Commuting by Motorcycle

[V-Strom E-man]

7 miles each way for me.  Nothing even close to a 'straight' road in Pittsburgh so Iam always gonna be riding leaning...But I work shifts and it sucks riding home at 11pm if the deer are out, or the drunks.  RIding in to work at 6:30 am isnt bad if its decent temps out but I need better gear.

[ManWorkingHere]

I commute 38 miles round trip 5 days a week.  My only criteria is that it is 30 degrees or higher at 5:00am when I start out and the weather folks agree that the chance of precipitation is below 50%.  I have a backup car for those other days.  All interstate and very boring in the car, but not on the motorcycle.

+1 on all above, but in Wisconsin, 30 F is the high temp only in April - November.  And then, there is that Snow thing to watch out for.

BUT, on my 38 mile interstate commute to or from work, I sometimes 'get lost' onto country highways and have to take 'the long way' to my destination.  There are a few times where I am really happy to be at work because 'I got lost' getting there.

my two cents..

[ceilingcat]

38.6 mile round trip all HOV in DC.  I will never, ever drive my car on 395; for those who do not know - 395 is a parking lot from Springfield to the 14th street bridge.  I either take the 1.3hr metro at a cost of $16.00 / day ( $5.00/day parking, $5.50 each way on the train which gets me to $80.00/week or $320.00/month - got to love that super cheap mass transit BS) or I pay about $17.00 a week to fill up the tank on my C14 and my commute is a whopping 15-30 min depending on how stupid people in their cages decide to drive and the number of hybrids clogging up the HOV lane.  Normally roll in the HOV at 80mph listening to XM radio.

Bike for me 10 months out of the year unless its excessively cold or snowing.

[xamper]

i commute everyday on my ninja 250.  it doesn't get that cold here in houston.  62 miles round trip.  i love every moment!

[tdeboeser]

38.6 mile round trip all HOV in DC.  I will never, ever drive my car on 395; for those who do not know - 395 is a parking lot from Springfield to the 14th street bridge.  I either take the 1.3hr metro at a cost of $16.00 / day ( $5.00/day parking, $5.50 each way on the train which gets me to $80.00/week or $320.00/month - got to love that super cheap mass transit BS) or I pay about $17.00 a week to fill up the tank on my C14 and my commute is a whopping 15-30 min depending on how stupid people in their cages decide to drive and the number of hybrids clogging up the HOV lane.  Normally roll in the HOV at 80mph listening to XM radio.

Bike for me 10 months out of the year unless its excessively cold or snowing.

I have a similar commute.  Not the most entertaining ride, but riding like a asshole/squid helps ...  

[Goat]

Do 32 miles RT each day, mostly slab.  I find the squaring off thing a good reason to explain to the wife why I have to go riding in the beautiful TX Hill Country, saves money in the long run you know!!  

[vaio]

I live in Queens, NYC but work in Midtown Manhattan... totally conflicted about taking the cycle. There are not too many places to park to begin with.. and then to top it off I have to take a toll for the roundtrip.. other alternative is the 59th st. bridge about 20 blocks away which is always jammed because it is free.. I find myself buying the monthly train pass, which basically nullifies the point of riding the cycle to work to save money. If I lived in another area, man I would commute everyday on my SV.

[Poustman]

95kms / 120 min round trip commute along country roads a few times a week.  I look forward to the commute now, since it's on a motorcycle!

[Malks]

I commute on my motorcycle as often as possible.  Only torrential downpours will make me drive my truck.  The riding season up here is far too short, which means I ride as much as I can, when I can.  My round trip commute is 180km (~110 miles), so using the bike saves me a ton on fuel.  In addition, motorcycle parking on city streets in Toronto is FREE at pay-and-display meters, which adds to the overall cost savings.  Since more than half of my commute involves nice country roads I have a good opportunity to round off those square corners on my tires.

[Dan]

I commute 60 miles per day.  I have no car so I have to ride!  I have found that the recent-ish Dual Compound tyres don't square off anywhere near as much as the older ones used to.  About a third of my commute is twisty which helps.

As for adding miles to the bikes.... that's what they are for, isn't it?

[MilleArp]

56 mile round trip commuting to/from work, 95% freeway.

I help keep the tires from getting squared off by counter-balancing thru curves whenever I can... hey, it works!!

.

[Kamzilla]

I live in Queens, NYC but work in Midtown Manhattan... totally conflicted about taking the cycle. There are not too many places to park to begin with.. and then to top it off I have to take a toll for the roundtrip.. other alternative is the 59th st. bridge about 20 blocks away which is always jammed because it is free.. I find myself buying the monthly train pass, which basically nullifies the point of riding the cycle to work to save money. If I lived in another area, man I would commute everyday on my SV.

I'm in Queens too, and didn't ride all that much when I worked in Manhattan.  At the end of the day, the risk of having the bike ticketed or knocked over didn't appeal to me.  When I got a job on Randalls Island, the moto was my primary way of getting to work.  It saved money and was the difference between an hour long train ride, or a 20 minute ride.  Now I work in Queens, and since it's a 4 mile ride to work, I got a scooter.  Gotta say, it's a blast to commute on it.  

[darty411]

I commute as much as possible..60 mile round trip.....

[sas mayhem]

I do 62 round trip to and from work.  I love to ride and very rarely use the car.  On Memorial day 2010 I picked up my 06 Concurs with only 17,400 on the clock. today she has 42,985. And not going to slow her down.

Cheers
Ron

[Hambonee]

I do 62 round trip to and from work.  I love to ride and very rarely use the car.  On Memorial day 2010 I picked up my 06 Concurs with only 17,400 on the clock. today she has 42,985. And not going to slow her down.

Cheers
Ron

Commute about 50 miles daily. The bike allows me to use the commuter lane and zip past everyone else balled up on the 405.

An hour to hour and a half becomes like 30 minutes!

[blackjaxx]

I commute 46 miles round trip and although I commuted frequently with my V Star, I have not driven my car to work once since I bought my FJR in July!!

[djacobsen5116]

Mercer Island to Redmond almost every day.  I drive when it drops below 38F.  HOV lanes on 405 Northbound and on the 520 into Redmond are almost fun sometimes.  ~20 minutes unless the 40r South are jammed going up the hill towards I90 in the afternoon.  A couple of ramps for entertainment.

Dennis

[boroop]

I work so I can ride... and I ride so I can work.

But for some reason my 15 mile commute in turns into a 45 mile ride home?  

[919]

As often as I can but my commute varies by day.  I may be going one town over or 2.5 hours away, and sometimes I just can't take the bike due to the size and amount of stuff I need to bring with me.

I am working on devising a rack system for luggage and getting some better gear that will allow me to ride in colder / wetter weather, it needs to be quickly removal because I can make up to 15 stops in one day and I need to be in a shirt and tie and look presentable.

I wouldn't say I mind the squaring of my rear tire, but it is something I notice every time I look at my bike........

[Grainbelt]

I would need a really cheap bike that gets great mileage, with long-lasting cheap tires, for it to make any sense to leave my little Focus at home when commuting or running errands.

I get a little rammy and commute on the bike anyway in the spring when I want any excuse to ride, but by the time the heat of July and August hits I'm a bit more rational about it.