How slow am I?

jj says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Average speed depends on things like terrain and the number of stops you
are forced to make. If there are a lot of grueling climbs, 13-14mph
doesn't sound that bad.

On a continuous climb of about 5% do you realize that you'd have to
maintain close to 400 watts to go this speed? I'd say that's exceptional.
(just a friendly comment)

But that particular comment was about average speeds--an average speed
for a ride that contained some slow climbs and, presumably, some fast
downhills as well.

I don't think it's a matter of upgrading the bike really by going from
hybrid to road bike. It's just a different tool for a different job. If the
job is to ride on roads, and both distance and speed are important to you,
you get a road bike. Hybrids are wonderful for what they are, which is
basically an urban and mild off-road utility bike. They can do things a road
bike can't, but, they can't compete with a road bike on the road.

I've been cycling recreationally since the 1960's. I always had a road bike.
I experimented with hybrids during the 90's, but, I find there is nothing
like the efficiency and comfort - yes, comfort - of a conservatively set-up
road bike. By conservatively, I mean somewhere between the efficiency-only
riding position of a full-on racing bike and the more upright position of a
touring bike. Mine is setup with the seat height higher than the
heel-on-pedal method, but lower then the x .883 formula. My handlebars are
about 3/4 of an inch lower than the saddle top, and my stem is the
appropriate length for me and that bike. It's not a racing setup exactly,
but it's not upright either. I get good weight distribution between butt and
hands, and I'm not overstretching myself in any way.

Experiment for yourself, but if what you want is speed and distance, start
with the right tool for the job. You can't expect a hybrid to give you the
same speed as guys on racing bikes will make over longer distances. They are
just too heavy and clumsy for that.

BTW, you would find it hard to setup most current road bikes on the market
as mine is. Mine is a custom, but it's possible to do it by very careful
selection of the bike. An audax-type bike is the best bet for what you want
to do, but these aren't very common in North America (which is why mine is
custom-made).

How slow am I? Very slow, but then, I have no kidneys at this point. You do
what you can do. I don't measure myself against anybody else. Never have,
even when I was healthy. A better way, I think, is measuring yourself
against yourself.

Peter

jj said:

On a continuous climb of about 5% do you realize that you'd have to
maintain close to 400 watts to go this speed? I'd say that's
exceptional. (just a friendly comment)

Me too, since 400 watts it a little over half a horsepower. I'd like to
meet the man who is as strong as half a hose...

--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
Offhand, I'd say you need to clean your guns in front of your CPU salesman.
--Matthew Stitt, in bit.listserv.ibm-main

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:51:43 -0600, Robert Uhl <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

jj said:

On a continuous climb of about 5% do you realize that you'd have to
maintain close to 400 watts to go this speed? I'd say that's
exceptional. (just a friendly comment)

Me too, since 400 watts it a little over half a horsepower. I'd like to
meet the man who is as strong as half a hose...

I can just about push 300watts (according to my on-line calculator) on the
hill I do repeats, for the 9-10 minutes it takes me to complete, averaging
about 11mph for two miles at 5% grade, 70 cadence, 24lb bike, no wind. I'm
just a beginner. I've done about 4 repeats in one day without much
problems, in fact I like riding up it much more than the ride down
considering the road surface.

Pro riders would ride up this hill like it wasn't there by comparison,
probably getting 15-18mph over 2 miles, no problem. Though they'd have
lighter bikes and lighter bodies. That comes out to over 500 watts for the
6 minutes it would take them. I think I just broke 10 minutes last time I
rode it - crushed gravel (which probably requires a bit more wattage over
asphault).

Take a look if you want to play with it. Takes a minute to get familiar
with, but comes with some default values pre-plugged in.

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

400 watts, depending on the length of the ride is probably near the top of
the range for recreational riders, again depending on the length of the
ride. There are probably quite a few that can sustain that for about 30
minutes. I've got a ways to go, but I'd be happy with the high 300s for
that length of time.

jj

Weisse said:

I'd like to work my way up to doing a century one of these years, but I'm
afraid I'm just too darn slow!

I'm 48, in moderate shape and have been biking for about 3 years. I ride a
Trek 7500 (hybrid). I get out at least 3 times/week I have no problem with
rides in the 30-mile range. But my problem is speed. I average about 14
mph on short rides (less than 15 miles) and 13 mph on longer rides. If my
math is right, a 100 mile trip is going to take almost 8 hours of solid ride
time!

I gotta know, is this just too slow? Is it me or is it my bike? What
should I target for an average speed?

That sounds okay to me. I average about 22 km/hr (including rest
breaks) when cycling long distances on my own and I have done 175 km on
my own in a day.

If you are planning on a century it is a good idea to ride with a
group. A proper group riding in a pace line will increase your average
speed and reduce your fatigue.

John Kane
Kingston ON

Quoted message said:

If you are planning on a century it is a good idea to ride with a
group. A proper group riding in a pace line will increase your average
speed and reduce your fatigue.

1) If you have no experience riding in a group, this is bad advice for you.
You'll endanger yourself and the group.

2) If you have group riding experience, be wary of expending too much effort
trying to hang with a group going faster than you are capable.

Chris Neary
[email hidden]

"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could
you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I
loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh

Well, you may be right. My wife doesn't ride centuries by a
longshot! My 1 1/2 cents!

~Rob
PS: (1/2 cent more) I personally ride a Trek 7200FX which also
has straight bars, but without the cushy seat and no shocks, no
bar ends. I just did about 40 miles this morning and my
hands/wrists felt great. My nuts were pretty sore, though!
(sorry, that's too much info, I guess) By the way, for $300, this
is a great bike. : )

"jj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
: On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:05:36 GMT, "mo fo" <[email hidden]> wrote:
:
: >
: >Tony: [ I ride a Trek 7500 (hybrid). ]
: >
: >Art: {: 3) Your bike is not ideal for doing long rides. It's
: >heavy, slow, puts you
: >: in an upright position that is not aerodynamic, and puts
lots
: >of weight on
: >: yer butt.}
: >
: >ROB: That bike is designed for max comfort. Cushy as can be.
My
: >wife has a similar model. I think it would be like doing a
: >century in you living room armchair. But it's true that it's
not
: >designed for speed. It does have a really nice wide range of
: >gearing, though, so you can zip up the hills easily. Just take
: >your time and enjoy the ride. What's the hurry? And remeber,
: >there's always going to be someone slower than you!
:
: I have this bike and it's OK, but not the most comfortable
bike. It
: -definitely- puts more weight on your butt because you're not
stretched out
: enough. It was tough on the hands, causing numbness and some
pain with the
: straight bar and limited hand positions even with bar ends, and
just before
: trading up to a drop bar bike, I found I kept trying to do a
'thumbless'
: grip on the bars. I found the reason for this was it moved my
hands forward
: about 1/2" and took some of the weight off the saddle and on to
the pedals.
:
: IMO, if you're thinking that comfort on a bike = sitting (in a
soft chair),
: I'd suggest that's heading the wrong direction.
:
: <shrug> If you wife likes it then that's cool, but I think it's
fairly well
: recognized that an upright position can eventually turn out to
be
: uncomfortable, and that a straight bar also cambers the wrists
unnaturally
: and limits the options for repositioning.
:
: Just 2 cents. ;-)
:
: jj
:

"jj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

IMO, if you're thinking that comfort on a bike = sitting (in

a soft chair),

Quoted message said:

I'd suggest that's heading the wrong direction.

Yes, towards the recumbent dealer. 🙂

But back to the original poster:
If you want to do a century, do it. (Metric (100 km = 62
miles) first, of course).
Persistence is more necessary than speed, and easier to
achieve at 48.
If you are doing it for minor bragging rights or personal
satisfaction -- so what? We all need things to motivate us and
this is a common reason.

You can do a century on a comfort bike -- I've done a handful
on a Raleigh SC40 comfort bike.
Checking my records, I find I did a metric century on this
bike in April, just after I got over a lung infection
requiring 2 rounds of antibiotics. Average speed: 10.3mph
No, that's not a typo. Two weeks later I did a full century on
a road bike averaging 11.3. I only post this to show that
centuries can be done at slow speeds, they just take longer.
And they can be done for stupid reasons, too. I decided to do
a century a month this year, which is why I did these (I get
to do a metric if it's below 40F.) Is that really sensible
after the lung infection? Maybe not, but without dreams and
goals we would be no different than the vegetables.

However, that type of distance is going to be easier to
negotiate on something made more for distance.
This would be a road bike.

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:34:03 GMT, "Mike Kruger" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

You can do a century on a comfort bike -- I've done a handful
on a Raleigh SC40 comfort bike.
Checking my records, I find I did a metric century on this
bike in April, just after I got over a lung infection
requiring 2 rounds of antibiotics. Average speed: 10.3mph
No, that's not a typo. Two weeks later I did a full century on
a road bike averaging 11.3. I only post this to show that
centuries can be done at slow speeds, they just take longer.
And they can be done for stupid reasons, too. I decided to do
a century a month this year, which is why I did these (I get
to do a metric if it's below 40F.) Is that really sensible
after the lung infection? Maybe not, but without dreams and
goals we would be no different than the vegetables.

However, that type of distance is going to be easier to
negotiate on something made more for distance.
This would be a road bike.

Arguably, riding 100 miles at 10.3mph isn't riding, it sounds more like a
survival slog. Do they even keep the rest stops open that long?

And riding it on a 30lb suspended front fork bike, suspended seat with gel
saddle seems like unnecessary torture. But to each his own, heh. Was your
good bike in the shop?

jj

"jj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Arguably, riding 100 miles at 10.3mph isn't riding, it

sounds more like a

Quoted message said:

survival slog. Do they even keep the rest stops open that

long?

It was more like a survival slog. This was a personal ride, so
there were no organized rest stops.

Quoted message said:

And riding it on a 30lb suspended front fork bike, suspended

seat with gel

Quoted message said:

saddle seems like unnecessary torture. But to each his own,

heh. Was your

Quoted message said:

good bike in the shop?

The SC40 I have is older, before they went to suspended front
forks, the suspended seat post cracked and I bought aa new
unsuspended one, and shortly after I bought the bike I pitched
the saddle that came with it and put a used Brooks on it.
Still, though, I won't argue your general point.

Part of the reasoning for taking this bike, though, was that I
was stopping at a used shop in hopes of picking up a used
wheel for another project. I did find one, and the rack I have
on the Raleigh SC40 made it easy to carry the wheel home
(thus, of course, adding further weight). So, for about half
the ride, I was a non-standard trike.