17km/h is a fairly relaxed pace, so you’d get to work in about an hour or less.

The question is, what is your infrastructure like? Do you have bike paths, bike lanes, snow clearing, etc. ?

You mention that you haven’t biked to work, but do you regularly bike? If you’re just new to cycling, then you’ll probably need to build up your fitness to ride 17km without feeling like you rode 170km. But if you’re an experienced cyclist who wants to bike to work, then it really shouldn’t be much of a problem.

17km per trip

Eminently doable.

I think its very doable.

But some factors can make it harder (do you need to bring stuff with you? Is it hilly? Is it cold? Is the bike infrastructure alright? How heavy your bike is? Etc)

I did a commute like this for 3 years. It’s very doable (and enjoyable!). A few things I did not anticipate when planning the trip.

In the summer you need to leave time to cool down/shower.

Head wind can significantly affect commute times.

You need to draw a line where you know it will not be safe to bike I e. Snow, heavy rain, heavy wind. This way you can plan for a back up.

Flat tires/bike malfunctions happen. Make sure you know how to repair things and that your job would be understanding. You would be surprised how the same employer might be understanding for a flat tire on a car but not on a bike.

This is my experience in The US at least. You should do it!

If you are in a decent condition it’s likely doable from the get go.

It’s definitely doable for almost anyone via gradual distance increase.

For reference:

I’m your average, feeble programmer. My only interest in biking is exchange of temporary suffering for a good chance at longer and comfier life. Also cheaping out on public communication tickets.

I was slightly overweight when started biking (25.5 BMI). I have 6km to work. Had to do round trip and back (so 18km pretty much your distance) one day a few weeks after starting bike commutes (I forgot something and had to do a round trip right after arrival).

At 6km at the start I was pretty spent and almost at the point of needing a shower.
At 12km I was exhausted, in pain and absolutely needed a shower.
At 18km, with a 15min break for a shower at home I was fucking dying (figuratively).

So if you never biked I suggest feeling out your limits and gradual acclimation. But it’s definitely achievable.

My work is 2km away from my place so I gladly commute by bicycle, though sometimes I take the bus and sometimes I walk.

I wouldn’t do 17km, but 10km I might. Really the biggest factor to me isn’t the distance, but the safety of the route. Though I’d guess it’s hard to find 17km of contiguously safe commutes out there.

It is doable for sure. I did less than that maybe 6k for 2-3 years, in ALL weather conditions, thanks to schwalbe studded snow tires. My tips:

• Get an AirZounds horn for your bike. Drivers are not good at looking out for cyclists, the 120 db airhorn blast wakes them up in the morning.

• Front and rear lighting

• A good rain cycling jacket that has zippers in the arm pits and back. By the end of a cold rainy trip you will be producing so much body heat you want to vent it as best as possible possible

• for cold/freezing temps moisturize exposed skin before the trip, not after.

• leave a set of shoes at work work

• if your workplace has showers for certain jobs, talk to management about using them. It may make your coworkers happier

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5053-164/air-zound-ii-cycling-horn

How hilly, snowy and bike-friendly is your route? Try it out on a weekend when there’s no pressure to get to work or worry about smelling sweaty. In terms of distance, 17km each way is fine, you’ll be able to do it but it may feel long if you’re inexperienced.

Bring a towel, water and a change of clothes.

I did 26km one way, twice a day for a year with an electric bike (slow one, limited to 25km/hr, but I usually went 27 so it gave almost no assistance except hills)

It is absolutely doable, but now that I moved and I am only 14km from work, it is much better. 2.5 hours commuting really sucks. It takes away gym time, family time, and free time and most days I pretty much worked, commuted, cooked, then had 1 hour free before bed.

It also depends on your winters. If it is regularly below zero, I wouldn’t. Turns get too dangerous when you are running a bit late for work. I wiped out once already this winter.

You should also have a contingency for when it is pouring rain or storming because those rides are miserable.

Doable, consider you Will need a shower when geting There.

My workplace is also 17km each way and I started cycling all the way there and back once I got a road bike (before I would do partial trips on my mountain bike plus public transport). Takes me about 40 mins to do the bulk of the journey plus another 10 to weave through the city to my office. I quite enjoy the cycles as I can put on a podcast and just ride.

Yes! Definitely doable, although admittedly a bit longer than what i’d be comfortable with for a commute in my area (quite a few hills for me sadly).

My workplace is 17km per trip

So I’m assuming that would be 17km from home to work + 17km from work to home, totalling a 34km round-trip. Don’t forget to give your body sufficient fuel to last the ride

Havent done it before

I would suggest going on some shorter rides first to build up your comfort and familiarity. After a while you should eventually settle into a comfortable pace and cadence, so you don’t run out of energy on your commute.

I’ve got 12 km to work, a bit hilly, takes a bit under 30 minutes in favorable conditions. Parts of it have good bicycle infrastructure and parts of it do not. It’s the best alternative for me during spring, summer and autumn, but I’m currently not biking during winter as transit becomes too good of an alternative for biking to make sense.

I’d say that 17 km is doable, but compare it to your alternatives of course. Note that you don’t have to bike every day either, it can be a few days a week for the fun of it/for the exercise.

Distance is pretty unimportant, it’s all about infrastructure, here’s my experience with it.

I lived in San Jose for 4 months, bussing was impossible so I biked. About a 1hr ride each way accross 12km. The middle third was by an airport in a dedicated bike route, it was a breeze, about a third was in side streets with “share the road” bullshit, it wasn’t particularly dangerous but I had to hard brake quite often which made it the most tiring part of the ride. The last third was on busy stroads in bike gutters, this was almost unbearable. Broken glass from accidents was not cleaned off the bike lane so I got flats extremely frequently (10+ a month). There was a full piece of windshield taking up the whole lane for 3weeks. often cars would come dangerously close to me, and on a few occasions I got clipped by their mirrors (they never stopped), about half way through my stay a millionaire was successful in lobbying to remove the bike lane on part of my ride which made it even more dangerous. Besides the commute itself there were other problems. My work had a dedicated bike lockup, but my apartment did not, which lead to me first bike rusting through (partially my own fault for buying the cheapest bike I could find) and my second bike getting stolen. Overall it would have been cheaper to Uber every day (this was back in 2016 when Uber was very cheap) although it was a nice way to get in shape. I was more or less exhausted when I got in, both mentally and physically, and needed to shower and change clothes. 1/10 practically suicide.

I also biked in markham ontario during covid so as to avoid taking the bus. This was 30 min one way, about the same time as taking the bus, 5km journey. It involved biking down highway 7. It was safer than the stroud in Cali by a significant margin since it had bike lanes with cones separating them. It was still a highway however with cars and trucks passing me going 80kph. Trucks were the biggest problem since the grit and smoke from them would hit me right in the face, I would worry about my long term lung health. There was a single 100m stretch that was extremely scary, first there was construction under a bridge (that had been going on for 4 years) where the bike lane just ended, the bus lane also changed from 2 to 1 lane at the same time which meant all the drivers were very confused and distracted. Immediately after the underpass was an on ramp to a highway, my protected bike lane turned into a bike gutter and cars would have to cross my lane to get to the onramp. I would pretty consistently have to hard emergency brake to avoid cars that didn’t see me, or cars seeing me and doing stupid shit like slowing down to 30 to pass behind me. The bike lanes were also not cleared in winter. I was usually not too tired when getting home, but mentally a little on edge. If I wasn’t in a hurry I could get away without needing to shower or change at work. 4/10 doable long term but unpleasant.

Now I live in a bikable city, and although I wfh I use my bike as my primary transport. I have not had a single dangerous interaction, I have protected concrete barrier bike lanes to most of the places I want to go, with a very well maintained bike trail for the middle of town. The experience is night and day, I go faster, more directly and with less fatigue. I routinely go 20km or more in 30min and I always feel less tired than on either of my previous commutes. 10/10 both enjoyable and functional.

I would recommend walking through your route with Google street view, doing a dry run before you commit if you can, and actually get a feel for what conditions are like on your route, paying special attention for any time you have to share the road, any time cars change lanes through the bike lanes and the number of red lights. If you get snow ow would also try to get an idea of how quickly bike lanes are cleared if at all. I’ll also note that an ebike can make traffic lights and hills much less frustrating. Invest in bike insurance unless you have somewhere enclosed to lockup in (some lock brands offer passable insurance).

For me, a “normal” distance is ~8 km one way, but only because most of that is through a converted train corridor that’s completely separated from vehicle traffic. I wouldn’t like to do it if it was bicycle gutters all the way but I guess I wouldn’t mind if it was the only option. There’s also two rather substantial hills on my route which can really kick my butt if I missed some sleep or something.

Assuming 17 km total (~8.5 km one way), good infrastructure and minimal incline; totally doable. If you haven’t ridden a bicycle in a long time, let yourself have extra time to take breaks and remember to bring snacks so you still have enough energy to work. If it’s 17km one way, that is also totally doable but would require more physical preparation (and snacks). You can check incline on google maps; should show you a little graph when you set bicycle as your mode of transport.

If you’re in North America or somewhere where cycling to work is considered super cray cray progressive; I would also suggest getting a brightly coloured cycling jacket, helmet and front/rear lights; though, might not be that important in some European cities like Amsterdam.

*Also remember to pack an extra tube and tire change tools with you unless you go tubeless of course.