We all have a tendency to pedal at a certain speed, called a cadence, regardless of what gear we are in. That means that you can speed yourself up with minimal effort just by shifting into a higher gear.
That makes a lot of sense, but it definitely has diminishing returns. So, one of the fastest and most permanent ways to improve your speed is to live a more active lifestyle and to ride more frequently. It is important, however, to recognize the kind of fit that you are. This topic is very similar to bike weight, but it has a much bigger range of weights. The heavier you are, the more energy it takes to get you up to speed and get you to the top of a hill.
So, keep your weight in mind when looking at how your average speed changes over time. Thanks to different hormones in males and females, we form muscles differently under the same conditions. Men tend to grow larger muscles than women. So, on average, they tend to be able to pedal with more power than women going through the same training.
On the flip side, though, women tend to be smaller. That makes them more lightweight and aerodynamic than men. Generally speaking, a female of the same training as a male is only going to be mph slower. There are plenty of technical skills and knowledge to be had as well. Confidence on a bike is built by practicing getting in and out of more difficult riding situations. A big crack in the road could slow you down, but you can maintain your speed if you know how to hop over it.
If you have no clue what could be around the next turn, you should take it more slowly. So, stay safe and be ready to stop quickly. Remember to look well ahead of you and plan out how to get past it.
For example, there is a section of one of my routes that goes over a road with a rough patch. Once I had ridden it a few times, I found a path through it that let me speed along with only a few bumps. While some people enjoy riding alone, there is plenty of evidence to show that riding in a group will result in a faster ride. Drafting is when you get close behind another rider while riding quickly.
The rider in the front will cut through the air and make it easier for you to follow. When a team shares the front position over the course of the ride, everyone is able to go faster. That being said, make sure to help the group and do your fair share to leading. When riding with a group, you also get the benefit of friendly competition, which is sure to come up at some point. Whether competing with others or with ourselves, we can use that sense of competition to drive everyone to perform better than last time.
So, we all do our best to speed up. I hope that this empowers you to know what your average speed is really saying about your ride, and to have other metrics to judge your ride by and be confident in. I make content that empowers people to enjoy riding their bikes. Are you interested in learning more about that? I'll send content straight to your inbox. And don't worry about spam. I only write articles a month. Last name. After a 30 year break from riding, I got a hybrid in time for my 70th.
I rode that for nearly a year and averaged about 10 mph. I replaced the hybrid with a road bike endurance in time for my 71st birthday. I celebrated the th ride on that doing 40 km in under 2 hours climbing feet in the process. But my average speed over the fides is between 11 and 12 mph. Hope this helps. Taking time off to raise kids and work, finally back in the saddle. My bike is almost as old as me — at 60 yo I still ride and avg of 17 to 24 mph depending if the teens have gotten to me or not!
I get to ride an avg of 25 to 50 miles per ride, 3 to 5 times a week Trying to loose that baby weight -LOL — I hope to get faster. Always have been competitive. We have mountain bikes, road bikes and hybrid bikes. We average about 11, 13, 15 mph on the same roads. The gears make a huge difference, as well as the weight and drag.
When we want distance, we ride the road bikes. Workout, hybrids. We did a 30 mile ride on the road bikes, averaging The calories burned estimate on Strava was just over on the hybrids and just under on the road bikes.
That holds true in almost everything we do. We had a gravel ride that we hit calories on, about 54 miles. Our mile road bike ride was We had a fun ride one day where she was just feeling froggy and we hit 19 mph over the last 20 miles of a 40 mile ride. That being said, I have found that varying the distance seems to do a lot for me. I do about 15 miles on my road bike almost every day 5 days a week , which really is a rather short distance for a road bike by any standards. I do this mainly because I want excercise on regular basis, but need it to fit my schedule, especially during the week.
But on weekends or holidays, I like to do longer distances of about 45 miles or more. I have found that I regularly could improve my average speed on shorter distances after longer rides. Maybe this helps some of you who are interested to put a few mph on top, if you are interested.
If not, just be a happy rider and keep on going anyway! Have fun! John from Manchester. What a old fart community? I am 69 years old. I started riding about 12 years ago when I was still working. It was more for fun. I would average around 10 miles over several sessions per week. The bike was to replace jogging. In December I suffered a heart attack while riding my bike.
I crashed and burned on the road. Two stints and I made a full recovery. Currently, I am riding 80 — miles a week in 3 or 4 sessions. I start out with a mile goal. I ride mostly in town so my miles per hour.
I take each ride as an adventure. I started at an average speed of I try to ride everyday. Since the beginning of the pandemic I was furloughed and rather than sit at home wallowing in self pity I decided to take up cycling again. I have loved every minute of it. I started off slowly averaging mph doing short 20 miles plus rides in the winter months.
I have since added a smart trainer to my training regimen which is so beneficial. So you will know what is really possible next time your teammates start to boast, or you cast your disappointed eye over your Strava stats.
Just bear in mind that some cyclists have reportedly been caught lobbing their GPS to the top of the hill to try and become King of the Mountain! So technically, the fastest speed ever recorded on a bike was mph — but this one was stationary. Bruce Bursford rode an aerospace-engineered cycle on a treadmill and was able to reach 60mph within two seconds. But then he did have ceramic bearings and tyres filled with helium! I declared there was not a locomotive built which could get away from me.
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