For seven years I was a year round commuter in WI. The factory I worked at closed in Feb and instead of a 5 mile commute I now have 16 miles each way to the new job. This morning I took the plunge and am half way to my first new commute. Initial impressions are that it is a much bigger commitment. I could ride the 5 miles in work clothes and on almost any bike. For 16 miles, I have to pay more attention to clothes and the weather and I rode a road bike. I also have to clean up before work. But I sure enjoyed the ride!

Congratulations! I can't relate to the longer commute (mine is only 6.7), but best of luck.

A mans' gotta do, what a man's gotta do. Congratulations on coming back to the fold.

Great!, Before I moved I had a 3 mile commute to work. Now I have a 23 mile commute. While I commuted by bicycle 5 days a week before, now I am down to 3 days per week. Good luck

Yep, you might need to ride fewer days per week, but whatever you can manage will be fun. Welcome back.

Thanks all. I am half way through my "second commute" and it feels great to leave the car in the garage. My 16 miles clocks almost exactly one hour. The logistics are a challenge as changing and cleaninig up add to what is a longer commute, but I no longer have to squeeze in a ride after work. I hope to average 3 per week until the snow flies.

I started riding again in 2008 when my office moved and I was only 7 miles from work. I got the old dusty bike down off the hooks in the garage and tried riding to work. For two years, I had that 7 mile commute and rode the bike most of the time.

Then my office moved again and it's 17 miles each way. I only ride to work once or twice a week now, primarily for two reasons. First, time out of my day. Especially in the afternoon, being stuck with an hour and a half commute instead of a half hour if I drive takes an hour out of the "prime time" of my day and makes things much less flexible. If my wife calls during the day, for instance, and wants to meet me somewhere for dinner, that's easy in a car, but if I ride I arrive all sweaty.

The second thing is that while I have problem riding 40-50 miles in a stretch, if I ride 17 miles to work, allow my body to think it's in a recovery mode for 9 hours, then ride 17 miles again later in the day, then go home sleep, and try it all again the next day, I get seriously whupped. It isn't so much that I'm riding 34 miles in a day, it's that the ride is broken up by a long period of relative inactivity in between.

And as you not, bent, the weather matters a lot more. Around here the key weather feature is rain and thunder storms. I didn't worry so much about them with the 7 mile commute; I could get home pretty quick when I needed to, and even change my route to go around storm cells. I don't have a smart phone, so once I leave the office now I don't really know how the weather is changing during my ride. After being caught in a thunder storm, I am much less likely to chance it with the longer commute.