Average Speeds

[potsy]

I use a start/stop style comp,but as it's only for me to gauge improvement then wth.
95% of my riding is commuting anyway so usually only a few minutes between a good ride and a slow one.

 

[jimboalee]

sorted that for you Jim

"Many a true word...."

The fact I could ride from home to Gt Malvern and back in an afternoon was beside the point.
On this Audax thing, there were time limits at specific places along the route, which installed an amount of PANIC!! when I slowed to 13 mph overall average.

The ride was a Populaire with a minimum speed of 10 kmh !!!. What the hell was I getting anxious for ?

There were other riders who held the routesheet in their hand (while holding the bars) for the entire route, checking it at junctions.
They didn't have computers either. As long as they rode at 13 - 15 mph on the flat, slower uphill ( of course ) and faster downhill to catch up time, they were going to finish within time.

 

[Rob3rt]

Mine doesnt give me the option, its records from setting off to reaching destination i.e it doesnt stop counting when I stop. I'd prefer it to stop recording when I stop, because its already giving me the distance and total time, I can work out the average myself. A moving average would (to me) be a better indicator of cycling performance, because even on the same route, you will encounter the lights at slightly different times hence having longer stationary points to drag the average down, other time you may catch them all on green. So to me, this is more indicative of how well I timed my commute than how fast I was riding. A moving average will still be effected by traffic, but less so than a continuous average. Downfalls of a cheap computer, but at least I can log my miles!

 

[psmiffy]

No it is not "cheating" it is just measuring something different - If I am riding any sort of distance I will normally have the Garmin on the handlebars which shows both - moving average tells me how well I am going and gives me a bit of an estimate of how I am being affected by headwinds/tailwinds etc - overall average allows me to estimate where I should be stopping for the day - stops due to traffic are something you cannot do anything about - unless of course you are a RLJ

 

[gaz]

I did a test to see the difference. In london my average speed for just rolling is between 15 and 17mph. but for the whole journey it's between 12 and 14mph.

 

[on the road]

Mine stops when I stop. It's not cheating, it's just measuring your actual cycling time and not total time out.