Wait, are you talking about 30 minutes "pedaling time" or "trip time"? My bike computer only counts pedaling time (it stops counting when I'm fully stopped at a light). A 30 minute "trip time" would be very, very hard to achieve in city traffic, but I think it's within the bounds of the laws of physics. I think a 30 minute "pedaling time" is more reasonable - within the physiological limits of most people, although it represents excellent fitness.

My best "trip time" is 1:07 for my 20 mile round trip commute, which I was doing 3 days a week. Minus the lights, that registered at 20.2mph average on my computer. My "cruising speed" on flat ground with no wind was around 21-22mph back then. I was no athlete - amateur racers should be able to cruise at 22-25mph for an hour on a road bike. I ride a mid-low-end road bike with panniers.

(Right now I only commute 1 day a week due to the baby and the toddler, and my average is now 17-18. No routine = no endurance.)

Get a heart-rate monitor and learn to do intervals. When you do intervals one day, back off the next day for recovery. A chest-strap hear-rate monitor is inexpensive ($40 for mine), and it is worth owning, even if you don't intend to race, although the physiological feedback is not as precise as a power meter (or so I've been told).

Any red lights on that course? :lol:

Obviously, the key here is that you have to commute in that helmet.

18 minutes. Holy crap. My best is 22:30 for 10 miles. That is flying.

Much like Alleycats, high speed commuting comes down to how much you value your life.

Not at all.

The average temperature threw me, until I realized that ride was from last September. Still pretty warm for September, though.

I never even look at my computer's mph. The average it shows is much lower than my usual cruising speed. Given that I live in NYC, with all the traffic and lights, average speed is pretty meaningless. When I was training about 5 years ago now, I was able to average, by my computer, over 20mph doing non-stop loops of Prospect Park, over about 15 miles. This was with resetting the computer when I arrived in the park and already rolling. This was also solo riding. That is a VERY difficult pace to maintain for an average rider. A fit rider like myself at the time could do it, but NEVER on the streets. That's suicide. I can no longer maintain that pace even though I continue to ride (I'm 56 now, so not so young anymore).

+1! At least if you do it in urban traffic.

High speed commuting is not fundamentally unsafe. Put safety first and get a road bike and push yourself. Add bright clothing, reflectors, helmet mounted P7 LED, and the sharpest eye. Don't take chances to make numbers.

The whole reason I bike instead of drive is that I want a good workout. The value is halved if it isn't going to be a good vigorous workout, IMHO.

I would say that it is situational. A commute I had years ago had a section that was congested and the cars were only doing about 20-25. I found out that I felt a lot more safe by pushing hard during that section, taking the lane and going with the speed of traffic. If you are going a lot faster than surrounding traffic, then you are setting up some potential saftey situations, and of course things like rocks, potholes, mechanical breakdowns are amplified by speed.

I live in L.A.,I can't do that in a car....

Instead of "bragging" in a separate thread, I thought I'd post this here. Just made my commute at an 18.1 mph average. But that's just over 6 miles. First time for me on a commute, though. I got to the edge of campus, reset my computer and suddenly got a fire lit up under me for no reason. I still had to go slower than I wanted to at points. There were a couple of school zones in a section that I could have easily done 23 or more mph, so cars slowed me down (imagine that...) and I hit 3 freakin' lights on the last really long leg. I saw my average go down from 18.7 to 18.1 at one stop light because I was trying not to come to a complete stop. I'm usually a little tired in the morning and riding home in the dark at night, so on good days, I'm usually closer to 16 mph at a more comfortable pace. I would like to see if I could hit the magic 20 mph mark. Maybe if I time the lights right one day or something.

I'd say if you had a nice, open route with few lights and little traffic and a set of aero bars, a reasonably healthy person could pull 20 mph averages, but maybe not every day.

Saw this, and I had to post it up...

http://biseekell.blogspot.com/2010/0...versation.html

My point was that if you want to go as fast as possible in a city, you will be running lights often with traffic going through them and using every other dirty trick out there to keep your speed up.

true... you can't average 20mph for a more than 5mile commute in NYC with a CAR... let alone a bike and follow the "minimum" traffic rules.

If a motor vehicle can legally/safely travel >20 then a cyclist should be able to as well. It only potentially becomes unsafe if one needs to take risks to travel faster than the normal flow of traffic.

I exclude waiting at lights when I compute my "average speed". (Actually my computer excludes that time automatically.) I don't have control over it so there's no point penalizing my times for it, although I do get penalized for start and stop times, and any slow rolling.

Please clarify whether you mean pedaling average or trip average. I (used to) routinely get 19-20.2 mph pedaling averages over a 10 mile commute with 17 lights.

It that's not what the OP meant maybe I'm off topic.

In this case it is trip total time, not moving time only.
For my commute on average for the past 7 years my total time is 1.08 moving time.

No, speed is not as important as safety. I'm not going to be ******** just for a little extra average speed!

I average about 15 miles/hour on a 7 mile commute. 20 miles an hour is really fast and i think impossible in most situations due to traffic lights, other bicyclists, etc. If you have a long stretch of road or if you are really strong you might average 17-18 miles an hour and maybe on a good day 20 but i think not 5 days a week.

I make about an 18mph speed with 14 stops over an 11-14mile commute. It takes me 45min to cover 11 miles with traffic

LOL. We should move this to the E-bike forum and see what those guys think. :)

Or we put it in the car forum, see if they can manage 20mph in traffic ;)

I usually average 16 mph on the flattest 6.5 mile route to my work due to traffic lights. One day I got incredibly lucky - I was able to draft a truck on a long stretch, and I hit all green lights. Made the 6.5 miles in under 20 minutes, just barely 20 mph.

In my car, I don't average much faster - maybe 26 mph.