Got me a bike computer...death is just round the corner...

coombsfh

I got a little wireless bike computer today (cateye velo) for £24.99 from edinburgh cycles.

It is a joyous little thing and I like it a lot. So, I hear you ask, how am I going to die?

One of 3 ways:

1) trying to get high average speeds is very addictive and helps you to realise that your (currently unfit) heart is going at a million miles an hour.

2) trying to achieve galactically fast speeds on the flat will probably end up in me overdoing it and hitting something whilst looking at the speedo.

3) I will gain such speed that the heat generated will cook me alive

I won't do the willy waving thing and say average speeds or maxes but it is bloody brilliant fun and I highly recommend one to anyone who doesnt have one.

Best wishes,

Fred.

gaddster

yea they're great when you need that extra bit of motivation to gain .1 mph on your run outs! The average speed one is the killer..Keep pushing..

coombsfh

What is considered a fast speed on the flat?

gaddster

You mean a fast overall average or just a fast max speed?

morstar

coombsfh wrote:

What is considered a fast speed on the flat?

Anything over 100 (either mph or kph) is definitely fast. As the numbers get smaller it becomes more and more subjective.

coombsfh

fast average please: on the flat, having to stop a lot for those "doubleback on yourself cycle" gates.

gaddster

I dunno really, it's quite a personal thing I suppose. Also depends on how far you're averaging it over too..I mean 20mph average over 50 miles is some going but less impressive over 10 miles as an example. (I said less and not not!) Are you not happy with your speed then?

coombsfh

Well I am still recovering from meningitis and keep going on little rides (7 miles up to 4 times a day) to break myself in (new to road biking too). At every cycle gate along the 7 miles (12 or 14 in total) I have to unclip, stop completely and sort of hobble 180 degrees round the "fun stopper" bike gate. I get back to speed quickly but occasionally have to stop for people walking dogs and kids being in the way and in one case yesterday and exceedingly fat duo of lycra-clad rollerbladers.

With all of these things that get in the way I feel like I should still be able to average 20mph but have only managed a poxy 18.9mph :oops: so far. I have residual headache and am pretty weak (lost 2 stone of muscle in hospital) so hopefully can get over 20 as I recover.

Another task is to get a "good maximum speed" on the flat as downhill is cheating plus I live in Manchester: where are the hills? It is a good motivator to go faster actually seeing what speeds your sweaty endeavours achieve.

chiark

I know exactly what you mean - they are great things for keeping you going. I've just fitted a cadence sensor to my aging sigma thing, and that's great too, especially as justification for dropping down the gears on a drawn out uphill. Mind you, my brain could have told me when I need to change down I guess...

I'm telling myself that the only meaningful comparison on average speed is yourself... Especially as I'm new to all this road lark.

I'll be happy when I get to over 20 - that's my first milestone. I'm at 17 at the moment, which I'm pleasantly surprised about in a positive way. I am a beginner, after all

Pross

18.9 average is far from poxy for a beginner especially on a cycle path with all those obstacles. Have you considered riding on the road instead?

Ben6899

Is it defo a cycle path? Seems strange to have gates designed to stop bikes... something which I see on footpaths.

Just raising the question; don't want you 'coming a cropper'!

Anonymous

Get on them there country lanes!

thescouselander

In work we have these little electronic tags that are used to make sure everyone is out of the building in the event of a fire. If I park my bike too near a door the RF signal from the detector interferes with my wireless computer and I can hit 190 MPH! Now worries with max or average speed then.

Thebigbee

Is not 18.9mph AVERAGE - pretty damn fast or am I just really unfit and living in an area with an inordinate amount of hills and headwind?

I did a run before work yesterday with a bitch of a headwind on the way back. It was 17.2 miles in 70 minutes. No breaks.

I was fcked at the end and was trying to work out my AV for that ride but couldn't.

19MPH AV is pretty damn fast, flat or sheltered from wind. If none of them you should consider taking it up as a pro.. no?

Am I just that sh1te? lol

coombsfh

It is a very nice flat track in terms of profile BUT I don't think it is really a cycle path. It is the "fallowfield loop" if anyone knows what that is.

All Iam doing to keep me going is slowing down as late as poss for the fun stoppers and then dropping a gear or two to reach anything over 19mph as fast as poss. Me and a mate managed 17.2 average and he was on a hybrid, sneaking along on my back wheel so 20mph average is the next biggie.

As for riding on the roads I will do once I am back in Wiltshire. I am also considering a little treat ride in the peak district before the end of June. Will need to buy a jersey with a pouch on and wait for my water bottles to turn up first.

Looking forward to being in Wiltshire as there is a 7 mile run from my house up "labour in vain hill" to Beckhampton roundabout on the A4 and back again. I want to get good at this and see no reason why I shouldn't do it every morning before I take my dog out. If I can even manage 10mph I will be happy as that hill is a pig! I also need to get fit enough to average nice speeds on long runs and not just short blasts...

Top speed runs are the order of the day today I think

I know exactly what you mean - they are great things for keeping you going. I've just fitted a cadence sensor to my aging sigma thing, and that's great too, especially as justification for dropping down the gears on a drawn out uphill. Mind you, my brain could have told me when I need to change down I guess...

Once I have had my fun with this one and got fit a cadence sensor might be nice...this cycling lark is ever the abyssal money pit it was when I had an MTB!!

Ben6899

Thebigbee wrote:

Is not 18.9mph AVERAGE - pretty damn fast or am I just really unfit and living in an area with an inordinate amount of hills and headwind?

I did a run before work yesterday with a ***** of a headwind on the way back. It was 17.2 miles in 70 minutes. No breaks.

I was fcked at the end and was trying to work out my AV for that ride but couldn't.

19MPH AV is pretty damn fast, flat or sheltered from wind. If none of them you should consider taking it up as a pro.. no?

Am I just that sh1te? lol

It's only over 7miles though so with all respect to the OP; pretty ordinary.

coombsfh

It's only over 7miles though so with all respect to the OP; pretty ordinary.

More the kind of response I was after. I know everyone has to start from somewhere and this motivates me to keep going until I can achieve a speed that is better than ordinary. It might not be the sort of thing I can improve on vastly or swftly but improve I will...

Ben6899

coombsfh wrote:

It's only over 7miles though so with all respect to the OP; pretty ordinary.

More the kind of response I was after. I know everyone has to start from somewhere and this motivates me to keep going until I can achieve a speed that is better than ordinary. It might not be the sort of thing I can improve on vastly or swftly but improve I will...

I'm glad you realise I wasn't being derogatory! Just stick at it and the miles/speeds will increase and improve.

Thebigbee

Ben6899 wrote:

Thebigbee wrote:

Is not 18.9mph AVERAGE - pretty damn fast or am I just really unfit and living in an area with an inordinate amount of hills and headwind?

I did a run before work yesterday with a ***** of a headwind on the way back. It was 17.2 miles in 70 minutes. No breaks.

I was fcked at the end and was trying to work out my AV for that ride but couldn't.

19MPH AV is pretty damn fast, flat or sheltered from wind. If none of them you should consider taking it up as a pro.. no?

Am I just that sh1te? lol

It's only over 7miles though so with all respect to the OP; pretty ordinary.

No that's cool - the inclines don't bother me. I can easily average 21-3 over 7 miles on a flat with no wind.

That is standard. I guess I was taking into account pretty steep inclines and wind factor.

Anyway - best of luck. I'm still shi1te!!

Go for it

Thelittlesthobo

Why are people on this site so consumed by getting acceptance of their averages?

I know what my averages are for different routes and it can vary by as much as 4mph depending on the route. It then gets even more complicated by the weather.

Asking if such and such is a good average is like asking what length a piece of string is. Unless you document the entire route/profile and weather with a dab of what bike you are riding its useless.

Why not use something like endomondo and map your rides and keep an up to date diary of your rides and then you can tell yourself if its a good/better average.

Avezius

Thelittlesthobo wrote:

Why not use something like endomondo and map your rides and keep an up to date diary of your rides and then you can tell yourself if its a good/better average.

I do something like this - map's logged on gpsies, times recorded on GarminConnect & MyCyclingLog. I tend to tag the rides with weather, wind strength/direction (very important in the fens as it makes such a difference) and who I'm riding with.

On my 8.5 & 10mile lunch routes, 20mph is the current benchmark, up from 19mph last year. Today I did 19.5mph ave on a recovery ride (75% ave HR) in W17mph wind, with me doing most of the work.

Yesterday I did 21.8mph on the same route, slightly less wind & in a group of 4 until the last 1.5 miles sprint (90%+ ave HR).

Pleased with both - but it's a really personal thing!

tangled_metal

I used to have a speedo (cateye mity II - only just come out and the best one according to a bike mag). Lost it now as it stopped working. Still I used to get only 15mph average as I was totally unfit back then. I also rarely rode a bike so never got the chance to get better.

Now I am riding more often and in the years since have gotten quite fit doing other stuff that is endurance based. This means last year when I did a few months riding a 8 mile route into work I did a 22mph average from the first day. Never got any faster or slower in the 2 or 3 months I did it. Only 8 miles in and 8 miles back. The fastest I managed was only 24mph and that felt like I was flogging myself. I overtook a guy on a fancy road bike in all the gear and thought what a prat with all the gear and no idea. Then we got clear of the town and he opened up gradually. Ended up trying to keep up with him. Gave up a little way before he turned off but was only 2 nike lengths behidn him then. I slowed a bit but still pushed on. I learnt a lot about not judging people. He had the gear because he was a keen cyclist I reckon and was actually faster than he let on. Wasn't even puffing slightly when he gained the 5 or 6 bike lengths and put 2 more on me in about 500m. That same ride it was raining very heavily and blowing a hoolie which I found out by cycling past gates (straight off Morecambe Bay too). Not good to see a cyclist getting blown nearly into the next lane. Anyway the bad weather spurred me on as I just wanted to get the hell out of thst misery!!

Anyway 18 or 19mph is bloody good for a new cyclist recovering from serious illnesss. Keep it up you will get better.

optimisticbiker

to me, more important than the average is how hard i am working to attain it.

My commute to work is 15miles... on the first half its quite fast with few hold-ups but a few gentle hills. I know its a good day when the first 7k is under 15min. Thats 18mph average and I often see 35-37kph (22-23mph) on the flat. The route goes downhill (pun intended) from there becuase of lights, traffic, etc so my final average is between 14 and 15mph. But If i make that 15 with the bulk of my heart rate in Zone 3 (of 5) rather than Zone 4 I know I've done a good ride compared to days where the final average speed is lower at a higher heart rate - thats my benchmark - speed v effort... not just speed which is meaningless from day to day as conditions vary so much...

martincashman

I overtook a guy on a fancy road bike in all the gear and thought what a prat with all the gear and no idea. Then we got clear of the town and he opened up gradually. Ended up trying to keep up with him.

Speed depends on the distance you are covering as much as anything else. If you are only doing 10 to 15 miles, of course you are gonna be bursting past someone who is going out for 50 to 100. You'll have shot your guns before the guy on the long run has even warmed up.

I've been cycling since August last year and personally targeted solo 20mph/32kph Average over a mixed (flat & hills) circuit (not just one way with tailwind assistance) of 62.5m/100km to be a "Good" average for a "beginner", in average conditions. So if it's less windy you'll be faster and more windy slower but a group of rides would average that pace.

I started at around 16.3mph/26kph on my first 100km plus ride last year and now can get anywhere between 18.4mph/29.5kph to 20mph/32kph over the distance depending on conditions - my cumulative average is about 19.4mph/31kph, so not quite there yet.

22mph/35kph and up over that type of course and I think you can consider yourself better than a good beginner and getting into the territory where faster lighter kit starts to make a difference.

dcurzon

today i reached my target!
on my commute, its 11 miles in and a little slower due to hill climb, and 10.2 miles out. I'd set myself a target for 15mph avg Start/Finish (so GPS average, not bike computer average). Figured i'd probably hit target on the home route as less hillclimb. Just missed it yesterday on the way home getting 14.9mph avg.
On the way in today, hit 15.01 avg yay! and a slight headwind!

Ok, so its not particularly fast average speed, but this is from the outskirts of north london into central london. I'm sure i'd be quicker now on a non-traffic light run, as the start/stop stuff makes good interval training!

holker

22mph/35kph and up over that type of course and I think you can consider yourself better than a good beginner and getting into the territory where faster lighter kit starts to make a difference.[/quote]

Don't quite understand that comment. surely the slower you are the greater the affect of lighter/better equipment will be, simply because there's greater potential for improvement. Whether it's worth the investment for the average as opposed to the elite cyclist is another matter

martincashman

Don't quite understand that comment. surely the slower you are the greater the affect of lighter/better equipment will be, simply because there's greater potential for improvement.

"If you are expending 75 watts and traveling 20 kmh, or 12.5 mph, you need another 20 watts to raise your speed by 2.5 kmh to 22.5 kmh, or 14 mph. However, this is not a linear equation. Instead, the increases in power you need to increase each 2.5 kmh go like this after the first increase from 20 to 22.5 kmh: 25 watts to get to 25 kmh, 28 watts to get to 27.5 kmh, 32 watts to get to 30 kmh, 38 watts to get to 32.5 kmh, 46 watts to get to 35 kmh, 49 watts to get to 37.5 kmh and 55 watts to get to 40 kmh. The numbers are progressively bigger because the power you need to overcome wind resistance increases with the square of the velocity"

So at lower speeds you get less benefit from better equipment because you don't have the guns to use it. Aero wheels aren't gonna turn you from a 15mph cyclist into a 20mph cyclist. But will make a difference when increased drag becomes a limiting factor. Saying that, I don't think anyone has to justify buying the best kit they can afford... it's all abount enjoying yourself.