PatrickGSR94

Well I'm still not to the point to where I think I can commute 29 miles round trip on my bike. But tomorrow I'm doing the next best thing - riding my bike to a meeting! It's a jobsite meeting at a construction site near my office, really only a 5 minute ride, but hey it's better than taking a car. Even better than taking the company hybrid car IMHO.

I'll be wearing my work clothes (collar shirt and jeans), and will have to carry the materials in my backpack as that's all I have right now. Hope I don't get too sweaty. Maybe I can lock my bike up around one of the new building's steel columns

SurlyLaika

29 miles is a hell of a commute for anyone. You should try multi-modal commuting. Take public transit and a bike or take your car out so far and your bike on a rack, park the car and finish the ride on your bike. =]

enigmaT120

He said 29 miles round trip. That's doable. It would take a lot less time than my 50 mile one-way multi-modal commuted.

PatrickGSR94

Yeah about 14.5 miles each way from home to work on the route I plan to take. But it's also almost non-stop hills up and down, and I know it would take me 90 minutes at my current level of conditioning.

I live in the 'burbs, and work farther out in the 'burbs. No public transit of any kind. And it's pretty much all rural area with a couple residential areas, with really no good place to leave my car all day that I'm comfortable with. I drive an Acura Integra that is consistently in the Top 10 list of most stolen vehicles, so needless to say I'm a little paranoid about that.

Well I did bike to the meeting and back this morning. Only about 19 minutes total round trip travel time, but it was a little bit of a challenge for me being in work clothes, trying not to sweat too much, but still having to navigate some pretty big hills. On the way out there, there was a big hill right before my destination where I just about spun the highest gears at 28.x MPH. But then leaving the meeting going up that same hill was not fun.

Of course these were older construction guys so they kind of hassled me a little bit about not driving, but they were just joking around.

dscheidt

The other possible option might be to do a half commute. Drive to work, with your bike, and then ride home. Next day, ride to work, and drive home. Or maybe you can car pool. A friend rides to one of his coworkers, and then they drive in together.

Closed Office

Solid thick cotton jeans seem to be about the worst possible thing to ride with. They have to make cotton thicker because it is so weak. I do wear work clothes for all my biking, but it's the normal cotton poly blend for Dickie's type of clothes.

I use a backpack for almost everything on my rides, including about 12 pounds of laptop and accessories. (A big Lenovo.) Lunch, tools, and anything else on top of that. It gets a bit of use out of your spine, and helps strengthen and condition that.

Papa Tom

Protect your pants cuff from the greasy chain. I've ruined two good pairs of jeans already in the past week!

no1mad 

I'd like to chime in on this, even though it has been pointed out that the distance is ~30 miles r/t, and the OP has stated that multimodal is currently not an option and it appears that there is reluctance for the 'park and ride'.

My previous employer was 26 miles door to door via most direct route in a car. However, as my fitness level sucked and we are 'Car Light', I did the multimodal thing. Wife would drop me off 12 miles from the house around 0500, where I would catch the first of two buses to work. No decent lights at the time, so the only time I rode on the way into work was from the nearest point the second bus passed my work site.* Going home, I typically caught the first bus going in either direction (if there was a spot on the rack). Then I'd crank out about 9 miles on my bike via the MUP and have my wife pick me back up. I was typically spending 4 hours a day in transit with the multimodal.

*The impetus for incorporating the bike was due to a massive road construction project, that second bus went on detour about a mile from the normal stop. Pedaling trumps walking.

PatrickGSR94

Yeah unfortunately where I live, it's either drive the whole way, or try to bike the whole way.

No public transit - no buses, subways, no trains. No MUP's, no bike lanes. Every and I mean EVERY route between home and work is either 2-lane rural or interstate highway.

Leebo

What about driving part of the way with the bike, park at friends/ co-workers house?

PatrickGSR94

None of my co-workers live between my house and work, they're all out farther than me, and I don't know anybody more or less halfway. People I know are either really close to my house, or really close to work.