I think a 31 mile each-way commute would be perfect for me! That's if I didn't have kids and a family to worry about. I just don't think I could get away with 4 hours per day on the bike. I have a 15 mile roundtrip commute. It's OK. It gives me about an hour per day of bike time.

Oh yeah.... if I could still leave home at 6am, and return home by 5pm I'd definitely be down with a longer commuter. Oh... can i still get my fridays off? Maybe I'll do something other than ride.

I have been commuting to this job in Taunton for seven years. I have two spots to park, one is 11 miles away and one is just over 5. The short is the winter commute and occasionally on a Friday I will drive to the office, ride the 32 miles home. Saturday morning ride back to the office and pick up the car.

Thirty one daily is a lot. Shorter rides leave us wanting more. We tend look for the finish line on long rides and doing that daily is difficult.

my commute is 22 miles each way- as i worked up to doing a full day of commuting i would put my bike
in my car, drive to work and then ride home. the next day I'd drive in. eventually i was able to do a same day round trip
and rest the next day. now i can do 4 days in row however by the end of the 4th day i'm tired from
having to get up earlier and not going to be early. last year i'd keep on riding on my home and spin out a metric century
every once in a while just for fun.

I actually have a 48km one-way commute and it is do-able. This morning it took 1:45 total and this evening 1:35 total, with a headwind and rain it takes just over 2 hours. So it does take some time, but it is does not take over my life. It took me a few months to acclimatize, where I would get home, eat as much as I could stomach then fall asleep, but now it doesn't really effect me much at all. There are two other guys who I see in the mornings and evenings who go the same distance, and all of us kept going through the rather brutal winter we had in Europe. So if it is something you really want to work up to, then it is totally possible, it just takes some time to train your body. Good luck!

Yeah I'd go with putting your bike on your wife's car... then when the 5 miles gets boring get her to drop you off progressively further away on the way in. You can then do the one way or decide at the end of the day how bagged you are if you want to ride home or ride to your wife's work. (if it all works out timing wise..)

I think the 'ride part way with the wife, then ride home with the wife' plan is an ideal way to start. (Also give you an excuse to buy an nice bike rack, if you don't already have one :D) That way you can ramp up the distance a little at a time, and make your daily ride as long or short as you want it to be (and if you're like many bike commuters, you'll soon find yourself wanting it to be longer ... and longer...).

My commute, these days, ranges anywhere from the bare-minimum 4.5 miles to 15 or more, depending on whether I have time to play around on the bike (I often leave early in the morning so I can do 8.7 miles instead of 4.5). I like the idea of the '40 mile shortcut' someone mentioned above!

While my commute is 15 miles round trip, from April through September I have club rides twice a week in addition to the commute that are 25-40 miles. Those 40-55 mile days are more difficult but very enjoyable.

So far...
 

I ended up doing the commute on Friday (nice weather here in New England then- now it's 40 and pouring :( As predicted it was rather exhausting but worked out ok. My legs don't get tired but my hands and feet fell asleep as they always do when I'm out of shape.

I did a steady 23-26km/hr and the distance ended up being 48km going up Rt62 to 225 through carlisle and westford then 119 into Pepperell. I was more than happy with that as I rode my commuting bike with fenders, panniers and the lot. Luckily the bridges were all open so I didn't have to wade through any rivers. I'll give it another shot when the weather improves.

I think one day a week- maybe two until I get conditioned will be OK. I'll try to update the thread with news on how it goes. Figure that would be useful for others who might be searching on the topic.

If any locals have ideas for a better route I'm all ears- here's how I went: