Originally Posted by psystemupdate

thanks for keeping me in check, i guess a further clarification is necessary...we live in the midwest where paved routes are limited, and places far between, what we are trying to do is optimize some areas of our excercise, particularly distance per hour, without leaning too hard into wind drag speed range of the spectrum (we want it to be a workout, so 15 mph is a nice goal i think), which i heard increases exponentially starting after 12 mph/20 kmh ...i did time trials on our rides on a 29" mtb and 700c gravel bike doing about 12 miles in an hour and found it much more draining on the similarly weighted 29" mtb...i know im not hitting all the factors that contribute to wattage expenditure, but im trying to get us close to equal footing where we can hold 15 mph for an hour straight so that we can operate within limited excercise time constraints....some days we have 3 hours for excercise, some days more. Our main reason for the speed minimum is that we want to get to some of the towns around here which are 25, 35, and 40 miles away....if i can do an 'average' of 12 - 14 mph, i can get to one of the towns in under 2 hours, and i can get to the 35 mile one in maybe a little over 2 hours, but probably nearing 3 hours if i include breaks, then theres the round trip, so the time constraints. Lawrence KS is the 25 mile from me town, and gardner Ks is the 35 mile away destination, and olathe is the 40 mile destination.