dcrowell

I recently sold my extra car, just leaving me with one slightly unreliable car. So I'll save a little money on insurance, and I got a wad of cash out of the deal.

I've talked recently about selling my house and moving closer to work. At 16.5 miles from work, the commute is possible, but I don't feel comfortable doing it everyday. I'm still a fat guy.

I don't live in an expensive house. It would cost me more to rent an apartment than to live here. My car is paid off, and I'm in my late 30s, so my car insurance is cheap. It makes financial sense to stay here, and try to ride more often.

I may eventually (five years or more) sell the house and move to another city. At that point I'll be sure to find housing and job within 10 miles of each other, and go car-free.

wahoonc

Do a half way commute and ride the rest of the way on the bike? Is mass transit an option? I was on my way to my parents house one weekend (19 miles one way) and got passed by a bus with a bike rack going the other way. Couple of miles later saw it coming back. Pulled up at the bus stop, threw the bike on the rack and rode the remaining 7 miles in air conditioned comfort. FWIW the bus system where I live is gawd awful.

Aaron

Machka 

Start riding more ... either start with halfway rides to work, like wahoonc suggests, or with rides after work. Build up your distance. I don't know what distance is comfortable for you now, but if you gradually increase your distances, by this coming summer ... not 5 years from now .... you could be commuting all the way to and from work every day.

Just think what good shape you'd be in!!

dcrowell

I started commuting by driving part of the way. I still do that on some days. I can (and have) ridden the whole way. I've done it less now that the weather is colder.

The problem with riding the whole way every day is
1) my legs need a break by Wednesday.
2) I spend three hours a day on a bike, which takes up too much time.

If I lived 5 or 10 miles from work, this would be easy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to be car-lite. I'm working to drive less all the time. I hope to put less than 3500 miles on the car next year. I went for a ride today to run errands in the cold rain. It was fun, but it was also only a 4-mile ride.

I had just hoped to move and be car-free, but I have an inexpensive house that would hard to sell. It just doesn't make sense yet.

Machka 

Well, take the Wednesdays off ... and as you keep doing it, work on picking up some speed. I'm still quite a slow rider, and that distance would take me about 2.5 hours. If I worked at my speed, I might even get it down to 2.25 hours. But there are a lot of riders who could cover the distance much faster.

Along with the goal of less than 3500 miles on your car, are you aiming for more than 3500 miles on the bicycle too? Or are you already there?

dcrowell

I was riding to work four days a week earlier in the year. I've found it harder to do in the colder weather. Maybe I just need to "man up" and do it again.

I didn't have a bike this year until late April, and it looks like I'll have about 2000 miles on the bikes before the year is up. I'm hoping to to ride 5000 miles in 2009. So, yeah, I will be riding more than driving.

Roody

5000 miles/year is about what I do. For many of us, that boils down to roughly 1 hour a day, 365 days a year. I think the average American spends about that much time in their cars.

Medical/fitness experts often recommend that people exercise for at least one hour a day, most days of the week. We've got that covered, without even devoting one "extra" minute to our daily exercise.

wheel

I agree it would take me around three hours to go 32 miles.

Keep up the good work every little bit helps everyone.

You might want to try touring or bicycle camping. Given daily miles you would be in prime condition.

wahoonc

Can't find the link at the moment, but the Average American Car owner spends upwards of 1,000 hours per year behind the wheel. I suspect much of that time is spent sitting in traffic.

Aaron

dcrowell

Okay, this coming week is supposed to have relatively little precipitation, and I have cold weather gear. I spent a couple of hours today tuning and lubing the bikes. I'm going to make a go of one work week with no car. Wish me luck.

Roody

Good Luck! If you make it you'll be the carfree hero of the week.

Remember that the hardest part is just getting on your bike in the morning. I know I often dread going out on a cold and gloomy day. But once I roll out of the driveway, the fun factor takes over no matter how bad the weather is.

Nickel

Good luck and be sure to report in!

dcrowell

One day down, four to go. I bought a balaclava on the way home. It was actually colder than it was this morning. I feel good.

Roody

I hope you're referring to the Greek pastries, because you'll probably sweat to death if you wear one of the face masks.

dcrowell

Don't scare me like that. I often get those two confused, and wearing a baklava could get messy (even if tasty).

Roody

And you'd have every dog in town following your bike.

Seriously, the balaclava might be overkill at your latitude. I don't use one here and I'm like 300 miles north of you. Oh well, try it and see. And it'll come in handy if you ever want to rob a Burger King.

dcrowell

Okay, I wasn't even able to ride home today. I called my ex-wife for a ride. Then I offered to take her to dinner, which meant driving my car. Then the alternator went out. I almost made it home, but had to walk part of the way.

Tomorrow I get to take the car to be repaired. I will ride from the auto repair place to work.

It's funny. I fail at the car-free for a week, then the car breaks down.

Roody

There's more to this story than we're being told.

First, how come you couldn't ride home? And why would you get a ride from your ex-wife? Also, the car breaking down is definitely a sign from the universe that it's time for you to become carfree!

dcrowell

My legs don't seem to handle exercise in the cold. I didn't have the strength to ride anymore. I think I just need to work up to it again.

My ex-wife and I are on good terms, and have a daughter together.

The car breaking down might be a sign. At least now I *can* get around some when that happens. I was too out of shape before. The timing of the car breaking down is funny in retrospect. The $300 to fix it is not.

I didn't drive or bike today. My car is in the shop, and my legs need rest. I bummed a ride into work. I may take the bus part of the way home (as far as it goes anyway), and get a ride from there.

I will drive to work tomorrow, as it's my first day at the new job. I will ride on Friday though.

Roody

Well, 16.5 miles is a long commute, and you will have to work your way up to it. Personally, I'm pretty lazy and I think it would be hard to do such a long commute if I had a car readily available.

The time would be a big factor for me. I would need about 75 minutes, one way, and more like 90 minutes if there was traffic and traffic lights. That's more time than I'm willing to spend on a commute.

Fitness would not be a factor for me. I could easily ride 33 miles a day, even though I'm old and overweight. But nobody should expect to do that much from the get-go. It will take some time and effort to build up to it. Also, I would spend 60-90 minutes per day on exercise, so I can subtract that from my commute time, more or less.

A couple things to consider:

• What's the bus situation?
• Do the buses have bike racks?
• How much time are you willing to spend on your commute each day?
• Is daily exercise important to you? How much time do you want to spend on exercise?

Roody

To clarify, this is the equation I would use:
where Bt = commute time by bike; E = daily exercise time; Nt = net commute time by bike.

So, if you want to exercise one hour every day, and the 33 mile (round trip) commute takes 180 minutes by bike and 50 minutes by car, the figures would look like this:You would be investing (or spending, or wasting) 70 minutes per day on bike riding.

(My own figures are a little happier: 40 - 75 - 15 = -50. I actually save 50 minutes a day by pedaling to work.)

dcrowell

The whole reason I bought a bike this year was for exercise. Commuting just seemed a good way to fit time in for it. So, I will ride some days no matter what. It's the everyday thing that I don't have down yet. I'm working on it though.

To answer your questions:

The nearest the bus line comes to my house is nine miles.

Yes, they have racks, but I can't put the recumbent on them. I'd have to ride the hybrid, slowing me even more.

Riding the entire distance probably takes at least three hours round-trip. I (mostly) willing to spend that amount every day. My fitness level is still the main stumbling block.

Exercise is important to me. Three hours a day for three days a week would be enough though.

Roody

That's an excellent goal, IMO--about 77 minutes per day, on average. The training principle you want to remember is that you must always challenge your body to do more than it can currently do. Never coast! But don't challenge yourself too much, or you'll experience pain, fatigue, injuries, and discouragement.

If you've been sedentary, you should probably increase activity (intensity OR duration) by only 2 or 3 % a week. As you get more fit, you can up that to 5 % a week. A reasonable pace will promote improvement with less risk of fatigue and injury.

At this stage, you shouldn't worry about increasing intensity. Keep it to a moderate level, where you have enough breath to talk in short sentences. Once you've done the 3 commutes for a couple weeks in a row, you can start increasing intensity. For example, try to shave a couple minutes off your time each week.

100 miles a week is A LOT--probably more than most club riders do. But it definitely can be done. I average 137 mpw, and I'm 53 and 220 pounds. Seven years ago I weighed 330, had a heart attack, and couldn't walk 1/4 mile.

dcrowell

The discouraging part is that I averaged over 125 miles per week back in August. I just started riding in April. It looks like November is turning out to be 50-60 miles per week currently.

I'm having more pain in my legs now than I was in August. It might be the cold, or not.

I'm a bit younger at 37, but my weight has been just under 230 recently. It was just under 300 a year ago. No heart attack for me (yet anyway).

I was in horrible shape, so I completely understand the "can't walk 1/4 mile" thing. I couldn't either.

The weight loss, biking, divorce stuff has been huge for me. Very positive changes. I've been wanting to take it further and be car free... hence my lurking around here. However, I either need to be able to ride five days a week no matter what the weather, or move.

Roody

It's amazing how much you've done in such a short time. I respect and admire that. One thing I've learned from cycling (and life) is that when you're tired from climbing a big hill, it helps to look over your shoulder and see how far up you've already come. So feel proud and encouraged by what you've done, but never coast.

Is moving a possibility for you? Most of America is a wasteland for carfree people, but every locale probably has some good pockets. I live in a quiet residential area close to downtown and my work, but also not too far from supermarkets and the big box stores. The bus stops in front of my house but the cycling is so good that I almost never need a bus.