jrawk1120

I go cycling with my wife, and while I have been going a little longer, and more often, I try to beat my time every ride.

When I started out, my average speed was hovering around 11 mph, and its gotten up to about 16 mph.

Wondering if this was slow, fast? I don't know. I would think seeing a guy of my size coming at you going 16mph would be a weird site, but don't know.

Bethany

About 8 mph. It sucks, but I've only started biking about a week or so. Sometimes 10. I'll get up to speed eventually.

digibud

It all depends on the bike. My fat tire bike keeps me around 9-11. My mtn bike rides around 11-14 and on my road bike I end up 14-18. 16mph is a decent speed for most folks that aren't competitive. Plenty of people cruise at 20mph but not me.

Rock31

The last two rides I was right around 13mph. Up from the 9-10 I was when I started.

CliftonGK1

It all depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing. I can average 18mph for 100k if I'm pacelining with some fast randos. That might drop to 15mph when I'm solo and hauling stuff on my commuter. It can go down to 10mph or less on my CX bike over tight singletrack trails.

Seattle Forrest

I can pull an average of a little better than 20 mph if I do a long ride on the flats, and, on the same bike, I can be proud of a 12 mph average when I climb a lot of hills. And Seattle has a lot of long, steep hills.

Hydraulic

On flat ground I will hover between 8-10mph, but on slight declines I'll get up to 15-16mph.

Back in the day (when I was a kid), I could it 23mph on my bmx bike going up a small hill.

freighttraininguphill

Since I only use my Garmin on climbing rides and I don't have a regular computer on any of my bikes, I only know my average speed on climbing rides, which is usually 10-11 mph. On last weekend's climbing ride, which had lots of very steep climbs between 15-20%, my average moving speed was only 9.7 mph.

sathor

I am between 8 when I am pulling my kids in the trailer with my heavy mountin bike, and 11 on my schwinn hybrid this year. Last year, I did the Ohio Tour de Donut, and for those aprrox 30 miles, I did have an average of 12.6 mph, but that was my last real ride before winter.

Mind you, I weigh about 235 pounds, and I don't have a real rode bike, but the hybrid with road tires and mountain bike style handlebars.

Brando_T.

I was very pleased to go on a 52 km ride last weekend with an average speed of 25km/hr. (15.5 miles/hr). This was a goal for my winter training, to get my average up to 25km/hr

I recall someone saying here, long ago, not to bother attempting a century until you can do 100 km at 25km/hr. So, i'm getting close to that goal.

GumbyN

it depends on my route and the wind that day.
my longest ride was at 14+ mph average. my last ride was also above 14. the rides in-between have been as low as 11 for one of them, but normally around 13. these are on rolling hills with a good 20+ mph steady wind here in Kansas.

i'm now starting to not worry about what other people post as their speeds, thinking i'm some type of slacker weakling (even if i am). we're all in different situations. i know that i'm still new to riding and live in an area with rolling hills, rough roads, and the avg wind speeds are higher than most this time of the year (20+ on average of steady winds - not gusts).

GumbyN

is that 9.7 going up, or overall?

sstorkel

I have a relatively flat, though very windy, 15-mile course that I ride frequently at lunch. On a mediocre day, my average is 15.5-16.5mph. A good day is 17.5mph and my best-ever averages are in the 18.5-18.9mph range. The "best ever" days are usually those when it's dead calm and I get a little luck with traffic lights.

My 30-mile weekend route features around 1000 feet of climbing. I consider a 16.5mph average to be pretty good for that route.

freighttraininguphill

Overall, according to the Garmin page:
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/84143204

1855Cru

As most posters have said, it depends. Terrain, wind, if you are riding in a paceline or alone all effect your avg speed significantly. Also if you stop a lot this can have a significant effect on avg. speed due to slowing down and starting back up.

Looking through my Garmin activities I see that most of rides are in the 16 - 18 mph range. I'm in the western NC foothills so the rides normally have a reasonable amount of climbing. A metric century I did last month shows an avg. of 17.4 mph over 65 miles iwth a little over 3200 ft of elevaion gain.

snowman40

I'm 264, can average almost 16 mph with 100 meters of climbing on my commute (about 18 km).

No idea what my speed will be on my fast bike as I haven't been able to take it out on the weekends.

CraigB

On relatively flat routes, with intermittent stops for traffic lights and such, I've been doing about 13.5 on my mountain bike with slightly skinnier 1.5" tires. When I push myself on the road bike, it's right around 15, give or take a few hundredths. I need to get faster at that one. My insane co-worker has upped the ante - apparently our "relay tri" in August has now gone from sprint to olympic distances. I've never ridden a TT longer than 10 miles, and that was 30+ years ago.

engstrom

The last few rides I've been riding with faster groups and have been pushing myself so I've gotten a little faster:

26.59 miles @ 16.4 MPH - https://connect.garmin.com/activity/82035175
27.96 miles @ 15.2 MPH - https://connect.garmin.com/activity/83545044
35.57 miles @ 16.0 MPH - https://connect.garmin.com/activity/84043752

I'm hoping to get to 50 miles @ 17 MPH by the end of summer but as speed picks up so does wind resistance and just increasing a tenth of a mile per hour becomes exponentially harder.

zoste

Man, I'm glad I never saw that post...pretty bad advice. I've done a half dozen imperial centuries, both supported and unsupported, and I still can't average 15 mph over 60 miles.

I guess ignorance can be bliss?

Seattle Forrest

Do you ever take your bike into the Sierra? I'd love to ride from Tioga Pass down to Lee Vinning.

Mr Sinister

It depends. Overall its between 14 and 18MPH. Uphill its about 10 MPH. On flats I can do between 15 and 18 MPH.

I really want to start riding with a few other people that way I can see how much my speed will change in a medium/fast group ride. A group ride where everyone is in line, and taking turns.

statelax3

i live in the low country where it is pretty much flat. no real grade over 2%. solo i have been averaging 18-19 on my 20 mile loop. on the weekend group ride we usually end up 21-22 for the 40 mile loop. weighing in at a robust feeling 253 right now.

Nightshade

My average speed is "keep it rolling so I don't fall over" !!

root11

usually about 11-12 mph. slow and steady....

Emskirch

Mine is between 13.5 and 16 mph, I push myself on my 8 mile commute to make sure I get to work or ride home averaging at least 15 mph.