Calla lily

My average over all rides so far this year is about 12.8. That includes some off road, beach, family rides. My average on mostly flat, paved bike trails is around 13.5 to 14 mph.

Norboo

Thanks to everyone that replied. For those that think in one dimension, world is 3D.

Basically, I wanted to know avg speed for hybrid bike riders to better gauge the time frame it will take to do a century. I did most endurance sports including, marathons, triathlons (Olympic distance, not Iron Man distance), event called A2A (88 miles up Smoke mountain in Alanta on rollerblade) for 3 years. Only thing I haven't done is a century. Lately, I've been lazy and pretty out of shape. My tired old body can't take the aggressive geometry of my racing road bike anymore and was wondering if I wanted to try a century on my hybrid bike (Trek D.S. 8.6, 2016).

This is the time frame and avg I would have to target from the data posted thus far. Thank you.
12.5 MPH = 8 hours.
13.5 MPH = 7:24 hours
14.5 MPH = 6:53 hours

canklecat

That's a very useful perspective. I'm also getting close to the point where the time it may take to finish a century is more a factor than the distance. Since making a few 30-mile rides this year I can feel my long distance conditioning improving rapidly (part of it is mental, being patient enough to ride through the usual discomforts). But I haven't ridden 100 miles or longer since I was in my 20s, and all those were large group rides accompanied by my own bike club.

One reason I'm considering another bike is to shave a fraction off speed and minimize effort, just enough to gain that essential bit of an edge in physical and mental endurance over the long haul. I'm sure I *could* do a solo century ride on my comfort hybrid. I'm just not sure it's a smart idea.

mrodgers

Average speed has many many factors. I use RWGPS and a bike computer and keep records of my rides in Excel. My overall average speed in 2014 was 10.4 mph. In 2015 I rode about 25% of what I rode the previous year due to rain, more overtime at work, and buying a kayak giving up many nice weekends to paddling. Average was 10.0 mph. This year so far is 10.5 mph.

I have a lot of riding on a flat trail and a lot more riding that is between 80 and 100+ ft per mile. That all contributes to average speed.

I am now riding more in traffic with stop signs, red lights, etc. Previously I lived out in the country and would see maybe 3 cars in 20 miles of riding and 2 stops. Now I'm among a lot more cars and stop a lot.

I'm plenty overweight so even though I haven't encountered a hill I can't climb yet (aside from my first 2 weeks of riding on the road 3 years ago), I don't climb them fast. Where I use to drop completely into my lowest gear on just about any grade, I now find myself staying in the 2nd chain ring for most hills and when I do drop to the small chain ring, I'm not dropping to the lowest gear in the back any more except for the more extreme grades (14-18% grades which I am seeking out more and more.) Riding up hills overweight at 3-6 mph will put a significant damper in your average mph speed.

I also don't fly down hills as fast as I can go either. If I'm climbing 14-18% grades, that typically means in my terrain, I've previously gone down 14-18% of which I'm not pedaling, I'm grabbing brakes. The fact that I'm on the brakes and going slower (I don't like above 35 mph) causes the uphill to be more of a factor in lowering my average than the downhills increasing the average.

Stopping has a huge impact on average speed. It's not the being stopped that affects it. It's the slowing down and speeding up part on either side of the average speed. Most computers or gps apps don't record the stopped time, it's a moving average. I tested it out on my flat trail 6 mile out and back once trying to get my average closer to my cruising speed. I always averaged about 13.5 mph on this ride while I cruise the whole ride at 15-17 mph. I jumped up to speed as quickly as possible and watched heading out to never go below 16 mph. When I turned around, I stopped as quickly as I could, got turned around and back up to speed as quickly as I could and never got below 16 mph on the way back. I was blasting as hard as I dared through the 5 pylon barriers to minimize the amount of time I was below 16 mph. The result was still 13.5 mph. My conclusion is that slowing down has a far greater impact on keeping your average speed down than speeding up has on getting your average speed up.

Riding on smooth road vs back country rough chipseal roads has a huge impact on how fast you can ride. Also not only wind, but traffic speed and how much can have a huge impact. I have a 15 mile route that about 1/3 is back low travel roads with rough chipseal not smoothed down by traffic. On a long flat section of part of this I cruise along at around 17-18 mph pushing moderately. I then get out on a heavily traveled 55 mph state road for 2/3 of the rest of the ride getting out onto the road surface when there's no cars and riding the wide shoulder when there are cars coming. With the wind always going in the direction I travel back in even when not much wind and cars flying past me at 55-65 mph causing wind to push me along when I'm on the shoulder, I am usually cruising this part of my route around 20-22 mph.

Many many factors to consider when looking at average mph.

MikeinBuffalo

Fastest I've ever been is about 30 mph, going bat out of heck down a pretty good sized hill on my way home.

Usual average on a ride is about 13-14 mph, once I hit 15-16, you start to feel the wind push back.

TheLibrarian

8.5-10 mph usually not in a rush, most is on dirt trails. Pretty similar even on the mup where i am considerate of walkers and everyone else. With BF calculations it puts me at 15 without breaking a sweat.

americanrecluse

My weekend ride is 10 miles, pretty flat, with a good handful of stoplights. I average just under 11mph

Doctor Morbius

Just finished a 15 mile fairly flat ride at 14.2 MPH. On one of my road bikes that would be about 1 MPH faster per hour.

DTra1n

14-15 mph on average, but I can reach up to 32 mph on flat smooth surfaces with no headwind. My average ride is 12-15 miles so far.

canklecat

According to Cyclemeter, 10.5 mph average over a leisurely 38.78 mile ride Sunday afternoon. That surprised me because it felt much slower, and I stopped several times while forgetting to pause Cyclemeter. If I'd remembered to pause it while I was stopped the average would have been closer to 12 mph. Very surprising to me because I didn't feel really tired until the last few miles, and the usual lycra-clad road racer guys were flying by like I was standing still.

On the other hand, I'm riding a fairly heavy comfort hybrid that probably pushed 40 lbs today (I was carrying some tools to adjust the derailers along the way), and mostly rode the gravel rather than paved path. Yet I passed several folks riding similar hybrids and sorta-mountain bikes. So I guess my conditioning is improving a bit, even though it feels like I'm pedaling through mush.

I hadn't given much thought to a lighter hybrid, but now I'm curious to find out how a 20-25 lb hybrid with flat bar might feel over a 20-30 mile ride.

Norboo

keep us updated when and if you do the comparison.

bobwysiwyg

Just happened upon this thread. I have to say it made me feel a little better. I've been back into cycling only about a year. Our terrain here is probably flat by the standards of folks living in the Colorado front range, but Ann Arbor is situated at the start of glacial moraines deposited by the last ice age, so we do have some hills, and decently long grades. My typical rides are 15 to 25 miles. On an average day I do about 10.5 mph according to Strava. On a good day maybe 11.5, but that's about is as an overall average. I too get passed by a lot of roadies, particularly on Huron River Drive. I've been attributing my 'performance' to excessive age, excessive weight and any number of other issues of which I have many.

Norboo

I started riding again after being lazy forever and on today's ride, I found out how out so shape I really am. Long ways to go before thinking about century.

limbot

Over 3230.7 kms, 55,200 m elevation and 181:04:16 hours my average speed on the DS 8.4 is 17.8 kmh. That's a mix of commute, ride like the wind, fire trails , mountain bike parks etc.

In comparison on my road bike ( commutes and rides) :

4080.5 kms, 62,671 m elevation, 183:31:53 hours average 22.0 km/h

Useless statistics really but I suppose interesting otherwise I wouldn't pay to be able to access them

unabowler

I found a ride on Strava that I did last fall...I averaged 16.2 mph for a 23.9 mile ride on my FX 7.2. It was a very flat route (0 feet of elevation change according to Strava) with little to no stops for traffic. I was in decent shape and riding hard. The next week I rode in the same part of town on my roadie and averaged 17.6 mph, and I that's about the typical difference in speed I see between the two bikes. Most of the rides on that hybrid are more like 14 mph.

jskash

I average about 13 mph on my Giant Escape. Putting a thorn resistant tube into the bike tire slowed me down some. I averaged 14 mph when I first got the bike.

camjr

I usually average between 13.8 - 14.8mph depending on the wind over a 20-30 mile ride on my Fuji Absolute 2.1.

jskash

I have removed the thorn resistant tube and put Crossroads Armadillo tires on the bike. My speed is about the same or perhaps a little bit faster.

Michael Novo

The course I ride is a direct line along the lake front in Chicago. Wind is a big factor usually being against me when I ride south and then with me on the way back. Last week was my highest average on my Specialized Sirrus Comp Carbon @ 16.6mph over 8.42 miles. Other rides (some have more bike and people traffic depending on time of day on the trail)...

15.4mph / 11.53 miles
15.3mph / 10.18 miles
13.2mph / 21.15 miles (hit the wall on this one early in season)
14.3mph / 10.77 miles (5:45pm, bit more peeps on the trail)

prj71

17 mph yesterday on a 22 mile ride on my Specialized Crosstrail.

metro2005

My commute is a 30 mile round trip with some pretty nasty steep bridges and viadutcts, flat areas with headwinds and some city riding. Average speed is around 14Mph.

Ag Driver

I'm a 205 lb rookie rider and have been doing 25km rides at 25km/hr (15.5mph). I'm glad to see I'm doing alright.

Maverick 13330

Hybrid bike is a bit heavy for long ride. Im still running my roam with its 40mm tires when im not racing it on century gravel grinding. 14MPH on hilly paved road and around 11MPH for century gravel races.

skycomag

what program are you using to track your rides?
thanks,
skycomag

gemini

This is what I find, too, after just a couple of weeks of doing 25-50 km rides on most days. The total time for a given ride has improved only a little, but the hills have become noticeably easier to take and I have more confidence when riding fast downhill.

My average is around 22 km/h (13.7 mph), on a Trek Allant 7.2. I'm not overweight but also not very fit. The rides are on asphalt with small hills and maybe a third of the route in city traffic with traffic light stops etc. I use the Endomondo app in addition to a simple computer on the bike, and I guess I should take a look at the different parts of the route in the GPS tracking. I think I have improved slightly on the continuous road parts, leaving out the city traffic bits.