I ride my unicycle to work every day and realise many other people do the same thing. Today as I passed a cafe one of the barristers shouted out, “Just how far do you travel on that thing? I see you miles away”.
It got me pondering, “What is the longest distance that anyone regularly rides to get to and from work*?”
I ride just over 10km to work and the same distance back again for a total daily commute of slightly more than 20km.
I’m sure there are people out there who ride longer distances.
What is your regular daily unicycle commute distance?
*Work = work/school/place where you spend your day etc
when I ride my Coker to school, it’s 3 miles there and 3 miles back, then I ride 1 mile to track practice and 1 mile home. so when I ride my Coker, it’s 8 miles. but I usually walk, except for riding to track practice. so on average, I walk 6 miles, unicycle 2 miles, and run ~5 miles per day. maybe that’s why I’ve been so tired lately… q-: yes, more information than you wanted
My basic commute distance is 8.5 miles each way, 17 miles total or 27km. But most days I extend it a couple of miles - call it 30km round trip.
I only just recently started to be able to ride on unicycle again this year. Without daylight savings time, I don’t get off work early enough to ride home in the light and the route from my new office is scary and bad at night. Now that it’s light it’s great but since it takes about 45 minutes each way I haven’t yet done all 5 days commuting on unicycle (it’s only 30 minutes each way on bike). But I hope next week to do a “complete unicycle commute” - all 5 days.
Last spring while training for 24 hour racing, in each week of April, I was doing 170 to 280km which was basically 5 days a week commuting plus at least one (but usually two) weekend rides.
Getting all that mileage in “for free” just commuting is great. It’s a minimum of 350m of climbing too, which is great exercise.
My commute is 24 km round trip but often I take the bus part way in the mornings to allow for a little extra snooze time. I do the commute on my 29’er with its BA.
My trip to work is about 9 miles each way. I can do it mostly off-road and use my 26x3. I try to take the unicycle at least once a week, probably more in the summer - the rest of the time I use a bike (road mostly, I’ve hardly ridden my mountain bike since I’ve been into unicycling).
I work here at home but have been carless for quite a while, so I do almost all my errands by bike or yike. The other day was 16 miles by bike plus another 6 on the uni. Someday soon I hope to have a trailer for the bike so that I can deliver 36" wheels in their boxes to the UPS place by cycle.
As my uni training continues the bike will be used less for errands in order to get the unicycle miles in each day.
I’m going to start another thread about mile equivalency to avoid jacking this one.
I used to commute on Coker from mid-Brooklyn to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, 13.5 miles each way (about 22km?). I liked the fact that I rode a marathon a day. It still amazes me that the entire ride took about 2:10, meaning that world-class runners could outpace me by a couple minutes. I don’t get that.
Now my commute is a measly 5 miles each way, but it’s really hilly. It takes me about 25 minutes. And on Sundays I ride about 17 miles (one way) before driving home from Manhattan with my family.
I’m getting my Schlumpf guni soon and look forward to testing it for speed. I have a feeling it might speed up my ride a little.
I used to do 10 miles each way through London traffic. That was pretty cool. In summer with added bits I was often riding 25-30 miles a day just on my commute.
At the moment my commute most days is 4.5 miles there and 11 or 12 back, due to taking long cuts in the evenings.
It’s between half and three quarters off road depending on how much of a hurry I’m in. My normal route was cunningly chosen by drawing a straight line on the map and going on the roads and tracks closest to it, it goes up and down a few hills.
Right. I had some bad-traffic parts that slowed me down to about 10mph, and then I had some really fast parts like the downhill park ride at the end, where I rode the last mile at about 20mph. For a lot of the ride, I maintained about 15mph. I timed every aspect of the ride, so I knew, for example, that the Brooklyn Bridge, 1.5 miles long, took 7 minutes. The West Side Bike Path, 5 miles long, took 20 minutes on a good day (averaging 15 mph).
I’m guessing that the guni will allow some really fast speeds (maybe 23-25mph?) on straight-aways and downhills but that the smaller wheel will force me to go slower-than-a-Coker on the uphills. I’ll report about it as soon as it arrives. Oh, and I’d better get a working speedometer.
Does this count? I work at home. At least several times/week, I leave work, ride to a park a half mile away, circle the park twice (3.2 mi x 2) and return to “work.”
That make 7.4 miles, juggling 3 clubs the whole time and listneing to tapes to prevent boredom.
Out of the commuters, how many of you ride it on the road during rush hour? My summer job is going to be about 3-4 miles away and I am reluctant to ride a uni in the street. A bike seems like it would be safer since I would be going faster. Most of the trip will be on heavily congested roads and northern va is infamous for bad drivers.
You have to be certain of two things, firstly that you aren’t going to fall off in the middle of traffic and secondly that you’re taking notice of what’s going on around you. Other than that, with a big wheel (29er+), you’re at the same speed as a slow cyclist and somewhat more visible, so it isn’t a problem.
I try to avoid rush hour around here if I can. I think it depends on what your rush hour is like. Congestion is not so bad, but high speeds are. Oftentimes at rush hour in less-congested areas the speeds are high and a bit reckless as people are stressed out, have just stopped at the local bar, are going to pick up the kids, facing a 2 hour commute, etc etc. A typical speed is 50% above the posted limit.
Also here there are numerous small hills and blind curves, with little or no shoulder. So visibility is often compromised. The shoulder is often chewed up and rough.
A flashing taillight or two seems to make the cars give me a wider berth, which is really good.
Finally, it also depends on the sun. If the cars are looking into the setting or rising sun when they happen upon you, they may not even be able to see that you are there.
