knucklesandwich

Been commuting for about 15 months, 13mi roundtrip, mainly 4 days per week. I ride a Kona Jake, with 32c slicks, clipless pedals, and generally take about 25 minutes each way, including stops.

Now we're moving, closer to wife's work, and further from mine. Best I can tell, it's gonna be 11 miles each way- a pretty sizable jump. I work at least 10 hours a day so I'm gonna have to get used to the fact that commuting will eat into my free time a bit more. Aside from the 'engine' which is in pretty good shape, I'm starting to think about little changes that will help keep my time down.

- Buy another u-lock and leave at work permanently (I currently bring it in on Mondays and home Fridays for weekend use.)
- Would going to size 28 tires really shave much time? 32's seem pretty good, but I'm thinking I could drop down a little bit w/o making my ride harsher and more prone to flats.
- Eat more!
- ???

CBBaron

11 miles is still a pretty easy ride, you shouldn't have too much trouble in adjusting. If its hilly or involves a number of stops shaving weight from you load will help. Dropping the lock is a good start. Dropping to lighter weight 28mm tires will help some. Conti Gator skins and Schwalbe Marathon Racers look to be fast, tough tires.
Keeping yourself more aero by riding the drops more or using aero bars will likely help more.
If you are really concerned with speed I find a fast recumbent to be much faster than an upright. However if you are doing your current ride in 25min you will probably be around 45min for your new commute which is not bad at all. My 8.5 mile commute takes that long on slow days due to a large number of intersections.

Craig

JeffS

11 miles isn't bad. That's what my commute is. I think you'll adjust quickly.

As far as speed, there's probably not a lot to be had. At one point, I rode a JTS with 35C marathon supremes. I didn't see any practical speed difference between that and the Las Cruces with 28 tires on it.

squegeeboo

I noticed a speed jump from my 35's to my 32's but that might have been tire quality more than width. I do 11ish now on a hybrid and do anywhere from 36-46 minutes depending on how much I feel like pushing it.

I also did a jump like yours, from 7-8ish to 11, I don't remeber any real extra soreness in the muscles, you should be fine.

Buglady

I went from 6 miles round trip to 18 last year. I had a rough time with the transition because I didn't do my route-scouting homework and ended up with a bunch of totally unnecessary climbing! This spring I finally scouted a better route - it's about 1/2mile longer and only 1 hill instead of 4

So definitely check your route options!

marburg99

Today was my first day commuting. I have been traveling for the past year, but dreamed of the day i would be able to work in Austin. Now i'm here for good and my first day on the job, i commuted 13 miles each way. I'm driving half-way with my car until i get into better shape. I weigh over 250 pounds riding a fixed gear. I loved every part of it. I will be doing this every day for 2 months...after that, i'm looking at a 26 mile each way. Trust me, i'm out of shape, but i'm determined. If i can do it, you can do it too.

1ply

And here I am considering swapping out the 28's for some cushy 32's

Wanna trade?

knucklesandwich

Ha!

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not worried about the longer commute physically. I generally do 30-50 mile rides on weekends, so I'm actually looking forward to more weekday mileage. My main thing is the extra time it will eat- I guess I'll just have to pedal faster. One plus however, is that much of the extra distance I'll be adding is on a MUP with very few stops for road crossings.

Mr. Underbridge

Personally, I'll take the speed. I run 25s, and I just loosen up as I approach decent bumps/seams in the road. Kind of like a human shock absorber.

Do the math based on the pressure you'd use on either tire - it's inversely proportional to the amount of rubber on the road (and hence rolling resistance). If you go with a smaller tire and double the pressure, you cut the contact patch (and hence rolling resistance) by about half, for example.

I used to try to run my tires a lot lower than I do now, but stopped due to pinch flats. I was amazed how much faster the bike felt when I started using higher pressures. I really noticed it on a series of rolling hills where you want to conserve your speed - thinner tires really help keep momentum and makes hills like that a lot easier.

I'll never go back - I hate feeling like my tires are sucking all my speed.

evblazer

My out of shapeness at 290 on a fuji touring loaded down with clothes and equipment totally about 60lbs rides 11 miles each way daily in roughly 45 minutes, I did <37 minutes once on the way in. I don't really track the time so much home as usually I'll wander a bit in my route.
My excuse is I have alot of stops (19 stop signs and 6 lights) and well I'm slow and overweight, the bike that is

chephy

You are lucky! Gee, I wish I had that few stops! My 11-mile route to school had at least 35 stop signs and 18 traffic lights. Toronto loves its stop signs...

DataJunkie

Holy crap.
My 28 mile commute has roughly 15 lights and 15 stop signs. It used to be 23 stop lights but they chip sealed that particular road.

Good way to practice speeding up as fast as possible.

evblazer

Practice is fine but trying to accellerate 350lbs from a dead stop 25 times a day, 5 at major intersections, is too much practice for me
I made one light today though. IT WAS GREEEN! I rode up with my blinking front dinotte (it was light out by then) and it just changed to green before I was completely stopped too! Wheeee! made my whole commute

ax0n

I bought 4 feet of really thick chain and a high-quality combination padlock from a hardware store for $10 or so, then went to my local bike shop and dug a big mountain bike tube out of their trash can to keep from scraping up my bike.



I moved to 14 miles away (from 22 miles) and converted from a bike/bus commute to pure bike. the engine is definitely NOT in as good shape as it should be, and I've been doing the full commute 4-5 days as weather permits, using the bus on days that the bike isn't feasible.

you should be okay on thr 32s. I've done the trip on 1.25" mountain bike slicks and it's not that bad, either. If my fat butt can do the old 22 mile trip each way on a clunky hybrid with 1.25" slicks, you can do it on a road bike with touring tires. Trust me.