Another recommendation for park and ride. 40 miles each way is doable, maybe even pleasant on a nice spring day, but 3 days/week in all kinds of weather will get old fast.

This, I think, will be where my grand plan will break down. If I leave work at 4:30, I will get home just before 8:00. That leave me an hour to cook, clean, and keep my girl happy before I need to go to bed to wake up for the next ride. One-way does seem much more doable, but we'll see.

Try it and see how it works out for you. A lot depends on your fitness and toughness. I commute about 4 days/week 22 miles round trip, and it takes a lot of perseverance to ride many days. Assuming you have the fitness and mental toughness, I would think you would need:
- A relatively light, fast road bike so you can maintain the highest average speed that is sustainable. If you can average 16 mph (which could be tough commuting), that's still 5 hours or riding each day.
- A top-notch lighting system, front and rear. Riding 5+ hours a day will require that you have reliable lights capable of holding a long charge. They also need to be bright since you would need to commute a lot in the dark.

As others mentioned, a more doable way to commute at that distance would be combine cycling with mass transit, car-pooling or driving on some days. The thing about bike commuting that if often underestimated is the wear-and-tear it puts on your body riding day after day. I'm probably a lot older than you (57), but have found that I need to ride at an easier pace commuting than I do for most rec rides or I just wear myself down.

I guess you can try the lights you have, but stash spare batteries at work. Many of the LBSs and internet stores are selling off their lights inventory, so this is a chance to get a "turn night into day" set of lights. Don't forget tail lights - regular blinkies are IMO useless for alerting overtaking traffic - I'd go with Planet Bike Superflash or the knockoffs at a minimum, and a big Cateye or Dinotte taillight if you want to be spotted a 1/2-mile to mile away. And run 2 H/L & 2 T/L for redundancy (I have a Dinotte 200 and a PBSF on my helmet for the 2nd set). I'd probably keep a spare kit in case the AM one get too messy for the ride home. Definitely attend to bike maintenance to mimize the chance of mechanicals. Look at lightweight rando setups for ideas on how to carry what you do want with you without compromising bike speed.

And plan on increased physical and mental wear and tear. I am about tarwheel's age and although I've been a year-round 4K miles commuter and rec rider, I've definitely felt the jump from 8-10 miles to 24-25 daily, and take it easy (which for my distance doesn't add that much time) when I need it.
I use my road bike on some commutes (12 mi each way) and what I've found useful: trigeek behind seat bottle carrier; I use one (modified) to hold my 24oz Nissan Thermos coffee thermos. Profile Design aerobar computer/light mount and a spare handlebar mount (Dinnotte 600L) so I can easily move my big headlight between bikes. Crudbuster clip on fenders (UK, check ProBikeKit and the other UK vendors and, yes, they fit 23mm tires) to keep muck off me and the drivetrain when the no-rain-until-evening forecast is off. Debating replacing the backpack with a (shudder) seatpost rack and trunk bag or small panniers.

I think a long commute is great for sub-FTP "sweet spot" training. I try to go at 90-95% FTP for 10-15 minutes and use traffic lights (I have 2-3 long ones each way) for recovery. May start doing sets of shorter harder intervals on the way home some days if I think I won't be too busy that evening. Good luck!

One more thing, be prepared to be hungry at work. Not just a little hungry. The kind of hunger that makes you eat a second breakfast when you get in and yearn for lunch by 10am, then a second lunch by 2pm. 80 miles/day will require an extra 2000+ calories. On day one, you'll probably have that in reserve so it'll be no big deal, but by your second week, you'll be foraging all the time.

I find I feel more visible in the dark - especially with blinking front and rear lights to augment my regular lights. When I drive, I can see cyclists (using similar illumination to mine) much better in the dark than during the day. The daytime brings much more activity and visual distractions, so everything blends into the background a bit more easily (hence why running blinkies F&R during the day is every bit as beneficial as at night). If a cyclist is not running blinkies in the daytime, I hardly see him/her unless they are wearing hi-viz clothing.

A good headlight that allows you to see the road clearly for some distance is also a good thing to have, particularly for a ride of that length.
It is easy to "zone out" and get into a trance-like state, especially in the morning, riding through the tunnel of light. Having good forward visibility with good illumination helps avoid the tunnel syndrome.

I'd say the commute is doable as you state, but definitely a challenge.

This is something else I was thinking about. We're talking about 4-5000 calories per day - how are you going to physically just carry that much food on your bike? This is a problem I run into on my 'light' bike. Even stuffing my handlebar bag full, I end up running a bit low on certain days. Tough to make the time to eat, too.

that's just too far. you're going to ride six hours per day? my commute approaches 2.5 hours per day and it feels like a part-time job

My ride is 18 miles one way. I make 2 -6 trips per week. I leave my car at the office and pedal home, and then ride back to work in the AM. Might want to try that way first.

Circumstances are what they are, I guess, and different strokes for different folks and all that, but I would never live 40 miles from work. Good luck to the OP working something out, though.

Yeah, moving is always option .. on bike! Like this guy did http://www.pedicab.com/wordpress/200...y-pedal-power/

Other people have mentioned driving halfway, parking the car, and riding the rest of the way into work, and if you can find an ok place to leave it halfway that's the way I would go if it was me. I wouldn't want to leave my car at work overnight and have to mess around with "do I have a car at home today?" kind of stuff.

get a sleeping room right near work , ride in on monday and home on friday.

The best time of year for me is when I get up at dawn and start my commute to the frame shop... after I ride the 10km it takes to get out of the city I have another 40km of wide open roads and fresh air and if I don't stop for coffee at the midpoint can do this in under 2 hours.

From home to the midpoint is a net climb and the last 25km drops me back down very gradually while the ride home is just the opposite... when I hit the 25 km mark I am usually tired of what seems like an endless climb and can look down on my city and can really pick up the pace if I want to... can often maintain speeds close to 40kmh over that home stretch as it's a steeper grade.

Sometimes I sleep over if I end up working really late but on many weeks I will ride home and can only think that other people might spend an hour driving home in their car and spend a few hours glued to the television or hitting the gym to stay fit while I spend a few hours riding home.

I try and knock down a metric or century on the weekends so might ride as much as 700km in a week which gets me in great shape for touring.

I used to commute 17 miles each way. But I found myself wanting more time for life.

Time spent bike commuting is not a total loss of time. A) you need to spend time exercising anyway B) you need to spend time getting to and from work anyway C) some of us (maybe just I?) have at-home activities we like to do during the weekend and/or don't have a big yen for major leisure cycle outings, at any rate.

I'll vote for the Park'n'Pedal option. I've got a 43 mile each way commute currently and have been looking at options. I've got two Park'n'Ride lots within 15-18 miles from work so I'll probably pick the one with the nicer route.

Also keep an eye open for symptoms of over-training, exhaustion, crankiness due to fatigue. Would be a shame to loose your job due to a side effect of over-training.

Also, if you do crank out the whole distance, keep track of your hydration, especially once the warm weather hits.

And road hazards include critters which are especially active in the pre-dawn hours.

Have fun, be safe, and post some commute reports along the way.

lol, you realize he's talking about 6 hours of bike commuting in a day, right? 6 hours? I mean...how much time do you spend at the gym anyways? haha :-)

I have an 18 mile commute each way. I only do it 5 days a week during the nicest weather and when feeling the looniest (or when the car is at the shop). I used to have a buddy with a pickup truck who would drive me in, and I'd ride home -- that was the best. I didn't find weather or fatigue to be the biggest issues, but I don't commute year-round.

The biggest issue I find is lighting the road at 5:15 a.m. when the sunrise isn't until 6-something a.m. Also, my cycling budget is small (my wife thinks it's huge, but she has no idea the crazy gear I covet) so I've never bought the $200 lights that light up the road. I run a dynohub lighting setup which isn't super-bright but does have the advantage of no batteries. Peter White is the best web resource for that stuff. But I'd recommend a headlamp, especially to spot the bravest critters that may cross your path in the pitch dark. Plus a headlamp is an extra light placed nice and high up to be seen, and is very useful for changing flats or doing emergency repairs in the pitch black.

40 miles seems like an awful lot, though. However, when I do ride in in the morning I often feel more alert and refreshed for my work day. My workday starts at 7:15, ends at 3:00-4:00 depending. For me the ideal commute would be 10 miles, give or take a coupe of miles here or there... all downhill (both ways). I can dream, can't I?

\

Well, he's talking about 3 days per week, weather-permitting. So, his car commute is an hour or so, let's say, that's 5 days X 2 hrs = 10 hours-commute-per-week.
Changing 3 days to bike would be 3 days X 6 hours + 2 x 2 = 20 HCPW.


Wow, that does sounds like a lot. Probably better option is to switch on/off by week .. i.e. 2 days one week, 3 days the next .. or something like that. Best of luck, hope it works out!

I think a 2x40 miler is too much to do every day. Think about doing a bus/car and bike combo most days and a full run once or twice a week.
A Ti Lightspeed sounds good, consider fitting aerobars and a saddlebag for self-sufficiency.
You need to double up on lights, esp in case your batteries run dry.

How much mileage can you subtract by a bus ride? Are all your city busses outfitted with bike racks like here in Jax, fl? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDlP3YPiCik

Hey, that's pretty cool, I've never tried the bus thing .. ever any concern bike would fall off? Buses do a lotta fast stop/starts - I'd be little concerned the bike would jump off (especially if your tires are skinny).

It sounds pretty ambitious to me. But then some others have made it work, so maybe it's possible for you.

I think I would explore the possibility of driving part way by car and unloading the bike for the rest of the trip. Maybe you could gradually extend the distance of each bicycle portion until you find either that you don't need the car anymore or where best to make the switch. This gives you better options for when the weather turns ugly, too. I ride everyday no matter what, but only 1/4 of what you are contemplating. Don't know if I could tough out 4 times as long in some of the conditions I've experienced.

And be sure to post your mileage in the mileage tread if you decide to do it.

I'm with the naysayers. The kind of individual who can manage an 80 mile round trip 3x/wk doesn't post to BF asking about it. S/he does it and posts here to tell us how it's done. No harm in trying, however. If you think it will take 3 hours though I would allow 3.5. Four would even be better at first. If you owned a business I'd say you had a shot at something but... intern in city government? You will either be an ex-intern and budding junior cyclocross champion or a sorer but wiser bike/car/mass transit advocate on the way up the career ladder in city government.

H