Thoughts appreciated..

andyjr

Hi all, I'm giving serious thought regarding commuting to work on the bike, but before I commence this just wanted thoughts as to whether a 25-30mile commute 1-way is a bit far and how long this might take on both a MTB and a road bike for someone of reasonable fitness. I know the MTB will be slower but approx half the route could be done on a trail, hence why i'm asking about that also

butcher of bakersfield

How many hills?

I live ten miles from work. It takes me 40-45 minutes to get there. And an hour and a half to get back!

My fitness is pretty crap at the moment though and I'm sure it could be done much faster, but it highlights the difference of the terrain.

andyjr

Only really serious hill is 4 miles in to the journey. Helpful that Essex is a tad on the flat side

butcher of bakersfield

Well, I guess riding with slick tyres, keeping a decent average speed of 15mph, that's going to add up to close to 2 hours.

It's a lot of riding... By no means impossible, but a fairly large chunk of your day. Then again, you could be sat in traffic for that time.

Berk Bonebonce

I wouldn't do 25-30 mile on anything less than a road bike, and you need a moderate level of fitness.

stevec205gti

I'd also add that you haven't said what you do at work - if it's a manual job you'll be amazed at how completely drained of all energy you'll be a couple of days into commuting!

Moodyman

I wouldn't want to do that everyday and certainly not on an MTB.

I do 12 miles one way on a flat bar road bike and am feeling tired by Thu/Friday.

Pessable

Slight tangent this, but I'm always a bit bemused when trying to compare cycle rides. One persons hilly maybe another persons flattish. My commute of 15 miles or so has 2 or 3 "hills" in it, but they're nothing compared to the stuff I see people cycling up in the peaks of a weekend. But they can and do get my HR up to maximum.

I use a Garmin and that gives a total elevation gained or lost, but if you choose to enable the map-based corrections rather than rely on altimeter data it changed dramatically. I'm not sure whether to trust either.

So how does one compare cycle rides in terms of "hilliness"?

Aguila

Have you considerred driving/going on the train half way the riding the second half? If that became too easy you could then do it all. Seems to me it's a big ask to do it all from the start. I'd def go road bike if you do, I started doing my 11 miles on a MTB (took 1 hr) now 35 mins on road bike.

shm_uk

25-30 miles and you're reasonably fit?

That's going to be 90-120 mins riding each way.
Plus 15mins shower/change on arrival & 10mins getting changed to go home.

You could be spending 4.5 hours every day just getting to work and back.

And if you get a day with a nasty headwind...

unixnerd

I wouldn't do 25-30 mile on anything less than a road bike, and you need a moderate level of fitness.

+1. Or maybe a tourer. Even then I think doing it every second day would be a good plan.

clarkey cat

My commute is 22 miles each way and it takes me 1hr 25mins.
I dont do it every day though.

Marcus_C

If your fitness isn't a question then you need to only think about physically how long you'll be riding for. Though you'd also be surprised how much tougher a slog home on a friday evening is than a longer distance when you're fresh on a Sunday afternoon. What time do you plan on getting up if you're considering a MTB over that distance?

butcher of bakersfield

Pessable wrote:

So how does one compare cycle rides in terms of "hilliness"?

Slight. Moderate. Big! Massive!!

rolf_f

My minimum commute is 6.5 miles but I do a lot of extended commutes - plenty of which have been 25 very hilly miles on a steel framed hardtail MTB. TBH, it's fine. I was able to get used to it gradually given the short commute options so the suggestions of finding alternative transport half way make sense. However, there is not really anything wrong with doing 25 miles on road on an MTB. Fit it with slicks and just enjoy the thought that it is helping you to get much fitter than the same route with a fast bike would! Not that it will make so much difference time wise - maybe 10 minutes in an hour and a half.

Sounds like the ideal bike for your commute though would be a CX. Ideal combination of road speed and (relative) offroad comfort.

cjcp

Not a cat in hell's chance I would do that on an mtb. Road bike three, maybe four times a week.

dilemna

andyjr wrote:

Hi all, I'm giving serious thought regarding commuting to work on the bike, but before I commence this just wanted thoughts as to whether a 25-30mile commute 1-way is a bit far and how long this might take on both a MTB and a road bike for someone of reasonable fitness. I know the MTB will be slower but approx half the route could be done on a trail, hence why i'm asking about that also

I don't know how many cycling miles you have in your legs but that is a fair distance to ride everyday even for a fit cyclist on a road bike. As a newb what would your average speed be 11-12 mph? That's a 2.5 hours ride minimum. I would suggest you ride half of it one week end and then the other half the next day or the following weekend. A fit club cyclist can typically average 18-22 mph but most commuting plodders only manage 15-16mph and these are on road bikes so factor down for a MTB or even lower for a BSO. As I say I would try riding the route or part of it on a weekend when you don't have to ride to reach work. Then decide whether you are capable of riding it. You could of course drive some of the route and cycle the rest. It might also be better to fit slicks or semi slick tyres to your MTB, invest in some clipless pedals as they make pedalling so much more efficient and comfortable. You will also need to think about food as you would no doubt bonk or cramp if the route is anything other than flat. Perhaps you could start by cycling only once or twice a week as the rest of the week you will be recovering. But seriously cycling a 50-60 miles round trip EVERY day to work is hard going. But you will become supremely fit if you get your nutrition right. You will also need a decent bike that will stand up to 300 miles a week, carry you in comfort and an organised cleaning and maintenance schedule to keep it in good nick..

Do you have a good level of fitness or are you happiest on the sofa munching Doritos or in your car? More info please.

Just thought this might be a troll ?

andyjr

Cheers for the thoughts people. I think the MTB might a bit of a stretch so the road bike it will be. The plan was to do it once a week to start with and go from there, possibly up to 3 times a week but not more as on some evenings I already have commitments. Fitness wise i'm capable of running 10 miles in 75 minutes & so far on the bike i've been slowly building up my distances whilst getting used to riding a road bike (23miles in 1hr 25 on saturday), so i'd consider myself reasonably fit as it stands & fingers crossed I'd get fitter if I started