OldTryGuy

Like some riders, I do not have a minimum speed set to shut off my 920XT Garmin. When I come to a red traffic light and continue to ride closed circular loops instead of stopping while waiting for the light to change, the 2mph moving speed at that time factors into lowering the average mph. We usually have a 5 mile warm-up (neutral zone riding ) after which some on the ride then start their computer whereas mine is on from the start again lowering the average.

Thanks for the

kbarch

No, I'm afraid it's totally hopeless, guys. The only way to compare "average speeds" as a measure of performance or achievement is to compare identical rides or sets of rides. Aside from folks enrolled in the same training program, maybe, who could ever do that? Not a bunch of random folks on the interwebs, that's for sure!

DrIsotope

Total mileage > average speed

Probably +95% of my rides start and end in my driveway. The computer is started in the driveway when I leave, and stopped when I return. The notion of starting the clock only after I've warmed up and stopping it before cooldown is ridiculous.

Mostly because it takes me about 40 minutes to warm up.

Carbonfiberboy 

Really! People trying to fudge their average?!! Sure doesn't work on a brevet. You start when you start and you get there when you get there. Same with saddle time. The clock is running whenever the wheels are turning. Both moving and ET averages are useful to keep track of. Obviously the more you stop the faster you can go between stops. So both are good things to keep track of. If you're too embarrassed to post your real averages, well, don't post them. No problem. On the ride I posted above, I was 15' slower in saddle time this year, however I was 15' faster on ET than last year. Meaning I spent a whole 1/2 longer last year faffing. Good to know! It's often faster on ET to ride solo like I did this year.

caloso

Time and effort.

wphamilton

All true, but we won't let that stop us from arguing and pontificating about it. It's traditional.

Carbonfiberboy 

Which brings up a mildly interesting thing. When I bought my Edge 800, new from the factory, it came with a cut-off speed of 2 mph. I changed that right away to Stopped. But I did think it quite curious to have that as the default.

tomato coupe

Quick.

OldTryGuy

When I do my midnight departure no touch 100 milers, they do indeed yield actual comparable averages since the route is repeated. I did that often when preparing for my first and second Ironman Florida and since I have decided to attempt my third IMFL in November 2019 as a 69yo OlderTryGuy, I will be checking my averages for improvement.

Seattle Forrest

Solo yesterday https://www.relive.cc/view/1703214169

DrIsotope

Solo this morning. Two Toe Taps

Dan333SP

Indeed. His signature will explain that.

bikebreak

If you have Strava or GPS unit set to auto-pause when you stop.

Even with that set, it takes at least few seconds for the GPS and strava to realize you stopped, so city riding with frequent stops lowers your average noticeably

McBTC

All good information covering a lot of riding styles, distances, methods of measuring performance, ages, frequency of activity and many other things to consider to arrive at a meaningful individualized analysis... enough so that I think for sure I'm pretty slow (avg. 12.6 mph max). But, I do think the overall average while the wheels are rolling is a worthwhile metric to work on and into a training program so... on my wireless CatEye Strada with RPM emphasized as it is in a big digital number at the top of the small screen, I plan to leave the tiny number on the bottom set to at avg. mph. If on the same ride out and back I ever get close to 13, I'll work like hell to nail it down.

rubiksoval

I don't understand the fascination with RPM. RPM fluctuates a huge amount according to a number of factors. As an example, today I was between 70 and 136 rpms in a 25 mile, 20.8 mph avg. ride. Trying to lock yourself in to a specific rpm sounds awful and not very efficient.

caloso

I agree. I don't get it either. In fact one of the benefits of the old school FG winter training was that most of the time you are in the wrong gear. Got a headwind? Mash it. Got a tailwind? Spin it. And that is to get comfortable with a wider range of RPMs and essentially broaden your power band.

WhyFi

No, Strava ignores your GPS unit's auto-pause or lack thereof.

profjmb

There are no 20 minute climbs in Chicago.

dennis336

I'm not a fast rider ... a month shy of 65 years old. I most often ride solo and don't have speed as a goal although I do check my average speed after each ride. Having said that, it's not a real meaningful number in my case. This past weekend, for example, I did a 56 mile ride, probably around 3,000 feet of climbing and ended the ride with a 13.6 mph average speed. It was in a new area for me (well, the second time I did it, but I forget a lot, so it's almost like the first time). So, there's the usual lights and stop signs, a couple of snack stops - one for an energy bar another stop rolling into a farm store for their locally made ice cream. Then, there's a few spots where I'm kind of slowing down, meandering, missing a turn, circling back, etc. Then, I thought I'd check out a side road to see how it looked and kind of meandered down that and back. Finally, I got waved down by two ladies on horses who wanted to know the fastest way back to the horse stable where they started from (true story). Not saying I would have set any land speed records with no stopping, but the 13.6 probably isn't terribly meaningful (that's ok, it was a great day on the bike!).

McBTC

That's because it's spinning is something you can take for granted-- I could never do 135 RPM (not even 100). For some of us, spinning is anything in the mid-70s and over. I only recently understood, from the banana-eating Aussie bike-review guy, durianrider (he's very pro-spinning), who everyone loves to hate, that mashing is anything below 80 and that you're not spinning until you get above 90, which means after years of trying to become a better spinner (like championship-doper LA taught us), I've only managed to not be a masher. Anyone count the RPMs of all those knees of all the peloton riders in the ongoing 2018 TdF? Not a masher in the batch.

McBTC

Horsepower is a function of rpms and torque and for some of us who have to get by with what we've got in the way of 'torque' we need more rpms because we 'jus ain't got the horses without the bees' knees. But, it turns out, increasing rpms is about as difficult as putting on more muscle.

woodcraft

Actually the reverse IME. Every stop requires slowing, and then accelerating, so the more stops, the lower the average speed, and a rest stop does not tend to give a 15% speed boost.

I suspect this is true even on very long rides, for example 3 hrs at 14.5 mph takes you 43.5 miles.

If the next 3 hours includes a 20min stop and then 16 mph ave, you'd go 42.5 miles, and the cruising speed would have to be even higher to compensate for the stopping & starting, and more, shorter stops makes it worse.

Carbonfiberboy 

Back before I was in good-enough shape, on long climbs I'd stop for 1-2 minutes every hour. It seemed to me I was faster up the pass that way. Maybe not, maybe so. In any case, it's always "faster" not to DNF. Strava counts the stops, most bike computers are set not to.

There's an old story about a couple of LD racers who argued about this. One ate only on the bike. The other ate real meals. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of the riders. Anyway, the guy who ate on the bike was faster on a very long brevet, but not by the margin one might expect. The real meals rider averaged 14.5, IIRC, so these were pretty quick riders.

woodcraft

This was hashed out in the thread about moving average vs overall average speeds

with the idea that it's kind of cheating to call out moving average because you can stop & rest, then ride faster.

But in terms of going fast, stopping definitely slows you down.

HTupolev

What about eating real meals on the bike? Fork and knife and some steak dinners stashed in a handlebar bag?