Commuting - I feel robbed!

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

I feel gypped! I want more!

Heck, I can do this without a helmet if I want, and without a light at night. (the traffic is very light).

I sometimes envy you 20-miler-one-way guys.

Just sayin'

Just go ride 10 miles in the wrong direction and then head back to work.

You'll have days where you wont feel like riding and will be glad for a short commute. On the days you feel good you can just take the long way home.

Careful using slurs like that. Someone might pick your pockets. ;)

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

I feel gypped! I want more!

Heck, I can do this without a helmet if I want, and without a light at night. (the traffic is very light).

I sometimes envy you 20-miler-one-way guys.

Just sayin'

what's stopping you from taking a longer way to/from work? a way that will stretch your commute to however many miles you would like it to be?

In less than a week, my wife and I are closing on a house that's less than 2 miles from where I work. Right now we're about 6.5 miles by bicycle. So I'm going from about 13 miles round trip to about 4. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I do know I'll be walking a lot more, and not just to work.

I did a lunchtime ride to the to-be-new house last week. Took 18 minutes (wheels in motion, round trip time) and I wasn't trying to go fast. It feels wrong.

The "taking a longer route" sounds good, but in practice I find that the family knows just how long it takes to get to work and imposes itself upon you accordingly. If it takes you an hour to get to work, the family lets you go with 59 minutes to spare. If it takes 10 minutes to get to work, the family is finished with their business with 9 minutes remaining. I don't know why this is one of the immutable laws of nature, but it is.

In less than a week, my wife and I are closing on a house that's less than 2 miles from where I work. Right now we're about 6.5 miles by bicycle. So I'm going from about 13 miles round trip to about 4. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I do know I'll be walking a lot more, and not just to work.

I did a lunchtime ride to the to-be-new house last week. Took 18 minutes (wheels in motion, round trip time) and I wasn't trying to go fast. It feels wrong.

I took 18 minutes to go 2 miles? I could walk 2 miles in that time. :lol:

I took 18 minutes to go 2 miles? I could walk 2 miles in that time. :lol:

Round trip! 4 miles! :D

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

I feel gypped! I want more!

Heck, I can do this without a helmet if I want, and without a light at night. (the traffic is very light).

I sometimes envy you 20-miler-one-way guys.

Just sayin'
Take the long way. Kojak is right, too. Tell the family it takes longer - and make it so.

My commute would be 1.5 miles via direct route. I have chosen to extend it to a minimum 7 miles with a few options up to about 11 miles. This allows me to get a bit of exercise, wake up the grey cells in the morning, and enjoy some scenery, as well as avoid some high traffic areas. Want more? Then just take it.

-Gary

I took 18 minutes to go 2 miles? I could walk 2 miles in that time. :lol:

You walk a 9 minute mile? That's 6.67 mph; you should take up race walking. The average person walks 3.1 mph, about a 19 minute mile.

[QUOTE=Kojak;13198114]the family knows just how long it takes to get to work and imposes itself upon you accordingly/QUOTE]

or you can tell the family that you need some bike time... my family knows and understands.

I only have a 2 mile commute, I think it's great. Often after work I go riding about. One nice thing is in winter the ride is too short to worry about getting all bundled up as I get to work in a light jacket before the cold soaks in.

The "taking a longer route" sounds good, but in practice I find that the family knows just how long it takes to get to work and imposes itself upon you accordingly. If it takes you an hour to get to work, the family lets you go with 59 minutes to spare. If it takes 10 minutes to get to work, the family is finished with their business with 9 minutes remaining. I don't know why this is one of the immutable laws of nature, but it is.Aint that the truth. This law applies to any form of transportation, not just bikes.

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

I feel gypped! I want more!

Heck, I can do this without a helmet if I want, and without a light at night. (the traffic is very light).

I sometimes envy you 20-miler-one-way guys.

Just sayin'4 minutes? that's euro-commuting. The guys are right. Take a nice long ride after work

A down side of the busy pace of life that most of us live is that there never seems to be enough time for anything we want to do. You have to just do what it takes to make time. If you go look up all those people you know who started riding and didn't stay with it, and ask them why they're not riding, almost all will tell you that they just don't have time.

For me, at least, that's one of the nicest things about my 12 mile each way commute. Doing it has made it easier than it ever was before, for me to get good miles in. On the other hand, when the temperature is dropping into the 20's and there's a howling north wind, a 2 mile ride would be alot more appealing.

Set up a trainer in your house and do 45 min before you leave. Then you can call your commute the home stretch.

The "taking a longer route" sounds good, but in practice I find that the family knows just how long it takes to get to work and imposes itself upon you accordingly. If it takes you an hour to get to work, the family lets you go with 59 minutes to spare. If it takes 10 minutes to get to work, the family is finished with their business with 9 minutes remaining. I don't know why this is one of the immutable laws of nature, but it is.

Who runs your family? NO ONE in mine DEMANDS more of me than I will give; AND, they have discovered several times that I will give MORE when they 'give me some slack'. DEMANDS=you get just what I DECIDE YOU NEED.

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

I feel gypped! I want more!

Heck, I can do this without a helmet if I want, and without a light at night. (the traffic is very light).

I sometimes envy you 20-miler-one-way guys.

Just sayin'


Feel happy that you have a commute. I discovered the joy of bicycle commuting back in June; 19 miles one way. I'm up to twice a week, trying to bump it up to 3 times a week. So of course my company announces last week that they're going to be closing our office shortly, and we're all going to be remote workers, working from home from now on.

My first thought was "damnit, how will I bike to work now?!". So... no more biking to work for me :(

Consider yourself lucky.

If that were my commute, I'd ride to work and back along the safest (not necessarily shortest) route in my work clothes. Then, when I get home, I would change into my bike clothes and go for a nice, long ride.

Feel happy that you have a commute. I discovered the joy of bicycle commuting back in June; 19 miles one way. I'm up to twice a week, trying to bump it up to 3 times a week. So of course my company announces last week that they're going to be closing our office shortly, and we're all going to be remote workers, working from home from now on.

My first thought was "damnit, how will I bike to work now?!". So... no more biking to work for me :(

Consider yourself lucky.

I used to work from home full time, and currently work from home part time. Doesn't keep me from riding on those days. Okay, maybe I don't ride in rain, sleet, and snow when I don't have to, but you get the idea.

Feel happy that you have a commute. I discovered the joy of bicycle commuting back in June; 19 miles one way. I'm up to twice a week, trying to bump it up to 3 times a week. So of course my company announces last week that they're going to be closing our office shortly, and we're all going to be remote workers, working from home from now on.

My first thought was "damnit, how will I bike to work now?!". So... no more biking to work for me :(

Consider yourself lucky.

So, as a remote worker, will you just 'produce results', or will you have hours required to be 'in attendance'?

If all you have to do is produce, then knock it out and ride the rest of it for fun; or, get a USB Wifi adapter, pick a spot in town to commute to, and work from there. Or, work from the local library. All sorts of alternatives present themselves.

If you must be there at certain hours, then get up 90 minutes beforehand, gear up, and do a loop; you'll be more alert and ready to work that way, anyway. When it's like this for you, YOU decide how long your commute is.

(I live 2 miles from work, and only ride the 2-mile route in really crappy weather, or when I'm hauling something; otherwise, I have routes of 3,4,4-1/2, 6-1/2,7,8, and 9 miles already mapped out; I've used all of them this summer. Since I could ride from one city limit to the other in less than 90 minutes, more routes are available, but would just be add-on loops to what I have.)

Who runs your family? NO ONE in mine DEMANDS more of me than I will give; AND, they have discovered several times that I will give MORE when they 'give me some slack'. DEMANDS=you get just what I DECIDE YOU NEED.

That was mostly tongue in cheek, however, I'll put it this way. When I'm having a funny conversation with my 5 yo son and he's in the middle of describing why something works a certain way, I'm hooked. If my 18 month old daughter toddles across the floor with a big smile on her face and her arms up in the air wanting some daddy time, I'm hooked. When my very busy wife needs a hand with something around the house in the morning, I help her out. My family stays tight and happy that way. These little vignettes eat up my morning until it's oh @#$% time, and I have to hustle.

Truthfully I get all the slack I need, not necessarily all the slack I'd like. On Sunday mornings I'm back to a 3-4 hour ride which for the most part clears the baffles and sets me straight for the week. Every morning and every evening, I have a commute that would be the envy of most of you from an aesthetics point of view. Would I like to ride an hour or two every day? Sure I would, but I made the choice to have a family, and I owe it to my family to not be too self-absorbed.

I've felt the same way before. I use to live close to work within 2 miles. So one day I rode my bike as far as I felt like. In town. I then found some good apartments and moved there so my bike to work now is 6.5 miles. I'm much more happier and everyone at the office I told thought I was crazy moving farther from work. I just laugh. I've been added up the miles now and I have 1800 miles in about three months. I love the ride. The weather is not going to stop me!!! I ordered my biking jacket, sweater and ski mask for the winter. Which I got from nashbar and should be getting here in the next few days.

My new commute is only a 4 minute bike ride, one way. It's a 9 minute walk, one way.

My commute went form 12 miles to 0.75 miles in March. I know what you mean. It is nice to go home for lunch now and then.

Paul

Say, my original thread title was "I feel gypped". The mods emailed me saying that this may be considered offensive, and that if I disagreed, I could let them know and they'd think about changing "robbed" back to "gypped".

My question is, is "gypped" really offensive, either to Gypsies, or the public in general?

Someone, please throw me a bone here. I just wanna' know.

Thanks

I think it's regarded as a disparaging term toward those with a "gypsy" heritage.

I live 2 miles from work; I can get there faster on bike than by car. I keep telling my wife we need to move further away. She just says don't go straight to or from work. She's got no sympathy. So sometimes I take the long way -- it's a nice guilty pleasure. :)