Commuting Distance?

[kfergos]

Wow, I'm amazed at the variety of distances people ride! Way to go all of you -- I love knowing that other women commute by bike too!

For those of you who ride longer distances, what do you prefer to wear? Do you get all decked out in jersey, fancy shorts, clipless shoes, etc? Or do you just go T-shirt and shorts? Or even wear work clothes?

[GLC1968]

My commute is 13.5 - 14 miles each way. It takes me 55 minutes, no matter how fast I ride, because there are enough traffic lights that I just cannot avoid. I also go in early and go home late to avoid the worst of the traffic, so I only do it between 1 and 3 times a week (it makes for a LONG work day). It's really hard to be motivated to ride when I'm super busy because I can drive the same distance in less than 20 minutes (highway).

I wear bike clothes because it's too hot not to. In the winter, I wear bike clothes because it's too cold not to! I guess in the fall, I could get away with wearing non-biking clothes, but my bike clothes are more comfy than my regular clothes, so it'll probably never happen. Plus, I've spent more money on my bike wardrobe over the past 2 years than I have on my regular clothes, so I look better when I bike anyway!

[onimity]

I commute 10.5-13 miles each way. If I'm not in a hurry or carrying my laptop home I'll take a longer route which makes it singletrack about half the way. That takes 1hr 15 min, but by road it is about 45 mins. I haven't driven to work since March but I do work from home a couple days a week.

I almost always wear bike clothes because I generally work up a good sweat. I have some steep hills on the route in both directions, so I won't wear work clothes unless I am taking the bus most of the way.

I agree that it is great to see so many women commuting by bike.

Anne

[Dianyla]

I wear bike clothes because it's too hot not to. In the winter, I wear bike clothes because it's too cold not to! I guess in the fall, I could get away with wearing non-biking clothes, but my bike clothes are more comfy than my regular clothes, so it'll probably never happen. Plus, I've spent more money on my bike wardrobe over the past 2 years than I have on my regular clothes, so I look better when I bike anyway!

Yes. Ditto everything she said.

[tjf9]

For those of you who ride longer distances, what do you prefer to wear? Do you get all decked out in jersey, fancy shorts, clipless shoes, etc? Or do you just go T-shirt and shorts? Or even wear work clothes?

I only ride 8 miles round trip, but I wear bike shorts (because I'm a wuss and like the padding) and either a jersey or workout type top. When winter comes, well, I haven't figured that out yet. I really need to search the archives for everyone's recommendation on that. Since it rains from September to May around here, I'd better figure this out pretty soon!

[KnottedYet]

I wear a bike skort. Cars are nicer to me when I wear a skort.

My ride home takes a bit more than 2 hrs, so I haven't even considered riding in my work clothes. They'd probably be painful, and I sweat so badly that I'd probably look like I'd had an "accident."

[Torrilin]

Average distance: 2 miles (grocery store, drugstore, library, farmer's market and cheese shop are all about 2 miles away)

Usually tho, I ride a 6 mile loop that lets me hit many/all possible errand locations. I can pretty easily end up needing to do 2 trips in a day from hitting weight or volume limit. Max load is around 45 lbs.

[Melalvai]

3.3 miles each way. But, I do errands & such, so I average 14 miles a day.
My recreational riding per week doubles the number of miles I ride (~100 miles/week total). But that tends to be longer rides, less often. 100 miles/week is a lot and I am getting a lot of flack for it both at home and at work, so I suspect & hope that number will drop with the temperature.

[coyote]

I've been trying to increase my distance so the shortest route is 3 miles and the longest is 12. I like to commute in bike cloths when its hot or wet or too cold and regular cloths the rest of the time. But that may change to since I'm trying to get more miles in.

[Ebet]

I wear work clothes. Commuting has made me modify the work clothes so they are as comfortable as possible, which is nice at work too.

[RoadRaven]

For those of you who ride longer distances, what do you prefer to wear? Do you get all decked out in jersey, fancy shorts, clipless shoes, etc? Or do you just go T-shirt and shorts? Or even wear work clothes?

I always wear bike shorts and jersey... as my distance is over 20kms each way and I commute on my race bike there is no way "normal" shorts would be comfortable for sitting.

I leave work clothes at work, as well as towels, shampoo, soap and deodourant.