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I've owned a road bike for about 2 months now and I've become a bit obsessed with my average speed. I can't just go out for a chilled ride now- I need to flog myself to get a better average speed around my local loops.
I know average speed can depend on many variables such as head wind, climbing, road surface but...
...what is a good average speed for a not-too-flat, not-too-hilly route of between say 30 and 50 km.
My average seems to be consistently stuck at about 33.5 kmh at those kind of distances.
[Slow hand clap]Yes, that is a reasonable speed, well done...![/Slow hand clap]
DrP
30km? That's not a road ride. That's just getting to the start of a road ride.
that's a good average, I tend to have a mental block about sitting at 30km/hr - I struggle to get past that. Usual average for a similar style ride is high 20's (km/hr)
...what is a good average speed for a not-too-flat, not-too-hilly route of between say 30 and 50 km.
Ah, the infamous Goldilocks route.
...oh and this thread will descend into willy waving and at least 2 people moaning about you using kilometres instead of miles.
All my friends only ride MTB and I'm not a member of a club so I genuinely have no reference point for what is good / bad!
21mph wed and 17mph sun.
so about 20mph would say thats a fair pace iv had mine for the commute but its uphill slog there and home's not much better do 15 miles in about 50 mins on a ss flat bar road bike
15-16 mph for me whether that's 20 miles or 120 for some reason
it is a bit hilly in the Northern Dales though
@derp - as per my previous post - sometimes when growing up you need to look at the guy in the urinal next to you to get a sense of relative size
Nearly 21 mph average speed over an undulating route is way, way above average!
My last ride was 82 miles, ave 19.5, (but I ams a rodie)
c
Ok - so I could probably keep up on an average club ride then which is good to know 🙂
Average speed of all my road rides this year including group/solo/training/race/recovery = 28km/h.
also:
[b]Rule 24:[/b]
Speeds and distances shall always be referred to and calculated 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.
I've been beaten to referencing Rule 24. Now km for distance with ascent in ft is a major faux pas.
the good thing with a group of roadies is there will be faster and slower riders so it gives you something to aim for.
like uplink - 15 - 17 mph doesn't matter what sort of terrain but then I don't push myself too much, just like taking my time and stoping to have a look around
In the good old days average speed would be in the 23mph bracket, in modern times probably 15mph, but could go all day at that pace.
To help most of the folk reading this
...what is a good average speed for a not-too-flat, not-too-hilly route of between say [b]18.64m[/b] and [b]31.07m[/b].My average seems to be consistently stuck at about [b]20.81mph[/b] at those kind of distances.
thats slow
20mph is pretty good for a non-racer IMO.
druidh - Member
30km? That's not a road ride. That's just getting to the start of a road ride.
Your average speed today was 11.6mph LOL!
33km/h sounds fine to me.
I normally manage about 23km/h average, although that does include plenty of 10%+ hills.
Including café stops and waiting on the slower riders.cynic-al - MemberYour average speed today was 11.6mph LOL!
average means bugger all without duration. Anyone can mash there legs for an hour at 25mph...
Also riding in group or solo makes a big difference to av speed.
Our Wednesday training rides have circa 30riders and are often as quick or quicker than racing as there is no slowing and surges!
Anyone can mash there legs for an hour at 25mph...
Only if I had a tail wind!
On my roadie I'm quite happy with a 15mph average, and on longer rides on my Roadrat I'm quite happy at 13mph!
This is a pointless question because so many variables come into it.
I think If your out on your own and doing 60 miles then 20mph is quite a fast average
If you out on your own doing 60 miles but training then 22mph is about a decent lick
If your out on a group training ride( winter time) then 20mph over 60 miles is about right
If your out with a group over 20 miles but training ( summer time pace) then 22-24 mph is about right
If its a tues / thurs night club run then 23 - 26mph is about right
If your racing over 60 - 80 miles then its between 23 - 28 mph depending on course etc
For most people in the world then over 60 miles anything between 16 -20 mph is fairly decent
Currently recovering from a knee injury so i only really have one leg that qualifies as working atm.
My current rides are limited to no more than 20mls but even with one working leg i am managing to average 16mph + Last one was 16.4mph over 16mls in a real pita wind both ways.
So, when i have two working legs i am hoping to achieve 30mph+ 🙂
Losers!
I've never ridden at an average speed in all my life 🙄
A mixture of raw power, epo and near-fatal amounts of gnarr flows through my being (at far higher than average rates, might I add). I am KING of the road and all else that I survey
(err, just under 20mph this morning, I reckon 😳 )
Anyone can mash there legs for an hour at 25mph
I bloody wish, I never did a sub hour 25 on my own, only 2 up.
Youre quick anyway. My very best this year, not that I've checked much was 19.97MPH for a local 100km reliability trial. Did it two weeks later in better conditions and lost 1MPH off the average.
So yes youre pretty quick, I'm chuffed with my times this year anyway.
I'm actually chasing 3 or 4MPH off my average, and it's not happening.
Ok - so I could probably keep up on an average club ride then which is good to know
If you could find a club that did 30k runs. Maybe try TT?
about 12 mph. I must be rubbish
I still can't get mine above 15mph. I'm quite heavy (94kg) so wondering if that makes much of a difference.. my much lighter friend can accelerate quicker and hold a higher speed for much longer than me, gets quite frustrating 🙁 My speed also seems to go to pot if there's anything resembling a headwind, dunno if its mental or what but I seem to slow down so much even if it doesnt seem that severe.
Jeez quite a few tarmac-armchair-legends on tonight.
Ive mashed my legs for one hour at over 25mph .
Ave speed for 40 miles the other week was 19.6 mph - i am unfit atm
16mph for the fat bloke.
+1 Al.
My average speed is calculated by taking the time door to door and the distance covered. It's obviously an old fashioned way of working it out.
It's too difficult to say as you may have gathered.
Racing, group, solo?
Weather?
Traffic?
Lights, roundabouts, junction?
A "flat route" in the Lakes is probably as hilly as a "mountainous ride" in Norfolk.
Try seeing if your own average goes up over time or just increasing the distance you ride.
People here seem to get their speedo's/gps's from the same place they get their hopelessly optimistic bike scales from!
If you're trying to compare yourself against your peers, the only real way is to enter a few races.
16-18 depending on mood and distance
15-17mph, always social, always with coffee and cake 🙂
good grief, thats 5 mins of my life waisted
Lots of willy waving here. Doing a real 32 km/h door to door on a 50 km ride will be pretty hard unless you live on a TT course.
My average moving speed is generally somewhere between 23-28kph. Slower in Winter, faster in Summer.
😀
42mph* for me..
*from my mates house to the shop (About 1km), that was down a steep hill, Mates at the top, and the shop is at the bottom.
About 12mph back.. :/
Really? I've not seen any outlandish claims.TheDoctor - Member
People here seem to get their speedo's/gps's from the same place they get their hopelessly optimistic bike scales from!
On a solo hilly-ish ride of 80km or so, I average 24-28kph. My best time was doing the Etape Caledonia last year - 130km at 32kph. And I don't consider myself particularly fast or fit. I regularly ride with folk faster - and a lot younger - than me.
There is a very easy and simple way of seeing how fast you are, buy a racing licence and enter a race!
Iain
+1 to Mr Gillam.
Really? I've not seen any outlandish claims.
I treat any claim above 20mph as outlandish.
Normal club level roadie riding alone on a "normal" 50 ish miler say will be somewhere about 15-18mph. 20mph is proper quick unless you're TTing in which case a sub 30 min 10mile is acheivable for most club level roadies.
Average race speed for a 2/3/4 cat race is usually somewhere in the region of 23-24mph (over a distance of about 50-65 miles). Average speeds for a crit race can be high 20's or even low 30's mph for one hour.
I'm quite lucky in that I've ridden with quite a few pros and unless they're on proper team training runs, they'll usually average about 17-18mph when out on their own as well. So when some IT middle manager claims he can average 22mph, I'm understandably sceptical.
What a load of boolocks - a GPS or even a simple cycle computer tells you how fast you are. Racing is completely irrelevant.
Ex-IT "Middle Manager" raises his hand. Why is there this assumption that all the fastest riders "race"?I'm quite lucky in that I've ridden with quite a few pros and unless they're on proper team training runs, they'll usually average about 17-18mph when out on their own as well. So when some IT middle manager claims he can average 22mph, I'm understandably sceptical.
Can I wave mine? I've also mashed my legs at over 25mph for an hour. Well I suppose it was a bit less than an hour. 58 minutes 40 seconds to be precise. Have also mashed my legs at over 24.5mph for over 2 hours and almost 23mph for over 4 hours. Not that I'm keeping records or anything.
I treat any claim above 20mph as outlandish.
At the time I did those, I was probably averaging 20-21mph on most 20-60 mile rides. Once or twice rode 100 miles in training at an average of around 20mph. The pro's "training" speeds aren't really comparable, as they have the time to do all those long slow runs - us IT middle managers only ever have the time to do the sort of harder training they do on proper team training runs.
Average race speed for a 2/3/4 cat race is usually somewhere in the region of 23-24mph
And the rest - even the 3/4 races I mostly used to do were averaging over 25mph.
[i]I treat any claim above 20mph as outlandish.[/i]
+1
I ride road a lot and I *never* get passed with my 17-19mph average. I pass a lot of other people though.
Where are all these people churning out 25mph for an hour?
Rubbish. I've done 10 mile TT's where the fastest guy was doing 24mph and that was a national champion.
Why is there this assumption that all the fastest riders "race"?
17mph for 19.88 miles with man flu was my last effort. No idea on previous efforts but don't think much better and certainly not over 20. The TTs around my way have riders only doing 23mph on a 10m course so don't think I'm doing too bad
My usual average when riding on my own is about 17 to 17.5mph. My usual circuits are all pretty hilly. I keep hoping that one day I'll smash through the 20mph barrier but it's beginning to look like a distant prospect.
I did a hundred miler recently with some club roadies and my average leapt up to 18.3. The others on the ride managed an average of 18.9 due to the fact that I got dropped 20 miles from home and had to fend for myself. Most of the ride was spent desperately trying to stay in touch with the group so I'm not sure how much I benefited from their slipstreaming effect. It was also a relatively flat route which might explain the increase.
Properly ****ed afterwards...
[url= http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83775421 ]25.6mph[/url]
crit race which is easy to cruise in the bunch at those speeds.. On my own. I don't think so 🙂
15-16 ish. I'm pretty slow. but I have hills and fat!
Druid and radiogear joint best trolls so far imo
The only stat that matters is top speed. All the rest are like comparing willys in the showers to see who has the most average. I hear that roadies do this a lot.
97 mph. **** you bitches!
Where are all these people churning out 25mph for an hour?
All over the country. Every week through the year. Also most evenings somewhere in the country in the middle of summer. I'd have thought it unusual for any normal 25 not to have somebody go faster than 25mph.
I've done 10 mile TT's where the fastest guy was doing 24mph and that was a national champion
That must have been a long way from what most of us know as a 10 mile TT course. I know all about rubbish courses round here, and it would be a rare week somebody didn't do a 23 on one (the 25 course isn't a huge amount better - it has a reasonable size hill you go up from both directions in the middle, even if the rest is fairly fast).
13.7mph on a 43 mile canal run, but that's partially offroad and on a 30 odd pound 160mm coil shocked FS with 2.35 High Rollers, that's as close to a road ride as I get, I don't have a road bike.
I don't see why over 20mph is "outlandish" - if I can hit 18 over a 40/50 mile ride after just a few months then I'm sure more experienced/fitter/dedicated folk can manage far greater...
that is indescribably boring and ordinary schrickvr6 😉
At the moment I'm 16-17mph taking it easy and 19mph giving it some, but I'm only just getting back into it. Though I don't think I'll hit the 44 miles in under 2 hours* that I managed when I was less than half my current age and hadn't started drinking, working or fathering 🙂
* on an MTB with slicks, too
You'd think so but I neglected to mention I was being chased by rabid firebreathing psycobadgers for most of the journey and I was only using one pedal, so ner!
I do some hilly stuff. and I'm no super slim fitness guru. but I'll do 15mph average on a 60 mile ride with a couple of big hills and the wind in the right way! I don't take it that seriously, but I do like riding my bike!
I'm having a good ROFL at the "racers" who are suddenly finding out they're not as fast as they thought they were, despite having a number pinned to them. That must be a real ego-spoiler.
Maybe they should try some Sportives instead and find out who the fast folk really are?
I don't see why over 20mph is "outlandish"
Just like light bikes are outlandish to those people who don't own one (and think their bike is well specced because it has a smattering of XTR and CrossMax wheels), 20mph is outlandish to people who think they're fit, but haven't ever actually trained properly for road riding.
DRuidh I'm not fit just now but but was leaving you behind on FRiday night.
When I was fit I could do 20mph solo on a training ride, I was racing at the time.
Ah sod it I CBA biting any more.
agree with aracer. 20mph average is a barrier for alot of people but for some people who are lucky enough to be fit and fast then its not really that much of a barrier.
Maybe we should invent a STW 100 sportive and let everyone come along ( hell , it could even be free of charge ).
Then we could all sit down at the end and talk average speeds honestly without willy waving but with facts
Druid and radiogear joint best trolls so far imo
I'm insulted. All those tags from posting one letter and I don't get a mention?
no one cares realman. no one cares.
There's a difference between being a troll and a dork.
Now km for distance with ascent in ft is a major faux pas.
I tend to quote distance in miles and ascent in m if that's any better?
Yes, distance in miles and beer in pints and everything else in the world in metric.
On a 3 hour trailquest I can generally maintain 30km/h on the road, barring hills and headwinds, so that's 18.6mph on a hardtail mountain bike.
I could [i]probably[/i] average 20mph+ on a road bike for 3 hours on a flattish course.