Avg spd on trainer -vs- road...

way higher on road.

I think it's best to ignore your speedometer when you're on a trainer. There's no way to accurately replicate road resistance, and it won't really tell you how much effort you're putting out. I find that fluid trainers in particular give a much higher resistance than the road for a specific gear. Better to guage your effort by HR or power output (if possible).

MountainBreeze said:

Do you folks find your avg spd higher on the road or trainer?

I average 2.5-3mph faster on the road than on my cycleops fluid trainer

MountainBreeze said:

Do you folks find your avg spd higher on the road or trainer?

It's not an accurate guage since terrain varies so much. I climb 1200ft per 10 miles in this area on the flattest terrain.
A lot more on some routes.

kennf said:

I think it's best to ignore your speedometer when you're on a trainer. There's no way to accurately replicate road resistance, and it won't really tell you how much effort you're putting out. I find that fluid trainers in particular give a much higher resistance than the road for a specific gear. Better to guage your effort by HR or power output (if possible).

Although it is generally true that trainers at best approximate the feel and power requirement of riding on the road, some definitely do better than others. In addition, if you know the actual power vs speed relationship of your trainer (as a mathematical function, that is), your speed measurement can become a cheap substitute for a power meter. I've been doing this with my new Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer for the last couple of weeks with success.

Here's a site that has charts with the power curves (and polynomial fit equations) of some popular indoor trainers:

geocities.comtrainerpowerOpen ↗

Berend

ive been on rollers the last 3 winters and i usually average between 27 and 29mph on the rollers, as to the 19-22mph I average on the road. Ive never actually ridden on a trainer though, so I can't chime in there.