Roadies whats your average speed?

279 miles this year so far 28,488ft of climbing. Good luck averaging 20+ round here for more than 20 miles on your own.

One time I did my 8.5 mile commute (pretty flat, urban to rural) at an average of 20mph and my god I was over the moon. If someone is in front of me I go much faster than usual (yes, I realise that deep down this makes me an asshole :D)

Average speed is a pretty useless metric really. I’ve removed any speed readouts from my Garmin display.

Though from looking at my data in Golden Cheetah, I generally average 13mph commuting in and out of central London every day. Heady stuff. Last time I rode a 25 I did 26.5mph.

Average around 14-15mph on my 5 mile commute. That’s flat with one gear and a child trailer + 4yr old for half of it.

16-18mph for 60 odd miles with around 3-4000 feet of climbing when I take the road bike out at weekends.

I’m happy enough with that.

Did the same 15.8 mile route this week and last on my mtb and road bike, trying to put in similar efforts. Weather conditions more or less identical. Roadie was 17.1mph average, MTB 15.1mph average. Not scientific, but felt about right in terms of differential.

8 mile flat commute, smooth roads, no traffic lights, 2 mini roundabouts and one mega roundabout that feeds M25 – usually manage it in a few seconds either side of 20 minutes if it’s not bad weather.
At 6:30 there’s pretty much no traffic and certainly no other bikes to race.
Takes at least 5 minutes longer going home due to traffic and lack of kamikaze instinct on my part.

Cant say what my average is but through a couple of speed traps I’ve found that my best pace (always default to) is about 15mph.

Maybe its just me, but I never even look at average speed. I’m not sure most of the blokes in the club do either.

If I’m on the turbo I’ll make note but out on the road its a bit pointless unless your doing the same TT circuit or something.

Maybe its just me, but I never even look at average speed. I’m not sure most of the blokes in the club do either.

I don’t either, in the sense that it’s not a field on my Garmin, and I’m not that bothered what the number says, but I still have a vague awareness of what it tends to be, and I’d suggest most people are the same.

true 🙂 its a sketchy way to build your training around though. unless the environments very controlled.

Totally agree, I don’t think anyone is advocating that though.

I do like working out what mine is on long rides, it’s something to do, and if I’m randomly aiming for a 20mph average as I do periodically I spend a lot of time working out how far ahead/behind I am the 0.33 mile/minute target!

Exactly. That’s why I only have power, time, and HR fields on the Garmin when training.

Saying that, I did find a ride in GC that had a 31mph average speed. Sadly, it was on the rollers. 😆

For proper rides I usually work on an average speed of 400km every 24 hours. I think some of you guys are probably setting off a bit hot.

I managed 13.5 mph on yesterdays 35 mile ride on the Quantocks and Exmoor, I did do 3500 ft of climbing though.
https://app.strava.com/activities/253527106

unless the environments very controlled.

I ride to power and only look at the speed retrospectively. Is a little surprising how consistent the avg speed is over a training loop for a given type of ride, even though the speed of various segments vary a lot due to conditions.

I’m guilty of caring a bit too much about average speed on road. I’ve yet to do a road ride of a decent distance at 20mph solo. I seem to be very consistent at doing 17-18.5mph across a wide range of distances. I do wonder if a lighter, more road-oriented bike would help. Current ‘road’ bike is a 24lb Arkose on 35mm slicks with 2.4kg wheels – not particularly zippy!

EDIT – only obsess about avg speed after a ride, phone is kept in my pocket/bag the whole time, so speed is down to judgement of effort.

My road rides are generally quite hilly. Last Sunday 116 miler was at 18 mph (1600m of climbing) and it was mostly a solo effort apart from 30 miles with a group.

Average speed is a poor guide to effort though. power output or even heart rate are a better guide. I tend to gauge how hard a ride is by feel And I scale the ride on guidance from my coach which is related to time spent in various bands of heart rate. I have bikes were getting a 18mph average is very difficult and others were 18mph average is pretty easyeasy.y in comparison or it feels like it anyway.

Like planning where you might want to stop for cake, or bivvy. Knowing your rough average speed in a range of conditions is pretty handy for route planning but I guess that doesn’t matter for those that are only out for a wee blast and are heading back home.

I’m so glad that I really don’t give a toss about how fast or how slow I’m riding, I look at the view and listen to the birds and just enjoy every ride for it being a bike ride. Anyway, back to willy waving everyone 😆

Laurens ten Dam is one top pro who uses Strava to track his rides – and Dutch magazine Soigneur has run the rule over the 33-year-old’s numbers in 2014. Here’s what they found.

The Dutchman, who finished ninth overall at the Tour de France, rode a total of 28,138km during the year, including training, at an average speed of 33.5 kilometres an hour http://road.cc/content/news/139874-strava-data-tells-tale-laurens-ten-dams-2014

Slower than many on here it would seem…..

The year so far:-
Count:27 Activities
Distance:611.20 mi
Time:51:14:47 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:80,770 ft
Avg Speed:11.9 mph
Avg Elevation Gain:2,991 ft
Max Speed:55.1 mph
Avg Distance:22.64 mi
Avg Time:1:53:53 h:m:s
Max Avg Speed:15.0 mph
Max Elevation Gain:5,039 ft
Max Distance:40.70 mi
Most of that on my CX bike and a small proportion off-road.

My road rides are generally quite hilly. Last Sunday 116 miler was at 18 mph (1600m of climbing) and it was mostly a solo effort apart from 30 miles with a group.

Are you suggesting that 1600m in 118 miles is hilly, or not? That shows the subjectivity of it, as I’d say that’s pretty flat. Daffy would, I imagine, say that it’s pan flat!

I’m still confused by what mboy was meaning too, as he seems to live somewhere flatter than me…

One man’s flat, is another man’s hilly. Anyone doing >20mph for any distance on their tod is fast. Simples.

Usually about 26-29 KM/H average speed for me, on 2-4 hour rides.

Are you suggesting that 1600m in 118 miles is hilly, or not?

More to the point, mixing metres and miles!? hang your head in shame you dirty units pervert!

Either miles and feet or metres and kilometres or fear* my wrath!

*disclaimer: actual in-person wrath may not match ferocity of implied internet wrath

I don’t have a road bike, road bikes all seem to zip past me.
I ride down to collect something from a foundry about 30 miles from me. On Velociraptors I averaged 12.5mph and on City Jets it was 13.6mph. That’s a pretty flat ride, my usual ride on mountain bike tyres is about 10mph average.

http://cyclinguphill.com/average-speeds-cycling/

Well thanks to all i took the advise and bought a second hand Garmin compliments of fellow STW member yorkshire89. So here is my commute today for those wanting to see it on Strava. here in km rather than mph but think it equates to 23mph average, infact time was 10.58 but new to the controls so took another 10 seconds to get stop pushed. I am sure there are plenty of faster roadies out there but for a 42 and balding MTB rider i am well chuffed. 😀

30-odd mile loop with 300m of rolling ascent (mixed units thanks to garmin settings) on Monday morning, on my 11kg Saracen Hack with 35mm slicks, averaged 19.1 mph. My Edge 500 records 5 mile “laps” and the 15 miles out into a headwind (and warming up) were all 17.X, and the 15 miles back were 21.X.

Averaged 18.5 mph over my 30-odd mile dedicated “climbing loop” (600m of mostly 10%+ gradient climbs) on the same bike and felt it the day after.

Normally average 20.something mph on the summer bike (7.5kg, 23mm slicks) on solo rides up to 50 miles in the summer. Not in a club and only rarely ride on road with mates or on sportives, and not on Strava so never had anything to compare to.

So here is my commute today for those wanting to see it on Strava. here in km rather than mph but think it equates to 23mph average

Indeed, 23.4mph.

However… it’s 4 miles. Didn’t we do this originally!?

Still, there’s one segment, and you got the KOM by a big margin, so well done.

Yep 4.4 miles, didn’t start it till the end of my drive or else might have rattled the bike to bits! 😯 Will do some longer runs soon but just got the Garmin so put up the info i had.

However… it’s 4 miles. Didn’t we do this originally!?

I think we did already do this…. it’s also mostly flat, but overall downhill, I think I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t manage 20mph+ on that 😛

Well done though OP, it’s always a nice warm fuzzy feeling to exceed your own expectations 🙂

Now crack on and either see what you can do over distance or make it your mission to hit 25, then 27, then 30(?) on that same route, should be a nice challenge!

And (I’m sure we’ve already done this) if you want to know how fast you really are, go enter some races 🙂

Cheers guys its just a bit of fun, not planning to enter any races, only time i will be beating is my own, if i set any records on segments then that is a bonus. 😀 They will likely get pushed off the top soon enough.

Also log your ride in the opposite direction then take the average speed 8)

we have done this, but people ride for different reasons and its interesting to have some yardsticks. I don’t see any of it as willy waving.

Reading comments in here is more illuminating than looking at something like Strava as people are giving a bit of context, especially for people like me who like to ride solo and have no interest in racing.

not planning to enter any races,

you’ll be fine if they’re 4 miles long and downhill though.

You should considering doing some, as you appear rather rapid.

Context is really important. Look at Eric in second place on that KOM and it’s clear he was out for a relatively steady 25 miler, not someone who was on a 4 mile blast. A KOM is pretty hollow really unless there’s a few hundred times on there and on a reasonable climb or part of a local TT course. I’d rather be top 10 on a very busy segment than KOM on a segment only half a dozen people have actually ridden.

Still, have some kudos 🙂

I’d rather be top 10 on a very busy segment than KOM on a segment only half a dozen people have actually ridden.

I was looking through someone’s KOMs recently (he had 40 or so) and they were virtually all <5 people, whether he rides places no one else bothers, or whether he’s created some weird ones, but it seemed quite strange they’d overwhelmingly be like that!

OMG, is that your commute?

I commuted to work through London today

🙁