Average Speed

ironicsky said:

Well, Im new to this forum, but it looks like a great place to ask this question.

Im going to be looking into a new bike in the next few weeks for mostly road riding. Im up in Manitoba Canada, so we still have snow, but come summer time once everything is warm Im going to be riding about 26Km a day(13 each way) to and from work to save myself some coin. (26km = 16.1miles)

I also plan on doing a longer trek approx 80km (49.7miles) each way. I live on the prairies so its relatively smooth.

My question is two parts. What kind of bike should I look into getting, and how much should I expect to pay? Im not looking for anything overly fancy, but it needs to be comfortable.

The second part of the question is this, what kind of average speed should I expect with a decent bike on pretty much flat land? Im approx 220lbs(99.79kg). What should I expect?

Thanks!

I would think a road bike. as far as avg spped that depends on your fitness,wind conditions, and terrain avg speeds are differant day to day on same routes.

Well you will obviously want a road bike, unless you want to take it off road just as much. If you do off roading also, consider a cyclocross bike. As for what type of road bike you will want, it all depends on how serious you are about biking. If you are looking just to get in shape, or have it for leisure, you could probably find a low end road bike around 400.
If you are seriously considering racing, or if you know you will stick with cycling for quite awhile, you might want to spend some extra cash on a bike that will be more dependable, and faster. There are so many nice brands of bikes; aluminums, steels, carbons, titaniums...ranging in prices from around $800-6,000 new. I personally love cannondales. I couldn't really close the gap for you without a budget price.
As for speed, you come into play more than the bike on flat terrain. I would say the biggest thing that would make a difference in flat terrain, for the bike that is, would be rotational weight. Light wheels, cranks, pedals, etc., will give you less weight for your legs to rotate every stroke. You'll see however, that people on mountain bikes can usually keep up, or even pass roadies on flat ground, so I wouldnt worry about that stuff too much unless your going to be doing some hill work.
Since you are just starting biking, don't base your speed on the bike. Concentrate on physical fitness more. Once you get technique down, and a good aerobic level of fitness, then concentrate more on upgrading the bike to be faster. It's very uplifting to start off on a less quality bike, and upgrading to something better. You can feel such a difference when you upgrade certain parts like the wheels.

I'll probably be spending $400-$600 on a bike. My bikes have a habit of being stolen, no matter how well I chain them down, someone finds ways of stealing it, including stealing the pole my bikes chained too 😠

I currently run about 5-7MPH with little effort. and do alot of cardio including swimming, raquet ball, and running.

On average though, when your cycling how fast do you find yourself going at a moderate pace? I found with my old mountain bike I could do about 13Km in 30-45 minutes including getting stuck at traffic lights and the wind direction. The bike I used to have wasn't high quality, it was a $300 mountain bike with all the shocks, low quality cranks, etc.

For $400-600 you can get bike with shimano sora or tiagra drive train. Check around ebay, you might be able to get yourself a deal. Just make sure you have measured up correctly with the specs of the bike. Most importantly, make sure it's the right frame size. Some other important features that you might want to be measured for are handlebar width, stem rise and angle, and crank arm length.

Back to the speed issue; When I first started bike riding, I was probably doing 17-20 mph on flats. That is just a guess average, because stopping at traffic lights and traffic itself mess with the average. Also, you have to think about wind and hills that skew the average speed. You'll hear alot of people boast on here that "oh I average 26 mph". Personally, I think alot of people embellish, because 26 mph average is hard. They probably are on flats, with a tail wind, or riding in a pack.

As of now, I got on a national team and have been training hard. I probably average 22-23 mph on a very hilly and sloping course.

My best advice is do not listen to anyone about average speeds. You'll hear how pro's average 23-32 or so mph in a race. However, in the new discovery training camp, lance and the team did some 4-6 hr rides and only averaged 21 mph. There are so many factors that can skew an average speed, that it's not really informative when someone tells you what they average. You would need so much more information to make any real judgement about it. Like...were there hills? Did you have a tail or front wind? Were you riding in a pack?

'Average' fitness on a mountain bike = 20 - 27 km/hr 🙄
'Average' fitness on a road bike = 27 - 33 km/hr 😎

These are from my own experience.

Obviously enough, endless factors influence speed - as other contributors have quite rightly pointed out.😄