gerv 

So you are replacing the automobile with a bicycle.

But how any miles a week do you devote to both transportation and leisure riding? Is it mostly transportation?

Myself, I'm averaging around 100 miles a week, most of it transportation and most of that is transportation to and from work. I do manage to fit in a bit of leisure riding on my commute and I often bundle commutes to work with errands.

wolfchild

I average about 100 miles per week...A little more if I do a recreational ride on the weekend.

Roody

100, year in and year out. More in the summer, mostly recreational. In the winter I do a little less than 100, mostly transportation.

howeeee

I also do 100 to 120 a week. Last winter so was difficult to ride in my milage fell off to 50 or less for a good part of the winter.

I am 61

wahoonc

Mine is too pitiful to talk about now... when I was living car free it was 150-200 miles a week. Roughly 100 was commuting the rest was errands and for fun.

Aaron

bbeasley

~160 week. Split about even, 80 for transportation and 80 for recreation

cooker

I bike commute 70 miles per week for 3 seasons a year and use public transit the rest of the time. I walk, bike and/or drive for errands on weekends. My weekend riding could be anywhere from 0-30 miles. If I'm out with my wife we always drive.

JBHoren

A bit more than 50 miles/week, all of it exercise/sport. I don't own a car, and don't get out much -- other than a bi-weekly run to the supermarket with a buddy. Losing weight and building strength/endurance take time, at 60+; but I'm retired, and I've got all the time it takes. Florida is good for year-round cycling, and an upside of "sprawl" is being able to design out-and-back and loop routes for riding.

FenderTL5

100-150 miles a week - mostly commuting to work.
I do very little leisure riding, unless you count the occasional errand as leisure.

enigmaT120

If I bike commuted every day 5 days a week, it would come to about a hundred miles per week bicycling, and 400 on the bus. I've only done that for one week though, several years ago. I'm happier with about 60 -- ride 3 days, and use my motorcycle the other two so I can lift weights or do something else at home.

no1mad 

My longest cycling commute was 45-60 miles a week, depending on mood and if any errands were incorporated. Otherwise ~10 miles a week for the other two employers that I used the bike as transportation. Never really was much into leisure/recreational riding after I got my DL.

B. Carfree

My weekly mileage varies from zero to five hundred. However, it averages out to about 140 miles per week for transportation and another 200 of joy riding.

Artkansas 

Right now it's about 7.50 - 8 miles per week, all utility riding, no driving, no recreational riding.

mconlonx

Usually 20-30 mi/week. But I'm not car free, work is 40+ mi away -- if I commuted every day, it would be more like 160 mi/week, and would include a bus trip both ways.

fietsbob

IDK... I havent put a battery back in the 1 bike with a computer since I parked it after a long bike tour Abroad.

wingtipsdown

120+ for me, but all after work.

harshbarj

Anywhere from 100 to 150 miles a week. 40 alone is getting to and from work. The rest is going places. I don't do 'recreational' riding. Honestly I'd rather be on the computer.

MikeRides

120 miles weekly, not including recreational rides which can vary from 20-60 miles randomly.

gerv 

Ouch! I need some chamois cream. And a chamois.

I've done a couple of weeks of 250 miles. But it really took the wind out of my sails.

Machka 

No need for chamois cream ... if you've got a good saddle and your bicycle set up just right.

Machka 

My weeks vary widely.

When I was car-free in Winnipeg, I commuted 13.6 km/day (68 km/week) just about year round … but since I was into randonneuring at the time, I did a whole lot of other cycling.

A week during the spring/summer/autumn might include anywhere from 200 km (on a rest week) to 600 km … and one week during that time I covered about 1392 km (865 miles). So my 68 km/week of transportational cycling made up about 30% of my weekly total at most … often quite a bit less than that.

However, during the late autumn, winter, and early spring, my cycling amounts dropped. I needed the rest! Sometimes my commute ended up being 100% of my cycling. Other weeks it might make up 50% of my cycling, or anywhere in between.

I rarely used my bicycle for transportational purposes other than commuting. I didn't use it for grocery shopping or to go to night classes or much of anything else at all. On the odd occasion, I’d ride to the Dr but that was about it. When I needed to get groceries … I walked. When I went to night classes … I took the bus. For me, NOT using my bicycle for things other than commuting was about peace of mind. I simply didn't want to leave it locked up outside the grocery store or college.


Since Winnipeg, my human-powered transportation has shifted from a mix of cycling and walking … to walking almost exclusively. I have rarely cycled for transportation over the past decade. But I have done a whole lot of walking for transportation!

In our previous town, for example, we lived 800 metres from where I worked … so I walked to work, walked home at lunch often stopping by the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner, walked back to work, and walked home again at the end of the day. 3.2 km 5 days a week. We also walked to just about everything else in town.

However, at the end of a long Saturday ride we might stop by the grocery store on the way home and pick up a few things, then cycle the 500 metres home … so I suppose 500 metres out of, say, 50 km or 100 km were transportational. Or maybe the whole ride could be considered transportational … the scenic route to pick up a few groceries.


I’m just getting back into the swing of things after being sick for the past couple months, and it is winter here (chilly mornings, darkness by 5 pm, etc.), but this is what our last couple weeks look like …

Last WeekThis Week
As I feel stronger again, and as the weather and daylight hours improve, there will be a whole lot more cycling ... and most will be recreational. But it's possible we may do a bit more transportational cycling as well.

pedalsimotxilla

During winter in Barcelona (in A'dam it was a lot more). Going to college and back home five days a week: 50 km
Going to a rehearsal in another city: 15 km.
Odd errands: 15 km.
80 KM per week. Not too bad.

tandempower

The big perk of biking for transportation is that it makes functional commuting more leisurely. Whenever I travel by driving, I feel like I am wasting time just sitting when I could be getting some exercise and fresh air instead if I was cycling.

If you live car-free, leisure-riding is just something you can do when you have the time and the inclination. People used to take leisure drives back when fuel was cheap (some probably still do) and leisure rides on a bike are basically the same except you don't have to buy gas and you're getting some exercise instead of sitting in a motorized cage.

fietsbob

I'm bike computer & GPS free, too..

Smallwheels

I travel ten to twelve miles on my Xootr each week. I haven't used the bicycle in over a month. I'm working from home again. Thus I only use the Xootr for very few trips.

Remember when you first started using a bicycle for something other than fun? You realized that you could actually use the bicycle instead of a car and get places. What a revelation! I'm feeling that way with the Xootr to a degree. It is more work and a bit slower but it gets me where I want to go when the weather is good. My legs need the exercise.

I've read that skating uses more muscle groups than cycling. Xootring is similar to skating but closer to running with more knee bending and longer strides.

In my town the police department occasionally puts out an automatic radar speed detector. It has a big illuminated sign that displays the speed of the cars to the drivers to alert them of their actual speed. I used it to learn how fast I travel on the Xootr. I like to roll at between eight and ten miles per hour. If I really try to go fast I can reach eleven for a moment. Riding a Xootr means pushing for about five strides and coasting a little. With the range of speed I saw using that radar detector I would guess my average speed is about nine miles per hour on level ground.

Headwinds have an effect on my forward progress. There is much less coasting and a lot more pushing. Tailwinds don't really allow me to go faster because I can only move my legs so fast. What a tailwind can do is allow me to travel much farther than normal per push. I rolled about one third of a mile without pushing today due to a tailwind. That slight wind wouldn't have been enough to push me and a bicycle but the Xootr is so light and glides so well with its solid urethane wheels that it was possible.