Today I did my first 20 mile (33km) ride on my hardtail XC bike. I learned how to ride a bike about 1.5 months ago, but I’ve been riding pretty consistently since I learned. I ride exclusively in the city, it’s a very walkable city, but the paths aren’t always the best. I did 33km in 2 hours 53 minutes, not including breaks for water or to eat.
I see people saying that 10MP/H (16KM/H) average is a good average to shoot for, but i can’t even get my average above 7.1MPH (11.5KM/H), even on shorter rides. What am I doing wrong here? How are people going so freaking fast on bikes in cities?
The MTB gives me more confidence that I won’t break something if I go down a curb too hard or somehow make a wrong move and go into a pothole.
My butt does hurt a bit, mostly because my underwear rides up uncomfortably as I ride, I occasionally have to stop and fix it 😅
Here’s a pic of my bike :)
You can go fast in that bike but it’s not really built for it. If you desire speed there are usually good deals on older street bikes. My 40 yr old miyata 910 weighs half of your MTB and that makes a big difference in acceleration and speed. I commuted with this bike for almost 20 years and got my average up to 50 kph. Would pass traffic between lights, it felt great being faster than cars.
I’m sorry but the average speed across all stages in the Tour de France is around 41km/h there is no way that you could average 50kp/h unless your route was entirely downhill. Even then if it was a commute you’d have to return up that hill which would then normalise your average.