50,000 km and counting...

[pdm]

Well, the odometer has ticked over again...

I am celebrating 50,000km of commuting today. Total height climbed is about 700,000 metres.
I started commuting the 47km (~30 mile) round trip to work in August, 2002; initially 2-3 days a week and gradually increasing to daily over the next 12-18 months, followed by upping the distance to 55km (~35 miles) with a bit more climbing.
While not quite up to the mileages of some, I guess it is respectable and what with the state of Sheffield and Pennine foothill roads, has resulted in quite a bit of attrition on the bicycles.
Low points - breaking the front (steel) forks on my Crack'n'Fail, bending my Titanium cross frame, 4 weeks of uncomfortable commuting with an arm in a plaster cast....
Highlights - beating a colleague home by 2 hours one snowy day, getting to work without a problem during the floods in 2007 when no-one else could, riding on clear crisp moonlit nights over the Derbyshire Peaks on the way home, seeing other work colleagues being converted to the cycling habit, .....and too many others to mention!

Here's to the next 50,000!
Keep safe out there, friends.

[clarion]

Congrats!

Keep enjoying it

[Jasmine]

Congratulations.   

It's amazing how the kms mount up from commuting really.  Is it all communting distance?

[Pete]

Well done!  I can only dream.  Are you counting all mileage on the commuting bike, or only the miles (sorry Km) done actually commuting?  Whichever, it's a tremendous achievement.

[Charlotte]

Wow.  That's some commute - congratulations 

[pdm]

Are you counting all mileage on the commuting bike, or only the miles (sorry Km) done actually commuting?

Just the commuting......    (Spread over 6 bicycles, 3 of which still survive)

I suppose I am cheating a bit by posting kilometers instead of good old imperial units but I have never really got the hang of these miles things 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Nah, it's more fun in km.

I've logged 18000km according to cyclecomputer - but it is missing 3000 'cause I reset it by accident.

A pittance compared to you, and I don't have any hills to contend with! Sheffield is truly lumpy. You've probably only done 30 000km horizontal km; the rest will be going up and down.

[teethgrinder]

Congratulations.   

It's amazing how the kms mount up from commuting really.  Is it all communting distance?

Very true. people say that I do a lot of miles. A lot of my miles are just utility trips and commuting. I used to do 7-8000 miles (roughly 11000kms) every year just commuting. Add on shopping trips and it soon mounts up.
I only do 3 miles a day now. So it'll take me some time to do another 50000kms

[nuttycyclist]

yes, I was surprised the other day by how it mounts up.

Commute.  17 miles.  Add a trip to the parents. 20 miles.  Pop to the shop.  22miles.  Out to CTC clubnight. 37 miles.

37 miles is longer than the recent cycling event that people were struggling on, yet I've done that in a day without thinking and fitting it around things that needed to be done.

[GruB]

Nice one Pieter.  Keep up the good work. 

[Pete]

I suppose I ought to be chuffed that, 18 months ago, I was going to Newhaven and back for a course of evening classes after work: a round trip of 35 miles mostly after dark.  Whether I could still do that today is a moot point though.

But I still find, that on a good day, once I get into the rhythm of a gentle ride I can keep going.  I did 40 on Sunday, just by keeping on going on roads I know.  I am allowed to boast at my age, no?

However my commute today is a meagre 4 mile round trip, to which I try to add on a 7-8 mile spin at lunchtime - on good days.  But I'll never be able to build up those sort of totals...

[TimO]

Yikes! Well done pdm.

By my reckoning, on commute alone, it'll be sometime in mid-June 2013 when I hit that mileage.  Someone remind me!

[mr bunbury]

Congrats on the mileage, Pieter!  And to make you feel better, I'm just trading in my Crack'n'fail for an Allez.

[Gattopardo]

30 miles commute  I dofs my hat to you.