I want to ride my bike 13 miles to work. It is a straight flat road the whole way. How long?

Question

I want to ride my bike 13 miles to work. It is a straight flat road the whole way. How long?

Answer 1

Best way to figure it out is to ride the route on a day off the first time or give yourself plenty of extra time the first day out and time it. It's not just distance on a bike that will determine time.  The number of lights and hills can change your time quite a bit. You may also find the best route is not necessarily the shortest route.  The route I use for commuting adds almost a mile to my ride but I avoid a hill, downtown traffic and several lights so it is worth it.

Answer 2

No more than a half hour.

Answer 3

it depends on how fast you ride me i ride  18-20mph so 13 miles stright would take me 30 mins but if you do the average than 10mph than it will take you 1hour and 15mins

Answer 4

slucke and bacanato have it right.  To do it in 30 minutes, you would have to average 26mph.  In our local 20K time trial (flat, out and back, 12.4 miles) the record is twenty-five minutes, and that was by a member of the Jelly Belly professional team.

A 15mph average will net you about 50 minutes travel time.  Figure forty-five minutes on a good day, an hour on a slow day.

Nobody asked you what kind of bike you ride.  A road bike will be faster than a mountain bike due to tire size.  A hybrid may get you the same speed as a mountain bike.

Answer 5

Baconator said it like it is.

You're not trying to set a record, right?  You're C-O-M-M-U-T-I-N-G.  Give yourself plenty of time so as to not feel rushed.  You don't want to arrive worn out and sweaty to start your workday.  Think about the possibilities of traffic detours, accidents, a flat, etc.  Pad your time.

Answer 6

Plan on an hour - you could do it faster.