How far is it to your company?

As someone who has commuted long distances by bicycle, I've had various insights and experiences with creative solutions, which I'd like to share.

If you thought long-distance cycling commutes were impossible, I hope this will be helpful.

■ How far did I commute?

I commuted a straight-line distance of 44km one way to the next prefecture.

And I did it for five years.

If I were to cycle that entire distance every day, it would be difficult unless I was an athlete.

Also, even if I pushed myself one day, I'd likely suffer severe muscle soreness the next, making subsequent days incredibly challenging.

But I had a good system in place.

I would cycle, then take another form of transport, then cycle again.

The "other form of transport" is the key here, and I had both a train version and an express bus version.

"Since I'm commuting such a long distance, I might as well enjoy it as much as possible."

Perhaps you're wondering if I could have simply prepared one bicycle for the journey from home to the station and another for the journey from the station to the company.

That's partly correct, but there were two reasons why I didn't want to do that.

One was simply that I didn't want my bike to be stolen.

The station I used didn't have a covered bicycle parking area, and I didn't want my precious bike to get wet in the rain.

The other reason was that I didn't want to pay for two separate parking spots.

The station was in a rural area, so it cost about 1000 yen per month, but I figured if I rented parking at both the departure and arrival stations, it would come to 2000-3000 yen.

That's 30,000 yen a year.

"In that case, I might as well buy a higher-grade bicycle!" With that thought, I bought a pretty good bicycle.

I later realized this was the right choice.

■ How I Commuted Long Distances

With that in mind, my commute route involved cycling 2km from home to the train station connected to my destination station, storing my bicycle in a bike bag, and then taking the train.

Once I arrived at my destination station, I would go out to the street, take my bicycle out of the bike bag, and cycle the rest of the way to the company.

I was allowed to park my bicycle in the company's bike parking area.

I made sure to park in a legitimate spot.

Getting reprimanded as an adult is truly disheartening.

What greatly concerned me here was whether it was permissible to bring a bicycle onto the train.

Both mornings and evenings were busy, so I was reluctant to stop a station attendant to ask.

Especially if I asked in the morning and was told, "No," I wouldn't know how to get to work afterward.

I rationalized it as "some things are better left unasked" and brought my bike onto the train without confirming with anyone.

There were surprisingly many things to be careful about when bringing a bicycle onto a train, so I'd like to share them thoroughly in a separate article.

Please take a look at that as well.

■ Problems that Arose When Taking a Bicycle on the Train

This happened when I was getting off the train and assembling my bicycle in front of the station.

A bicycle attendant in front of the station spoke to me.

"No parking here."

At first, I didn't understand what he was saying.

It took a few seconds for me to comprehend.

He thought I was about to illegally park my bicycle in front of the station.

I was assembling my bicycle right in front of the station, but he probably didn't imagine that I had brought the entire bicycle on the train.

The old man just gave a warning and then quickly left, but I felt a little annoyed, found the mistake amusing, and wanted to tell someone about it.

Well, I'm grateful that I could share it here, in a way.

There was one more problem.

About once a week, when I brought my bicycle onto the train, I would bump it into the ticket gate.

While ticket gates now often have wider sections for wheelchairs, in rural areas, the ticket gates are narrow.

Just wide enough for one person.

Since I was passing through with a bike bag, I had to be careful not to bump into anything.

I didn't want to hit my precious bicycle against the machine, but in the morning, quite a few people pass through the gate, so I couldn't go slowly.

Despite disliking it, there was nothing I could do, so I just kept going through.

However, one day, my train + bicycle commute suddenly came to an end.

I'll share what happened in another article, so please be sure to read that too.

Word count: 1792

Bicycle: 26 times

Commute: 9 times

Bike bag: 2 times