I have been thinking about commuting given the traffic on the freeway and the cost of gas. We moved offices, which puts me 23 miles from the office on the back roads. The good news is the majority of them have bike lanes (a bit of safety) and are on high speed arterials, which have quite a bit of room in good old OC California.

Until last September (had a really nasty Mountain Bike wreck that fractured my sternum and ruptured my adominal wall causing a hernia - still riding, but with a Pressure Suit now) I was riding about forty miles plus per week on the mtb. I really do want to get a road bike / touring bike and commute to work, but am concerned that the distance and time would not be feasable. Getting in shape to handle the ride I don't believe would be a problem.

Thoughts on distance and time that one should allow for that length of a ride to commute?

23mile equals roughly 33km. I guess you could do that. I reckon it would take me around 45min to an hour. The injuries may limit you to a couple days a week.
ps dont mention cycleways, it just starts a flamewar

Check out the XCC. There's a chap there who does 60miles a day. He's a flyer, does it in 1h20 (a record, I suspect). But once you settle down, 90 minutes should do it.

?? 23 miles in 45 minutes = 31 MPH *AVG*. That's a hell of a good speed. It takes me 45 minutes in the winter to make 11 miles. I'm sure I could do better if it weren't for hills, headwinds, bad road, traffic, stoplights, etc.

I'm just getting back into riding, and into commuting for the first time, and am in decent shape from running for the last 8 months or so. My 15 mile commute (relatively flat) takes me about 55 minutes on my rigid MTB with street tires. Not sure I could swing another half hour or so on each leg of the commute, schedule-wise, but the distance would be feasible, I think...

This may sound like blasphemy to the purists, but is there a parking lot along the route? If you find the time/distance too great (I would estimate 16-18 mph after you get in the groove, assuming you are still on the mend), what about driving part way, parking in a mall lot or something, and biking the rest? This way, you can either work your way up to the 23 miles, or worst case (which isn't so bad) you can commute at least part of the trip, saving gas and building up health.

I wish I could do 23 miles in an hour! I'm commuting about 13 miles each way, and it's taking me about 55 minutes (one way). Yep, it's cold (today's ride: 11-16F), and I'm way out of shape. During the summer, I want to get it down to about 48-50 minutes. I don't want to show up and be completely sweaty nor wiped out.

I think that once your commute requires more than an hour, one has to really study the pros/cons of biking vs. car/mass transit. But if the commuting time is the same, or not much less than biking, definitely bike it!

I agree that 23 miles is probably do able as a commute depending upon your schedule. I would think 90 minutes (or possibly more depending upon conditions) is a reasonable expectation for riding time. I would definitely look at starting slow either by driving part way and riding the rest or by riding 1 or 2 days a week to start with. If I read your post correctly you'll be jumping from 40+ miles a week to 40+ miles a day, that is going to require some build up.

Good luck with the commute. Take it easy, start slow and have fun.

Commuting does cost me an extra 40 minutes a day but that's not much more than I used to spend on the treadmill. I probably spend an extra 30 or 40 minutes a week than the car + extra exercise alternative.

I do an occasional (2-3x week) one way commute of 22 miles and it takes me about an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes each way depending on how hard I want to ride, what the weather is like, traffic, and how long I want to watch the sun rise when I drink my coffee and hava a banana about halfway through the commute. I found that my road bike was not that much faster than my hybrid bike on my commute (but was more fun). While on an open stretch of road I reach 17-18 mph, I have to stop very often for red lights or to wait for cars on cross streets which brings my average speed way down. Your mileage may vary.

Assuming few traffic lights, stop signs, and hills, that trip would take me at least two hours each way. Driving would be faster, unless there were some really amazing traffic jams.

However, I think it would be fun as a several-times-a-week "adventure ride."

Paul

Stop thinking about it and do it
Of course, provided that you are all healed up and have the equipment and clothing.

I have found that no matter what it usually takes me about 1/3 longer the first month or so I try a new commute. Rapidly you start finding ways to go faster and more efficient routes.
A decent touring or cyclocross bike will help your commute out greatly.
I have a 34 daily RT commute that keeps getting easier. When I ride straight through and ignore the bus it is about 60-70 miles RT. That took me about 3 hrs on a hybrid when I first started. Now it is down to 2-2.5 hrs. I expect in spring and summer I will be riding this route more often and should get it below 2 hrs. Then when I get a chance to upgrade to a surly cross check it should drop even further. At least that is my hope.

Umm... yea.

I agree with the people who said try it a couple times and work your way up. An hour and a half sounds reasonable at that distance. If you have the time, go ahead and try it out.

2 hours RT or one way?

What's all this about a pressure suit?

One way for 60 or 70 miles. OMG if I could do that RT it would be amazing. I can barely manage that in a car on a freeway.

Depends on hills.
I do 18 miles each way, in the winter its taking me 55 min each way on a cross bike, with panniers and other crap adding about 15 lbs, and about 6-700 ft of climbing.

The climbing kills the avg speed.

DO the trip on a wekend and then add a bit of time for doing it in the morning, in the dark, when your more bundled up.

Edit : woops, my elevation change was for round trip not one way, i fixed it.

I have a buddy that does that much, I do 18 myself. For me, your distance is just on the edge of feasibility.

People giving you commute times are neglecting to mention time spent gearing up and down, showering, effects of darkness, flat tires, etc -- these are a significant part of the total time spent.

Also, local weather patterns (i.e. what are the winds normally doing when you're on the road) makes a huge difference. I think a person in decent shape riding a touring bike with fenders, panniers should allow about 1 1/2 hrs each way. This all inclusive figure includes the shower, gearing up/down, a bit of stretching, etc. Actual riding time is probably going to be a little over an hour, but if you catch a tailwind, you're going to beat that some days. Moderate headwinds will add 10-15 min. Killer headwinds (25mph+ sustained) will add significantly more time.

A touring bike is the right tool for this job. If you have the means to acquire more than one bike, I'd say get a touring bike and a racing bike. When the weather is nice, it's an absolute blast to forego the 45 lb commuter for the 24 lb racer (before anyone tells me that a 24 lb racer is junk, that figure includes my clothes, lunch, emergency kit, and seatpost rack to haul it). When I'm on organized rides, it's much lighter.

No kidding. I ride 21 miles on my weekday rides without traffic and its a 85-95 minutes.

That's about the distance I do. I allow about 85 minutes door to door and it involves lots of slow traffic and lights the last few miles.

I can do the commute 2-3 times a week. More miles than that makes be tired and slow. Twice a week, pushing it when I feel good, is about right combined with weekends. You might need to figure out an alternative way in and split the commute beween riding and the other way.

there's some real speed demons here. FWIW: I believe the record speed for the Tour de France is something like 33MPH(55KPH) for 11 miles(19KMS). To those of that can ride greater than 30mph for 1 hour I might think about a career change and join Lance. Just a thought

edit: It was the speed record for time trial. Just found the link here it is:
https://www.letour.fr/2005/TDF/LIVE/us/100/index.html

No, that's only on the Advocacy board.

Could be a great idea, particularly if half of the miles are city miles and half of the miles are in low-traffic areas. Drive to where the traffic makes a car's average speed drop to 20mph or so, and then ride the rest of the way.