From 14 mph to faster
 

I mostly ride mountain bikes but I have started riding some road/gravel

I’m averaging 14 ish mph on my rides and struggle with going faster.

How do I bust through this barrier ?

Road tires?
Too many answers without knowing what you're actually doing to try to get faster--equipment and riding habits. Can you be more specific?

ride more. practice in a gear that lets you spin faster. experiment with different cadences and gears

Get an e-bike :)

No really don't stress. If that's your pace that's not terribly bad.

Average speeds change. Pushing bigger gears to get faster can cause knee damage or muscle injury. Ride within your comfort zone. Push the bigger gears when you have the downhills...and spin those big gears, but be ready to shift back to a different gear when the inertia wears off.

Just practice cadence consistency. The average will go up a little bit.

Ride more.

Average speed is relatively meaningless without additional context like distance and elevation.

If you are on MTB tires, you need to switch to a narrower "slick" tire for road or gravel. I used Continental Town and County tires on my MTB. 1.9" width. Really nice tires. They roll nicely on pavement, and grab pretty well in dirt/pebbles.

Suspension also causes a loss of performance. I took my suspension fork off since my bike was for commuting only, and all the fork seemed to do was add weight and absorb some of my pedal force.

Don't disagree with the other posters, but I mentioned tires because the ones that are good on dirt do tend to fight you on roads. I find if I ride with too soft tires on roads, I can get up to a pretty good speed, but I lose momentum quick and get really tired fast. It's also an equipment modification that doesn't cost a lot.

Find a friend who is slightly faster. Or just ride somewhere where typically people are a little faster, and try to keep them in sight.

Those really smart folks at bike shops sell these things that can fix "too soft tires."

I'm pretty sure that they call those things "pumps."

Motor paced training..

I've seen people on the MUP literally and audibly bouncing with each pedal stroke... And big knobby tires coasting down paved hills sound practically like cars, which was really disconcerting on the parkway-closed-for-recreation day.

Also saw a full suspension MTB outfitted with what seemed sub-inch road tires in a group on the greenway. Maybe they only looked that thin in comparison to the frame but it looked absurd. Still, sometimes you work with what you have, changing one piece at a time.

PEDs

Wow, Mr. Dunning-Kruger! Do you actually believe that treads are the same hardness and can be inflated to the same maximum pressures?

I'm pretty sure your snark demonstrates you don't know anything about the subject.

What kind of bike are you riding?
What kind of tires are on it? Mountain? Road? A hybrid tire?
Is the seat adjusted well?
Are you heavy? > 250#

There are a lot of variables. Sometimes it just takes conditioning. A few years back I was riding up a grade that used to kill me and I passed someone struggling along. He was on a road bike and not overweight. He commented that I should at least act like it was hard for me. He was a newer rider and I wasn't. I was better conditioned. The day will come when he will ride the grade without a problem.

Of course the durometer of knobs, if present, can vary widely. If a tire has knobs switching to a harder durometer knob will make a miniscule difference on pavement.

Describing a tire as "too soft" as you did certainly does showcase your ignorance since the best racing slicks (that can be inflated to maximum pressures!) use very soft rubber that provides the best grip.

Those "soft" tires don't make folks "lose momentum quick and get really tired fast." Unless they aren't pumped up to the optimum pressure. Hence my suggestion that confused folks like you visit a bike shop and get a pump.

Nah, you're mistaken. Again.

More seat time.
Interval training
Better tires
Aero bars
join more group rides
Get a heart rate monitor and learn how to use it.

I have a light road bike with 700x23s, you would probably ave like 18 on it. Get one. Or you can just not obsess with a number.

14 mph solo, in most situations, is not bad. Especially for a beginner. Why do you want to be faster?

Yes, I'm sure that the relevant discussion is the relative hardness of high end racing tires because clearly someone who is trying to get above 14 MPH is looking to drop grand tour money on that.

Dirt tires are generally softer in all senses of the word than the relevant level of road tires in this discussion, lower pressures and more give in the tread, not to mention knobby. That was obvious from the context of my post, and your "pump" crack was just stupid.

I just swapped out some dirt tires on my cyclocross for a set of road tires, same size, road tire slightly higher pressure, and the dirt tires not especially knobby. The difference in maintaining momentum on the road was dramatic.

You already sidetracked this thread enough with your nonsense. I won't be responding to you further, so feel free to put more stupid words in my mouth.

14-15 MPH is the average speed where my computers settle. Ride as fast and hard as you want, intersections and climbs will tank your average speed. The good news is that it's something you can get over. :)

That example was provided to illustrate why you are so absolutely confused with your "tires too soft"/'losing momentum" silliness.

p.s. "grand tour" money sounds expensive. Fortunately, in the real world, racing tires can be affordable.

I did not put any "stupid words" in your mouth. I merely quoted your own words. If you now think they are stupid you would be wise to reflect before posting such things again. I doubt you will though.

I ride a lot of solo centuries.

I'll be averaging quite a bit higher on one of my long rides, and then I hit a stretch going through a city, and the number starts gravitating in this way. Miles of 20-23 mph at level get countered by stop-start, stop-start really quick. I've had to stop focusing on my average MPH because I found trying to maintain it high was causing me to do stupid things in traffic situations.

Ok, you made a cute joke about tire pumps a ways back. Well done, you can stop now.

Yup. Those who drive to the start of a ride tend to have a higher average MPH than those who ride there, and overall/weekly average MPH is always highest for those who do pure road training and no commuting or MTB riding.

turn on auto pause on bike computer.

instead of using up too much energy trying to hammer up a hill work harder going downhill and on flats.

don't coast.

ride more.

my avg is higher when I ride on the road vs bike path that runs alongside the same road.

equipment upgrades can help, but the motor is what supplies the power no matter what you ride