Off road vs on road speed

Hi there,

I have a slightly odd question. I have a mountain bike and regularly ride to work on the road. I am nervous off road as I have not done that much. If I can cycle around 14 mph on a mountain bike on the road, what sort of average speed should I be aiming for on the same bike off road?

Thanks, Hannah

Probably too many variables here – terrain, height lost and gained etc.

Still worth a punt though – 9mph which is 2/3rds

Doesn’t matter. Off road is all about smiles per hour, not miles per hour.

And cake.

1/2 to 2/3rds of average speed depending on terrain.

All cycling is about cake, what you talking about.

I manage 17ish MPH on the road on a road bike possibly 9.5 off road on an MTB.

I wouldn’t worry about it.

Yeah agree with the above. On the road I think about my speed (in mph) a lot. Off road never, other than ‘too fast!’ which is quite obvious when it happens as you’re normally heading into the scenery.

My speed is about halved off road; 18 mph on road and 8-9 mph off road. I am a bit of a mincer though 😉

10 Miles all off road = 25 miles on road, Ian’s dad said so

I’d say, on average, slightly less than half the speed you go on the road.

This is because the terrain is often harder (steep, gloopy or slippy, narrow, bumpy etc) but also because i find myself “navigating” more, and encountering other obstacles (gates, walkers, nice views, cake shops, delete as appropriate!)

😉

29 or 7 or 5 or 12, does that answer your question. Just enjoy it

My last ride averaged about 5 mph. Lots of gates, sandwich brakes and natters.

sandwich brakes

“I can’t slow down, throw another cheese and pickle at my front wheel!”

Two thirds sounds about right to me, if you’re putting roughly the same amount of effort in over similar terrain, i.e. flat/hilly. For example if I ride up Ditchling Beacon on my full sus it’s about 10 minutes, just over 7 on the road bike.

I should add that I also agree with everything else about riding the mtn bike, smiles per miles = much better!

I once did a High street variant up from patterdale in a wet winter where my average speed was 3.7 mph, but I could average 23 for an hour on the road.

Its all about variable conditions.

6 to 10 mph average is normal for me, depending on the type of ride. What I prefer to do is steep up followed by steep down, which tends towards the 6 mph average end of the scale.

Wow- thanks for your answers! I don’t want to know because I’m going to be a serious mountain biker but because I want to encourage myself to be a bit braver and not to brake at the site of a tree root hehehe!!!! I’m such a wuss when it comes to mud and trees that sometimes I wonder why I want to go off road at all! But it is FUN FUN FUN and I’m starting to love it once I find a nice section 🙂 🙂 🙂