cbaronzzi

It seems that no matter how hard I ride, I can't seem to regularly average above 20mph solo. Some of my rides are hillier than others and I can sometimes break the 20 mph average barrier on a hard day or flat mileage but it is not too often. So, let's be honest, what is your usual average speed on a typical solo ride of at least 20 miles? Don't cheat by giving your fastest ride or by adjusting your average upwards to account for traffic or stop signs....these are all part of the ride. Honestly, what would you usually average on a typical day from doorstep to doorstep?

1. I usually average less than 17mph.
2. I usually average 17-20 mph.
3. I usually average 20 -22mph.
4. I usually average more than 22 mph.

alfa63

Count me as (1). As an example, my 26+ mile solo ride yesterday was 16.6mph. While my average is moving up since I started three months ago, you're obviously one of the riders that would typically fly past me.

Weeks

I can average 20mph only rarely. I usually hover around 16-19

Crash716

right at 17mph.....last week had allot of climbing and i think i averaged like 16ish...

generally anywhere from 16.5-17.5 right now.

botto 

don't know, don't care.

sorry, but it's not important.

cbaronzzi

ok, how do I delete this thread, since I posted it as a poll also?

FixdGearHead

I stopped using Average speed as a measuring stick. Too many variables involved, and none of them being the correct ones. To be honest, the battery on my computer has been dead all year, and I really don't miss it.

Chucklehead

i only loosely guage my progress on my daily loop with average speed, and it ranges from 18-19.5 mph. if i'm just out working on my strength, that can drop as low as 17mph because there are several good hills along the route. my fastest along that route has been 19.8, and i was really busting my ass that day. of course it really all depends on that last 7 mile stretch heading back towards the coast. sometimes the headwind is light, and sometimes it's a real bastard, but it's always there.

Phantoj

You need to define the term "average speed"...

My definition: you turn your (properly calibrated) bike computer on at the start of the ride, and it says "average speed = XX.X" at the end. The bike computer is a typical model that stops accumulating ride time after a couple of seconds at 0 mph.

Others may take total ride distance divided by total ride time. Or may use a Garmin computer that stops counting below 3 mph or whatever.

I can cruise on the flats at speeds over 20, but I never average over 20 for rides longer than my commute.

If you want to know whether you're faster than me or not, you'll have to ride with me or race against me (the former always implies the latter ).

Cypress

I average like 306 mph.

terry b

I have a little more than 1550 rides in my excel spreadsheet including road bike, mountain bike and single speed in all manners of weather conditions and temperatures and of various lengths and profiles and my average is 16.755324 MPH. It became so boring that I deleted that column from the sheet and I only go back and calculate it for questions like this.

entukay

16 something but all my miles are city miles. so i dont even consider average speed.

daytonian

And I 306.977 mph

merlinextraligh

I wouldn't worry about it. Average speed just isn't relevent. I'm not the fastest guy around but I can do 40k in an hour. Yet I rarely average 20 mph on a solo training ride. The reason being I'm not riding my solo trainingrides as a time trial.

2Tired2Shift

For me the biggest factor in solo riding is motivation - generally I don't have any! The best way to really gauge yourself is to ride time trials. Strong riders will average more than 30 mph in fairly flat 40 km TTs.

DrPete 

+1. Most solo training rides are sub-20. Averages for 2x20 FTP intervals will get up higher, though, but it totally depends on the terrain, weather, temperature, etc.