On what surface? 14.8 off-road is bloody good.

On road, well, you're on the WTO g bike to go fast.

I'm 63 and once it's up I can't get it to go down again. Several times this autumn I've gone out on the gravel bike on road with the express intention of averaging 15mph but I just can't do it. Closest I've got so far is 16.2.

I'm now blaming booze for this issue....

Oh wait, I've said too much 😀

Did you enjoy the ride? If not, maybe remove the computer and Strava and try again.

I can't manage it outside unless I have a number on, be arsed tanning it round Cheshire at 19mph for no reason.

Can see 15mph being the hard deck for old roadies - if you've grown up in that tradition then it's something you'll want to sustain.

I'm 67 and I struggle to average 12 mph on the road, never mind 15! Am I just crap or is it the roads round here in North Cumbria? Plenty of hills, but no really long ones (unless you count Hartside pass). I would be genuinely interested to see how crap I really am, because I only ride on the road on my own. I've got a Cannondale carbon road bike which weighs about 8.5kg and a Croix de Fer gravel bike with 1 x and flat bars which weighs about 10. Not much difference in average speed between them unless there's a lot of climbing.

I seem to remember a thread where one poster had no problem whatsoever keeping it up.

Aero postion of you on gravel bike
Aero clothing
Tyre suitability for tarmac and their width, especially the front
Gradient profile of ride
Solo vs group rides
Wind direction
Going relatively harder on the hills and against a headwind will increase your average speed
etc.

If your fitness has perhaps dropped recently, get yourself a turbo (some great deals at mo like H3 £404 at Sigma), or do some intervals outdoors.

I mean, the thing you've not mentioned at all is ascent, which is often where you'll bleed speed. The odd fast section doesn't really matter if you doing a lot of climbing, because that's where we all slow down. The number one thing that will add 1-2mph to my average is just not riding any hills.

Also, remember that averages are often calculated these days in terms of riding time, so you'll get automatic pauses at eg traffic lights. But: if you're riding a very stop-start route with traffic, junctions, etc, you'll be spooling up and down from 0 a lot, which is very different to a long smooth ride with few stops.

And sometimes feel is important - I've had rides that came out at 21.8k average, but _felt_ far punchier than 23s, simply because of who I was riding with, how we paced ourselves, and how punchy the fast bits ended up. The numbers don't tell you everything.

(oh yeah, and +1 on stuff like headwind and weather, etc. I'm usually about 0.5-1kph average slower in winter.)

I average 10.5 mph in my gravel bike usually but I don't stress about AVG speeds or how aero I am, that's for triathlons and roadies. I just enjoy being out on my bike 🤷‍♂️

At last ! I give myself a hard time because 11 mph is the best I can average on my 29er hard tail on tarmac with knobblies on and a 120mm fork 😞 Had a Spesh Butcher front and rear disaster ! Dropped below 10 , stuck an Ardent on the back , back up to 11 👍
Same age as failedengineer 67 yesterday , most of my local riding is on the wide open wind swept Somerset Levels where for some unfathomable reason you can ride 10 miles into a head wind then turn for home , guess what @@@@ing headwind again ! 🙄🙄🙄🙄

10mph here all day long.
if i wanted to travel faster i would drive.

mean, the thing you’ve not mentioned at all is ascent

Yes I did, I said the ride was fairly flat. 745ft in 24 miles. Anyway, do you really count ascent? In my view if you up em, you’ve got to come down em again. 😂

10mph here all day long.

You’re like an old diesel engine though Tony.

Chugchugchugchugchugchug…………😂😜

This is why I don't do STRAVA. Numbers matter not a jot unless you are training for something and actually need reference stats to show improvement. For most of us, most of the time, they serve no purpose other than to worry us that we are getting less able as we age and to distract us from looking at the view. Cake not STRAVA, every time.

Cake not STRAVA,

That needs to be on a T shirt

Cake not STRAVA,

That needs to be on a T shirt

I'd buy it!

i love logging my miles and rides on strava, with the odd photo to remind me of the day/ride.

just shy of 5000 miles this year, and all done no faster than 10mph.

I measure rides by intensity and time - never distance and speed. Always been the same. Way too many variables. Get a HR strap or go all out with a powermeter if numbers float your boat.

Get a HR strap or go all out with a powermeter if numbers float your boat.

They don’t.
I was simply saying how hard it was to get it (my average speed) up.

Anyway, do you really count ascent? In my view if you up em, you’ve got to come down em again. 😂

in terms of why my speed is like it is: oh yeah. Because (excuse metric measurements):

- you ride at around 22kph average
- here is a steep hill; you grind up it at about 8-9kph
- what goes up comes down, you fly down at 30-40kph

except: you spend aaaages going up it, and conversely, far less time coming down because you're going so fast. So the slow climb contributes loads to your average, and the fast descent contributes relatively little.

And that's why I count ascent to answer your original question: the biggest thing you can do to shift your average is speed up the slowest parts of your ride, which is almost always climbs, which contribute disproportionately.

except: you spend aaaages going up it, and conversely, far less time coming down because you’re going so fast. So the slow climb contributes loads to your average, and the fast descent contributes relatively little.

That’s what I was thinking but you’ve explained it better than me. Basically.

Your doing what i do, trying to ride hard from start to finish. You need to go easy but interspersed with bursts of hard strokes.

Slow heavy bike in slow ride shokka! If you enjoyed the ride, so what?

Grinding into a headwind on 82 inch fixed sees my speed down to the 12 mph range, but it's a light fast road bike (normally). The recumbent trike can be slow and when it was running marathon plus (three) it was 2 mph slower and 15 mph was aspirational.

Tyres would be my first thought rather than fitness.

Slow heavy bike

Nope.

We may differ on the definition of heavy. 9.x kilos is heavy 😉

I’m ‘only’ 39 but can often not get it up above 15 when cruising.
The easiest and most enjoyable way to improve is to do it in a group! The more the merrier.
Watch it doesn’t get too hard though- because then you’ll risk blowing.
If you all pace correctly then you’ll finish together.