Tips for biking 30 miles to school (4x a week)?

You need a very good quality bike to commute that far every day. At your height, you should be consulting a good bike shop. Tall people can have difficulty ordering bikes online and finding a good fit. For that distance it would be very important that your bike fit you properly. A touring bike makes a very good long distance commuter as it has the proper fitting to mount a rack and to install mudguards which are almost essential if you ride in wet conditions. You absolutely need gears if your route is hilly, and you also need to have the tools you might need to repair problems you might encounter on the road. Riding that many miles, your bike will need frequent maintenance, lubrication, and cleaning. I commuted about 2/3 the distance of your commute 5 days a week for 25 years. On average, I spent $200-$300 per year on replacing parts that wore out. Tires, tubes, brake pads, chains, cassettes are all wear items that have to be replaced. Figure 2 sets of tires, 2-3 chains, a cassette and a set of brake pads every year. In addition your bike would need a full overhaul a couple of times a year which could be costly if you can't do your own repairs. You won't save any time compared to the bus, even once you are in shape you will probably spend at least 4 hours per day on the road. As for snow, it really isn't practical to think about riding that distance in sub freezing temperatures, and snow covered roads really slow you down, figure an additional hour each way on a snowy day. Winter also presents extra problems dealing with cars, they simply don't expect cyclists on the road, and days are much darker.

os

To be honest, you will need to scale into the riding for next year, should you choose to go for it. You need to train up for such daily rides. If you could find a safe place to lock up your bike, say a locked room at school or a friends house, you could 1) alternate riding one way every day, or 2) taking the bus when the day turned sideways on you. It give you options.

Once you get in riding shape, the ride will be about the same time as the bus ride, AND you will be in great shape by the end of the year! I personally would think that I would choose a drop bar bike over the hybrid. Once you start mounting up the miles, you will appreciate the extra speed.

As for a bike. Either go used, or get a good bike. As an option, you could put a couple hundred dollars into your existing bike, and bring it up to good working order. Bike really never wer out unless you damage them.

Soccerref

I would get a bike from bikes direct and use it to train with. You will find out that a 35 mile ride to school is not an easy thing to do. A $300 road bike wont last long. You want to spend 5-6 hundred. I would stick with the bus for the time being.

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/road_bikes.htm

70 miles a day is a LOT!

4x a week is a lot

i am guessing this won;t really work

do you have 24 spare hours a week to be riding, fixing your bike, and eating extra ?

what kind of school are you in that you have 24 spare hours a week?

you just live too far away from your school!

plus you don;t seem to know much about it right now

first issue, hint, is butt training

how long can you ride now?

if it isn;t 4 hours a day, count on either training or sore butt for a week or 2

wle

It's 35 miles one-way. The first thing you should consider is how long you would to spending on the bike each day. Even under the perfect weather condition, is that practical to do this 4 days a week?

I Think It Is Way Too Long To Go You should start shorter distances and build up