Physical condition.
It's a 30km daily commute for me and so far I don't think I can manage -survive- riding to work every work day. I have to give myself at least one day to recover so I ride every other day (currently 2x a week). I hope that sometime soon I can switch to riding more during the week, but I don't think I'll ever be able to completely give up my car.

I've been doing longer (40-50kms) rides occasionally hoping that, the more I ride the less of an effort it'll feel.

We have fairly good weather year round where I live, with the occasional drizzle or precipitation that, at first, made me give up my bike but now I just roll with it. It's never too bad that I need mudguards or anything special.

You can always order bike stuff off the internet and avoid the trip to the LBS in the city.

It does get better with time and miles. Last year, a year I was in far worse shape and commuted less frequently, I could barely ride into work two days in a row. Sore butt, wrists, and legs were my major complaints.

This year, I begin to feel fatigue only after the third day, and sometimes even the fourth. And, nowadays, the fatigue is more mental than physical. It's the drain of getting up day after day at 5AM and riding for three hours while also working a full day. Some days I just refuse to get up and sleep until 6.

And here I was complaining about my 1hr commute.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, hopefully I'll come back next year with a similar story

-when i decide 30 extra minutes of sleep feels better than riding
-when we have errands to run after work
-when i have an appointment during the day
-when i'm just feeling lazy
-when it's raining and will continue to rain
-when it's cold as balls
-when its hot as balls

Tougher ride home tonight than I expected as it went full dark about half hour before I reached the house. Making matters worse, the wife complained about me riding in the dark---apparently the fact that I rode in the dark every morning for a month and half now escapes her. Anyway, there is a certain amount of energy drain which occurs when the sun goes down. Temperature falls, visibility becomes a narrow band only as wide as the headlight, and the fact that I am in deep woods at the time adds a little spookiness to the experience.

THis might take some getting used to.

Anytime it involves, kids, wife or groceries.

When there are tornadoes and flash flood warnings. (More common than you might think in central Texas)
Or ice; ice happens so rarely around here that I don't have the right tires for it.

I don't have a car. If I really don't want to ride, I can usually take the day off. If taking the day off isn't an option, and riding isn't an option, I will ask my wife to give me a ride; this has happened once in the last ten years.

I drive if the rain or wind is too heavy (> 40 km/hr) or if there is uncleared snow on the highway.

I will usually bike up to about -20 deg C if I'm doing the whole commute 24km one way. If I'm just biking around my workplace at lunch weather is not really a factor (sometimes I'll leave my bike in my office to use at lunch the following day if there's a storm coming).

The things that usually force me into the car are:

• Appointments, either over lunch or close enough after work that I don't have time to ride.
• Unplowed snow over about 4"-5". I could ride through it but it takes a enough extra time that I'm usually not motivated enough to fight it. Wait a day until the plows clear it out and then I'm riding again.
• Temps below about -5F. I've ridden down to -14F with no ill effects, but it makes my wife really nervous so to keep her happy I drive on those days when the temp is that low.

I used to ride the trail along the Little Miami River. There's nothing to spike your heart rate like riding along a wooded trail at night and have a deer leap out in front of you!

Had that happen to me last night. It was startling, but not near as scary as the night a skunk ran out in front of me.

I bike commute as much as possible, but it usually works out to 3-4 days/week year-round. Weather is the biggest factor causing me to drive because I don't like riding in rain, snow, sleet, etc. However, sometimes I am forced to drive due to appointments, errands and work-related factors such as out-of-town meetings. When the weather is nice for extended periods (which has been a rarity lately), I sometimes drive just to give my legs a rest.

If it's raining for the commute to work, I just drive. I hate being soggy/wet when arriving at work. Everything else is fine. Snow, ice, wind, rain chance after work, extreme hot, extreme cold, that is all fine with me. I just don't do rain on the way to work.

Had that happen on the frontage road just last week. Still doesn't compare to a rattlesnake slithering right into your path.

Unfortunately, I drive 5 days a week to work. I would love to ride to work but I work 33 miles one way from home.

I never drive, but I'll take the bus when the streets are icy, which is infrequent enough here to make studs impractical.