These days I can usually stay within the 4-5 lowest gears pretty comfortably. And especially when riding home after work, it feels great pumping on the pedals and breathing. I find that once I get into a good stride and cadence, I can breathe deep pretty deep breaths without feeling winded - that's the best. But I suppose it's at those times that I shouldn't get complacent and should see if I can push the envelope further, in the name of fitness haha.

This is very true. On days I commute on my fast road bike, I always go like a bat out of hell compared to the days commuting on the fendered hybrid commuter with heavy puncture resistant tires. I attribute that increased effort (aka power output) to trying to beat my Personal Record on Strava segments, which I could never do on the heavy hybrid, since my best times were set using my fastest bike.

honestly i think perhaps you should ask on the road cycling forum, b/c this is their thing.

the bike won't matter for such a short distance. i would say drop bars are great allowing you to take a position that increases speed. the tires 700x32 would help. i am used to commuting on 700x25 but was recently persuaded to use 700x28. honestly, i think 700x25 gatorskins are just fine even in pothole-filled NYC if you want speed. the 700x28s don't add any cushion, just slight drag. i don't notice it though and my times are not affected. but i imagine 35 to 28 or 35 to 25 would make a difference.

my commute is 5 miles one way and i was getting faster as i biked more 5x a week both ways. it went from 25 min. to 22. to 19. and now to 17 min. it is all due to repetition and getting comfortable on the ride. once you ride everyday both ways (so (5 x 2 x 5 = 50 miles a week) it will just come naturally.

i also think it's all in the technique for enduring and maintaining speed. also just general traffic awareness. there are times you cannot maintain speed due to traffic, lights. but for the rest of your trip, you can maintain speed.

this article on cadence help me shave those last 2 minutes off: Shifting and Cadence - Bicycle Habitat Women's Cycling going from 19 min to 17 min for 5 miles.

the same article was featured on active.com cycling as well. i highly recommend looking over your position on the bike - make sure your bike fits you at every point, seat post, leg extension thru the stroke and bar throw (how far the bar is). once your confident these are correct, look at your cadence. after that pedal stroke.

a lot of people say clipless is probably not worth it for 5 miles. but i would consider some kind of foot retention. a mountain bike clipless set up would work (recessed clips) b/c you don't have to change out of your shoes. i know someone who uses chrome recessed clipless and swears by it. also, i've been using toe gates for years and i absolutely prefer them to just flat pedals. getting power from your up stroke in addition to your down stroke makes a huge difference.

and shoes. firm shoes are a must. don't ride in running shoes or other soft trainers. i use chrome kursks and they help make pedaling effortless and powerful.

I sympathize. I just learned how to ride a bike for the first time in my life less than two months ago and fear of the road is something I've had to get over. I have to ride through a 2-lane/direction street to get to any mixed-use trails, which isn't ideal but gave me a taste of sharing the road with cars without too much traffic.

What I'm training for now is the final stretch of my commute to work, which is a 2-3 lane/direction street that can be quite busy. That's why I got a mirror for the bike. My colleagues say I need to improve on my 13.5 mph top speed to survive that stretch - it'll basically be a sprint when I get to that street.

I hit the ground with pedals a lot more on turns when I was still in the early stages learning how to ride my bike. The advice to coast and lean (but not too much - not overthinking it helps) works for me.

I also found that saddle height really does make a difference, even on my bike, which is a hybrid/commuter bike, not a road racer. I had a guy at a LBS check out the saddle height and it turns out the seat was like an inch or two too low. After the height correction, it got a lot easier to go faster, due to being able to extend my legs more on the pedal stroke. My top speed is now over 20mph, and I still haven't sprinted on my top gear. It might not boost your speed to Tour De France level, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

fify

Do you have a desire to ride longer rides in addition to commuting? When I started commuting by bike I was riding a hybrid and I was not very fast. Soon I discovered I loved cycling and I started getting up earlier and taking "the long way" to work. It wasn't long after that when I sold the hybrid and bought a road bike. I started doing much longer rides and charity rides. The next thing I knew I was signed up on Strava and trying to beat my PRs. I guess it depends on what your motivation is and how much you enjoy cycling. I was in your same shoes, but then became addicted, and with more riding and experience my performance improved. Three years ago I was literally one of the slowest people on my commute, today I got 19 out of 2868 on one of my Strava commute segments. I think it's just a matter of what your motivation is and also experience and time. I am motivated by always improving and it sounds like that is something that motivates you. A road bike will improve your performance a little, but mostly it's about building your engine.

It would be tough to make up much time in 4 miles no matter what you do. FWIW, I have about the same distance and the direct route takes 19-22 minutes regardless of whether I ride the 30lb beast or the 17lb race bike. It has more to do with the stoplights than anything else.

There's quite some debate over whether clipless pedals don't make you faster at all, or make you slightly faster or more efficient. Either way though, there's no way it's worth it for a 4 mile commute. You'd spend more time changing shoes than any time you'd save on the commute. Toe cages don't make you faster at all, they just keep your foot from slipping off the pedal, personally I think they're kinda dangerous as it's much harder to get out in an emergency. The toe cages racers actually used were different than the what you see people using riding, I don't want to go into it but let's just say that there's a reason clipless has entirely replaced the old system in racing.

These are the top 3 reasons why people are slow on their bike from when I was in college:

1. They weren't inflating their tires. With skinny tires you pretty much need to bring them back to their regular pressure every day, with fatter tires every few days.

2. Their seat is to low. A lot of times people put their seat at a comfortable height that was less than efficient. If their seat won't go to a height that's correct and fairly even with the handlebars, then their frame is the wrong size.

3. Their brakes are rubbing. To test this you pick one end of the bike off the ground and give the wheel a hard spin (in a direction that does not cause the pedals to turn). With a hard spin it should rotate at least 5 times, if it comes to a stop after 1-2 rotations there's something wrong, usually the brake pad is rubbing.

Other things after checking those things:

4. If you have particularly bad shoes or pedals for biking.

5. If your tires are knobby, slicks are definitely better.

6. Higher quality tires can make you a little faster. So can skinnier tires (to a point), but I'd be hesitant to put skinnier tires on a bike that came with 35c's as they'll make the ride worse. I mean downsizing 2" tires is an easy call.

I just looked up the bike you said you have, are you still running the flat bars? Drop bars might put you in a more aerodynamic position.

When I used to spin a higher gear my average speed went up quite a bit. Thing is you need to make sure you're spinning efficiently, because the higher gear won't help if you're just mashing, I usually try to hover around 90rpms.

Some people just have more athletic ability than others. No matter how hard I train, I doubt I could ever be fast. What you can achieve is 95% engine, not the bike. If you have knobby tires, slicks can help reduce rolling resistance. Lighter wheels probably have the biggest impact. It takes a lot of energy to get heavy rims spinning and lighter wheels help here. If you think about the weight of a bike, think again. Combine the weight of you plus the bike. Dropping 10 pounds out of 160 isn't that much percentage wise. And a lighter bike doesn't cut down the wind resistance. Drop bars put you in a position where you have a smaller profile when you ride and hence lower wind resistance.

If you want to get faster with what you have, I recommend more miles. Longer rides improve endurance. Intervals and hills also help as does riding regularly. The interwebz can probably help you find a training regimen if you wish to invest in cycling.

I'm gonna go ahead and say go all out on your short commute. Ride it like your doing drag races between every light! If you like going fast, make the most out of the 4 miles. When I was doing 3 miles, I was going flat out and it was fun, and I also had days that I dogged it (especially windy days). My fastest commuting times were under 12 minutes, but it could take up to twenty with lights and wind (which are the biggest factors on my now longer commute as well).

Just remember, you will never be the fastest person in the world, or the country, or the state, or perhaps even your city. Your commute is just yours and your challenge is yourself. That being said the motor is the most important thing. Don't worry about others passing you, just try and beat yourself from yesterday. Use a tracking software and try to beat yourself from last week, last month, last year. Some of my best workouts come in the winter trying to beat my mountain bike commutes from the last winter. Building fitness will help more than anything - a pro on a beater could whoop me on a road bike.

Trying to beat others is just an arms race. Go for it if you like but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Good luck, but more importantly, have fun!

Whether or not it's worth it this is one example where clipless would help a lot if you wanted to shave some time off your commute. Accelerating hard from every stop will save lots of time and is much easier if you are clipped in and can stand up. That and some drop bars, an aero position, tight clothes and good 25mm tires would allow you to double your distance in the same amount of time.

If you want to get faster in order to ride with others I would extend your commute. I agree with others there isn't much point if you're just commuting 4 miles.

Takes all kinds. One of my favorite things about my cargo bike, besides carrying my kids around, is that I feel absolutely no pressure about going fast, unlike when I'm on my cross bike. If a guy on a road bike passes me, well of course that's going to happen, as this is what they're passing:



That said, it is fun to gain on, pass, and leave behind hipsters on single speeds when I'm riding a 75 lb bike.

Yeah right, a 100% increase in average speed, maybe if I add a JATO rocket to that list................

You just need some extra roads without stop signs

Seems like everyone has a different opinion. Most people on my other thread says clothes don't matter...

It probably depends on just HOW baggy they are. At some point a baggy shirt and/or shorts start acting like a parachute and will slow you down.

That would also require exposure to gamma radiation, green skin, and something making you very very angry.

In other words it's impossible, and rather rediculous to encourage people to drop a lot of money on something that's going to make nowhere near that difference.

The only way I'm increasing my average speed from 14 mph to 28 mph is to hire a world class cyclist to do it for me.

There's only a 2 mph average difference between my Dutch bike and my road bike. I'm sure that there would be a bigger difference on long uninterrupted flat roads, but my commute is stop and go with lots of hills.

In your case they won't because you are riding in hilly San Francisco.

I started out with my running shorts over the cycling shorts. Eventually I just didn't care and ditched the running shorts.

I think you will benefit from more quality miles, quality as in intentionally focusing on cadence, power, and form. I will go against what others have said and suggest clipless, but it is not a magic bullet, and in no way does it allow you to bypass the previously mentioned cadence, power, and form. Clipless gave me a noticeable performance gain in just for the fact that you get to use your whole pedal stroke to applied power to the drive train.

It depends how you extend your commute. I can manage 8 miles in 23 min so it's certainly possible if you don't have too many stops. It's not going to happen overnight and it doesn't require a lot of money, just some hard work and attention to a few details.

No, you aren't going to go from already hitting 20mph (what the OP) wrote, changing a few things on your bike and doubling your speed in the real world, without magical powers. I don't think even illegal drugs and professional training would get you close.

I read the OP was taking 22-23 min to cover 4 miles. If he was doing the 4 miles in 12min (20mph) I don't think he would have been asking the question.

I did say he'd have to extend his commute. Regardless of what his ultimate speed ends up there's no question he can ride significantly faster than 10.5mph with some work and a few equipment changes. No drugs required