Boy am I slow...

[indysteel]

Jolt, you might ask your LBS how low you can go with those tires. Fifty psi still sounds underinflated to me if the max is 80. You won't blow them if you inflate them higher than 50 psi; I promise. While I agree that you don't need to inflate a tire to max pressure, especially if you're light, I'm afraid that you still might be at risk for a pinch flat. And whatever you do, always inflate your tires before every ride. You'd be surprised how much air they lose just by sitting there.

As for speed, since it sounds like you're beginner, all you really need to concentrate on right now is riding more. Don't worry that much about how fast you're going. Greater speed will come naturally as you get in better shape, learn to choose the best gear for the conditions, and increase your cadence (rotations of the pedal per minute) up. Have fun with it.

[rij73]

Jolt, what kind of bike do you have specifically? I'm learning that hybrid is a really general term. Some would call my bike a hybrid, but I call it a flat-bar road bike. It is a road-bike frame and components with a mountain bike handlebar. Even with that, I know that I am just naturally going to go slower than if I were riding my husband's carbon road bike.

[Jolt]

Jolt, what kind of bike do you have specifically? I'm learning that hybrid is a really general term. Some would call my bike a hybrid, but I call it a flat-bar road bike. It is a road-bike frame and components with a mountain bike handlebar. Even with that, I know that I am just naturally going to go slower than if I were riding my husband's carbon road bike.

Well, this is definitely not a flat-bar road bike! This model (Giant Nutra WSD, from probably the mid '90s) goes by mountain bike sizing and has a mountain-bike component group (Shimano Altus, 21-speed) but has 700c wheels. It has a cromoly frame and isn't all that light, probably 30 or 35 pounds. The riding position is quite upright, which is good for riding in traffic but does make headwinds a real bugger! Hope this info helps.

[missymaya]

The type of bike and tire pressure do affect speed, but don't let the techy part of riding get in the way of riding. I went riding with a fast group on Saturday and there was a guy on a mountain bike with huge nubby tires, sitting upright and was still haulin' tail at 24mph while I was riding my road bike with tiny tires in the drops trying to keep up!!! It takes time to build speed and strength and if your riding a heavier bike with fatter tires, whether they're underinflated or not, you're building more strength than you know. If you hopped on a road bike with smaller tires and a more light weight frame, I'm sure you would go faster.
Don't be discouraged, just keep riding and in time, you'll be faster.

[suzieqtwa]

I am sooooooooo slow. I get passed by everyone. The only people I can pass are the runners. On a 40 mile ride my average is about 13.3. I can get up in the 20s on flats ,but my average is always 13 something no matter how hard I try. I just smile when I get passed. I keep my tires up to 115-120. I know with my weight I should probably drop the pressure ,but I like the bumps. My tires call for 120 max.

[northstar]

I wasn't going to put a computer on my road bike for this reason! I didn't want to feel bad if I wasn't as fast as I thought I should be! I did get a computer, but I don't look at my average speed at all while I ride. I found myself doing so the first few times, and then I wound up pushing myself harder than I wanted to, just to bring up my average. I didn't like it. So now, I just leave it set to show the clock and my current speed, I ride the speed I think I should ride when I think I should ride it, and check the rest of the info post-ride. I just want to enjoy.

[F8th637]

I had the computer sitting around in the box for a few months before I finally put it on this week. Today was my first ride with it. Mine doesn't have an average speed but when I type my time and distance in BikeJournal.com I can get a good sense of what it was. But I do like knowing now about how fast I'm going on flats, etc. Now when I see group rides that post the average speed I know how fast that is. I get passed all the time and I'm on a hybrid or fitness/city bike. I'm just starting out so I figure I have to work my way up. In the meantime I'll guess work my legs out extra on the tougher bike. I was 16-17 mph on flats but definitely slower on the hills. According to BikeJournal.com I averaged a little under 12 mph but I don't know if that includes my stopping time. I do know though that I am faster than I was when I first started.

[DarcyInOregon]

I am sooooooooo slow. I get passed by everyone. The only people I can pass are the runners. On a 40 mile ride my average is about 13.3. I can get up in the 20s on flats ,but my average is always 13 something no matter how hard I try. I just smile when I get passed. I keep my tires up to 115-120. I know with my weight I should probably drop the pressure ,but I like the bumps. My tires call for 120 max.

Suzie, the owner of the LBS told me yesterday that the average speed is typically 3-4 mph less than the normal cruising speed on a ride. He said to be able to factor out the slow downs for stops, other slow downs and the hills in order to determine the average cruising speed on a longer ride, take the computer's average speed and add 3-4. That would give you 16-17, which sound about right.

For example, when we did the metric together a few weeks ago, we pedaled most of the miles at between 15 and 19 into the constant wind, yet ended up at 13. If we add 3-4 to that 13, it gives us 16-17, right in the range we were pedaling for most of the ride.

Darcy

[missymaya]

Remember about the thing with averaging is, is that it is much harder to increase the average speed of a ride than to decrease. If you slow down at all during a ride (whether it be hills, coming to a stop, wind, etc), the average speed will be affected easily. For example, I rode a 5 mile loop in a neighborhood with 5 stop signs. Even though, in between the stop signs I was riding at 25mph (most of the ride does not have stops), at the end of the ride, completing 20 miles, my average was 19.5. I have to factor the stop signs and how slowly I approached them, which due to the all vehicular traffic, the stops were slow. It also was very windy and rainy, always fun. Hopefully this might also explain the "slow" average, which by the way, 16-17mph average is pretty darn quick.

[Thorn]

But.....does it matter if we're slow? Do you enjoy riding? Do you feel like you're flying even if it is only downhill? If so, isn't that enough?

In my younger days, I was much faster. I did triathlons and my bike times were almost always in the top ten women (...now my swimming...ok, never last out of the water, but pretty darn close :-).

I started riding again a couple of years back. Age and years of inactivity and now I'm slow and I don't care. Sure, I'm faster today than when I started up 3 years ago. Sure, the road bike is faster than the hybrid, but most days, we average only 13 mph.

I look at it this way....if there weren't slow people like me, the fast people wouldn't be able to feel so fast!

Some day I'm going to find a jersey for my hypothetical "racing" team, Equipo Tortuga and wear it proudly whilst being passed by the hares.

[Kano]

I think that the most important lesson I've learned about riding so far has been to ride my own ride.

There's always someone with more experience on the road. We want to be good at this, and we want to be good at it right now. It's hard to accept not being able to keep up, and it's hard to be passed. Other riders can be mighty daunting, and if we don't learn that lesson, I think we defeat our efforts to become riders, and those lovely bikes we have sitting in the garage, or wherever do just that: sit in our garages. (hmmm, thinking about it, this was more a "life lesson" than a "bike lesson" and appllies to a whole lot more than bike riding!)

I'm amazed at how much easier it is to climb the little inclines I struggled so hard with last spring when I started out (and I took the winter off) and how easy it is to cruise along at 15-17 on stretches I worked my tail off to "fly" at 12mph. My "average" speed is still 10-12 most days, but I don't worry about that, since I've got a lot to learn yet! Anyway, we do get better with time and practice, and eventually, we may not pass that guy that gets us today, but there will be someone we pass along the way!

Karen in Boise

[northstar]

I think that the most important lesson I've learned about riding so far has been to ride my own ride.


Karen in Boise

Yes, yes, yes! Well said, Karen!

[Veronica]

I only averaged 12.9 mph on my last ride. Nobody told me I was slow.

V.

[Jolt]

That tire article was interesting--maybe I can't blame it all on the tires after all! It's more likely that I'm just plain slow, given my 10-11 min/mile running pace and the fact that I was never a speed demon on the swim team either (however, if I go to the local Y to swim laps I blow by a lot of people even though I generally swim a 500 in about 10 minutes--there's more of a range of swimming speeds there). I will probably still give that group ride a try in the next few weeks and see how it is, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I might do better to just ride at my own pace.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've ridden about 3,500 miles now, and my average speed is still remaining between 9 and 10 mph. I pedal actively but I'm not concentrating on upping my speed as much as I am working on doing longer distances. I managed a 52 mile ride last week in 5 1/2 hours. We have lots of hills around here, and my bike is not a super lightweight carbon racer. For me, it's not about speed. It's about getting healthy, riding more, and just having fun.