johnybutts

7b, please go read the stick in the road racing forum.. The point of all these posts is that you can't measure the difficulty of a ride with average speed.

In racing what will eliminate you from the group is speed bursts. for instance, maybe you can hold 23 mph all day long but your max speed is 28. In a race, if the speed picks up to 30 mph, you're not going to make it.

If you can accelerate from 15 mph to 28 mph 20 times in a row, and in a race, they do this 40 times in a row.. you're not going to make it.

The examples go on and on and on and on. Please do us ALL a favor and sign up for your first race and go do it. Then come back here and read some more. Then you can ask some questions =)

Yaniel

who cares what everyone elses average is? some people are slower than you, a lot are probably faster. all you need to care about is that you're getting faster and not compare to anyone else. specially when posting an average online automatically adds 3mph to it.

WHOOOSSHHH...

Solo in Ft lauderdale last week 52 miles 19.8 avg.
Solo in Va. today with average rollers 42 miles 18.1 average
Total together 5 hours at 18.8 mph.

Thats what he's looking for girls. Don't make it out like it's rocket science. He wants a bunch of averages so he can get a ballpark of how he stacks up...Instead, you clowns have to try and outwit each other in every post...Your not witty...stick to your day jobs!!

WHOOOSSHHH...

He cares...NUFF SAID

Yaniel

i do a 45 group ride with a 20mph average, today i rode 40 miles at 16 mph. how is that helpful?

umd

Not very many people can do a 40k tt in an hour, especially with standard road equipment.

bobthib

How do you spell mental ************?

Yaniel

with a U

halfspeed

All other things are never equal. "Average speed" is not a useful measure for what the OP is attempting to discover.

umd

This.

If OP want to know how he "stacks up" he should do group rides, races or time trials.

halfspeed

Sometimes it's far more helpful to point out why the question isn't the right one.

BarryJo

Well there you have it, 18.8mph should be the OP's target assuming they split their time equally between 52 mile rides in Ft Lauderdale and 42 mile rides in Virginia.
And all these years I was burning brain cells trying to figure out why certian people were more concerned with time and effort than avg MPH.
Duh!

chado445510

I can average about 15 MPH solo. I think it's time for me to try riding in a group.

Nachoman

I haven't heard you say that before, but I'm the same way. I'll come home after doing loops on Fiesta Island and see 19.5 and I'm just pissed off.

eminefes

Meh, just round up.

merlinextraligh

I would be willing to bet that the majority of the people who post comments along the lines that average speed is irrelevant, and that you should focus on other matrices 1) actually race, and 2) are faster. Hence its not motivated by an inferiority complex.


The simple truth is that if you don't race, i.e. don't desire to compare yourself to others, then your average speed is irrelevant.

And if you do desire to compare yourself to others, the venue is a race, or at least a competitive group ride, or time trial, not an e wang contest.

Any estimate based upon comparing average speeds cannot begin to prepare you to race, and anyone who has actually pinned on a number understands that.

merlinextraligh

Bingo.

StephenH

I live where there aren't many hills and no mountains. If it's not especially windy or problematic otherwise, I'll average between 15 and 17 mph on a ride. In the Lone Star Randonneurs, most of them are faster than me, so I'm on the slow end of the "serious" scale. I'm overweight and 49 years old, by the way.

You will find people riding all speeds. I've had people pass me like I was sitting still. I've ridden an industrial tricycle on charity rides at 8 mph, and passed people while doing so. Adjust your speed so you're getting a good workout, but not dying of exhaustion, either, and whether that's 12 mph or 25 mph, figure you're good and don't worry about it.

Also, note that to most of us, "average speed" is the average shown on the speedometer, not total distance divided by total times. Sometimes people measure these things differently.

7bmwm3gtr

I was just curious about how fast other people ride, and I wanted to compare to myself.

I'm still very new to cycling, and I am now understanding that Average Speed is determined in so many factors making it useless.
I also wanted to know if I'm behind, or not within the medium of people's Average Speed.

Right now in Daly City, 10 Minutes from San Francisco there are Southwest Winds going about 8+ MPH. In Daly City there is really a
100% encounter of rolling hills from 5% grades to 14%, some go up to 19% in neighborhoods which aren't a major route.

But during my rides in my hometown, i always climb about 1/2 mile of a hill at about 7% grade, plus the headwind of about 7%. This is typical
weather during Winter.

So i wanted to compare my results of average speed to others, during this time I'm been getting about 14-16 MPH average speed, despite lots of climbing and the headwinds. My cadence has been low at about 75-80 RPM.

Please keep in mind I've been cycling for Almost one year, and I'm still 17 years old. I have done one race, i was one spot away from a podium place (6th Place Juniors) out of about 12 others but that was a 3.5 Mile Climb in a local mountain.

So i'm still new to cycling, and I'm trying to get exposed to the averages and what not, so for the people who actually took me serious, thanks a whole lot.

And for the people who thought this was a joke, grow up.

Grumpy McTrumpy

has it occurred to you that there might be a legitimate reason why people thought it was a joke?


I realize the search function may not be quite perfect, but a simple search of the Road Cycling forum for the following phrase

"average speed" in the thread title

yielded 63 results.


If you care to wager, I will consider bets as to one or more of those threads revealing precisely the information you want to know.


Now consider this: Let's say that you have been here for a while and have been participating long enough to have actually witnessed a fair number of those threads. How would you react?

MSC_Mav

ok so obviously you arent going to get a real answer in the 41. but if you go and ask this question to riders who you deem "experienced"(which im sure you will, i think we all do when we first start out) keep in mind, theyre probably lying to make themselves seem awesome. whatever your average speed is, is fine. keep riding and youll get faster. then a year later your average will go up and thatll just be fine too. have fun on your rides and take some time to enjoy the scenery.

7bmwm3gtr

Um yeah i'm not about to go in every one of those threads, i have cycling, homework, house responsibilites, family responsibilites, etc, which i need to do.

In other words, its absolutely more convenient to post this, do what i have to do, come back during a free time, then just read what people left behind.

For someone who would post, let's say, a "cliche post" such as this one, i might as well give them a tip or two, assuming that they're new. And

If they're not, then oh well at least i could give some insight to that person.

I could do that, or i could be mature and just ignore it. I'm 17, I know the right way to respond to someone seeking opinions or answers.

halfspeed

This is all understandable, but the range of abilities among cyclists is surprisingly wide. There's a huge gap between a "fast" recreational cyclist and a successful CAT4 racer. "Average speed" seems like a good measure to a new cyclist, but it just isn't. Spend a couple of seasons just riding a lot, and if you still love it, do some research about structured training.

Grumpy McTrumpy

in other words, you want people to do your homework for you. gotcha.

real mature kid.

7bmwm3gtr

Actually, this post was "real mature."

All i really wanted to know is if I'm considered a slower-than average cyclist...