I was just curious what your guys’ average speeds are? I just got to thinking about this the other day, I’ve read the wikipedia page that lists speeds for different size wheels, and it just seems a little low. So, I figured I’d pose the question to you alls.
So, road riding, muni riding, cross country, 24", 29", 36". How fast are you guys going?
I don’t have a speedo, but I can do a 10 mile, technical single track trail in about two hours. And I think road riding I average about 7 mph or more. I have a 24x3.
Also, on a slightly unrelated (but not enough to make a different thread) how many of you are using the Geared 24s from UDC? I stopped being up to date on all this stuff a few months ago. So, this isn’t the one that KH is comming out with right? I’d just like general info. I’d really like to be able to go faster, wouldn’t we all, but not sacrifice manueverability or hard-coredness, and still be able to do technical ST. Just getting back in the loop.
Riding average (breaks not included) on my 29 I average about 6.7 mph on paved paths with little obstruction. This is cruising speed, I’m just taking in the sights and enjoying myself. Spying on squirrels, looking for a woodpecker in the trees, sipping water and enjoying a snack.
At the end of a long ride though I tend to go a bit slower… worn out.
I never knew there were armadillos in Florida. Speaking of Florida. I was living there for a while a few years back. I was walking from my house to the corner store, through a little walkway/alley thing. There were a narrow band of trees on either side of a passage, there may have been a little water, but not much. And anywho, right as I was passing through that part, I heard a really loud snap. I looked back and saw a huge lobster. Just chilling on the edge of the tree line. That was a pretty freaky experience.
On the Schlumpf geared 29er, I can do 12 miles in an hour, as long as there aren’t too many traffic lights. For half an hour, I’ve done 13.7 mph for just over half an hour.
On the normal 29er (with 125mm cranks), the fastest I’ve gone is 12.9mph for 40 minutes. That felt like I was going exceedingly fast.
On the Coker, I’ve done 100 miles in 10 hours, and over 12 miles in an hour (I can’t remember exactly how much over, we were in the middle of a hundred miler last time I did it).
All these are real averages, ie. I started at the start time, by the end time I was that distance away, including any breaks. Many people will use a ‘riding only average’, which often bears no relation to how long it takes to get them anywhere.
I think the speeds on wikipedia are pretty sensible if you assume they’re proper averages, it is pretty rare that you go coker riding with anyone and they actually get more than 10 miles in an hour.
It really is worth getting a speedo if you’re interested in your speed, they only take 5 minutes to fit, and a cheapo one (like 10$) will be fine for a unicycle. Using distances that trails are defined as is sometimes dodgy, I’ve ridden ‘20 km’ trails that were more like 25km, and others that were closer to 15km. Even on road, there’s often a fair amount of rounding error in the distances they put on signs.
I’m not concerned with how fast I go. I know that, and I’m not trying to stroke my ego, or find out tips from others, and anything like that. I simply was interested in how fast all you guys go.
To the trail note. I’m not sure where you live, but here, there aren’t that many trails, and as such, they’re very well “policed” (for lack of a better term) and the posted distances are all numerously backed up by many individual riders using GPS tracking. And if I ever want to know how far I’ve gone on roads, I use Google Earth’s distance calculator. Which is as accurate as your bike computer. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like one, just that more tech doesn’t mean more cool.
Also, I think I meant as part of this original question, but totally forget to include it or something, what’s your guys’ top speed. Again, I’m not sure, but I can keep up with my dogs, which I can’t do on foot. And I’m a very fast runner. I think that’s somewhere around 20 mph. And I can keep this pace up (as long as I’m wearing shorts and good running shoes. Pants cuz a fall every time, at this speed, when they catch the top of the crank arms or the nub there. Do you guys experience this?) for about a half a mile or so.
I cruise to work at (grabs cycle comp) 12.25 km/h if i’m riding normally, some where in the 11s if I’m lazing about and the high 13s if I’m going for it. The current Max speed is 22.75 km/h. All on a 700c wheel with 125mm cranks.
Off road its more like an average of 8.5-9km/h with a max of 18km/h on a Qu-ax 24" (long cranks, fat tyre, can’t remember the details)
(*) What do you mean you don’t get the metric system ? Google does and will happily give the speed in furlongs per quarter or whatever archaic nonsense you want
My max on 36" is 17mph, 20 mph seems unfeasible, you’re only 2 mph away from a sub 10 second 100 metre. Of course this is what a cycle computer will do, that google earth won’t.
World Hour record is 27.18km on the flat, so I’m sure max speed on the flat with a Coker is well North of that. On a downhill Christian Hoverath has been reputed to have hit 48km/hr.
I don’t use a cyclecomputer, but from rides/races I’ve done, I’ve averaged over 25km/hr on a Coker over a marathon distance, and over 20km/hr over 100miles with lot’s of hills. Both times with 110mm cranks. Also, slighly under 16km/hr over 24hrs on a Coker.
On a 29’er I think I can average about 20km/hr with 150mm cranks. I’m actually quite liking it at the moment, it’s so much more fun spinning fast compared to a sluggish Coker.
