Average speed by age/weight

[TrevA]

I'm surprised at how steadily some people ride. I guess it's because they mostly ride alone and don't benefit from the drafting effect of riding in a group. I average around 16 mph (15.7 according to Strava overall) I'm 57 and weigh 112kg. I'm seriously slow on hills but can keep up a good average on the flat or rolling terrain. I do my 8.5 mile rolling commute in about 33 mins on my heavy tourer, but can do it in under half an hour if I push on a bit and ride my lighter audax bike. I'm lucky that I only have 3 sets of traffic lights on the commute, all in the last mile.

I do 6-7000 miles a year.

[Fudger]

I think the steady pace is because most cyclists are tourers like myself. I prefer to enjoy the journey and surroundings rather than trying to beat my last ride time. My original question was related to a touring speed.


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[TrevA]

When we did our Jogle, we averaged just over 10 mph, but that was with 2 heavy panniers each and lots of climbing, though we found our speed didn't vary that much between flat and hilly days - only by 1-2 mph. I think that carrying a lot of stuff and not being in a rush reduces your average touring speed.

[Fudger]

Yes, the luggage makes a difference. I'm heading for a 70 mile ride tomorrow with two full panniers and plenty of hills. I've been averaging 12-13mph with this set up but the extra hilly route I'll be taking will probably kill my average.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[yo.]

Hello,
I'm also wondering about whether I am slow/medium/ fast for my age or weight. I'm 16 years old weighing 51kg using around about 9kg of cycling gear and able to sustain 18.6mph with short bursts of 30mph on reasonably flat ground. I have never cycled for over 50 miles in one go.

Thanks for looking

[landsurfer]

Well ..... I am 120KG, 58, 6' 3". I average 200 miles a month in mostly short rides of 20 - 30 miles ..... my average speed for the last 2 years is 14.9mph .... Garmin logged ...

51KG !!!!! My left leg weighs that lol lucky bugger ......

[gxaustin]

FWIW I am 72kg, 65yo and cycle about 3 times most weeks for distances of 50 -80miles. My average speed so far this year is 14mph. Best time was 97 miles at 16.7mph

[Tigerbiten]

My average seed when touring can be as high 14 mph traveling on the flat with the wind behind me to as low as 6 mph traveling through real mountainous terrain.
Some cycling days can be as short as 4 hours because I'm too tired/hot/wet or I've found the ideal campsite, while others can be as long as 14 hours because I feel like it or there's nowhere to camp.

People look at you funny when you tell them you're just over 2,000 miles into this years tour and your not even halfway yet .......
But then you've been on the road for 2 month, so that's only an average of 33 miles per day while on tour.
So you don't need silly fast average speed or long days, you just need to keep going day after day.

[mines-a-pint]

Depends what bike I'm on.. I usually do 50-60 mile rides on a Saturday or Sunday, on my road bike (trek 1.2) I average between 15 & 17 mph, on the hybrid it's about 2 mph less..
I'm 63 5'8 and 75kg...


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[Cyril Haearn]

Average? Mean? Median? Mode?

[mjr]

And I suspect that many do most of their riding in the same locality (around where they live). So one person averaging 12 mph in the highlands is probably doing far more that somebody doing 14mph is East Anglia.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: come here and try that. On the flat flat fens, you have to keep pedalling and there's no shelter from anything: no shelter from the sun, no shelter from the wind, no shelter from the rain. Often you just have to keep pedalling. All the time. No rest unless you stop for a break. It's a beautiful landscape in its way, but it's not easy as cycling country as many seem to think.

The speed depends mainly on the direction and the vagaries of the weather. Some days, you can be kissing the bars, pushing hard and only doing 7mph, or doing 20+mph freewheeling and 33mph pedalling in the opposite direction. If you rode a small loop, it might average out, but on a large loop, weather will usually change as you turn, so it won't. I've ridden a loop which was 80% moderate tailwind and another which was 65% hard headwind. Comparing with when I ride other directions, I reckon the effort to average about 12mph on the fens would usually get you 14mph across Breckland/Mid-Norfolk.

I always get a bit discouraged by these discussions, but then I remember that the people who care about their speed enough to know their general average are using harsher "autopause" settings then me and getting a digital performance enhancement

[Samuel D]

Some days, you can be kissing the bars, pushing hard and only doing 7mph, or doing 20+mph freewheeling and 33mph pedalling in the opposite direction. If you rode a small loop, it might average out

No, it never does. Wind from any fixed direction is always harmful to average speed on a loop; the stronger the wind, the more harm. It’s a bit like hills in that regard: what you lose in one direction you never fully gain in the other.

The only average speed that is worth talking about is the one you get when dividing your point-to-point distance by your point-to-point time. Because of auto-pause and Strava, etc., this metric has been deprecated in favour of imaginary average speeds that only include the flattering parts of your journey. The exception remains the audax world, where real average speeds are still talked about.

[Tigerbiten]

Average? Mean? Median? Mode? Eddington??

[Middle of the road]

I'm 50, 6 ft 3 tall and weigh 15 stone 5

On a loaded tour on my Surly Disc Trucker, I average around 10 mph +/- 1 mph. On a 70 to 80 mile unladen ride on my Cross-Check I average 12 mph +/- 1 mph

On a shorter ride of 6 to 15 miles I could average 15 mph + but I couldn't sustain that for 50+ miles.

I don't smoke, drink moderately but only cycle 2,500 miles per year.