – would be around 15 miles cycle – each way as a doable option (We have showers in the office) outside of the school holidays.

Circumstances beyond my control (an octagenarian Mondeo driver) unfortuately put paid to my plans before I could fully test them out.

I’m nearly 50, and at the time around the 16 stone mark. Was cycling 120 – 150 miles a week on  club rides and wanted to shift weight, get the blood pressure down and spend the time unwinding from work – it would take me about 2 hours 30 mins to do the 35 miles, which I thought was too much. The younger, fitter 20mph average guys would have no problem with it – open roads, a few steep hills, mainly villages to go through; easy cycling compaired to a city.

cycle.london wrote:

I love the advice being dispensed here, you’re top lads (and ladies).  I just realised on the way into work this morning, that my original question raises another one.  When you move to a new location, how do you plan your route, on roads that you’ve never driven, let alone cycled?   In the past, I’ve tried google maps, ride with GPS, Strava, Garmin BaseCamp, God knows what else.  Too often, I’ll end up cycling along the M20…. or I would, if I’d followed the route. 

FYI: I’m doing Gravesend to Bank Junction. 

I’d break it down into chunks rather than try to calculate the whole thing in one go. Chances are there are bits of it you already know, especially in London? For the London bits, try and find a CSH. CS3 comes in from Barking and Q1 from Greenwich depending on where you want to cross the river on your way into Bank.

Then work out options around you – maybe a local cycling club can help with a quiet route from Gravesend to maybe Dartford, perhaps there are some options from Dartford to (say) Bexleyheath and so on. Work it in portions.

Note that various route planning apps / websites will send you different ways. Strava will use popularity so if you happen to go near a local TT course along a dual carriageway, it may well send you down there simply because it’s “popular” in terms of it being ridden hundreds of times. Doesn’t mean it’s any good though! Sustrans will forever be trying to put you onto a Sustrans path, even if that path has anti-motorbike barriers every few meters and is under a foot of mud for 9 months of the year. Some cycle computers, depending on their settings, may try and re-route you onto bridleways, cyclepaths as well so check that.

I like to segment the route so insetad of doing a massive 25 mile “create a route”, I get maybe five times 5-mile segments, each allowing me to tweak bits of it without affecting the rest. Problem is if you select “quietest” for a 25-mile stretch, it’ll end up being 35 miles as it tries to find every single quiet bit. Might be better off finding a “quiet” 5 miles then accepting as you get into town you just want to go “quickest” and segmenting the route allows you to do that. Then check out any major junctions on Google Streetview and see if you fancy riding them!

Riding the route on a weekend will really help visualise it and it’s good to take an A-Z (you know, one of those old fashioned things made of paper…) as a back up to help you see surrounding streets in detail. Sometimes a route planning app will do a right round-the-houses thing to go half a mile and looking on the A-Z gives you a better overall view than a 2″ Garmin screen. When I first started on an old route, the planning said to go on a “cycle path” through some council playing fields. Turned out that was slow, unlit, full of the local yoof and dogwalkers and actually it was only marginally shorter than just staying on the road and accepting the traffic.

cycle.london wrote:

I love the advice being dispensed here, you’re top lads (and ladies).  I just realised on the way into work this morning, that my original question raises another one.  When you move to a new location, how do you plan your route, on roads that you’ve never driven, let alone cycled?   In the past, I’ve tried google maps, ride with GPS, Strava, Garmin BaseCamp, God knows what else.  Too often, I’ll end up cycling along the M20…. or I would, if I’d followed the route. 

FYI: I’m doing Gravesend to Bank Junction. 

Google street view and Google maps should sort out most things I’d have thought.

There’s also a sustrans map that might be worth looking at.

But whatever I’d do a test run before needing to do it on a work day. You don’t want to get lost or find a problem on the route.