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I tend to ride alone (billy no mates) on the road but was wondering what a "decent" pace is for a solo rider. Over a shortish ride (50km, 600m climbing) yesterday, I averaged just short of 25kmph with me spinning along flattish sections at 30-35kmph comfortably. I know that obviously there will be a load of people on here doing 50kmph up hills and 200kmph downhill but what is a reasonable pace for a solo rider?
I always reckon 16-18 mph is a decent solo pace without having to push too hard
25kmph over hilly is pretty good going.
jota +1 (but note that I'm 16st and not that fit)
I average about 24,55kmph according to Endomondo, that's on a single speed though.
I tend to average around 15-16 miles an hour on my own and even when really fit I struggle to average more than 18mph solo.
This is the what my Garmin says about yesterday, I'm happy with it but I'm sure someone will come on and call me slow.
Distance: 37.17 miles
Moving Time: 2:27:32
Avg Moving Speed: 15.1 mph
Max Speed: 31.9 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,842 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,512 ft
MaxElevation: 845 ft
Avg Bike Cadence: 81 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 128 rpm
what others ride is irrelevant there are too many variables to compare, best way is to get out with a local club ride and see how you compare to them
I'm fairly new to the road bike, and as has been said there are a lot of variables (distance, hills, weather, road surface etc). When I started I could do about 14mph avg over a moderately hilly course (Scotlandshire). Now I'm able to get up over 15mph (24kph). I think I'm still improving! With a small group the speed goes up 1-2 mph for me due the motivation and slipstreaming. At the moment I don't think I could manage 16mph+ on my own unless it was a short flattish run.
Did my first "proper" road ride on saturday.
First 70km we only averaged 16km/h as one of the group was struggling.
Had to reset my GPS on the way home, so got a seperate speed. Another 30km at 27/km/h. All in hilly Northumberland 🙂
My speeds:
Pootling (flat and hilly): always 14.4 mph
Trying harder on a flat road: 17.5 mph
Trying hard on a hilly ride: 15 - 16 mph
Between 16.5 and 18mph for 30ish mile rides in the Peaks. Pretty disappointed with myself if I end up at less than 17mph.
Pretty much the same as JonEdwards ^^ for me, 16.5 to 18 is normal on an average road ride. By average, I tend to reckon on about 100ft of climbing per mile so if I do a 40 mile ride round here (Peaks/Cheshire border), I'd expect somewhere in the region of 4000ft climbing.
last 2 rides
75km 1300m Climbing good roads bit blustery 23Km/h average
105km 900m Climbing good roads no wind 24.5Km/h
No idea how I really rank at it but todays 75 km felt fast 🙂
On my work commute according to my Garmin I vary between 25-28kph, that's on a 25km route with ~300m climbing.
Thats a fairly comfortable pace for me to go without trashing myself. Normally once a week I try & go for the record on the home route. Current best is 44m30s, which is 33.8kph or 21mph. I don't think I could go for much longer at that pace though & it takes a while not to feel unwell when i'm done.
Probably not very quick at all in the grand scheme of things! I've put about 5kph on my average though over the last 16 months, so i'm clearly getting fitter, which is my goal 🙂
I feel stronger this year than last but the average is a little slower. I think this is in part because on my usual route in the UK there's a lot of long slightly downhill sections where you can keep up 35kmph for a long time. Over here the hills are steeper for the most part so it's either mostly flat at the bottom of the valleys or winching up or hurtling down (cracked 70kmph for the first time at the weekend).
My averages for solo rides range from 15 to nearly 25 miles an hour.
15 for hilly winter rides and 25 for time trialling or very short intense training rides.
I'm happy with anything around 17 on a normal ride.
I ride one particular 72 mile route throughout the year. It has got some sporting hills (Bilsmore and Winter's Gibbet). In summer I try and scrape under 4 hours. Did it the other week in 4h 40m so too many variables to compare. If you are interested then find a local sprotive or similar as that will let you compare your speed to others doing the same route in the same conditions.
Well part of this is because I'm going to do the Liege Bastogne Liege challenge in a few weeks and want to have a vague idea of whether I'm going to be dropped out the back of everyone as soon as we set off.
I have a 'stock' 70 mile hilly route that I average 16-18 mph on and a flat 70 which is a couple of mph average faster.That's at normal non rivet pace.
I'd not get too hung up on it, there are too many factors involved.
Our race squad rides are hard to hang onto, but the average is rarely over 18mph
My fastest 100km this year was in dreadful conditions?
Last week the split at 50km was 23mph average, but by 100km it was just over 17mph average.
I live in the UK, the road distances and speed limits here are measured in MILES and MILES PER HOUR, why do people insist on using k and kph 😯 Is it just to make it seem further and faster?
Because the 100km has replaced the 100 miler. You're probably like me and remember when a 100 miles was a normal ride.
62 mile sportive doesn't sound like any sort of challenge, to me that's just like doing the London to Brighton.
That said the LEJOG is a big ride in any language, I quite envy nicks type of riding.
Dibbs - Surprisingly the world does not revolve around you. So for me I would change things a little
I live in [s]the UK[/s] Luxembourg, the road distances and speed limits here are measured in [s]MILES[/s] KILOMETRES and [s]MILES[/s] KILOMETRES PER HOUR
HTH
Well part of this is because I'm going to do the Liege Bastogne Liege challenge in a few weeks and want to have a vague idea of whether I'm going to be dropped out the back of everyone as soon as we set off.
You'll be fine, just sit in on other riders until you get an idea of the pace and feel like doing some turns.
Pretty disappointed with myself if I end up at less than 17mph.
+1 for me, usually 17-18.5ish, but it's so dependant on terrain and conditions it's fairly meaningless.
My "normal" training route is 80km and I'll aim to complete that in around 3 hrs. There's a couple of climbs in there, so there's around 470m of ascent.
Expect to go 3-4kph faster in a group though. My "best" average in a Sportive is around 31kph for a 130km course
why do people insist on using k and kph Is it just to make it seem further and faster?
I live in Australia
I my case, I just got so used to using km and kph when I was hillwalking because all the maps we use are metric. That carried over into mountain biking and then into road riding.Dibbs - Member
I live in the UK, the road distances and speed limits here are measured in MILES and MILES PER HOUR, why do people insist on using k and kph
Is it just to make it seem further and faster?
Yup 😀
I am old ,so even though I can do metric ,I still think in MPH 😉
I live in the UK, the road distances and speed limits here are measured in MILES and MILES PER HOUR, why do people insist on using k and kph Is it just to make it seem further and faster?
Because I can.
Depends on the ride! Any or all of hilly/windy/raining hard, 14-16mph. Undulating 16-18mph, flat 18-20+mph. I'm by no means fit and don't really push myself too hard.
Rule #24 // Speeds and distances shall be referred to and measured in kilometers.
This includes while discussing cycling in the workplace with your non-cycling coworkers, serving to further mystify our sport in the web of their Neanderthalic cognitive capabilities. As the confused expression spreads across their unibrowed faces, casually mention your shaved legs. All of cycling’s monuments are measured in the metric system and as such the English system is forbidden.
http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/
On a perfect day with no wind or anything I've done my usual 25 mile route at a 20mph average. Usually it's about 16-17mph though as there always seems to be head wind somewhere on the route.
Well part of this is because I'm going to do the Liege Bastogne Liege challenge in a few weeks
that's 170 miles 13-15mph would be a good average for a non-racer, if you start off doing 19-21mph on the flat you will be grovelling at the end.
16 mph fixed
18 mph geared
All solo.
Slower with the kids 😆
MrSmith - Going to start off with the middle length. I have GPS tracks for all three so I can do the full length later in the year when I think I might not die in the attempt.
I'd be (and am)happy with 25kph these days where I used to be able to ride distances at 30 to 35 (as long as there weren't any mahoosive hills).