Cycling Forum: What's your average speed?

I know average speed varies depending on several factors such as hills, distance of the ride, etc. but I would like to know what your average speed is. I ride alone and mine is usually around 17 mph. I'm 49 and my heart rate says I'm doing plenty but I don't have any idea how fast other people ride. The competitive part of me wants to know if I need to pick it up or keep on like I am. Thanks in advance for your responses. It will help me out a bunch.

I fall in the middle of age, I am 44. I ride plenty of miles. Started this spring avg speed for a almost 40 mile ride  14. I improved to about 18.5 last time I did it. If you are "training" to improve speed, there are workouts to improve them. I personally like to ride for a challenge and achievement. My experience on a metric century was I was above most riders, I only drafted about 10 miles or so, rode the rest solo.

I am no expert, I ride a 25 year old road bike that I love, I know new gear would make me a little faster, I also like to compare myself. I go by how I feel on rides and do it for the joy and fitness. Do some charity distance rides, and see how you hold up. We all have lost daylight now and I just was humbled on a set of rollers and a training video last night. I can ride for hours on the road, but a half hour of training video was as tough as I rode all summer. Lastly, if you ride all flats, I think with good training we all can go faster, but sometimes its not the pace its the ride.  

I'm 49 and live in nice, flat Central Indiana. We have the odd rolling hill and Interstate overpass, but you have to get about 40-50 miles away to find anything that most people would call a hill. Forget about mountains unless you want to drive 600 miles. Before taking a fall and breaking my collarbone I was riding between 16 - 20 mph depending on whether I was riding in town or out in the country, by myself or in a group. Picked up an HRM in June and HR average on rides would be between 140 - 150.

Jodaddy, Here are my stats from a Polar i720 since 01/01/2005 to today, I'm 49 years old, be 50 in January.  I live in Idaho but those mile have come from all over the United States as I travel for a living, some were flat some were hilly, some were climbs.  Many of the miles have been on a Ritchey Breakaway or a Seven Axiom Ti. Miles - 36,743.4 , Speed avg - 16.6 , Heart Rate avg. - 133 , Ascent -1,211,857' , Kcal - 2,424,482, It's always good to ask upon yourself, if you are where you need to be, but most importantly it is to enjoy the ride. Tires Down, keep it safe! bc

Wichita, KS here:  Obviously not much elevation change, but you always have to deal with the wind.  55 years old on a Giant hybred.  I try to keep my rides (15 - 25 miles mostly on paths and trails) over 15 mph av. Did 23 mi today, av 14.7, which is fine since I had to deal with 20 mph from the south...

While I am not the expert, I have done myself just intervals of sprints mixed in my normal ride. My process is simple, I jump into my big gears and pedal increased cadence and speed until I feel my rate drop, then I go back to "normal" pace for recovery. That may not be the best for everyone, it worked some for me. There are two websites i found in addition to just looking at all posts here, there is probably older training tips in older forums as well.

active.com and training4cyclists.com, and I am sure you could find books as well. The other section on this site maybe signing up and exploring the challenge sections. I inadvertently did the 300 miles in 30 days which is one of the challenges on here. They have training plans in addition right on here. I would defer you to better experts than me for better training tips. Happy riding

Average speed for me only comes into play when I and others ride the exact route,  nothing around where I live is flat for very long,  consider yourself lucky to live where it's flat like a pancake and be able to rip it up. (Or maybe not, hills make you suffer, and that can be wholly gratifying)                                                                                 

That's a pretty good speed - I'm 55 (i guess). If it includes stops for traffic lights and hills etc you are going a good pace. SB

Central FL here.  I'm 47 and just got a road bike and started riding this Spring and really love it and love challenging myself to always get better.  I have become quite enthusiastic abour road biking and I read everything I can get my hands on.    17 mph as an average is right on track for solo riding in our age groupl when you consider the slow speeds of stop lights and the higher speeds of tailwinds or downhills.  I have found the best way to increase speeds is riding with a little faster group at least weekly.  If you are drafting more than half the ride, you should then have an average of about 19mph to be on track to be within the top 25% of most riders.  Hills and doing sprints will make you stronger and faster.  I found if I keep doing the same thing, no matter how hard, I just build endurance to do more and am able to go longer and longer.   But I only get more power and speed by changing it up with varied interval training which can be rather painful when pushing to a new and different max, but the rewards do come quick. 

People who race in groups are in quite a different category however, and will frequently have averages between 25 mph and 28mph.  I am working on getting as close to that as possible eventually and try to push it at least weekly with all out sprints for at least 30 seconds or more, preferably on days without a lot of wind.  I can ride between 23 and 25 for a while, but can't seem to maintain it longer than 20-30 minutes yet, but given my progress over 6 months, I know I could if I trained hard more often which I intend to do.  As long as I keep improving I am motivated to keep doing more.  I also occasionally find different groups to ride with that are faster and although I sometimes can't keep up, the workout until then is very helpful.  If you don't find a local group on map my ride, check out the websites of your area bike shops for organized rides, or better yet make friends with people in the bike stores who can invite you on many less organized rides of just people who love to ride and train.

My profile is public and I think that means you can look at my training log.  Just holding the mouse over the bike logo on a day will give you the summary of each day quickly.   I started on a mountain bike in February so you can see my slow starting point and I started on a road bike on 3//12.  I too like to compare to and chat with others to guage how I am progressing, share info and encourage each other, so anyone who reads this and/or looks at my profile, please add me as a friend so we can chat and compare. 

Happy riding and I hope you keep reaching all your riding and fitness goals!

Arizona, I started bike riding 3 months ago. I am 40 and trying to improve my fitness through cycling. As far as speed, it depends, I am typically doing 15 miles per day during the weekday in around 55 mins, mostly flat but with some little hills. That's around 16 miles per hour. I did 32 miles last Saturday in exactly 2 hours (again 16 Mph). I know I can go faster but for now I am trying to keep my HR in the cardio zone. I also need to lose around 25 pounds... so I hope that will also help me in getting faster...