Does Bicycle and body height affect how fast you can ride?

[north woods gal]

I'm no gear head, so hope I didn't confuse more than help with my version of the technical answer. Sorry if I did. I do have bikes with a wide variety of wheel sizes, so I do know there are differences, but translating that into something others can understand isn't easy. Again, sorry for my clumsy attempt, everyone.

I stand by my answer of keeping your XS bike and working on your training, though, Kajero. From personal experience, I know it's much more the biker than the bike we ride. Best of luck, but no matter what you do, just keep riding.

[ny biker]

You know, I do have some friends who get about 1-1.5 mph faster on average as the months progress from early spring to mid summer and I know they're not trying to get faster with interval training or anything like that. They just ride a lot, almost every day, with the ride distances becoming increasingly longer as the weather warms up. They're over 70, and even at their fastest are not as fast as they were years ago. But I do see a difference when I ride with them at different times of the year.

As for me, when I ride with people who are faster than me I don't enjoy the ride as much, because I'm focused on trying to keep up and pushing through the exhaustion instead of enjoying the scenery. So while I also would like to be able to keep up with some people and I also feel uncomfortable when they stop to wait for me, I don't want to suffer that much in order to get faster. And there's only so much I can do to get faster, due to asthma slowing me down on hills and a tendency to have knee pain when I ride too big a gear. At the same time I am frustrated because I'm in-between right now when it comes to average speed, not fast enough to keep up with one group of people that I know but faster than another group and always having to wait for them.

I find it difficult to do interval training training when riding outside, because I'm limited by things like traffic or stop signs and stop lights. So if i want to do "intervals" I really end up pushing hard at the beginning of the ride and then riding a comfortable pace at the end. I find it much easier to do them when riding indoors (or doing other indoor cardio exercise), especially because it makes the workout less likely to get boring.

Editing to add: I do find that I am slower when I am uncomfortable on the bike or downright in pain. If a larger frame would to too large, and Crankin indicates, is there anything you can do to feel less cramped on the current bike? Like a different stem or something?

[rebeccaC]

NY...I like that couple!!! hoping we are like them when we get to our 70's...or at least as into being active!!!!

[Crankin]

At least half of the people in my Wednesday group are 70+. They ride 3-10K a year and some of them also run, hike, etc.
Some have slowed down, but others, in the faster half of this group are at least 50-65 years old. I can't keep up with them most of the time. They invited me to join their other "invite only" group. I went once, and did a 50 mile ride on the first 80 degree day of May 2015. I sincerely thought I would die. Was happy there were two physicians riding with me. I didn't let on that I was suffering, but told them to go ahead on the last climb. They are super nice guys (I find the women who ride with them not so nice). These people are all my role models. About 10 years ago, one of our rides was led by a guy who at the time, was my dad's age. He is now 90 and still riding, after almost dying a few years ago.