Having shattered my collar bone into 3 pieces now I do just that.

There are so many average speed threads, but people still come back to reply to every new one. Interesting.

OP, i asked kinda the same question you asked and I was ridiculed as well. I still learned something though.

Average speed should be exclusive and personal to the route that you ride. If you really want to see how you're doing, ask someone who does the same exact route that you do, what their avg speed is.

And then, you ride that route, and compare it. Ride a little more, then do that route and see if you improve. That's what i've been doing lately and i have seen improvement.

I have a 40 Mile Route which i usually average 16 mph. There's a lot of hills and wind is common where i live, so i don't expect my avg speed to be as high as 19 or 20. But i still think 17 or 18 is possible.

Best of Luck to You.

Your mistake is thinking that being told you are thinking about it wrong is being ridiculed. You learned something, so the "ridicule" was apparently informative, no?

Every time an average speed thread comes up, the poster needs to be taught that it has little use as a metric for comparison to others.

Some replies were informative, and some weren't.

Welcome to bikeforums.

ftfy.

Not sure why you're babbling on about my happiness. What has that to do with you being wrong?

I take words at "face value." And since you seem to take offense at having your errors highlighted, you might want to consider doing the same.

please stop.

:facepalm:

You were almost there...

ummm...Really guys?

I'm sure original topic only retained my interest because I'm new to the forum; I'm sure time will jade me but for now...looking at umd's numbers it struck me that for the OP's purposes they do illustrate how relative a mph average is. There is a <1mph variance despite the wide ranges of max speeds, distances and efforts (per power output and HR.) Makes the mpg avg seem somewhat useless, especially when used alone in a void. FWIW I love numbers, am totally glad to see power stats, wish more people would post 'em. If I could figure out how to get my hands on a power meter I'd be a happy camper I've found I have way more fun on a group ride with a good range of riders, forget what the computer says. If I'm going to base performance on relative data I prefer that to be in the context of how long I hung on or how far I go before that first 'maybe I should have 9-1-1 on speed dial' feeling hits.