If you want to ride fast you need to get a decent sub 25 lb bike, get a real crank and casette (e.g. 52-39 and 11-23/25), run high pressure skinnies (23-25 @ 110-130 psi), go clipless, and learn to spin. It also helps to have a healthy disrespect for minor car-centric traffic laws!


Commuter A: Orbea Diem, Ultegra drive train, 105 crank, Deore Hydro discs, wellgo spd pedals (326 g).

Commuter B: Trek 7.9 frame (free replacement for 7.5 FX), Ultegra-105 mix, 105 crank, Nashbar CF fork, Front BB7 disc, thomson Stem and Post, wellgo spd pedals (326 g).

My commute is almost exactly 7 miles.

Generally my overall time is about 30 minutes. 240' climbing on the way in and a hundred less riding home. 17 lights & stop signs.

My fastest ride home ever I averaged 20mph ride time. Generally I average 13ish on the way in and 15-16 on the way home. That one fast ride home (I hit all the lights right!) got me kind of stoked for the Sprint Triathlon I have in June (I averaged 18.5mph over 13 miles in my first one last year)

Same here. Before I made my coroplast velomobile, my moving average to school @ 19.7 miles (+585 / -1039 ft) was usually around 15 - 15.5mph on a good day. If I had a headwind, I'd be closer to 14.5mph. Once in a great while I could hit 16, but that was usually with a tailwind helping me out. For the ride home using the shorter route @ 19.8 miles (+1046 / -588 ft) I'd usually be at 12.5 - 13mph moving average.

After making my velo a little over 2 weeks ago, my slowest moving average speed to school has been 16.0mph. My slowest moving average home taking the shorter route is currently 13.3mph. Middle of last week I started taking the longer route home, which bypasses the steeper hill to my house @ 22.2 miles (+1096 / -639 ft). My moving average taking that way has been 13.7 - 14.2mph.

My fastest commute to school ever was last Monday at 17.5mph moving average (15.8mph average including stops) and 39.2mph max: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/456393.

The best I managed on my 11.8 mile commute (24 traffic lights only one of which was a right turn and 10 stop signs) was 42:19 or 16.7 MPH.

2:36 stopped, 5:12 at zero power decelerating for lights, time accelerating, and a pannier which makes for a 20% drag increase and ~2 MPH loss on flat ground did not help in spite of riding painfully hard to compensate.

Bike weight isn't going to make a measurable difference on flat ground. On 6% grades at 250W a 145 pound rider atop a 30 pound bike instead of 25 one is going to drop from about 10.6 to 10.4 MPH. Differences will be less pronounced for flatter terrain and with heavier riders.

I skip wide range cassettes like that (11-23 has no 18 cog with 10 in back, and 11-25 doesn't even include a 16) in favor of tighter cogs in a more useful range. With 9 cogs and 50-34 I like 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23, although I got a 12-23 to go with my upgrade to 10 cogs for a better chain line on the small ring and ordered a 14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23 cassette to see how a 20 cog works probably with a 53-39-30 crank from my bike shelf .

On a fast commute I spend half my time somewhere between 18 and 21 MPH spinning 50x21, 50x19, or 50x18.

On the rare occasion I break 30 MPH where a stop light pedestrian sign is counting down seconds it's using a 50x16.

Bigger gears wouldn't buy anything beyond fewer shifts to and from the small ring.

I also run my 25mm tires at 95-100 psi rear and 90-95 front with my 180 pounds of flab and 15 pound pannier. The rolling resistance increase is negligible and it's more comfortable without being soft enough to pinch flat on potholes or other road imperfections one of which was enough to bend a 400g rim. The pannier makes for a 20% drag increase but is way nicer than having the weight on my back.

My best one way (6.5 miles) commuting average speed was 20.4 mph. Best round trip (13 miles) average speed was 19.1 mph. Everything was perfect both times. Oh, and these were separate days.

Now, with a different bike and different route, I average about 16-17.

>Bike weight isn't going to make a measurable difference on flat ground.
My comment was not really about the weight per se. The geometry of the frame has a significant effect on energy transfer...especially when climbing.

since my commutes are short (5-10 miles one way) i have no problem sprinting at 30-35 mph on interspersed flats. i am more interested in irritating cagers, getting excercise, and maintaining a cadence of 90-120 (so i don't blow my knees) than developing obscene track skilz.

I typically carry a very large ortlieb bag (laptop, tools, gear, lunch, groceries, case of wine) and am a 205 lb clyde with calves thicker than his skull.

I run R500s or cxp33s and have no problem with the higher psi (but both are heavier rims).

I have a 25-mile commute. about 30 traffic lights in total, many, many junctions.

Normal elapsed average (summer) is 17-18mph. One day I had a howling tailwind and without breaking any traffic laws managed to average 20mph (elapsed). I was really caning myself tho' and like I said, howling tailwind.

Interestingly, I've done the route using a GPS as my 'cycle computer' a few times. There isn't much difference between my rolling average and my elapsed-time average. Probable because of my habit of easing off and coasting up to traffic lights that are red or about to change.