@kayla1 you can stay with NCN1 north of Blyth, say as far as Druridge, then head west on the minor roads. It’s pretty quiet in my experience.

^ yes, wind is a massive factor.

From another perspective, we’re as far distant as all those galaxies!

Well, I carried out a little experiment today, riding in south Northumberland which is less mountainous than where I am – a mere 3,840ft elevation over 59 miles.
I took it fairly steady as it was warm and my legs weren’t feeing all that great. The return 30 miles seemed hard into a headwind but I actually picked up a couple of minor PB’s in spite of that.
Average speed – 15.4mph.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7451268804

So reducing the amount of climbing by about one third added 1mph to my average speed.

Just out of interest, why does it matter?

It doesn’t, it was a matter of curiosity. As per the original post, it was the disparity between my reasonably respectable times on uphill/downhill segments and my Sunday pootle-like overall speed that set me a-wondering. I don’t compete, love my riding, keeping myself fit stands between me and an inherited brand of early-onset dementia. I suppose if it matters at all, it’s the idea of being able to go further in a given time. I’m slightly Audax-curious.

@jamz Thanks for the insight, very helpful.

Same thing applies from the top of the first climb to the low point – 3.7 miles downhill but only averaging 16.7mph.

Yes, part of the problem is that this is all through a built-up area with plenty of side junctions and other hazards that make flat-out riding unwise. But you are spot on, it must impact my average.
As for the opening stretch, I will try and get into my stride quicker!

You can’t prejudice a trial if nobody has been arrested.

Unless you’ve got autostop on (I dont) I’m not so sure strava will recognise traffic light stops.

Yes, I have auto stop on, I dread to think what my figures would be without. I am a bit of a stop & go rider anyway, looking at maps, taking photos, peeing in hedges etc and I suspect getting up to speed after every stop must eat into averages. Must ride more smoothly…

If you put out efforts like that Healeyfield up all the climbs, your average speed would rise significantly.

Hi NobOdy, thanks for looking at this. That climb is a set of brutal 20% hairpins and the only way up is to do it at max heart rate or get off and walk. Theoretically I could tackle every climb in the same way but I fear I might die. But yes, getting fitter and more powerful would be a help.
Thanks for identifying my max power output, not very impressive is it?😀

Yes- like the Einstein question

@crosshair Yes! Fantastic, I’ve never seen that before. I’m a big Einstein fan so pleased to find I reached the same conclusion in my own way.
I also noticed that the faster you descend, the less time you spend doing it as a proportion of the whole ride so again it’s difficult to force up the overall average by that means too.
It looks like the answer is to go somewhere flat and see what sort of averages I can produce. No need for power meters or heart rate monitors, it’s a maths problem.

I had some thoughts about average speed. If I ride up a hill at 10mph and down the same hill at 20, you might think your average speed would be 15mph. But it isn’t. If the hill is 10 miles long it takes 1 hour to ride up and 30 minutes to ride down. That makes the average 20 miles over 90 mins, which makes it 0.222 miles per minute = 13.33 mph. Or have I got that wrong?
So the answer to my own question is that, as nearly everything round here is either up or down, I spend much more time on every ride going at 10 than at 20 so my average is limited by that.

Thanks Ewan!

Here’s a ride where I tried quite hard : <iframe height=’405′ width=’590′ frameborder=’0′ allowtransparency=’true’ scrolling=’no’ src=’https://www.strava.com/activities/7345248127/embed/20cf2a48f821e7297c1bed479f90ae8acd795b01′></iframe&gt;

Edit: link doesn’t work.
Try again:
<iframe height=’405′ width=’590′ frameborder=’0′ allowtransparency=’true’ scrolling=’no’ src=’https://www.strava.com/activities/7345248127/embed/20cf2a48f821e7297c1bed479f90ae8acd795b01′></iframe&gt;

Fuelling and hydrating could be an issue on longer rides, resulting in you getting home on fumes

Yes, that’s likely a part of it. Even over 30 miles my average doesn’t go up though.

. There is a massive difference in the power required for a 14mph ride and what an 18mph ride needs

That’s a good point, but in my case there’s a massive difference in effort required between 14 and 14.5 mph.
I don’t use a heart rate monitor, perhaps I should.

It’s nice to see that Boris’ resignation added to the value of the £ against the $, thereby reducing the price of oil. See, he’s made you richer!

How hard are you working? What HR zone?

I ride comfortably hard up the hills, use the flats for recovery but happy to get in the drops and tool along if appropriate. If I’m out doing 50 or 60 miles I’m careful not to go too hard early on.

14mph avg sounds pretty rapid over the hills – what were you expecting?

Well, I don’t really know. I look at other riders who live in my area and they knock out 18mph over similar rides. It’s just this mismatch between my apparently good times up the hill and mediocre overall. If I want to go out and do a century ride I know it’s going to take me 7 and a half hours. It seems seems like a lot of saddle time.

Are you a lightweight?

76kg. So not especially.

Jeez man, that’s crap. Let’s hope they knock it on the head. Oh…

That prick of a Durham MP is my MP. Does anyone know whether I would get prosecuted for wasting police time if I reported him for wasting police time? His intervention was clearly a political stunt. I notice he could get 6 months- or, more aptly, a fixed penalty notice.

I’m just curious as to why my average speed over the whole ride is quite low when I’m not a slouch uphill or down. I guess I don’t have the engine to go quicker on the flats, though I often find myself in a high, or top, gear even when riding my non-compact chainset. Yes, I have auto-pause on.
I don’t use a bike computer on the whole, I use the Strava app on my phone.

Holding up the traffic? That’s 10 years in prison now. I will be writing to my MP to ensure he demands equal treatment for fuel protestors and EXR

I had an Ultegra calliper seize at the main pivot. I put it down to it being vulnerable to road spray etc over the years. As I remember, dismantling it requires removing a tiny grub screw which simply rounded out when I tried to turn it. I ended up buying a new calliper.

It’s going to get increasingly difficult to find rim brake compatible wheels too.

You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead.

I’m still hoping for a guest appearance by Ringo, to end the evening with a rousing chorus of “Yellow Submarine”.

BCD should be written on the chainring somewhere.

You’re going to suffer.

All these recent Cycling UK routes have EU funding behind them. I wonder what will replace that?

You can always volunteer to your local authority to help with any ROW clearances or report issues on the pathwatch app

Actually, a lot of RoW departments don’t want volunteers. The amount of supervision, Bueaucracy and planning required is out of all proportion to the amount of useful work done and the same staff shortages that prevent the routine jobs being done also mean there’s nobody to lead work parties anyway.
People talking about “going round the edge” – fine, but a farmer near me gave me a telling off for going round the edge when the RoW goes across the middle. How can I know which kind of farmer I might encounter?
An NFU rep routinely comes to our LAF meetings to complain about people stepping off the RoW and trampling crops, but experts on here tell us trampling crops is the right approach. Again, it’s at the whim of the farmer.
Most RoW have been on the Definitive Map for 70 years and they’re there because they were long-established rights of way when the DMs were drawn up. Farmers who can’t build that into their management plans aren’t trying very hard. They all seem to know how to fill in the public subsidy forms without any trouble. We need a way to link maintenance of RoW to those payments.

You have a lot more spare time than the farmers, why not get involved yourself?

Would you like me to bring a wheelbarrow of tarmac and fix all the potholes in your street, too?

Yes, I see this too. Lovely fields of barley waving over the RoW. Even if the council acts, the crop will long be in before the bureaucracy runs its course. Landowners flout the rules for profit.

….and here we all are, talking about it, instead of Johnson’s changes to the ministerial code etc etc. Dead cat job done.

When Trump was in I remember thinking then, what would he actually have to do for the tide to turn?

Agreed. The man literally advised people to inject themselves with bleach. 72 million Americans still voted for him.

with the benefit of hindsight I think U2 had the edge

👏

Rumours
Supertramp Live in Paris.

^ That review is spot on. I noticed in the Trespasser’s Handbook that he plays down the litter issue and says it’s a consequence of there not being enough bins.

That sounds like a horrible experience OP. I would at least ask the police to refer you to victim support and don’t be afraid to ask them for counselling. I had a bad experience that Durham police made far, far worse with their inept response and I had two years of mental anguish that put me on my arse. Try not to let it get to that stage!

+1 for Lanchester. It still has a bus link to Durham if you don’t need to go or return at night. There’s also the old railway path – about 40 minutes riding into Durham. Good riding in all directions, if you like hills.