I usually leave the house at five forty am. Though it is not as light as it was when I first started commuting back in March, the dark does not bother me. Now the problem. My daughter has asked me to go to a spin class Friday am. The class starts at 5:15am. I would like to commute by bike that morning, but I would have to leave the house at 4am. I do not feel comfortable leaving that early. I am not sure why that bothers me as I leave in the dark now. What time do you all leave for your commutes in the morning?

Depends on when my job needs. It is about 40mins each way to my job and usually I start work at 8am. Sometimes they need me at 630am or earlier. The thing is waking up earlier than 430 is hard for the sleep patterns. Some people can do it more readily than others, but 545am is my ideal. One thing I have learned though is if you plan to make it a consistent performance set your wake up/starts on a bell-curve or a steady line. Spikes in the schedule almost always result in downtime following.

I leave the house at 5AM for a nine mile ride to the train station. If I had to leave at 4AM for an optional activity, I would pass based on lack of sleep rather than conditions on the road. Heck at 4 AM there is less traffic then 5AM so from that perspective it should be better. (assuming you have good lighting - if you don't, get some and it will make a world of difference)

You mirror my own thoughts. The streets are empty at 0400, but at 0530, they are starting to fill up with the pre-rush types who usually don't get their first cup of coffee until after they've gotten to work.

At 5 am I make it 5 miles to work without seeing one car on the roads I take (I stay off the MUP for safety reasons at that hour). Heaven to me!

The great thing about early commutes is less traffic! I leave my house at 4:45 am. It's amazing how easy it is to get around. I live in a somewhat urban area and at that time of day, it's often I won't see a single living soul on the roads. All of the party-ers and criminals have gone to bed, but the worker-bee's aren't yet awake. it's just me and the road.

One thing that has made a difference for me (mentally) is to have great lights. After cruising around in thee dark for a while with $20 lights, I decided it was time to step it up. I have a headlight that I splurged $170 for and taillights worth a combined $90. It was hard to spend that much on lights (nearly half the value of my bike) but it really is piece of mind. When I ride at night, I can see my light lighting up reflective road signs over a mile away and the area immediately around me is lit up like daylight! I would probably be ok with less (since there are no humans around), but it's piece of mind and makes the night "less night".

Dont get me wrong, I would love to wake up at 8am every morning to a lazy breakfast and the newspaper, but my career demands early hours. On the rare occasions I do go in late (8am or so), I curse myself for doing it as I'm battling millions of cars.

Once when I worked 45 miles away I biked to work. Left at 3AM. That SUCKED. Nice ride though. Now I leave at anywhere from 5:30-6:00. You can seriously tell a difference in traffic just within that half hour.

I leave around 5:30am for my 13 mile commute to be at the office in time to shower and be ready to work at 8am. I probably leave a bit earlier than necessary, but the 5:30am crowd is much less malicious than the 6:15 crowd around here.

My shift at the big kite factory starts at 5:00 so I leave my house at 3:45 to meet up with a riding partner and have enough time to get cleaned up and cooled off,and yes there is less traffic so it doesn't bug me at all but I still hate getting up that early. Funny thing is as soon as I pull out of the driveway it doesn't seem so weird at all. Nice actually cause I get off work at 1:30 in the afternoon.

To the guy who commuted 45 miles by bike. Nice one!

At one time or another, I have done my commute at every hour of the day. 2am, 8am, noon, 3pm, 9pm, and every other hour too. Commutes in the middle of the night are peaceful and I look forward to them.

Regarding sleep disruption, I attribute the exercise that I get by cycling to being able to sleep well when I sleep and being able to function well when my sleep schedule is anything but a schedule and is commonly deficient. I have always envied those people who could take a nap at the drop of a hat, but now I am finally fine tuning that skill.

I leave at 5:15 am, see only a few cars and a handful of cyclists on the way in.

I have a hard time waking up at 7 to commute, let alone 3.

I leave the house at 3am for my 21 mile commute. Been doing it for 2 1/2 years. Its so peaceful and quiet.

I get up at 4am, ride for 1 1/2 hours, get home then get ready and ride out at 8am. you get used to it.

Yeah, it was a nice ONE. Did it once, couldn't get myself to do it again. Not to say I didn't bike out that way, just not commuting. Way too early, way too dark, and WAY too long, especially as I was working in a mental facility with high school girls (the most draining job I've ever had).

I've gotten on the road as early as 4:30 AM.. I don't have any issues with it. I would venture that anyone who's going to give you problems is at home asleep at that time of the morning.

thank-you all for your answers, I am not sure that at this point it makes it any easier for me to leave at four am. It is not the getting up early that bothers me as I am a morning person andI wake up quite easily and mostly happy. It is the riding at four am by myself alone. Even when I leave at five forty to work there is not to much traffic I get about five cars in a four mile span. After that I get more but it is not a bumper to bumper type thing. I was always told never to ride in the dark. I think that is the idea that is bothering me most. When I do it for a commute to work, I can rationalize that but to go to a spin class that is a want not a need. I guess at some point(before this Friday) I will have to come to terms one way or another. I just can not see myself taking a spin class and getting there by car, when I would much prefer to ride my bike so biking to spin class seemed to be the answer.

usual day:

0500 wake up and make coffee for gf and me
0500-0600 hour of german lessons
0600-0700 look for/apply for jobs
0700-0800 commute to work
0800-1900/2000 at work
1900/2000-2100 commute/shop
2100-2230 cook/eat/relax/watch TV
2230-0000+ apply/write grants&papers/small stuff

however, sometimes the schedule gets shifted ... i had a student at the lab at 0045 last night and i had to be in at 0600, which shifted my schedule forward today

My office is roughly 100 kms away and i go there only once per week, by bike. Need to start at 5am to be there at 10am. Spend night in that city and return home the next day evening, around 12am.

I spend about 75% of riding in the dark and enjoy it most of the time. I found some nice rural roads that don't slow me down too much but make the ride more diverse.


Office commute by andertalci! (Flickr)

Before I started doing that i would use every occasion to ride the bike. I just could not get enough of it. And now this itch seems to be satisfied.

Getting early is practically the only way how to make it's possible. Before i was commuting every day by train and now i have a feeling my life quality improved quite a bit.

A saw an article stating "mega commuting is unhealty and unsocial". Well, not in the case you can do it by bike! Definitely healthy and my social life changed too as i don't insist that our family spends every weekends cycling, we started doing lots of other things rather than just weekend cyclotouring.

I usually am on the road by about 6:00 - I prefer riding in earlier - less traffic and those who are on the road seem much more rational than the crazies that come out after 7:00.

Ha, wow I leave my house at 8-8:15 for my half-hour commute. Traffic is never super heavy along my route, so I'd rather get the extra sleep (and ride in the daylight).

I leave my house 5:55AM.
That allows me to go through a sensored traffic light while it's still on caution. It blinks caution from midnight - 6AM. Even though it's legal for a bike to run that traffic light when holding red, I prefer to leave just early enough to avoid it.

When I first started commuting via bike, back in May it was daylight. For about two weeks it's been completely dark when I leave. I bought an extra set of lights (2 front and back) plus the reflective vest. I'd like to add a bigger front headlight for lighting up the street and run both of my existing front lights as flashers.

I leave between 3:15 am and 4 am. I love it. Not much traffic and peaceful. If you have good quality lights with high lumens, you will be set.

Its natural to be nervous or scared about leaving early but let me tell you, dont worry about it. Try it once and you will be HOOKED.