this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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What? It’s recommended you don’t go more than 3-5 miles on your first few bike outings until you’re capable of going longer.
Those lengths you’re suggesting requires training like marathons.
People train to travel 50km by bike in a week, let alone a day or a single outing.
Maybe you’re thinking of ecycles and other non manual bikes?
Training to cycle 50km in a week? Lol wtf.
Here up to 3 miles each way is considered a reasonable distance for kids over the age of 8 to walk or cycle to school - which comes to just under 50km in total over 5 days. Above that distance assistance can be offered by the local government.
To give another point of data.
People walking pilgrimages like El Camino de Santiago de Compostela routinely walk 23 km (14 miles) per day for multiple weeks. And those are people in all kind of shapes and ages, including slow walking grandparents. Trained people can do twice more.
Humans are really good at long distance, not just athlets. Modern life made us forget about it and anything longer than 5 km sounds impressive.
Exactly, a day is a long time. You can take breaks along the way and don't have to push yourself for speed. When I was in my teens the local scout group often went to the next town over, about a 20km round trip. No one trained for it, some people may have been a little tired by the end of it but not excessively so and it was fun.
Similar trips done both walking and cycling, of course cycling it takes much less time. Even our school ran a bike trip at the end of the year, wish I measured the distance but certainly 10s of km as it was pretty much a full school day riding. Minus maybe an hour at the start of the day to check over bikes and a bit for lunch.
...you say that and yet I randomly switched bus to bike to ride to work and nothing happened except tired legs. And I was doing 63km weekly.
3 hours to go 50 km is bullshit for someone who didn't train tho. In 4 hours, maybe. Person that isn't used to biking will need more frequent breaks and will travel at lower speed.
3 hours is what Google maps suggested. For that distance then yeah maybe first time riding it will take a bit longer. Also type of bike would influence it a fair bit too.
My current bike commute is 80km a week and I just started doing it when getting the job because it isn't that far.
Yeah I get ya. 80 per week, assuming you work 5 days a week is 8 km one way with 8h (or however long is your work day) of rest inbetween.
Doing 50 in one go is a different matter xD
It wasn't specifically 1 go though, its comparing to a horse riding for the full day. So you can take breaks as long as you do it within the full day. Around 12 hours of daylight, obviously it varies but that impacts the horse we are comparing to as well. 3-4 hours of constant riding with as many breaks as you like during the day.