The farthest I’ve ever commuted was 10 miles round trip (5 miles each way). What the longest commute you’ve ever had, and what type of bicycle did you use?

My commute is 8 miles each way for 16 total, though sometimes I cheat and it is 20-25.

I’ve been commuting for 21 years, at first on an aluminum hybrid but when that frame cracked I went to a steel touring bike. My commute is mostly straight line and I don’t need great maneuverability; the load carrying capacity and drop bars of the touring bike are a better fit for my situation.

I used to do a 27 mile one-way commute, Long Island to Brooklyn. When I was young and racing I could handle this 2-3 days per week. Later years found a park and ride, so took it down to 18 one way, maybe twice per week. Much later would leave car at work, ride home 27, then back in morning, maybe twice per week. NYC was actually the best part as I was on bike lanes and a long paved boardwalk. Nassau County was all back neighborhood streets with constant turning so was the more tiring part.

I've done commutes up to 17 miles each way. Rode a workhorse fix gear with fenders, LowRider, front panniers and full fenders with a real, English-style, front flap. In winter, I'd put on a Zzipper fairing which added basically one cog tooth of speed and was a real blessing in winter wind, rain, snow and cold. (Kept precipitation off my glasses as long as I was moving. And I looked over it, not through it so the build up of water or whatever didn't matter.)

Bike specs and parts:
Early to mid '80s usually part cro-mo Japanese or Japanese copy sport frame with dropout eyes and plenty of tire and fender clearance. An ordinary 110 BCD crankset like might come on a lesser Fuji. Mafac RACER brakes. Levers varied but I evolved to Tektros which fit my hands well, are cheap and work. Quill stem and drop handlebars, usually Japanese, usually from coops. Platform or semi platform pedals. I started with the Lyotard Berthet pedals and moved to the Shimano D-A/600 semi-platforms. Those Lyotards are the easiest toeclip pickup out there when starting. With homemade tabs from Home Depot flatbar, the Shimanos can be modified to even better.

I built my own wheels around fix gear rear hubs and road quick-release fronts. Butted spokes, Open Sport rims and Pasela 28c tires.

Handlebar headlight which kept getting better as car headlights got brighter. Red flasher taillight in back. Lots of reflecting tape. An orange reflective cycling specific vest with tailights sewn to each front bottom corner so directly visible to drivers coming out of right side streets and driveways and left turning vehicles coming toward me. (Those little flashers on the front of my hips stop traffic. It's impressive.)

I am no longer doing the night riding. 72 yo, retired and my night vision is deteriorating. But what I described was the evolution of 40 years of commuting in 5 different cities and piling about 70k miles on those workhorses. (Everything got replaced around 5 times but as needed. Crash a frame? I'd buy a new (used) one and swap the parts over. I call it one continuous bike. Started as a Peugeot UO-8, ended as a Trek 4something with 3 Japanese frames in between which I still have.)

About 10 years ago (aged 65) I rode my full-sized road bike to work on Bike-To-Work Day in the Chicago summer. By the time I got near home on the way back, the mileage was 96, so I overshot my home by 2 miles so it would be a legit "Bike-to-Work Century".
This is not a sustainable practice!
I normally got to work by a combination of folding bike and heavy rail, total mileage about 7 per day. I did this for 22 years year-round, and now only do it during non-winter weather 2 days a week.

For eight years it was 37km/23mi total, but the last two years it has been a little over 26km/16mi.
I am riding a city/gravel bicycle (Malvern Star Oppy S2), which weighs around 22-23kg (50lbs) in the morning and a kilogram-two (3-4lbs) less on the way back home (food gets transferred from bicycle to a better, and more appropriate, place, which is my stomach).

Way back, in the 80s, I had a temp gig washing dishes in a cafeteria. 10ish miles each way. Lasted two weeks.

One of the "bennies", I could eat leftovers out of the pans I was washing as long as the dishes were done on time.

Edited to add, this was on a Schwinn Varsity. Miss that bike.

I had a commute that was about 13.2 miles (21 km) each way. It took a lot of energy from me so I only did it two or three days a week. Usually, I did it on a road bike with drop handlebars and more gears than I needed. It also had a rack and fenders. Sometimes I used a backpack and sometimes panniers.

To me, the ideal commuting distance is between 3 and 7 miles. When it's under 7 miles, I might wish for the ride to be over soon but it's never terribly burdensome. And right m commute is slightly under 4 miles, and I'm quite happy about that. I'm in New York City, so my alternate mode is the subway which is reliable. I'm very grateful I don't have to commute by car. In my last job search, I set a commuting time limit of 60 minutes by either bike or subway. I do not plan to buy a car.

I car commuted most of my working career. The last 3 1/2 years, its been 17 miles each way every day by bike. In shorts and good weather and hauling, I can beat 90 minutes. Other times I can't. I ride a 90's MTB that a priest actually left behind when he moved on to a new church.

Straight there and back was 20 miles RT.

But for a while I joined an after-work ride, complete with rack, fenders, and panniers since I rode there and back. 50 miles twice a week was working hard, but still fun.

27 miles one way.

I drove the day before, just sitting in stop & go traffic on two lane roads. I thought: “I can probably bike this faster…”

Sure enough, I rode the next day, passing all those cars on the shoulder.

However, I hadn’t ridden a bike in awhile, so I was exhausted for most of the workday afterwards. I had a job where I was on my feet all day. That night, by the time I got home, I was ready for bed.

I never did it again. I did a multi-modal commute after that: 1.5 miles on the home side, and 0.75 miles on the work side. There was a regional train that was convenient. At one point, I decided to leave a bike on the work end, It was a cool three-speed Gary Fisher city bike. It got stolen the first weekend, as I was using a heavy cable and padlock.

After that, I either walked (nice weather) or took a shuttle bus (bad weather) on the work end.

I also had a few weeks where I strapped my longboard to my bike’s rack, and skateboarded the 3/4 mile on the work end.

I eventually quit that job in 2019. After that, I bought a house 2 miles from my current job. Very convenient, but too close for a proper workout using the commute.

Still biking to work most days after 33 years. (64) Was 6 miles each way for the first two years, then 9 miles each way for 25 years. No commute for 18 months, then 6-8 miles each way for the last 3 years.

22 miles each way. 1st did it w/ a roadified hybrid, switched to an older road bike, then a newer road bike

When I did commute by bike, in coastal SoCal, it was just about 23 miles round trip 3-4 times a week. I mostly rode a Schwinn High Sierra Mountain bike, then a custom built chrome Mongoose ATB, and finally a KHS DJ200 dirt jumper
I didn't seem so far probably because it was mostly flat and along the beach.
Not the exact route but pretty similar.

I spent several years at 18+ miles each way, 2-3 times per week most of the year but not in rain or snow. Late ‘80s Fuji Saratoga touring bike. Rear panniers for clothes, laptop, lunch, and tools.

Then 37 miles each way but did not ride that distance very often. When I did I would usually drive in, ride home, ride in the next day, then drive home. Used my Bianchi road bike for the long rides. I would fairly often drive part way and ride 10-15 miles. Same Fuji set up as above.

Now 2-1/2 miles each way. Not long but it is uphill both ways. 😁 2005 Cannondale touring bike, street clothes, backpack for laptop.

Longest commute was riding to the old Denver, Lutheran hospital 15 years ago, from our home in the mountains at 8,600’. It took 2h40m to get to work (avg 19 mph, max speed 52 mph), then 4.5 hours home with 4,800’ climbing. Maybe commuted that a dozen times over six years (otherwise commuted to Lafayette which was also some climbing on the way home). The past nine years I commuted from that mountain home to Longmont 1-2x/wk, which was 50 minutes downhill to work and 2h40m, 3,573’ of climbing to get home. We moved down to the flats two summers ago, I’m in my 60’s, now I commute every day, 7.2 miles each way, nearly flat course, 30-35 minutes. Easy peasy, love it.

22 miles round trip, but it was short lived. I started doing it at the tail end of summer and we had above average temps(I don’t do well in the heat in general) but the kicker was all the wild fire smoke that also rolled in.

It was a bit on the long side for me, anyway. Now I join my partner when they commute to work which is about 10 miles round trip and I’m back before 6am, so I can do that one pretty much everyday.

During the gas crisis in the 70s you were only allowed 5 gallons of gas every other day. Most of that was used up waiting in line at the station. Cars then weren't known for fuel efficiency. I was working as an auto tech at a dealership about 7.5 miles from home. I used to race bicycles back then, so I decided to just start riding to and from work. The owner let me bring the bike inside, and there were showers and a locker room for the techs to use. A lot of the techs lived within 3 miles of the dealership. They started bringing in old bicycles for me to fix up when work was slow, and eventually about 75% of the techs were riding bicycles to work. The owner saw an opportunity and had a photo of all the techs with their bikes outside the service area and ran an ad in the local paper. "Our technicians know how to save fuel!"

I retired last year (65), before that I had been fulltime bike commuter for 20 years. I was always a rain or shine, no matter what commuter. My commutes were:

33 miles R/T, ~1500 feet of climbing
40 miles R/T, ~1800 feet of climbing
18 miles R/T, ~1200 feet of climbing
39 miles R/T, ~2000 feet of climbing

Main bike was a Titanium cross bike that I continually upgraded. I put well over 70,000 miles on that frame. I don't miss anything about working, but I really miss bike commutting.

It sounds like you need to integrate cycling into your retired life. Maybe not just “cycling” or “going for a ride”, but ride places instead of driving. Shopping, Dr. appointments. Other errands.

My current commute is 31 miles roundtrip.

Bald Paul that's a really sweet story! woodway and I Like To Ride your stories are very impressive!

Nearly 20 years ago, I commuted 42 miles round trip (sometimes adding more on the way home). I did it on a road bike in a Lycra kit, which was made possible by driving to work with a spare set of clothes Mon/Wed/Fri and riding on Tue/Thu with a shower at work.

Now it's 13 miles round trip in work clothes on an e-assist bike with rack and panniers.

Eight years ago we moved for a school district change. Before that, my ride was about 11 miles RT, and it felt like a workout due to an extra climb in the middle. I could actually make it faster on the way in using another route that was steady downhill that deleted the climb but went 6.5 miles, and felt fast. Now, to the same place, it's about seven RT. It does not feel like a workout.

I've entertained fantasies of cycling to the airport when I travel for work - 29 miles, maybe 3 hours, slightly plausible. But it's right across all of the burbs and there's no parking. Nor would I want to ride a folder 29 miles or deal with checking it, or using it at the destination. But if it were possible, I could claim 6000 miles in one ride

I think my longest was about 11-12 miles and I recall doing that on my fixed gear road bike and it was uphill on the way back but there was subway on a good part of the route which I remember using once after getting puncture but I didn't ride as often as I wanted. These days my commute is about 7 miles and I do it on an e-bike to get there faster and usually after work I might get some groceries or might take some odd routes and explore a bit more or just get home faster. I can pedal average of maybe 13mph but with the e-bike I am closer to 18-20mph average. Beyond bad weather and extreme cold or having a very important meeting I generally am trying to commute via bike most of the time. It is quite nice and I really enjoy it. Plus not being a morning person I can get out on the bike without excuses. With my regular bikes which I still ride I wouldn't want to commute as much for one reason or another now I don't use those excuses my brain is able to eliminate them because I don't have to be as awake and ready.