What's your average speed?

dg lander

I've just started cycling to work which is a 12 mile ride and my average moving speed is currently 15.5mph. Journey is a mixture of flat and slight gradients, couple of steep bits but nothing major.

Just wondering how I compare really.

UndercoverElephant

It depends on the traffic lights, wind and what you ride. I have virtually no traffic lights so can manage average speeds which make Londoners cry.

vorsprung

You have exactly the same average speed as someone with your power and weight, your level of motivation, riding an identical bike, with the same weather conditions over the same route.

My average commute speed varies between 13.58 mph in the middle of winter and 15.84 mph this time of year.

But do I commute over the Llanberis pass on a unicycle?

iPete

With all the time spent at lights and filtering traffic, not very high, 18 at best. On my mostly flat journey I aim to maintain 20mph depending on the wind, so in reality anything from 16-24mph.

Rich158

It depends, if I'm on a recovery ride about 15-17mph, that's door to door including stops for lights etc. If I'm doing a bit of speed work then about 19-20mph is achievable. I do 22 miles each way, and have a few reasonable hills, but some fantastic flat straight stretches to really put the hammer down

DonDaddyD

I've had commutes that average 16 - 17mph. I've been on the same commute and averaged less than 12mph. (The average average commute speed is about 13 - 15mph).

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

UndercoverElephant

Actually, I should have nailed my speeds up:

When I just started, on my old nobbly-tyred mountain bike I could manage my 12.5 mile commute at an average of 15.6 mph. On a good day.

Now (about 1 year later), on my road bike, my fastest average speed over the same distance is 23.3 mph.

R_T_A

I think it depends on your bike type and the type of journey you have (i.e. more traffic and lights making you slower).

I've got a road hybrid which isn't massively fast compared to the antelopes on here, but as it's mostly country roads I manage about 17-18mph for the week.

Considering you've just started I reckon that's a pretty fair pace - join the Stats page and lose your spare time logging miles!

http://www.startfarm.co.uk/aspStats/

UndercoverElephant

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

I think your speedo's on the blink.

amnezia

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

Its because your speedo only records rolling time and not total time.

lost_in_thought

Average speeds are tricky and can be misleading - is that your moving average, or your average average - ie does your computer or whatever you're using stop counting when you're stopped? Or does it just time your whole journey?

Also, many many things can alter an average, traffic, lights, head and tailwinds (which is why really pedantic people average out their average speed on the to and fro legs) hills and so on.

So, looking at your average, I'm presuming you are somewhere flat with a few lights here and there but not really a city, in which case it's pretty good!

DonDaddyD

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

Its because your speedo only records rolling time and not total time.

Nope, its down to the amount of traffic, traffic lights and time spent filtering (at a low speed) to the front of the ASL. I find that when I'm going balls out I'm more willing to wait in traffic and then go with it. When going slow I'm 'worm' my way around traffic and to the front.

If it was a straight ride and I didn't have close to (maybe even more than) 30 traffic lights on my 10mile commute then my speedo would be on the brink.

roger_merriman

on the big heavy hybrid winding ones way though Bushy Park and so on about 11ish.

on training days where I have much longer commute, tends to be at least 15mph but does depend on route.

Aidy

Average commute speed of 14.8 mph over 7053.4 miles, according to Nokia Sports Tracker.

That's true average speed though (i.e. including time stopped at lights, fixing punctures, etc.), not rolling average.

nobunaga

25 for commute.
However, recently I discovered that it was kph and not mph

stuaff

My typical average rolling speed on either Dahon is 12-15 mph depending on wind etc. The Viner would easily add 10% probably more to those averages. Pretty much everywhere I ride has either lots of lights & junctions, lots of climbs, or both.

amnezia

DonDaddyD wrote:

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

Its because your speedo only records rolling time and not total time.

Nope, its down to the amount of traffic, traffic lights and time spent filtering (at a low speed) to the front of the ASL. I find that when I'm going balls out I'm more willing to wait in traffic and then go with it. When going slow I'm 'worm' my way around traffic and to the front.

If it was a straight ride and I didn't have close to (maybe even more than) 30 traffic lights on my 10mile commute then my speedo would be on the brink.

Given that average speed is distance divided by time. its IMPOSSIBLE to have a lower average speed and a quicker time.

The Running Man

Individual trips vary quite a bit as people have said depending on terrain, wind, type of session (speed / recovery) but overall I did 362 miles last week at an average pace of 16.5 mph.

dg lander

Thanks for the replies. I should have put 'moving' speed in the title. I work my average out using MyTracks on my phone which works by GPS. I just hit start then put it in my pocket and then hit stop at the end and it gives me the stats. Pretty nifty eh. Not sure how exact it is though. Sounds like I'm not doing too bad anyway. I think a realistic target for my journey is 18mph.

joebatz

My ride is 10 miles mainly flat with a few slight hills, I have been averaging at 13.8 but this weekend i brought a super new bike (Marin San Anselmo Alfine ) so i hope to improve on my avarage speed somewhat keep you posted.

CiB

Go to the stats page and click on anyone's name to drill down to their monthly stats, and if they've included journey time it shows average speeds. You'll get an idea from there, but like a lot have said Avg Speeds are a bit misleading and only relevant to any one individual.

DonDaddyD

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

Its because your speedo only records rolling time and not total time.

Nope, its down to the amount of traffic, traffic lights and time spent filtering (at a low speed) to the front of the ASL. I find that when I'm going balls out I'm more willing to wait in traffic and then go with it. When going slow I'm 'worm' my way around traffic and to the front.

If it was a straight ride and I didn't have close to (maybe even more than) 30 traffic lights on my 10mile commute then my speedo would be on the brink.

Given that average speed is distance divided by time. its IMPOSSIBLE to have a lower average speed and a quicker time.

Why do I even bother....

Dude, I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.38am

I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.45am

I've checked my speedo and the quicker time had a slower average speed. Deal with this.

Now given traffic, the many different options, variables and light sequences a person encounters it could be that I spent more time riding at 17mph on the slow commute than brief sprints then sudden braking, slow acceleration after waiting at the lights on the fast commute. In fact quite often now, if I hit 30mph + on my commute I'll clock up a longer journey time than if I ride slower but steadier.

Agent57

I did a local 10 last week. My time was 30:14, so my average speed for that was 19.8mph.

Last week I timed one of my commutes. It took me 25 minutes to do the 5.2 miles, so my average speed for that was 12.5mph. That includes stops at lights, and a different bike, and panniers, etc.

A couple of weekends ago, I did a 60 mile ride. It took me approximately 4h 9m, so my average for that was around 14.4mph. Rolling time was 4h, or 15mph average.

amnezia

DonDaddyD wrote:

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

amnezia wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wierdly, I've had commutes that have had lower average speeds but faster times.

Its because your speedo only records rolling time and not total time.

Nope, its down to the amount of traffic, traffic lights and time spent filtering (at a low speed) to the front of the ASL. I find that when I'm going balls out I'm more willing to wait in traffic and then go with it. When going slow I'm 'worm' my way around traffic and to the front.

If it was a straight ride and I didn't have close to (maybe even more than) 30 traffic lights on my 10mile commute then my speedo would be on the brink.

Given that average speed is distance divided by time. its IMPOSSIBLE to have a lower average speed and a quicker time.

Why do I even bother....

Dude, I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.38am

I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.45am

I've checked my speedo and the quicker time had a slower average speed. Deal with this.
.

Then deal with the fact that your speedo is royally f*****! :roll:

Aidy

Maths fail.

CiB

Most bike computers don't record time spent not moving. None of mine have. If you spend a lot of time at the lights, that time is discarded from the calculated average speed.

UndercoverElephant

Actually, if the speedo is working out rolling average, DDD has a valid enough point. :roll:

amnezia

CiB wrote:

Most bike computers don't record time spent not moving. None of mine have. If you spend a lot of time at the lights, that time is discarded from the calculated average speed.

thank you, finally some common sense...

amnezia

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Actually, if the speedo is working out rolling average, DDD has a valid enough point. :roll:

except i already pointed that out and he disagreed.

Agent57

DonDaddyD wrote:

Dude, I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.38am

I've left my house at 9am and gotten to work at 9.45am

I've checked my speedo and the quicker time had a slower average speed. Deal with this.

If it's "rolling time" only, sure that's possible. But you'd also have a longer "actual riding" time to accompany the slower average speed (assuming the distance isn't a variable).

Clever Pun

My rolling average is 17-19ish as a rule although I've got it over 20 a couple of times on the 20 mile route home but the rest of the week is a write off

I commute 16 miles on the way in and 16-20 on the way home