bbeasley

What he said ^

You'll pick up the difference by drafting. I worked really hard to get to the point I could ride 15 MPH alone for 20 miles. It's been almost 2 years and I'm up to 18 MPH now. From my POV you're doing great! Try the ride and most of all have fun.

indyfabz

One man's B ride is another man's C ride, and vice-versa. Ride your bike and don't worry who calls what what.

cyccommute 

Find another group. This doesn't sound like a "beginner's ride group". Dropping riders, not regrouping, etc. sounds more like a bunch of racerwannabes who have fresh meat that they can chew up and spit out so that they feel like superior riders. I.e they are jerks.

I, as a very experienced rider and a leader of many, many, many rides for beginners, would never lead a beginner ride of that sort. In fact, I lead "beginner rides" from the very back at the speed of the slowest rider. I don't keep the group at that pace but I ride at that pace so as to provide support and camaraderie with the true beginners. I want them to enjoy the experience and feel that they should come back and ride with us again. By the way, "easy" or beginner rides are the very hardest rides to lead.

I doubt, however, that the 15mph average speed is real. Speed in bicycling is like length of fish in fishing...objects may appear larger than the actually are.

himespau 

Join, them and have fun. If it's not fun, slow down, turn off, and go your own way. This is supposed to be all about having fun, right?

jon c. 

My guess is that you're actually going to find you're fast enough to hang with them. "Averages" tend to be a bit inflated.

SeanBlader

Since no one took a stab at the subject line question I will. It seems to me the recommendation for getting faster is to do some intervals.

1. Warm up
2. pedal in low gear as fast as you can for 3 to 8 minutes
3. catch your breath for 5 minutes
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 five to seven times
5. cooldown

Also coming from formerly competitive driving, all I can add to that is that "seat time" is of course very important. I'll still working on breaking in my seat. Seems to be getting better.

volosong

Have to agree. 15mph is not a "beginner's ride". Especially with no re-group or not having a "no drop" rule. It sounds like a mid-range group, not the fastest, but certainly not beginner. As mentioned, terrain is a big factor in average speeds. Lots of hills and climbing, the average will go down. 15mph on all flats with little wind or stop signs/signals can be accomplished my most physically fit people with decent equipment.

That said, try it once and see how you do. Make sure you can find your way back and you'll be fine.

p.s. That "salesman" is ignorant. If I were you, I'd look for another shop to patronize.

IBOHUNT

A beginner ride that's no-drop?

Try it, worst that can happen is you get dropped. Keep after it and you will soon be dropping them. My advice is to ride often and when you can push yourself. You'll find over time the speed and endurance will come.

ainkor

I have been riding around where I live and it's pretty hilly. I average about 10 MPH on a good day with the hills and such.

I just found a REALLY nice flat 30 mile bike path reasonably near me and for the first 7 mile did about 15 MPH average. The way back? About 11

To the OP, if you can ride 25 miles solo, then I say go for it. Not sure if anyone else in the thread has said it, but cycling feels a lot like golf. You are really playing (riding) against yourself. Sure it's a TON more fun to play (ride) with others, but even solo it's fun

Mithrandir

I often say "Support your LBS", but that only applies to good LBS's. I wish more people would understand it's implied that you should only support good businesses!

Mithrandir

I learned another reason for not being last the other day. If you run over a screw, and the screw ruins your rim, people in front of you may not notice. But if there's someone behind you, they can stop, go back to the start, get their car and drive you back.

I'm never going to be last again

CJ C

nice
i can't tell if your calling me an unfit slob, or saying my bike sucks

CJ C

there is a a joke in there but dang it its a family friendly website.

RedC

You won't know til you ride the ride. I've been approached by two different riders in the last week who were told that our rides were all too fast for them by people who don't ride with us. Sometimes these wild estimates come from bike shop employees who like to sound important but don't have a clue. Even our older group which a few of the guys want to push each other occasionally but we make sure someone is riding back with the beginners.

cyccommute 

Sorry but I've lead about a hundred beginner rides. I know what a beginner ride is and what one isn't. A ride where the riders ride at a relatively high rate of speed, drop slow riders, don't regroup and don't seem to be all that supportive isn't a beginner ride. I don't have to go on the ride to recognize a feeding frenzy.

To be clear, I've also lead fast road bike rides, intermediate rides, mountain bike rides and overnighters. I know the difference between beginner rides and intermediate/advanced rides. I'm not saying that everyone who comes on a beginner ride has to ride at the same pace but you do not host a beginner ride like the one that El Luchador describes.

digibud

If the group of beginners is 17yrs old they'll do 20mph with no problem if they are fit. If the group is a mixed group of all ages sizes and weight there is no way they average 15mph. Often when people say they average 15mph they mean that for some decent stretch they go 15mph but if they had a cyclometer they would find that it reported their overall average was more like 12. For a heavy person a real average of 13 isn't anything to be ashamed of. In order to average that you had to spend a good deal of time closer to 15. Hills and terrain, as previously pointed out, have a huge effect on true average speed. I'm a 61 yr old clyde. I will never be fast but I have 3,000 miles this year. Much of it is pretty hilly. For July I road 578 miles, with 19,500 feet of climbing and an overall average speed of 12.8. I can cruise on the flats at 18mph with no wind, for a fair distance but not all day. Average speed is a pretty elusive quantity. Go out and give it a shot. I did that last week with a group of 20 somethings. I got dropped within a mile. I laughed.

volosong

Really quite interesting, what you say. Got me to thinking and I was a little curious, so added up my July rides to see just how good ... or how bad ... I am, (compared to you). I'll be 61 this Saturday, so close enough. Two of my July rides was with the "little lady", and they were pleasure rides, not ones where I ride as hard as I would normally when out solo. I left those two rides in my calculations since they totaled up to only 43.3 miles. For this past July, I rode 333.3 miles and climbed 18,355 feet. Divided by my total time, my overall average is right at 13.0 mph.

Hmmm? I though I was "faster" than that. Several of my rides were just over 17 mph, but they had little climbing. My two "big" rides, with 10,500 feet of climbing, but at only 90 miles were at 10.2 mph average. Yeah, I know I'm not very fast uphill. This is confirmation that I can't climb.

Thanks for the mental exercise ... and knocking my ego down a notch. Appears that we are close to the same cycling ability, digibud. If we're ever in the same neighborhood, we'll have to go out and take a nice spin around the block.

TrojanHorse

Volo, that's a lot of climbing! You can't expect your averages to be 15 with that many mountains in the way.

mcrow

13.2 might be a litle slow on a road bike but then everyone starts out at different points on the speed scale. I currently can do a 15-18 mile ride on my MTB averaging ~13.5 mph and I would consider myself a rank beginner since I've only been riding for about a month.

That really depends on terrain, if it's flat I can average 13.5 over 15-18 miles but my MTB is a freaking tank (probably 35+ pounds with steel frame). So, on a hilly course I would probably drop off on speed quite a bit.

RedC

But he's describing what someone told him about the ride, not what he experienced. I'm just saying we don't know what's true and what's exagerated. If my group rode as fast as some of the folks say we ride we'd be calling RadioShack to help Andy Schleck

vesteroid

since I bought my garmin in the end of may


44 Activities
Distance:1,077.62 mi
Elevation Gain:51,017 ft
Avg Speed:14.3 mph

IBOHUNT

Great! Now you made me go look at my spreadsheet for my data.

July
741 miles ; 50 hours and 29 minutes = 14.7 mph.
Just dandy

August
354 miles ; 23 hours and 44 minutes = 14.9 mph
Woo Hoo! I'm getting faster but...

I still suck

Went back and looked at the entire years data -

3776 miles ; 261 hours 3 minutes = 14.5 mph.

It's official, I suck

DTSCDS

I am in agreeance with those who question this being a "beginner" ride. That distance and pace for a beginner?
If it is designed for a beginner/training at riding in a pace line then this sounds appropriate. This is certainly not a beginner ride someone new to bike riding.

The big LBS here has a beginner ride every Saturday and it is a true beginner ride--12 miles at 10mph pace. It usually goes slower than that since it's a true no-drop ride. They stop at a convenience store at the 6 mile turn around and rest for about 10 minutes. That is my definition of a beginner ride.

I would find a new LBS to ride out of if possible. Sounds like a racer boy wanna be store. (Or maybe you just got a bad salesman.)

mcrow

Most of the beginner rides here are labeled as "C" rides with A being fastest/longest. Most of the "C" rides are 18-30 miles at 10-15 mph pace with a break every 10-15 miles. So most beginners on a road bike could go to these rides. I think taking a MTB or something like that on these rides would require more advanced fitness level.

CJ C

so its a battle of who is the slowest? Well i win!!!!!!!

July 2012- 379 miles, 28 hours, 5,469 feet, avg HR 143, AVG SPEED 13.5mph

June 2012-221 miles, 16 hours, 2,450 feet, avg HR 147, AVG SPEED 13.7mph

April 2012-142 miles, 10 hours, 2,100 feet, avg HR 152, AVG SPEED 13.4mph

Oct 2011- 127 miles, 10 hours, 2,000 feet, avg HR 156, AVG SPEED 12.7mph


feels good to win something