53 yo Athena (clyde class) and my commute has varied 18-35 miles r/t depending on full/partial commute, office location. I've been commuting a year. I started for cross-training fitness and stress-relief. I enjoy weekend club rides for social reasons and to try out new routes as well as for the exercise. I ride about 300 miles/month; the commutes have some hills that wear me out (11% grade on a few) and TX heat also takes its toll hence need for many workdays to sleep in and recover. I also do some swimming and swim in a local Masters meet every year or so.

Surprisingly I am the only bike commuter at my current two 10-story office tower complex. Some of my co-workers used to ride quite well including some racing (not just charity rides) so there are people here who could commute. I've tried to encourage them but I suppose I'll just remain the oddball instead of setting a trend.

Beware of some of the older cyclists. Some of them have decades of cycling in those legs. Looks can be deceptive. Unfortunately I'm not one of them. :)

...not to mention the interesting and strikingly handsome guys you meet on those rides. :innocent:

Mid 30's and my commute is about 6 miles roundtrip. I've seen more commuters this summer than I have ever seen before. Pretty diverse age range I'd say. My best guess is that they are anywhere from their teens up to the mid 40's. I don't see many older than that. I know however once the weather starts changing they will be dropping off drastically (but i'll be pedaling).

I'm 48 and typically commute 30 miles round trip a day every work day unless there's a good chance that it will rain or snow or < 15 degrees F in the AM., I really hate cleaning and re-lubing everything after a wet ride.:(

I just turned 50 this year and have a very short commute. It's 3 miles RT to one site and about 5 to the other. In addition, I do a long ride every week for cross-training (I'm a long-distance runner). On the installation where I work, there are lots of bike commuters in their 50s and 60s.

I'm 41 and I ride ~35 miles a day. I've extended my 7.5 mile RT significantly.

Screaming toward 44 here... where does the time go ?

Riding less now than I have in years as my shop is only a few minutes away but used to have a nice 30 km return and would usually add another 20km a day.

I now try to put on 20 km a day minimum to keep the legs in shape and will add some longer rides through the week.

Approaching 42 and ~10 miles RT.

17 with ~15 miles RT. depends on where i'm working. If school, it's only 7 miles RT.

a lot of 40 and 50-somethings can ride me in the dust.

it's cool to see how on Commuting you get 40's average for commuters, and on SS&FG you get like 23 average. Guess the old guys know better :P

Dunno. I still do. That said, I prefer not to do it alone. I'll do ball-busting training rides with my son at 20 and 40k distances, or do touring distance rides as a family. I was on vacation last week, actually put more miles down than a normal commuting week.

What I have found is that I need a purpose to ride, ie: a destination, rather than just be able to hop on the bike and putz around.

They haven't learned yet what we know about knees :P

Yes, that was true of me, at least at first; but as I've got more into it, I've acquired more bikes, that I want to ride. Bikes I can't use for commuting, because I need a folding bike for my commute. So now I'm trying to get away for a recreational ride on the weekends.... Unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean I can find the time to get away for a good long ride.

I'm 50 and commute 15miles RT.
Missed it today as I just had a big visit to the dentist last eve. Its such a pretty morning too.
I love to ride in light rain.

Closing on fast on 43. Commute RT 27 miles three or four days a week. Throw in a couple recreational rides (including with wife and kids), and a couple MTB rides a week.

I live for the recreational rides! They are the longest, and go where I want to go rather than where I HAVE to go! Time constraints make them only a fraction of my actual miles, but they are the best miles.

I'm 56, and commute 20 rt 3-4 times a week on a fixed gear. I'm thinking (hoping) I can do this until 65+. I would do a 30 rt, but if 40 rt, I would probably only ride on nice days.

Warning: I suck.

I'm 36, out of shape and was living a fairly stagnant lifestyle for a long while. Besides local hikes and walks, I wasn't doing much. I joined the gym, went twice, still hate it as much as I did in my 20s. Bought a bike, cancelled the gym. I've only had my bike about 2 months now and don't ride daily. Though, I have been riding more and although I haven't tried a 20 mile ride, I know I can do meandering type rides for a while. Last week we did 11.5 with a small group.

My commute will be (I teach and school is still in summer) 1.5 miles only. Super easy, even an overweight out of shape girl can do it :). Luckily going to work is all on a slight downhill grade. Which means coming home, even though so close, almost kicks my butt! Yesterday I sampled the ride with two panniers filled and man it was actually hard getting home. We had a meeting so I loaded up to try it out: 2 panniers, U lock, cable, heavy laptop, power cord, binder, note pad, calendar, book, file folder, purse, water bottle, and my coffee mug on the bike. Needless to say, I couldn't lift the back of the bike with it loaded.

So...that long shpiel is simply to say, YOU'RE DOING GREAT SIR!

I'm 39 and I do a 44 mile RT twice a week. I've done it every day but that gets OLD really quickly. I lift at the gym 3x/week now and then a long ride on Saturday. Sometimes in the summer I'll take a longer route home. But doing 80 miles a day is very impressive. I wouldn't want to do it.

I'm 46 and my most direct commute would be 24 miles r/t (i do that in the cold weather). In nice weather I make it around 30 r/t. I know 2 other bike commuters from my church and they are younger and I think they have shorter commutes. I also ride some on the weekends and run 3 times a week. My goal is to bike commute everyday, only heavy morning rain, snow or icy roads keep me off the bike.

43, recovering lost fitness after 4 years off.
23 mi RT is the most direct route, I am now riding every day (4-5 days per week, I have been taking some 3-day weekends lately), and intend to ride all winter.

Make this a poll!

40 each way would be a stretch for a daily commute, IMO - perhaps 2-3 days a week.

just turned 46, commute 3-4 days a week.

I know randonneurs in their mid-sixties. The sort of people who ride 1200 km in 90 hours. So you can probably keep going for at least 20 years. :)

im 23, i dont do no 25mile commute on the daily, but to work and back i can beat public transit, and sometimes (ok most of the time) i can beat different parts of traffic.
bout 25mins to work and from work so i get an hour of biking everyday usually, more on the weekends...havent done a huge trek yet but id willingly try

42 and my R/T to work is about 18.5 miles I do it mostly on Mondays, when i'm the early guy or I'll do it if I'm the late guy. The hardest part of my commute is the Brooklyn Bridge, more so coming from Manhattan to Bklyn. Just been doing the commute thing just for a few months.

37 and 10 (winter) to 20 (summer) miles RT commute. Summer commute is longer because I want it to last longer.

50 yrs old this spring. 26 miles round trip. I only commute in the spring and summer and rarely make a full week. This year it was two weeks. With commuting and joy riding I've racked up almost 2,000 miles this season with 4 bikes and I just another. I actually wore one out and it's in the shop for a new chain; rear cog and loose crank service.

I am 33 and having been a bike commuter since the mid 90's when I moved to the city and started college. Currently, I always bike to the part time job which is 12 miles RT. I bike to the full time job 2-3 time a week depending on how tired I am from the part time job the night before. The full time job commute is 21 miles RT.

The over whelming majority of bike commuters in my town, and in fact everywhere I've ever lived in the USA, are between 8 and 14 years old and from late August to early June make a daily commute from their homes to their neighborhood schools, sometimes in appalling weather.

tcs

45 and 21 miles/day here. I've never really ridden for pleasure, other than maybe a mile at a time. Back in college I did a bit I guess. Back when I had time for recreation.

27 years old and about 15 miles a day. I have plenty of options but I keep choosing riding my bike for the incredible sense of freedom and serenity.