Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Cruising speed

What is your average cruising speed? Not racing but just enjoying the scenery. I find that around 15-17 MPH is easy for me on the Trek 7.3 and about 12-15 on the Cannondale Killer V is comfortable with no strains or highly elevated heartrate.

Highly terrain dependent.

On flats I usually cruise around 16-19. But I don't have many truly flat routes around.

Tailwind and flat, about 20-22mph.
Headwind and flat, about 14-16mph.
22% hills, somewhere between 1 and 3mph, wheezing like a 90 year old.

I hear ya on the hills part. It is mainly flat round here but a few big hills. I can usually keep it around 8 -10 on a decent hill but only for about 3 -4 minutes. Then I am sweating bullets and feel like I ran a marathon. Just something about creeping up a hill in low gear irks me. I like to keep the pace going. So I try to force my way up the hill instead of dropping into a really low gear. : - )

19-22mph on the flat with no headwind or a with an 1-8 mph tail wind
17-18mph on the flat with a 2-9 mph head wind

I average 18.5 during my 40 mile rides, according to my computer, but see the above difference when the usual winds are blowing.

I probably slow for a traffic stop or yield every mile or two.

Longer hills are not to be found in Chicago.

Michael

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24mph)
but i creep along up hills at 9-12 mph...
stop and go roads i cruise at 18-20 mph... (no reason to kick it up past that if im going to stop anyway)

Totally depends on how long I'm out for. (Terrain around here is consistent rolling hills, so that's not a factor.)

Under 4 hours and I'll keep my speed around 19mph.
4+ hours and it drops to 16mph.
8+ hours and I'll take it down to 14mph. That's pretty much my "all day" pace for rides 200k and longer. Sure, I could turn a 200k into a 7 hour hammerfest... but I don't think that's much fun. 14mph is a great pace for enjoying the scenery and talking with your riding partners (not just barking out paceline instructions at them)

No wind, flat, 13-15 mph.

For me it depends on why I'm riding, as well as the terrain, although the terrain is pretty much consistently rolling hills, with a nasty one stuck in every 10 miles or so, just to keep me honest.

If I'm just out for a ride, with no particular destination or time restriction in mind, I'll go 12-15 and enjoy the scenery.
If I'm passing through a park with lots of pretty girls, I'll go 5-7 MPH :)
If I'm going to work, I'll go 15-18, except on the big hills, where I'll go 4-6
If I'm coming home from work, I'll go 18-20 :)
If I'm out for a century, I'll go 12-16.

18mph

Tailwind and flat, about 20-22mph.
Headwind and flat, about 14-16mph.
22% hills, somewhere between 1 and 3mph, wheezing like a 90 year old.


I'm glad you posted this, because these other posts in this thread make me feel like a snail.

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph...

:eek: :giver:

I feel sooo inadaquate :cry:

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph

Got your pro contract yet, Champ?

On my normal genraly flat route on my crusier its 11 mph avg and on my comfort bike its 14mph avg! I don't own a road bike so have no speed for that

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24mph)


Wow!! I can get about 35 - 38 on the Trek 7.3 going down long step hills in top gear pushing it. I ca sprint on flats up to 25 -27 but only for a few seconds before my legs and lungs explode.

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 kph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24kph)

FIFY.

At the low end of Clydesdale (200lbs) riding a 15 pound bike on a dead flat road and assuming the absolute minimum rolling and wind resistance, to acheive a 27mph as a "cruising" speed, you'd be pumping just shy of 330W consistently.

FIFY.

At the low end of Clydesdale (200lbs) riding a 15 pound bike on a dead flat road and assuming the absolute minimum rolling and wind resistance, to acheive a 27mph as a "cruising" speed, you'd be pumping just shy of 330W consistently.


330 sounds awfully low. I'd probably have to push at least 400+...hence my pro comment.

It might help to know what kind of bike.

Some of the top-end recumbents and time trial bikes are very fast in the right situation.

Michael

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24mph)
but i creep along up hills at 9-12 mph...
stop and go roads i cruise at 18-20 mph... (no reason to kick it up past that if im going to stop anyway)

Cruising by yourself @ 27-29 I don't believe that. If you are riding in a fast group ride that is possible. Otherwise you may have your comp on km/h

The OP asked for sight seeing speed, which for me is around 15-16mph on the road bike. If I am pushing it for 20-30 miles through rolling hills I will do around 18. My fastest open flat speed is in the mid 20's, but that is not sustainable for more than about a mile.

How fast do I go? Hmm, I don't know. I think I ought to put a computer on my commuter bike, which is what I ride most of the time. My sense is that I cruise at about 14 mph on the flats with no wind. Maybe more.

jferna, I think your computer needs recalibrating. 27-29mph is the league with world champions.

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph...
dude....check to make sure you're not reading kph instead.

This is a higher average speed than our Tues nite Rose Bowl, 200+ man peloton training ride w/cat 1s, 2s and the occasional pro (Rashaan Bahati, anyone?) leading the way :eek:


Got your pro contract yet, Champ?+1

I try to top out at about 85 mph on the flats...

Actually not, but the one-upsmanship got to me

These numbers are from my YTD log. For 1300km my average speed is a whopping 24.5km/h. That comes out to around 15mp/h. Sounds slow but I always take speeds on the forums with a grain of salt as we all ride different terrains. Flat ground no wind I can cruise along very comfy at 30km/h but we have very few flat roads everything is up and down. Past weekend did a hammerfest with shop club, we had a paceline going at 40k+ for about 12k HR was over 170 the whole time, then turn corner get a tailwind slight downhill cruised with HR below 130 speed at 65km/h, ended with a sprint at 69km/h to town sign. In the end though we did 110k with avg speed of only 26km/h and that was the fast group, so you can see terrian can play a big part, we did a lot of climbing on that ride with grades going over 15% no mountains but never ending up and down.

Let me expound on my answer. I rode the Richardson Wild Ride last year on my Worksman front-loading tricycle that weighs about a 100 lbs. It took me 2 hours to ride the 16 mile route. And I passed people doing it.

I rode in the Jackrabbit Stampede in Forney, which is one of these charity rides that bills itself as a race. I did the 40 mile route there, and on the way back from it, got passed by the lead riders coming back on the 65 mile route. They must have been going 30. "On yer left" whoosh and they were gone. It was 5 minutes before anyone else passed me. So summary: There is a VERY wide range of speeds that people ride at.

(I was impressed that the fastest guys out there could speak as they went by, but a lot of the slower ones couldn't!)

depends on terrian...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24mph)
but i creep along up hills at 9-12 mph...
stop and go roads i cruise at 18-20 mph... (no reason to kick it up past that if im going to stop anyway)

see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Dapy1xUq0&feature=related

depends on terrain...

long, fairly flat open roads without stops i cruise at around 27-29 mph... (a little slower with headwinds, ~22-24mph)
but i creep along up hills at 9-12 mph...
stop and go roads i cruise at 18-20 mph... (no reason to kick it up past that if im going to stop anyway)

i figured that this post would stir up the hornets nest...

let me start with a clarification: the way i define "cruising speed" is a speed that i can maintain for moderate lengths of time (20-30mins) without over exerting myself (think 70-80 percent effort. this maybe high for most, but i enjoy it :thumb:), not the average speed for the length of the ride. if you asked for my average speed for a ride, then it would be about 16-19 mph on average, but that's not what the op asked for... and maybe my definition of "cruising speed" is a bit extreme for you, but oh well... and i usually keep my cadence around 90-120

and to answer some questions:

my bike?
a 2008 specialized roubaix triple (~23lbs loaded. stock except for vredestein fortezza se tires)

the setting on my comp?
it is and always has been set to mph, and its fairly accurate: i ride frequently with a friend who has a garmin 305, and our computers usually read pretty close (+/-0.3 miles distance traveled, on long rides).
but to be sure, how about you tell me how i would go about calibrating it, and then ill do it and go for a ride to see if my numbers change...

my pro status?
perhaps in the future (i wish :rolleyes:). but seriously, i'm training, and dropping weight, to become competitive at the college level, and maybe even some cross-country mtb racing...

riding in a group?
not often, mostly ride alone. but i do ride with a friend or two occasionally, but i end up pulling them most of time, or leaving them behind on long straight-ways (they catch and then pass me on any kind of hill)...

fyi:
my weight: 260 (down from 285)
my build: 6', with massive legs: i buy the baggiest jeans i can find to fit my waist, then wear them in for awhile to get them to fit my thighs properly (use to power lift, squatted ~650 at 15 yrs old. my current leg workout is 20 reps and 2 sets of 400lbs leg presses and then 20 reps and 2 sets of 250lbs individual leg presses; don't want to build strength, just want to keep what muscle i have while losing the fat around my mid-section). and, as my uncle says, i'm as "aerodynamic as a mack truck."

as far as my general fitness, aside from "elevated" blood pressure, there's not a thing wrong with me...
i can run a ~8 minute mile (not bad for someone with damaged knees (weight lifting, childhood accident, and martial arts) and weighing in at 260lbs), the fasted i've ridden on flat land was ~33 mph, and that was a seated sprint with a cadence of ~120, and lasted for about 20secs (might of lasted longer, but i came to a stop sign)...
the fastest i've ridden was 38mph on a downhill...

OK then. You're fast!

She can cruise for days on end at Warp 3.5, as opposed to the older warp core that could only do warp 3 for a couple of hours at most...

woops, sorry, Star Trek flashbacks.

i figured that this post would stir up the hornets nest...

let me start with a clarification: the way i define "cruising speed" is a speed that i can maintain for moderate lengths of time (20-30mins) without over exerting myself (think 70-80 percent effort. this maybe high for most, but i enjoy it :thumb:)

a 2008 specialized roubaix triple

my weight: 260

i'm as "aerodynamic as a mack truck."

the fasted i've ridden on flat land was ~33 mph, and that was a seated sprint with a cadence of ~120, and lasted for about 20secs

OK. You are not on an aero TT bike, you are not aero at all, and can ride for 30min at 27-29mph only using a 70-80% effort. OK.

You do realize that if you got an aero bike, wheels and actually tried you would be one of the best time trialists in the world because you'd be riding well over you're 33mph top speed for 30min.

Like I said before...go get your pro contract, Champ. :thumb:

OK. You are not on an aero TT bike, you are not aero at all, and can ride for 30min at 27-29mph only using a 70-80% effort. OK.

You don't find it believable that at 75% effort he's sailing along for 30 minutes just a scratch under the current UCI Hour Record pace? :roflmao2:

You don't find it believable that at 75% effort he's sailing along for 30 minutes just a scratch under the current UCI Hour Record pace? :roflmao2:

I know how he does it. Instead of using anything near his aerobic threshold, he has albeit very slyly decided to use just a small portion of his anaerobic power from back in his big squat days to propel himself down the road. Then again this theory of mine is obviously flawed because our next piece of the puzzle where he is also proven very unique in that his L4, L5, L6 and L7 are almost identical witnessed due to his seated 20sec effort which hit 33mph. His L4 obviously has to be around there if he tried since 80% yields 29mph.

My head hurts now and am going to go :crash:

You don't find it believable that at 75% effort he's sailing along for 30 minutes just a scratch under the current UCI Hour Record pace? :roflmao2:

Best rider ever (http://vodpod.com/watch/795655-eddy-merckx-recorde-de-hora-1972), 100% effort, was like 31 mph, no?

Best rider ever (http://vodpod.com/watch/795655-eddy-merckx-recorde-de-hora-1972), 100% effort, was like 31 mph, no?About that.

Here's some more info...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

Eddy Merckx said his hour record attempt was "the hardest ride I have ever done". It was set in Mexico City at an altitude of 2,300m (7,550 ft).

About that.

Here's some more info...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

Eddy Merckx said his hour record attempt was "the hardest ride I have ever done". It was set in Mexico City at an altitude of 2,300m (7,550 ft).

How great was that effort? On traditional bikes, it took 30 years for someone to beat him by 30 feet!

I'll define cruising speed as my average speed on a given trip. Here are my specs:

Commuting on my Hybrid w/ Nokia W106 (622-35) winter tires (10 miles Round Trip)
13 - 15 MPH.

Commuting on my Hybrid w/ Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case (622-32) tires
15 - 17 MPH

Commuting on my '06 LeMond road bike w/ Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case (622-25) tires
17 - 20 MPH

Weekly club ride on my LeMond (usually around 20 to 25 miles)
19 to 21 MPH My fastest average was 21.5 MPH, but I only achieved that once last year. Most of the time I am right around 20 MPH

(near) Century ride solo (87 miles) on my LeMond
17.2 MPH

Supported century ride on my LeMond (riding with a group)
17.5 MPH - By the 92 mile mark I had been sustaining an 17.8 average MPH, but then we had to head into some killer head wind (at least 20 to 25 MPH)for the final 10 miles along the Niagara River... those last few miles were brutal. The anoying thing was that the wind started later in the morning so when we started we never go the bennefit of a killer tail wind. I was slowed down to about 12 - 14 MPH for the last few miles and was pretty much spent as I crossed the finish line.

Happy riding,
André

FIFY.

At the low end of Clydesdale (200lbs) riding a 15 pound bike on a dead flat road and assuming the absolute minimum rolling and wind resistance, to acheive a 27mph as a "cruising" speed, you'd be pumping just shy of 330W consistently.

Please recalculate at 260lbs :)

20-30mins at 27-29 AND as aero as a MAC truck :roflmao2::roflmao2:

I recalculated at 260lbs, 22lb bike, 120rpm, 175mm crank, no wind, .03 rise, a hair over 27mph and a 0.9 frontal area (.5-.7 is average but I think a MAC truck is around .9) :)

Look only 910 watts at 70-80%

That is 7.7 watts/Kg at 70-80%. By the way there is this weak cyclist named Lance Armstrong that puts out 6.5 watts/Kg.

Frontal Area 0.90 m2 Coefficient Wind Drag 0.50 dimensionless Air Density 1.226 kg/m3 Weight 128.0 kg Coefficient of Rolling 0.004 dimensionless Grade 0.030 decimal Wind Resistance 36.5 kg m/s2 Rolling Resistance 5.0 kg m/s2 Slope Force 37.7 kg m/s2 Cadence 120. rev/min Crank Length 175. mm Pedal Speed 2.20 m/s Average Pedal Force 414.0 kg m/s2 Effective Pedaling Range 70. degree Effective Pedal Force 1064.5 kg m/s2 Speed 11.50 m/s Power 910.3 watts

15

15

unless the wind is killer, i usually average around 12-12.5

I found this interesting!
http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/images/powerprofile_v4.gif

Been a while since I had a cycle computer... back then it was 22-25Km per hour.