Am I the only one who's not in a hurry?

[MacB]

Surely you need to take into account the fact that one person's cruising speed is another's flat out!

I average around 18mph for my commute which is a nice steady effort. The journey often involves stretches well in excess of 20mph filtering past slow moving traffic as well as riding in primary keeping up with the traffic. None of this would be considered as 'balls out' effort.

Being on a bike you are higher than most of the traffic on the road. You have excellent visibility of traffic up ahead and there is really very little excuse for getting into a situation which might be considered dangerous!

Naturally the average speed a person can maintain, while remaining in full control, will vary greatly. I originally plucked No's out of the air then gave more specifics based around my own abilities only. When I mention 'balls out' I mean the level of effort not really the speed achieved, that's a by product of too many factors.

My guess is that anyone putting effort above safety will naturally run a greater risk of getting involved in, what for many of us would be, an avoidable situation. As to what level of effort, and consequently speed, this would occur at, only you can know.

 

[threefingerjoe]

Uncle Phil.

I also have trouble understanding why so many people are in such a hurry. I enjoy my morning commute, and am in no big hurry to get the ride over and get to work. But, by nature, I'm not a competitive person in any way. If someone wants to "scalp" me, fine...if I see them in the mirror, I'll move over and let them by. If, however, they feel like chatting, I welcome the company, and will speed up to chat. I have to wonder, however, when I'm nearly at the top of a long, steep hill near the end of my ride, and someone pulls out onto the road from a sidestreet at the top of the hill and "scalps" me, does he brag about scalping the old, fat geezer?

Same when I'm in my car. I rarely exceed the speed limit, and often drive 5 mph under. I leave a lot of following distance, time traffic lights, and rarely have to brake. I'm amazed at the number of cars that go sailing past, engines screaming, only to get up behind the line of traffic ahead of me, and step on the brake! Watch the aggressive drivers, sometime. They tailgate, and end up doing a flamenco dance on the pedals. Brake lights flashing on and off, and constant lane changing...to gain, what, 2 minutes?

I'm with you on the winter riding, too. Funny, isn't it, how all of the "scalpers" seem to disappear when the temp is -10C and there is a little ice and snow on the road?

 

[hackbike 666]

Im actually up early as (technically)I don't have to be there till 9am although actually im on at 8am but my workcolleague says he will get there at 9am.So I will be having breakfast at work and a cup of tea and my work colleague will be getting a lie in.

Do I get a medal?

Actually I prefer this time commute (or earlier) I should get there at 0730.Byt he time i've locked the bike up and got up ther it will be near 8am as long as things go ok.

I had a headache for the last three hours of my snooze anyway so it was always worth getting up without a lie in.

 

[summerdays]

Being on a bike you are higher than most of the traffic on the road. You have excellent visibility of traffic up ahead and there is really very little excuse for getting into a situation which might be considered dangerous!

Depends where you are maybe... I will usually have my view reduced by vans, builders lorries, big taxi's, 4x4's, buses, delivery lorries etc. And cars and vans parked in stupid places on junctions.

 

[J4CKO]

Its funny, used to be content with just doing the commute, the simple fact of getting to work under my own power, after a year I feel that if I pootle that I havent had much benefit so need to work to maintain a high average, generally my normal average is 15/16 mph, best was 17.5, on a hybrid, other cyclist are always a target, sorry but it tends to spur me on to put some extra effort in, turned onto the A road today, saw a yellow dot on the horizon and thought I wasnt going to catch it, a mile later I caught and passed the bloke on the Spesh Sirrus Elite from work, I was doing 23 mph when I passed and bade him a cheery good morning, have to say he didnt seem particularly pleased to see me but obviously I will get my comeuppance, probably from the bloke on the serious looking Pinnarello Prince in the bike sheds.

 

[Ian Johnson]

Its all just human nature, a lot of joggers and runners probably get the same smug feeling when they pass slower runners panting for breath. The same goes on the the gym where sometimes a smaller guy comes in and pushes the same or heavier weights than the big guy who thinks he is Mr Universe.

 

[I am Spartacus]

There is a local B road, where there are summery cyclists smelling the flowers of meadows at going work going hometime....with queues of cars and busses behind them also enjoying the smells of flowery meadows... oh tra la la tra la loooo