lets talk speed here!

[goo_mason]

Average speed tonight - 16.6mph, max of 31.5mph (I was breaking the speed limit at that point - oops ! But then again I was overtaken by dozens of cars going even faster.)

Lots of slow-moving traffic as two buses ahead were blocking the road as they stopped to let folks on and off. That went on all down Ferry Road and meant that for a large part of it I was coasting along and rarely having to turn the pedals. Had the road been clearer I'd have been on a flyer - my legs seemed full of juice tonight.

 

[gavintc]

Was that the Gifford race?. I was down spectating. I thought some of the course was really exposed into the wind that was blowing

Yes, that was me - one of the 80 B race riders. I was one of the Edinburgh RC riders who was in a small group of 4-5 running behind the main peloton. It did piss me off that our little group had 3 wheel suckers who had an aversion for taking turns and yet when it came to the final km sprint were suddenly fresh as a daisy.

 

[col]

I average 12-14 mph, but I do have an awful lot of hills. On the flats I can maintain a steady 18-20ish mph.
The hills take the wind out of my sails.

They tend to take the p@@s out of my legs.
Fifteen average lately, havnt really been putting much time in on the bike, but Im hoping to change that.

 

[Cubist]

Fastest average on my 7 mile commute so far is 16mph, on a MTB with 1.25" slicks and eggbeater pedals. There are a couple of legwarmer hills in the first mile, then it's a fast short downhill and more or less flat until the last half mile. Traffic is the only factor which slows me down, as the bike seems to like pushing along on the flat at about 22mph.

 

[Halfmanhalfbike]

Yes, that was me - one of the 80 B race riders. I was one of the Edinburgh RC riders who was in a small group of 4-5 running behind the main peloton. It did piss me off that our little group had 3 wheel suckers who had an aversion for taking turns and yet when it came to the final km sprint were suddenly fresh as a daisy.

Twunts. In that wind you must have been pulling them along

 

[goo_mason]

I had trouble from speeding BACKWARDS this morning with the rather ferocious headwinds. I was totally knackered fighting against them - Ferry Road and Telford Road are veritable wind-tunnels

Yesterday's commute time to work: 33 mins
Today's commute time to work: 43 mins

One of those - 'pedal like fury to avoid being blown to a halt when going downhill' mornings. It had better not have changed direction by the time I ride home tonight. A wind-assisted ride is just what I need today

 

[iacula]

We can conclude from all this, I think, that speed really does matter to cyclists! If not comfort.

 

[Moose]

My best average speed for my commute was 19mph - Having said that the slowest for the same route was 15.5mph. Also, for the return journey of the same route the fastest my average has been is 16.6mph and the slowest 13.9mph.

Over all my rides in both 2008 & 2009 so far the average is around 15.5mph although I'm trying to shift focus away from average speed to mileage.

 

[jimboalee]

If you have a Garmin.

Go on a short circular ride of about 25 miles.

Connect the Garmin to your PC and it will ( Edge series ) see it as a USB drive.

Change the history file extension to one that MS Excel will recognise. .xml I think ??

Import the file onto an Excel spreadsheet.

Do some Jiggery-pokery. Insert a column and calc the distances between the individual data points.
Time is to the second, so you can calculate the speed for each datapoint.

The AVERAGE() function should agree with Garmin's average speed figure.

The function MEDIAN() will be close to the speed you did 'On the cruise'.

To work and back, my AVERAGE is 16.0mph, but my MEDIAN is 17.8mph. 17.8mph will be the speed I maintained during the majority of my time in motion, and a basis for power consumption calculations and trip timing estimations.
It's NOT strictly true, but is a close enough estimation of my 'Cruising speed' for the trip.

 

[dodgy]

You do like your figures don't you jimbo?

 

[Eat MY Dust]

I take it people don't count their stopped times on their average. When I do an average of 18 mph over 13 miles (including stops) I'm really flying and on a couple of spots hitting nearly 40 mph.

 

[jimboalee]

Today, I concentrated on doing the 'round the whole circle' thing. Trying not to let my cadence run away, I averaged 16.2mph, and my MEDIAN was 18.24mph.

It was a quiet morning. 05:45 to 06:30.
I didn't use my brakes until I arrived at the bike sheds, and that was to stop me crashing into them
Not a typical morning, I think, so I'll repeat several times.

 

[dav1d]

I average 12 miles on my suspension mountain bike, and when the racing bike was in working order (needs new tyres, keep getting punctures), 15 miles per hour on that. I can keep a higher speed for a long distance, but I usually chose not to!

 

[yenrod]

I think its what you get out of it personally.

 

[rog]

My commute isnt long enough for an average speed to be of much interest (i.e.its under 10 miles each way). Traffic and weather are more likely to affect my progress rather than the state of my legs but it works out around 15/16mph (with stops). Anyway, my view is that your 'average speed' should always be 'as fast as possible'