Inusuit

Depends on the bike, the route, the weather the wind, whether I'm with my friend or riding alone. Overall average is around 10 mph. Faster on the road bike and pavement, slower if dealing with in town traffic and signals. Slower on gravel and two track. Slower if riding the gravel bike or a mountain bike. I don't worry about it.

jamesdak 

Well... I'm with everyone else it's not a quantifiable stat for the most part. Too many variables. I will say that year in and year out since I started keeping stats my annual avg speed from all that year's ride has always been somewhere in the 17 mph range.

Now for silly fun this year I've been trying to run each of my 20+ road bikes at an average speed of 19 mph for my base 24-30 mile daily route. I've managed it so far with 19 of the bikes, 3 more to get there with if the bad weather will ever stop.

Thread on this silly game here:
The 19mph avg pace game

Now speed based reality for me is that I've only have one ride this year where I've hit a 20 mph avg. Normally I have several of those a year so to me this says I'm slowing down. Riding the same route so much year in and year out means avg speed is an indicator to me about me but nothing more. You get a feel for how the wind and conditions are affecting you on the route as well as knowing what you should be able to to under a given condition such as winds and temperature and such. But it still isn't some comparable to any other rider unless your riding side by side or such.

delbiker1 

I no longer concern myself with average speed. My riding speed fluctuates a lot these days. I usually just ride at the pace I feel good doing at the time. I do occasionally kick it up to fast pace almost every ride. I will sometimes, when going for shorter rides, purposely push the pace for the entire ride and look at the average speed, but that is just curiosity.

rsbob 

At 66 and being somewhat competitive, I tend to push myself but do stop to take pictures of nature and oddities to post on Strava and here. Reviewing my data for the last 3 months, I did a relatively flat 40 mile ride while pushing at 18.8. My hilly routes, between 1200 and 2000’ of climbing bring the average down to 15-16 MPH. Recovery/spinning rides on the flats after hard days are still in the 15-16 range.

On flats I try to ride about 18 MPH with no wind. Some day I might back off and just ignore speed altogether but after getting back into cycling after a several year hiatus, its interesting to learn about my capabilities. Speaking of which, in November I plan to take my first cycling fitness program on Zwift to see if I can improve endurance.

caloso

Honestly, I don’t even have speed on my computer main display. If it’s a workout, I am looking at power numbers. If it’s a race, there are so many factors that it’s not even useful information. If it’s a group ride, I’m just doing the group speed. If it’s a commute, my speed is mostly determined by traffic lights.

Calsun

That is a key reason given for riders switching to a Class III e-bike. The motor assist allows them to go 3-4 mph faster and to be able to keep up with younger riders.

Bob Ross

[edit: see below]

Bob Ross

This thread reminds me of my two favorite aphorisms about road cycling, one of which is admittedly a bit snarky, and the other which is imho one of the most beautiful statements ever made on the topic:

- "Average Speed is for average people."

- "The thing that makes someone an 'A rider' isn't how fast they can go or how far they can go; what makes someone an 'A rider' is the ability to ride fast and far gracefully."

bjjoondo 

LOL, well I can tell I'd be looking at EVERYONE's back, infact I'd have to be the SWEEP rider with 99.8% of this group of riders!!! I ride with my wife, JoLynn and she can ride for many hours but it's usually at a 5-8 mph pace so that's what I set unless there's a LOT of steep uphill grades, then since I ride a bike and she rides a trike I have to speed up not to fall over or have to push!! Wave as you fly by and have a great ride!

John E

My younger son is a natural athlete, but I am quite the opposite (a total klutz, to be precise), so he must have inherited it from my amateur ballerina wife.

As I have written in the past, bicycling was the first sport that grabbed my interest and motived me to get into some semblance of physical condition, but even in my early 20s, I was far from being "race material." I have never been a particularly fast rider, and I probably average around 15mph now. When I was 22, I could maintain a pace of 16-17mph for 200 miles, but I no longer have that kind of endurance, at least at that speed, which feels like a stretch now, instead of the "all day pace" it was back then.

I am thankful I can still enjoy bicycling for exercise, recreation, and transportation, and I owe my generally excellent physical health to bicycling, as well as walking/jogging, diet, and modest weight training.

rsbob 

This past Nov I joined a bunch of youngsters (30-40 somethings) in a climbing challenge on Strava. The challenge was to do 50,000’ for November. I knew I had zero chance of hitting the goal, but it was fun participating and encouraging and being encouraged to do our best. I felt like the grandpa, since I have a 40 YO son. Three youngsters hit 60,000 in their testosterone-fest but the majority of people had less than half of that, including myself. What I did gain, was good a group of new enthusiast friends (we are going out for beer on the 7th) and as a result of my effort became a better climber and learned to pace myself rather than attack and being spent at the top. Also learned that any long grades over 10% take the joy out of climbing.

Would I do it again? Sure but never in the rainiest month or during the winter months, since indoor trainers were out. My take away is that being challenged worked for me, perhaps not for you, since anywhere I ride around here involves climbing - and to be better makes cycling more enjoyable.