folding bike commutes 6.6 miles in 40 mins, is this ok?

thotwielder
thotwielder Posts: 6
edited October 2014 in Commuting general
Did my first ride to work this morning. I ride a folding bike (Decathlon b fold 7, 20 inch wheels, 7 gears) from Lewisham rail way station to old street (London). It took me about 40 minutes (excluding time exiting train station and couple of times of checking my phone GPS for the direction). Total distance according to Google map is 6.6 miles. The first 3/4 of the route is quite somooth with a few red lights, the last quarter is quite congested (London bridge area and central london furher on). So does this (40 mins for 6.6 miles on a folding bike ) sounds ok to you? I didn't exhaust myself because I don't want to sweat too much when arriving work. I know there are many expensive folding bikes out there (Brompton, Dahon), could they be any faster (significantly)? One thing is I did change the original tyres to schwalbe marathon plus (yes they do that on 20 inch as well), which I did feel needing more effort to Pedal. So if I want to improve my speed, what's your suggestion (gear wise)?

Comments

  • iPete
    iPete Posts: 6,076
    Apart from getting a converted electric Brompton, you aren't going to save any significant time getting another bike if the aim is to tootle across town sweat free. Have a look at the route used and see if you can find less congested roads.
  • thotwielder
    thotwielder Posts: 6
    Thanks. Maybe I will try switching back to the original tyres sometime to see if they really make a difference. Do other people also feel schwalbe marathon plus tyres take more effort or just me?
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    Commuting times improve with practice, as you learn and improve the route.
  • POHB
    POHB Posts: 40
    Marathon plus tyres take a bit more effort when you're accelerating because they're heavier, when compared with lightweight tyres. However, they take a lot less effort than a flat punctured tyre.
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    I got a flat 6.6 mile commute down to about 22 minutes on a 26" rigid MTB that weighed around 13kg.

    That was with 28mm slick tyres and I'd usually be a sweaty mess when I got there.

    So with the right bike and some structured training it's perfectly feasible to cut your commute time in half but not if you don't want to sweat.
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • Austerby
    Austerby Posts: 4
    My times over my 6.5mile commute on a 700c wheeled hybrid are regularly 30-35mins so it sounds like you're doing just fine on your bike.

    I don't see my times falling much as it starts to come down to the number of traffic light stops, volume of traffic etc.

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