Road Cycling - Calculate your speed

Is there a simple method to calculate my speed? If I know my wheels size, front and back current used cog-wheels (the specific size of the current used driller cog-wheel and the specific size of the current used cassette cog-wheel) and current cadence there should be a formula how to calculate the expected speed.

yes it is possible, and do-able.. But, it would be better if you just get a cyclocomputer...

You can get a decent one as cheap as $10 US. I even saw one that retails for about $5.

here's a tool at sheldon brown's that would help you calculate your speed.
online calculator http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
hard way http://www.sheldonbrown.com/sliderule.html

yes it is possible, and do-able.. But, it would be better if you just get a cyclocomputer...

You can get a decent one as cheap as $10 US. I even saw one that retails for about $5.

here's a tool at sheldon brown's that would help you calculate your speed.
online calculator http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
hard way http://www.sheldonbrown.com/sliderule.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3658258774&category=30108

here ya go, NEW CatEye Cordless 7, $26.00 USD. That's like $25.00 cheaper than Performance or any of those guys have it for.

Try this: Road Bike Calculator (http://www.osupages.com/bikeforums/RoadBikeCalculator.zip)

It was given to me by member 1OldRoadie last summer. Should do what you need. Still, a computer is a good idea.

To run that you will need to unzip it and keep the EXE and DLL in the same directory.

great application!

This calculator is far more accurate. The other bike calculator is fine, just for gear inch purposes. The actual speed obtained is worthless though. This calculator figures, watts, cadence, speed, grade of road and wind. Choose the style bike you want to compare to another. One nice thing to do is input a particular speed and let the calculator compute the watts needed to obtain that speed on a positive or negative grade.

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

Is there a simple method to calculate my speed? If I know my wheels size, front and back current used cog-wheels (the specific size of the current used driller cog-wheel and the specific size of the current used cassette cog-wheel) and current cadence there should be a formula how to calculate the expected speed.

Mossi,

If you send me your email address I'll send an Excel file that does all of the stuff that you asked for. dacook@fedex.com

This calculator is far more accurate. The other bike calculator is fine, just for gear inch purposes. The actual speed obtained is worthless though. This calculator figures, watts, cadence, speed, grade of road and wind. Choose the style bike you want to compare to another. One nice thing to do is input a particular speed and let the calculator compute the watts needed to obtain that speed on a positive or negative grade.

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

That is a good link, thanks! Lots of variables involved with speed for a given power output of course....but this one seems to be close to others I've seen.

http://www.analyticcycling.com/GearSpeedCadence_Page.html

This calculator is far more accurate. The other bike calculator is fine, just for gear inch purposes. The actual speed obtained is worthless though. This calculator figures, watts, cadence, speed, grade of road and wind. Choose the style bike you want to compare to another. One nice thing to do is input a particular speed and let the calculator compute the watts needed to obtain that speed on a positive or negative grade.

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

I was looking for just such a thing;
does this work for calculating approximations of how fast/far you've gone while training? (my computer is wireless attached to the front wheel, my stationary rolls the back wheel....trying to estimate the approximate value of the workout)

Out of curiosity, why would you not want a cyclocomputer? You're not going to get a very accurate measure of your speed w/o one...

I was looking for just such a thing;
does this work for calculating approximations of how fast/far you've gone while training? (my computer is wireless attached to the front wheel, my stationary rolls the back wheel....trying to estimate the approximate value of the workout)

In real life situations, these calculations are so close its scary. If you are on a ride and know the grade, the windspeed, your actual speed, you can go home and figure out your wattage output to within 5%. Its been almost dead on accurate when comparing to the i-magic trainer. If you do a ride and know your average speed, you can figure out your average watts pretty close.

If you know time, and speed, then of course distance is easy to figure out also.

OK. But why not use a cyclo? if nothing else, a start/stop feature guarantees an accurate measurement (not to mention you don't have to use a formula to figure out your average speed) :)

OK. But why not use a cyclo? if nothing else, a start/stop feature guarantees an accurate measurement (not to mention you don't have to use a formula to figure out your average speed) :)

Yes I use a cycle computer also. But a cycle computer is not going to tell you how many watts are required to obtain a certain speed up a grade. This is important in the sense that if you know roughly what wattage ouput you can do for what duration at what heartrate. You may find that it is impossible for you to pedal 16 mph up a 5% grade for a certain distance. This allows you after some experience to know what heartrate to keep at for certain sized climbs.

It also helps to have a trainer that gives you this information. It makes it a lot easier when the riding season starts. I can now tell what my wattage output is based on my current heartrate conditions.