UKC

It seems to me that over the last couple of years in particular, there has been a noticeable increase in the average speed that proficient cyclists or regular cycle commuters travel at. Admittedly this is in Norfolk where there are not many hills but I'm often surprised when following cyclists to see how fast they're going compared to when I was regularly cycling some time ago. Have average speeds increased for regular cyclists on this forum and if so is it due to bike technology or increased levels of fitness or a combination of both ?

In reply to Dave Reeve:

I dont think the speeds for club cyclists have changed that much but only having a passing interest in that area. My guess is that there would be more of those club cyclists around on the commute run since its currently the new golf.
gear helps but not so much as fitness and there havent been any massive leaps forward in a couple of years.

In reply to Dave Reeve:

Mine's gone up, mostly through a combination of desperately trying to appease the car behind that keeps beeping, and, at this time of year anyway, hoping to keep warm.






Also, Strava?

In reply to Dave Reeve:

I'm expecting my commute speed to go up now I've got a re-surfaced road and dedicated bike lane at the edge

Last year I had a car driver give me a good thumbs up for holding 25mph along a fair stretch - and that was on my commuting wheels

Not convinced by the Strava comment - I use it to log my miles, rather than times and don't aim to beat segment times, but nice to get a sense of comparitive fitness out of them.

In reply to Dave Reeve:

I think the average speed of people on bicycles has gone up, mainly because of the demographic now using them... it used to be kids and older people who grew up with bikes as transport mainly, with a lower proportion of keen/club cyclists. These days loads of relatively fit 30-50year olds have taken it up and raised the average speed.

Cycle club membership has dropped over last 20yrs meaning maybe only the most committed are left? Lots more keen cyclists now ride with mates and informal clubs, which is perhaps where the old second tier cyclists now reside perhaps?

The road bike I had 20years ago as a kid (second hand so would probably be 35 yrs old now) was a decent raleigh and could go at a fair lick, but remembering the tyres etc, I would think I would drop my average now by 2-3mph compared to my current mid range road bike.

Mountain bikes on the other hand I would think the progress in tech would mean I could halve my times over technical terrain as a 16 yr old on my current bike and it still feel slow

In reply to Dave Reeve:

Strava has definitely had an effect!

Certainly on my times and i know that I'm not alone

In reply to LastBoyScout:


I was battering up my local hill recently on a narrow stretch with parked cars. Bullet headed bloke in rattly car pulls up alongside, window down. 'Here we go' I think ...and he shakes his fist at me and shouts across 'Go on LAD! Give it some.' Nice

In reply to Dave Reeve:

I'm doing my bit to hold it down!

In reply to SteveRi:


very nice

Here in the DR where i live for the winter, the locals think we riders are completely crazy but often shout out encouraging things such as 'dale gringo!', which pretty much means 'give it some, whitey!'

In reply to SteveRi:


That's pretty much the scenario, with "good effort, mate, I've been following you at 25mph".

Reminds me of the time I was battering up Ditchling Beacon on London to Brighton about 18 years ago (on what is now my heavy, hack bike that I wouldn't go more than about 8 miles on), out of the saddle, when someone pushing up shouted "go on, mate, give it everything" and I remember thinking "what do you think I'm doing???" :-D

In reply to Dave Reeve:

Norfolk's been going downhill the 90's

In reply to Dave Reeve:

I bought a bike this morning so the average speed around here just took a nosedive...

In reply to Bob Hughes:

Impossible, there aren't any hills to go down.

In reply to gethin_allen:


it is sinking though (along with the rest of Southern UK)