Average speed

I always head scratch as to how to work out my average speed as my bike timer does not have the average facility.
What is the formula ie I ride for 35 miles and it takes me 2 hours.
How do I work out my average from that. ????

 

average speed=total distance/total time... in your case ave sp=35mi/2hr=17.5mi/hr...

that single statistic doesn't really tell you a whole lot though... just fun to know, i guess. only really any good to guage a single route. others here might be able to give you a better idea of what type of statistics would give you a better idea of your performance.

 

Thank you for your reply, however, it doesn't answer my question. I wanted to know the mathmatical way of working out my average speed.

 

Actually, he just gave you the formula:
average speed=total distance/total time
I'll put it into Newtonian physics terms for you:

V = S/t

where: V = average velocity, or speed (miles per hour)
S = total distance traveled (miles)
t = total time (hours)

In order to find your average speed, simply plug your total distance into "S", total time into "t", and then divide "S" by "t". It's really not that complicated...just divide distance by time. How old are you anyway? Just curious.

 

45

 

he just told you

average speed=total distance/total time

 

dont forget to have the total time part as a fraction of an hour!

 

ie 1 hour 45 minutes would be 1.75

 

Quick breakdown of minutes into % of an hour
1 minute = .016 Hour
3 minutes = .05 Hour
6 minutes = .1 Hour
15 minutes = .25 Hour

If you are running a spreadsheet program you need 3 columns
1. Time (combine hours & minutes - i.e. 1 hour 20 minutes = 80)
2. Distance miles or kilometers 20
3. Average speed - formula is "speed / (time/60)" answer should come out at 15

For the question above - you would plug in the numbers:
Time 120 minutes
Distance 35
Average should come out to be 17.5

 

try this for working out averages

http://www.wherearewe.co.nz/averagespeed.html

 

Just as a point of interest, I reckon I may only have averaged about 13 mph today on my ride - which I guess isn't too good. On my climbs I may drop down to 7 mph but have sometimes worked up to 13 mph.
Having said that I'm very cautious on the road with the ruts and grids that can buckle a wheel or cause accidents. At some point I'll test how fast I can average on a flat road and, at a guess, I suppose that would be around 20 mph.
I wonder what everybody else is averaging?

 

My usual training route is either 43 or 62 miles, very windy and rolling hills. When going into the wind, I try to maintain an average of around 18 mph which is a *****......going with the wind, a nice 25 mph average does it....heh

 

Sounds like I'd have a tough time keeping up with you. Strangely enough I never see any other cyclists riding the hill I train on - which is a pity since I can't guage myself against other riders. I do get guys sneaking up and passing me on the flat but it would kind of piss me off to be passed on a climb (chuckle)
How much do you weigh roughly and do you churn big cogs or spin smaller gears? Also what kind of bike do you ride presently?

 

I'm 6'4", approx 160 pounds. I ride a Fuji Finest-AL for now but am buying a Giant TCR3 for racing soon. I haven't been riding for very long so I dunno if I'm doing the right thing, but I have a 53/39 setup and am always in the 53. I haven't put it on the 39 ring since i bought the bike a few months ago.

I'm one of those guys who lives for the speed, which leaves me in a fetal position on the ground rather often. I try to get as much wattage as possible at all times to build myself up for the races. I just hate going slow, a mentality I picked up from my track and cross country days in high school.

 

Here's the way I get an average.
(Distance devide by Minutes ridden) X 60 = mph
Example....
(50 miles divided by 155 minutes) = 0.322
0.322X 60 = 19.35 mph
Dar ya go !

 

And we could just buy a computer that calculates your average. Man the cheap computer even show average speed so why waste your time with all these calculations.

Buy a computer.