StephenH

You've got some people on here that are expert riders. And you've got some fat old men out to lose weight. And pretty much everything in between. The problem is they all look the same on the internet, and they sometimes assume that all other riders are like them. So it can get confusing.

What is a "strong rider"? Is that the top 5% of all riders? The top 25%? Top 50%? Do you count all the guys riding Walmart mountain bikes down the sidewalk at 5 mph in the average? (If you go by numbers, that is probably 50% of the riders around here, so going 12 mph puts you in the upper 50% already.)

On the "average" speed definition- nearly always, as used in bicycling, it is the average speed given by your speedometer/computer, which in most cases eliminates "stopped" time. You'll still average slower with lots of redlights, as you have a significant amount of time in speeding up and slowing down. But total distance divided by total time can be a lot different. I just did a long hot ride on Saturday, and my average speed per the speedometer was 14.6 mph (<=== indication of "fat old man" status) whereas the total time divided by total miles was 10.4 mph. The extra time was spent sitting in AC and shade trying to get cooled off.

Palomar01

Real roadies don't sit in AC to cool off.

[joke]

StephenH

More likely to be true, I'm afraid. (And actually, when I pulled up to one convenience store, I went in to cool off, but the guy there ahead of me was sitting at a picnic table outside so he didn't get "too cool"!)

umd

:sigh:

kabex

I've been riding for 3 months now and own a very crappy road bike and I average about 33-35kph for extended periods (30 mins to 1 hour).

I calculated my power output and it's around 215watts, also I ride 2600m over the sea level I think that gives me an advantage(not to my lungs tho).

I just found out why my speed is so "high" for a newbie:

"
The higher you go in the atmosphere, the thinner the air. Thinner air means less air resistance, so athletes who sprint, jump, or cycle will perform better at high-altitude venues. But thinner air also means less oxygen, so the pace of hard endurance training and competition--which depends on high rates of oxygen consumption--gets slower at altitude.
https://www.sportsci.org/traintech/altitude/wgh.html

Hah!

scirocco

Precisely when you press the start and stop buttons on the stopwatch can make a huge, HUGE difference to the average. I have a two-hour solo country ride that I do that is mostly on long flat straight roads, and at only about 85% effort my computer tells me my average is 20mph / 32kph provided I hit the stopwatch about minute 20 and stop it about about minute 100. And I'm no Lance.

If I started and stopped the watch when I left the house the average would be about 16mph or even lower for the same effort.

vdek

Dunno about you guys, but when I use My Tracks on my Android phone, it gives me both an average speed and a moving average speed which takes stops into account.

Dr. Banzai

I'm trying to reconcile something here as to why riding solo has so much cachet for some. I'm 40, one pound away from being a clyde and can maintain 20mph for 2+ hours fixed with 81 gear inches - solo - at 5 feet above sea level. I'm not a strong rider.

I posted a little "hooray for me" thread about my first 100k ride fixed, solo, 49/16 and got a resounding "meh". It would seem that 20mph sustained for more than one hour is where you start to become a serious cyclist (fitness and saddle time wise). At least that is what reading the 41 has ingrained in me.

shovelhd

This is a test of the Emergency 41 Thread Troll System. It is only a test.

recon455

Well that's a relief.

If there was anything worse than average speed, it is average speed including stops(not breaks).

Body_Fortress

Glad to see this took off a bit while I was gone, great to see some good responses too, not great to see the cheek of some comments (not many of these).

Main question asked was how long I hold onto a 40km/hr average - it was for a 20km run, hopefully I can better that every time I go out, I wasn't fresh when I clocked in this average.

There was no wind to speak of, the road was pratically flat the whole way, The road was rough as it was the hard shoulder of a dual carriageway, but there was two patches of really fast tarmac where I hit my top speeds.

The main point I took out of this was definately where one of ye said that my average speed is good, but it wouldn't win any TTs, thanks for that, I'll def go faster next time out.

STUPID QUESTION: most of ye will see this as a stupid question, one good answer though and I'm happy, High Gear or Low Gear for a TT? I know high cadence is good on a long run and it's better for the knees, but what about for TTs... Thanks

DScott

So, you're going to be racing TT's?

If you're much like any of the trimathletes around here, that'd mean pushing a very low gear at/around 50 rpm. That's like a TT, yes?

And assuming you've got the guns for it, sleeveless jerseys are worth at least 1-2mph...

merlinextraligh

Noob 25mph for 30 minutes, without an aero setup, and wearing tennis shoes, lets just say I'm a bit skeptical.

Back in the day before aero wheels, and tri bars, sub hour 40k TT was pretty good, and not something that all well trained amatuer racers could do.

Even today with aero equipment, there are pretty sucessfull Cat 3's and 4's that don't break an hour.

Based on your post, you should be just a touch over an hour for 40K, which leads to the conclusion that either 1) there is some puffery in your claim, your not really such a noob, or you have some natural talent.

umd

There is always the possibility that his (one-way?) 20k run was slightly downhill and/or with a tailwind

Body_Fortress

Due to my kickboxing and weight lifting, I have massive thigh muscles, which helped my speed as the only part of my legs that got tired was the teardrop muscle on the knee. I can sprint up hills not a bother, but long distance hill climbing is not a strength of mine at all.

Also coming from my other sports, I have learned to push myself really hard, the thought "the others are training harder than you" always runs through my mind and I train even harder.

Sleeveless jersey is my next investment after cycling shoes if it means faster speeds.

When I did the average speed of 40km/hr I had it on the big reel and bottom gear all the way, with two or three change ups when it was needed.

I'm not sure about the slope of the TT, I have heard the first half is easier due to a smoother surface, but I did both halves of the practice TT with the same time.

I will post every detail about my times tommorrow, I'm going to do it again and push myself even harder.

topflightpro

I once held my pace over 40 mph for almost three miles on a relatively flat road in West Texas.

Of course, I had a bit of a tailwind. Actually, it was a massive tailwind. When I turned in to the wind, I was struggling to go 8 mph.

kensuf

OK, for the most part this thread is a joke, and I was tempted to answer it with "it's not miles per hour, but smiles per hour that count," but this is a pretty serious question so I'll take it seriously.

For TT's, I use the cadence that feels most comfortable that I can maintain. If my HR is starting to go high, I might go into a harder gear and drop my cadence briefly, but I typically average 98-102 rpm's during a TT because that is my normal comfortable cadence.

BTW -- 25mph (40kph) isn't too shabby for a beginner on just a road bike. It'll probably win you a "merckx" class race, but it won't win you a full blown TT race against people with aero gear. However, you'll probably go faster with some aero gear.

For a 40k TT you'll probably need to average at least 27mph (~43kph) to be competitive; I took 3rd in our state championships 40k with a 26.9mph average, 100rpm cadence. It doesn't take a lot of expensive aero gear to be fast either, a $90 set of clip-on aerobars and a $90 disc cover from wheelbuilder.com will go a long way towards giving you some speed for relatively cheap.

Good luck,

Ken

umd

That was a joke at the expense of triathletes...

ricohman

I can average 32kmh over my 40km loop. And I live out of the city.
And when I did my first TT a couple weeks ago I got the same results. I did hit 74kmh down a hill on a club ride last week.
I like gravity but hate the wind.........

Body_Fortress

Will look into it Ken, thanks... if I had started the thread a little differently it might not have seemed a joke to the members who have been cycling a long time.

The TT league that I am planning on entering has Maverick (might have spelt that wrong) wheels as the overall prize. The problem is that a lot of the competitors have spent the price of the wheels on their aerogear so that they can win the wheels. Everyone in the top ten has tri bars, two of the main lads have very espensive TT bikes.

I do know that a fixed gear fella won a competition a few months ago against most of these competitors, it was a TT set up with lots of hills. If he can do it, then I can push myself to become as fast as some of these guys.

kensuf

yeah, there's a lot of threads which seem to be trolls..

DScott

Meanie.


The racing forum "TT thread": https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ead-click-here.

The racing forum "New to racing?" thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...s-a-tip-or-two

That should get you started...

umd

It wasn't my joke.

QuickityJacks

Just keep riding. Also, Palomar, you're insane or trolling.

Every turn on this route except one is a red light.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/42626398

I'd also like to point out it was ninety degrees, I'm almost thirty, I've only been riding since October, I'm on a steel bike with near bottom tier components and I'm way, way, WAY too fat for this sport at 220 lbs (still dropping, though).

This doesn't make me tough or good or fast, (I am, in fact, soft, weak, and slow) this makes riding at that speed very easy if you ride often. Hell, check out the HR, I wasn't even pushing it that much.

SwingBlade

A keeper for sure ... especially considering the lighting and tree shading, the width of the road, the water hazards, and all those driveways. Very impressive...