jessemathis

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.

theetruscan

Highly terrain dependent.

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

Scummer

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.

jessemathis

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. : - )

Barrettscv 

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

jferna

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)

CliftonGK1

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)

StephenH

No wind, flat, 13-15 mph.

unixpro

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.

jesspal

18mph

Brando_T.

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

Spiffy

I feel sooo inadaquate

Meek

Got your pro contract yet, Champ?

pipes

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

jessemathis

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.

CliftonGK1

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.

Meek

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

Barrettscv 

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

jesspal

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

racethenation

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.

noglider 

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.

mkadam68

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

+1

guelerct

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

Actually not, but the one-upsmanship got to me

youcoming

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.

StephenH

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!)