How Far Is Too Far To Bike To Work?

Taking your bike to work might be a great idea. However, it can also be a very bad idea and it may leave you so exhausted that you won’t be able to focus on your tasks at hand.

This is why it’s important to determine whether you should bike to work or not before you actually do it. While pondering this question, most people question the distance. However, we assure you that distance isn’t the only factor that influences whether the bike ride will be beneficial for you or not.

In this article, we’re going to discuss multiple factors that’ll help us ascertain whether a bike ride to work would be and how far is too far to bike to work. So, let’s get started!

The Primary Concern: Distance

Well, distance is the prime concern of most people who even consider biking to work. Although it’s not the only factor that may influence your decision, we’ll discuss this first.

Although it’s not generalized how hard it’ll be for an individual to bike a specific distance, there’s this general idea that you can refer to.

Generally, biking 0 to 5 miles is considered to be easy. If you’re a beginner, it may take you some time to get used to this, but if your workplace is within a 5-mile range of your home, it shouldn’t be too tough for you to bike there.

Moving on, biking 6 to 10 miles is considered to be of moderate difficulty. If you’re already biking for a month or more, then doing this shouldn’t be any problem for you. However, you may struggle if you’ve only started biking.

From 11 miles, biking gets increasingly difficult. However, starting from this range, whether biking will be tough for you or not also depends heavily on your experience and physical capabilities. If you’re capable of biking 20 miles a day, then biking 11 miles to your work may not be a huge problem for you. On the other hand, this will definitely take a huge toll on people who aren’t used to biking.

So, from this point on, the distance won’t matter as much as the experience and capabilities matter. However, it’ll be safe to consider that biking more than 10 miles will be tough for you, especially as you’ll have to focus on your work as soon as you’re done with the ride.

Level of Fitness

If you have average fitness, then a bike ride of 7 miles isn’t supposed to throw you off balance. However, you may not have average fitness, and that will definitely impact how you feel after the bike ride if you make it to your workplace in the first place.

This is why we highly recommend trying biking a few days before you actually start taking the bike to your workplace. In fact, if you find that you can’t bike the distance between your home and workplace comfortably, you can definitely try biking regularly to improve that.

Then again, if you’re used to biking 20 or even 30 miles a day, then biking 10-15 miles shouldn’t be much of a problem for you. You can most likely cover this distance in one hour. In such cases, you’ll be able to bike to work. However, some aspects such as weather and clothing may still get in your way.

Furthermore, you’ll be building up your endurance with each ride you take to your work. So, even if it’s getting a bit tiring at first, you should be able to bike to your workplace effortlessly in a few days.

The Route

The route that you’ll be taking plays a crucial role in this as well. If the road is rocky, or if you’re required to climb a steep road, then you’ll definitely have to spend more effort and energy on riding. In such cases, even a 2-mile road may feel like a 5-mile road.

On the other hand, if the route is mostly smooth, then you shouldn’t face much problem riding.

Another major factor is traffic. If you’re expecting traffic along the way, things will get much tougher. You’ll need more time to reach your destination, and the time spent in traffic will only make it tougher for you to bike again.

Clothes

Wearing your office suit while riding the bike may or may not be an option. We highly recommend wearing appropriate clothing while riding and carrying the suit for your office in a bag. You should wear cycling shoes and other appropriate workout clothing to avoid drenching your work clothes in sweat and smelling bad the rest of the working day.

Make sure to carry some warm gloves, balaclava, neck gaiter, and waterproof coats as well, because you can’t expect the weather to be perfect all the time. By carrying these, you’ll be prepared no matter what is thrown at you.

Arriving at Work

Another major factor is, whether will you be comfortable after biking to your workplace. Even if you change clothes after your arrival, you’ll still be sweating like crazy, and that’s supposed to ruin the mood for work for most people.

Then again, as you’ll be having your helmet on, it’ll be very tough to maintain your hair, especially if you have long hair. Then again, your workplace may not provide enough facilities to change your cloth upon arrival.

All of these factors must be considered cautiously before you make a decision of riding to work on a bike.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are tons of factors that you need to consider before deciding if biking to work is worth it or not.

Surely biking to your work rather than taking a car or any other transport will help you live a healthier life. However, it’s also very hard to do, brings challenges of its own, and is very hard to do consistently 5 times a week.

That being said, there are people who ride a bike to work, and despite being tough, it’s nothing impossible. This is why we highly recommend trying this out for yourself first. Plus, considering the mentioned factors will definitely help you make a wiser decision. So, go through them again, and do what suits you the best!