I can normally hold a cruising speed of 14-16, but including slowdowns for turns, stops, accelerating, avoiding dog walkers, etc., my average over most rides comes to somewhere around 13 according to my computer.

So, my question is, when people here talk about their average speed, how are they usually measuring it and what is included in that?

The average speed for the time that my bike was moving.

When I clip in on my driveway until I clip out on my driveway.

Stops, starts, and slow downs are a part of riding. That said, when I come to a light or stop sign, I try to stop as quickly as possible to engage the AUTO PAUSE on my Edge 500. Slowly coasting to a halt or track stand attempts at a light will lower my avg quite a bit.

Depends on the person's computer so who knows. Accurately: D/(TotalT - StoppedT) but one never knows....

On BF, its usually your fastest sustainable speed +5-6 mph. Its usually preceded by the phrase, "I was cruising along..."

But seriously, it should be distance traveled / time you were on the bike. Some people leave out stopped time, some don't. Your computer may or may not stop the clock when you stop. Also keep in mind average times are fairly useless. You time on a crowded mup, or in the city with lights and traffic will be very different from your time on an empty country road in a group of 5-10 similarly fit riders.

I got on my bike and started riding at 2pm.
I got off my bike and stopped riding at 4pm.

I rode 36 miles.

My average speed is (36 miles / 2 hours) = 18 mph

Pretty simple.

I think most commonly, it is the average speed shown on the speedometer "average speed" function, and most of those omit stopped time.

Thanks. Mine omits stopped time, so my 13-ish speed compares with what you guys are measuring. I just wasn't sure if people were referring to normal cruising speed, or overall speed over the course of a ride.

Takes a lot to raise that average! Last summer I was doing well to hit a 12mph average and I'm usually coming in with a high 12 or low 13ish average now. On a short ride (for me that is 15 miles or less) I will push myself a bit harder and can usually get over 13.5.

People mean all kinds of things when they say "average speed" - especially on the internet. A lot of people say that to mean a speed they can maintain on flat ground. Unless they say explicitly what they mean, you cant really know for sure.

just strap the ole ipad to the bars and open this

Don't.

/end thread

No it doesn't. Just go down a hill. You'll have to climb it first, but you can reset the computer before you head back down. Basically, don't try to compare yourself against the internet. Apart from all the bragging that goes on in here, X mph average means very different things in the mountains, on the flats, and in wind country.

Something else that is not obvious is that even if the speedometer omits stopped time, on a route with a lot of starts and stops, it'll include a bunch of slow time while you're accelerating and decelerating. So riding out on the open road will usually give a noticeably higher average speed than riding around downtown, even if you work about as hard either way.

Here's how I look at average speed:

I don't care about it and never display it on my computer until I am 1.5 miles from home returning from my ride... then I bury myself pushing out every last ounce of strength I have trying to get that mofo to go up .1 mph before I hit home.

Sometimes I get it to go up, and sometimes I just end up pooping my pants.

friggin triguys

It would be interesting if there was a metric that took into account elevation gain/loss in addition to average speed (and maybe even temp and wind) so that you could have a fairly unbiased number. Not so much for internet bragging, but I'd like to be able to better compare efforts to track improvement (or lack of).

Maybe that's what a power meter is for...

^ If you wear a heart-rate-monitor, there's a TRIMP metric that boils down to a single number (like points), which is basically how much time you spent in each zone, with redline being "worth more" than anaerobic, which in turn gets you more points than aerobic... Not at all the same as speed (because a fat guy will work himself much harder than a skinny one) but I'm sure it could be done, and, if it's just to compare against your own efforts, that might be useful, too.

^cool

But that's a lot of math. I'm lazy. Will my Garmin spit this out for me?

This is true.
"average speed" is simply the average speed on your (perfectly calibrated) computer after a ride.
Not counting stopped time ... for traffic lights or the likes ... isn't really cheating since you have to slow down for a light and get back up to speed, which drops the average quite a bit anyway.

OP ... your average is quite low ... but hey ... who cares, right? Everybody's different and we don't all have to be speeddemons

Interesting, because I also play that game, but without the pooping in my pants bit.

For posting here in the 41?

Whatever it really is multiplied by 1.5 or 2, depending.

It's all relative. I'm still a toting around an extra 50-60 pounds. We'll see what it looks like after I graduate from Clyde status and have another riding season under my belt..

It's funny, only among other cyclists do I feel apologetic for only riding 35 miles or so at a 13mph average. It impresses the heck out of my non-riding family & coworkers. I did latch onto the local racing club last night and managed to hang with them for about 2 1/2 miles until I burned out.

There's my problem! So my average is really about 19 1/2 in BF miles.

Many people periodically look at their bike computer. Lesee.. 20, 19, 18, 20, 20... I'm averaging 20 MPH.

Lots of people have their bike computer programmed to stop and start when they do.

A few people divide elapsed time by distance.

And some people just ignore it because it varies too much depending on wind and terrain.

Very true. A lot of my favorite rides I end up with an unworthy-for-BF-bragging Avg speed as just a number. But what is the real expectation when the ride is almost totally hours of 5% plus hill climbing? Context is everything...