http://i.imgur.com/JTBPr0Q.png

This is as close as I've ever come to matching my plan at the beginning of the year. Not all commuting miles.

I get the $20 federal monthly benefit for commuting more than half the time... haven't missed a month in a couple years.

[MENTION=272560]locolobo13[/MENTION]

When I was a kid in Phoenix, we'd sometimes drive up to the Grand Canyon to camp on the weekend nearest the summer solstice. We'd camp overnight on the north rim, and when we got up in the morning Dad would be gone. We'd drive around to the other side and as the sun went down, here he'd come up the Kiabab. Hell of a hike, 24 miles and a mile of elevation gain. If you guess 3mph plus an hour for each 1000 ft, a normal person can just do it. He was an avid hiker, until his age caught up with him. He proposed to my mom after urging her all the way up Mt Whitney, she was too oxygen-deprived to say no!

I don't weight-lift any more since my heart diagnosis, but when I still did, I did manage to haul my schlubby butt up a chin-up bar. What worked was just doing it every day. In years of trying more reps with pulldown machines I never got the strength, but actually going up the bar once makes it easier to try it again. A climbing wall helped with back strength, too.

I had never heard of this before. Seems my employer doesn't offer it.
Bicycle Commuter Benefit | League of American Bicyclists

I had a good year -- a really good year.

One of my goals was to track how many miles I drive my car in a year. I wasn't necessarily aiming for a certain number; I just wanted to assess whether my spouse and I actually need a second car. The answer is a resounding "no."

Car: Somewhere shy of 1100 miles.
Bike: I'll hit 4000 before Christmas.

A second goal was to become more confident wrenching on my bike. I definitely got there! This year I managed to replace my bottom bracket, overhaul both wheel hubs, true my wheels, change my chain, replace brake pads, re-cable brakes and shifters, adjust my rear derailleur, and swap out my handlebars and stem. I think If I just keep my hands on the bike this year, those skills will continue to improve.

I also wanted to become more active helping others use their bikes for transportation. I succeeded there too. I got certified as a safety instructor and started teaching four-week long classes at the co-op called "How to Ride your Bike in the Street." Several class participants have taken up bike commuting!

Finally, I wanted to love riding my bike. I didn't want goals and the ordinariness of riding for transportation to steal away the delight I feel riding a bike. I need not have worried. I simply love it.

It's possible I had set "ride a century" as a goal for the year. I can't remember. Alas, I did not manage to ride a century this year. Maybe it'll work out in 2017.

It's actually a credit that your employer gets to take on their taxes... so it does cost them some overhead time to administer it, but not any "real" money. Most employers that have some kind of commuting benefits like bus or train ticket discounts ought to be offering this as well.

I'm just one good ride short of my 4,000 mile goal. I haven't been able to ride for nearly a month due to weather, work, and illness. But I'm going to top 4K tomorrow.

I also did 5 half marathons. Pretty good year.

I set 3,000 miles as a goal, which I met in November. I was hoping to do an additional 500 however I am hampered by a rigid splint on my left hand. Still, I have only 130 miles to go so if I take a few "long ways home" I may do it.

For 2017 I have no idea as I plan to start working part time. We'll see.

No such thing at my employer. We have on-site parking and lots of drivers so I guess there is little enough reason for the parking or transit parts, which are bigger than the bike part.

I started commuting this year in June the day after my 40th birthday. I had not ridden my bikes in about 10 years. I just topped my goal of 2000 miles last week, just in time to be on vacation for the remainder of the year. I am still assessing what 2017's goal is, but the logical goal as far as I am concerned is to commute all year next year and set the mileage at 4000 miles. I've got some more cold weather gear on my Christmas list so I am planning to continue commuting by bike as soon as I return to work in the new year. The cold just got real here in Maine. I've got things mostly worked out but still lack a few layers I need for the -X degree days. I've been pretty comfortable down in to the teens.

Hey, welcome to forum, and congratulations on making it this far.:thumb:

Tomorrow I finish my 4th full year of bike commuting (I moved closer to work around Christmas 2012 and started biking basically full time the first workday of 2013).

Three of those years I tracked my bike-commuting days on the CCCC. This was my best year, 190 days (including tomorrow)

I recorded my cyclocomputer odometer on new years at 9798, and I know I broke 12000 about a month ago, so that's 2200 miles and counting.

I can't remember the odometer on "my" car, but I'm certain it was driven way fewer miles than that. And some of the miles were gratuitously driven in that car instead of the family minivan, so my oldest could learn to drive stick.

Fitness, however... I'm still basically an almost 250lb clyde, exactly the same as when I started. I love to eat (and cook), and when I ride, I can't motivate myself to actually exercise, my effort level is constantly about the same as a brisk walk. Every time I check the average speed on my cyclometer, it's 10.x mph.

No significant new parts this year, although I lost my battle with tubeless on me & the wife's 29ers. I'll try again sometime next year with cheaper homemade sealant and tires that are specifically tubeless-ready.

I set a goal of 10,000 total miles for the year, and I just hit that number earlier this week! I wasn't sure how I was doing on my 2016 commuting mileage compared to last year, and had to go back to the 2015 thread to find out.

It looks like I'll wind up about 500-miles short from last year's commuting total. I didn't make a conscious decision to commute any differently than last year, but I'm guessing the increased non-commuting rides may have contributed to the lower overall commuting mileage. My goal for next year is to worry less about total miles... but commute more!

I don't set mileage goals. The only goal I have is to commute by bicycle 3 times per week. No problem meeting that goal. That comes out to a minimum of 2000+ miles in a year.

I meet my goals every year because I don't make any.

Well, I actually started bike commuting, so it feels pretty good! I bought a nice bike (Raleigh RXM), spent way too much money on Boston-proof winter and water gear, and found some coworkers to ride with. My first ride was last week Monday (12/12) and I've put about 150 miles on my bike in total, which will be it for this year as I'm heading out of state for the holidays. I feel pretty good about it because it saves me roughly 30 minutes on my commute because the local bus line is like taking the slow boat to china. I had some tendonitis in my knee right off the bat but I think I fixed it by adjusting my cleat positioning - the cleat was too far on the outside of my shoe, causing me to go pigeon toed.

All in all, I'm planning to do 3500 miles next year. My commute is 9.5 miles the short way, 12.5 the scenic river way and I head to my girlfriends with the train one day a week so if I commute every day that I can I would hit 4250 or so. I think more likely I'll do 3.5 out of every 4 possible commutes, just because I won't always be able to sleep and eat as well as I want to.

Since it was rainy this morning, I took the opportunity to move "my" car to work to sit in the parking deck for the rest of the year. Final 2016 miles on that car: 1714

Wait what?

Is that a thing anybody can claim, or is it like an option an employer can choose to participate in?

Bicycle Commuter Benefit | League of American Bicyclists

Employer based - A LOT of employers don't publicize this stuff though. My last job offered it but you had to actually inquire about it before they'd give it to interested cyclists. :rolleyes:

Overall it's been a good year of commuting. I bought a new bike in September which has worked out well so far. I generally only ride to work and don't do many recreational rides, but did a few more this fall with the new bike.

I had relatively low commuting mileage in January and February, but ramped up more in the spring. By summer I was seeing that 5200 miles for the year may be possible - an average of 100 miles per week, including a couple of zero weeks for vacation or whatever. I passed 5,200 on Tuesday and will likely be over 5,300 by the end of next week.

I don't really count days. I have several partial days or rides where either my wife picks me up after work or I ride halfway home to meet her somewhere.

That link talks about employees submitting receipts to receive up to $20/mo reimbursement for 'qualified expenses'. Does your company just give out $20/mo, or do you have to actually buy $20 worth of bike stuff and provide receipts?

From what I understand it is reimbursement based. When I worked in a shop we had a guy that would come in every December and spend $240 or as close as he could without going over. He was happy with it and would usually get smalls, lights, chain, cassette and cables.

It has to be through your employer, because it's actually a credit that they take on their taxes. For every $20 they pay out for the program, they take as a credit on taxes owed to the government. So it's available to any employer who pays federal tax and wants to offer it as a benefit. It's probably too much hassle for most companies to bother with.

The federal tax rule says you're supposed to submit annually, enough receipts to show that you actually spent as much as you receive - can be on any bike related stuff like tires, repairs, locks, clothing, whatever - I wouldn't have any trouble producing receipts for $240 per year, but my employer doesn't ask for receipts. We just have to go to an on-line form and check a box that says we commuted by bike more than half the trips for that month, and we get $20 tax-free added to the paycheck. Apparently the feds don't consider this to be an area of high tax fraud so they don't bother verifying. Any employer might require the receipts though to do it by the book.

http://i.imgur.com/aKWt7TR.png

I asked, and my employer offers neither the transit, parking, nor bike versions. The parking one makes sense, we have a vast campus and plentiful parking. But I couldn't tell you why not the others. Except that they've been nickel and diming us for years (this year the HSA match shut off at a lower income threshold, they went from 80 to 48 sick hours, and for the old-timers they deleted the 200 hours at 20 years vacation level).

I never considered bike commuting until this year. I rode to work for the first time in September of 2015 during the Worlds here in Richmond as my office was on the course. I liked it so I took my aluminum LeMond, put a rack on it, bought some panniers and waited for the weather to warm up. I started in March and rode when the weather permitted. During the summer months, I would ride 3 or 4 days as I have a club ride after work and need to drive to the start. Ironic that I would drive to work to then go on a ride. I thought I would stop in October when it got colder but have kept going and rode yesterday when the temperature was 24 degrees F when I left. My commute is 7 miles each way and I have worked out a route that runs through neighborhoods with little traffic. It's pretty flat as well.

Overall I have commuted 108 days for a grand total of 1,600 miles (I take a scenic route home in the summer for a few added miles). My overall mileage for the year is 7,000 and counting and I found that the slow pace commute on a heavy bike has helped me with my recreational riding on my carbon Trek. It's amazing how light that bike feels compared to my commuter.

My goal next year is to commute more and maybe even in bad weather.

Well, looking at 2016 I can say that…

I learnt several basic skills in bike maintenance and I tried to apply all of them on my trusty land ironclad named “Thunder Child”.

I discovered the importance of preventative maintenance, particularly on the drive train, and I set both a weekly and a monthly schedules to clean it routinely. I got a cheap bike stand and I constantly modified my steed throughout the year, helped by a ton of suggestions and opinions of experienced cyclists I found here on BF. For that I’d wish to thank each and every one of you. Not one of my question got unresolved by a simple search on the forum, and many more ideas started to tickling my mind, reading about your experiences and solutions and taking advantage of your expertise and knowledge.

Writing on BF has also helped me to refine my skills in English written production.

I ferociously committed to commute by bike, (4S/AW four seasons, all weather) on my heavily customized hybrid, and I think I can safely say I’ll have the honor to finish the year as the first of the European BF users on the Mileage Thread (forgive me about this little bragging, and above all: kudos to every other European fellow bike commuter :)).

In addition, cycling has helped me to control my weight and I finally had my abs “six pack” back.


In 2017, I’d be quite happy to match and possibly exceed 2016 in terms of volume and frequency of cycle commutes.

My other goals for 2017 include:

- improve my very basic maintenance skills and apply them routinely on the Thunder Child,
- avoid traffic-related accidents, and possibly near-misses, too
- maintain my fitness level and weight, and possibly improve them by adding an upper body workout to my commutes and utility runs;
- realize and employ both my DIY studded tires and bike-mounted DIY car horn.
- use my trailer consistently for grocery runs and general utility duties;
- strive to continue to promote cycling to colleagues and friends as a healthy (even though not really “safe”, at least here in Italy) alternative mode of transportation.

Based on the assumption of 0.50€/Km, I could estimate that I saved approximately 750€, by riding my BUV (Bike Utility Vehicle) instead of my car.

I'm at 5888 miles cycling and 1407 miles running so far, which is my lowest annual total since I started keeping track in 2008. A torn hamstring tendon in April caused me to take 2 months off, and my leg is still not as strong as it once was. I tried to get back into running, but ended up re-injuring it (although not nearly as badly as the first time). Cycling is okay, though, so I'm planning to do more cycling and a lot less running next year. My main goal in 2017 is just to stay healthy, though. If I can stay healthy, I don't care how many miles I do.

lol, I would be at 0 miles running if it weren't for the occasional game of pickup ultimate

This has been the best year (or at least the most days on a bike) riding, I think. Last February was really mild in the NYC area. So I got to ride just about every day back then. Also haven't been sick in the last two years before my recent battle with bronchitis. Maybe cyclecommuting helps to keep me healthier than I thought? I don't really have any goals for mileage. But am happy to do around 5000 miles this year. I didn't keep totals before this year so have nothing to compare it to. But I think most years could be closer to 4500 or so factoring in the extra snow or bad weather days off the bike. I'm just happy to be riding the bike. I sometimes think that I'm strange when I see other folks reactions to my commute. But I think its possible while still being reasonable with limitations (no riding: under 20F, roads not clear, sick days, vacation, etc). If I had a goal, I guess it would be to reel in my diet a little more. I'm a big boy at ~230 lbs. So could use to lose some more weight and be around ~200 or so. I still feel strong at this weight so losing would put me into another category on the hills. Its just that I like my SMIDGAF diet too much at the moment. :) Also nice to eat like a horse and not worry. My wife still marvels and complains about my eating habits...

Here's to a better 2017! :beer: May your bike never creak and may the wheels stay upright and on the road/MUP...

All done with only 447.1 miles, which is maybe about 36 round trip commutes. Not sure exactly since some used other routes or errands and I'm not going back to count. I'm sure I'll do better in 2017... touch wood.

i don't track my mileage. i don't set riding goals. i don't use a bike computer or ride apps or any of that stuff.

i just ride my bike to work every workday unless there's a compelling reason not to.

in that regard, 2016 was another smashing success!!!


my gameplan for 2017: ride my bike to work every workday unless there's a compelling reason not to.