Originally Posted by
DaninTexas
My question involves my speed. Generally I can hang in there about 9 mph - 11 mph for the whole ride. I usually am very consistent in that range. I will have dips as low as 7 if I am riding in 100+ degree temps.
Is this horrible? WAY to slow? I read all through here about you fellow Clydes bouncing down the road at 15 mph. Right now if I drop it all the way down and stand up giving it my all I can do 16 mph or so and nearly have a heart attack after a couple blocks.
Other people have mentioned that your tires are slowing you down. And if you're in pain from your saddle, that's got to be working against you, too.
Are you a speed demon? I mean, is going fast the most fun you have on a bike? If not, then it doesn't matter in the least how fast you are. But a ~10 mph average isn't bad at all on a MTB with knobbies.
People in the road forum will say that average speed is almost meaningless, or at least that you can't use it to compare anything important. Even if you do the same ride twice, the wind will be different, but if it's your ride compared to someone else's, then you have things like hills, traffic, and the like, that are messing the comparison up. With that said, you should have a look at peoples' Garmin Connect data. People who brag about sprinting at 30 mph will post their GPS data, and sometimes if you look at it, you'll notice that when they say "we average 25 mph" what they really mean is "if you discount all the stops and up hills, we would have averaged 25." That's a long and drawn out way of saying ~10 mph isn't bad at all on knobbies.
