How fast is casual biking

I would suggest you switch to a drop bar when commuting for long-distance. The drop bars aerodynamic design helps lessen drag as your body catches less headwind. This helps you go faster with a drop bar with the exact same effort. The ability to shift your weight forward gives additional leverage for efficient pedaling. Now you can pedal faster and with more power as you shift your weight forward. For example it will be wise to ride out in a tailwind that gives an extra boost to your speed.

When commuting to work its even better you ride out in a head wind and return in tailwind. In morning you are fresh and energetic and thus can put extra effort to maintain speed. But its the return when you need the wind boost as you being already exhausted. If possible plan ahead for the wind condition and road types, as you will find it easier to ride on a smooth road than one with patchy uneven surface.

Then there is some basic common sense to take bike lanes and sidewalks to escape the busy city roads. For anyone with a bicycle, the most important adjustment they should make to improve the average bike speed is to monitor and adjust the tire pressure. If you feel that your bike is running sluggish, check the tire pressure gauge before investing in new and expensive tires or taking it to the shop for repairs.

Making sure your tire pressure is correct is the simplest step to ensuring your bike is fast. Some cyclists go the extra mile and adjust the pressure into both tires to give them that extra advantage and while this is certainly a tactic you can try, to psi should be good enough for most cyclists. One of the basic ways to improve your average bike speed by doing work on yourself.

This can be in the form of regular training biking, strength training, working your legs, and lifting weight at the gym. Pushing very big gears at slow speed is better than most squats and leg exercise taught elsewhere. Only catch is you should do it in small sets and not more than 30 minutes in total, unless you want to break your knees. Find best gear which requires you to pedal slowly then slowly switch to faster gears.

Cycling is known to strengthen your calves and help with fat loss. On the one hand, the fat loss makes your calves and legs leaner. Working your calves build muscles and help them grow bigger. Lower weight helps you go faster while a more grown up calves muscles helps put more effort.

So You rips the profit of both power and speed doing just one job. Upgrading your wheel with a more aerodynamic design can give you a extra jump in terms of speed. After all it is your wheel and tires that actually makes contact with the ground.

When looking for speed you should pick wheel with flexible sidewalls and reasonably thin tread. Get it on Amazon! If you choose well you can save as much as grams on just wheels. Even for the most common tires available, you will save at least g. Constructed of light rubber these high-quality tires will roll faster on roads and trails. What is the gear ratio?

The idea behind the gear ratio is simple enough. Each gear will control how far the bike will go with each peddles stroke. On higher gear, the bicycle will go further while the opposite will happen on low gear. A bike in high-gear will be faster than one in low-gear as the wheels are spinning much faster.

The trade-off, as you might imagine, is faster bicycles will be harder to control on sharp turns or even a change in terrain. Its almost clear when you needs to improve your average bike speed you take shorter intervals, apply less brakes when riding and ride longer.

I have always seen myself riding faster, stopping less often and have a overall better experience riding with a group. Loud tires can also slow you down. For rides that are less than 45 minutes, I wear generic workout clothes. If you plan on riding for more than an hour, definitely make sure your clothes are tight and hug your skin. Also, you should invest in riding shorts to make sure you have padding to protect your sit bone.

The lighter your bike, the less energy it takes to get up to speed and to go up hills. Thankfully, most road bikes across the price spectrum weigh between 17 lbs and 23 lbs.

An incredibly expensive bike can get down to about 15 lbs, but saving that much weight will really only help if you are a professional. For reference, a mountain bike can be closer to 30 lbs with nothing on it. My road bike, a Trek 1. If you are wondering what gear I have, you can visit the Recommended Gear page and check it out.

You can have the most aerodynamic bike and outfit in the world, but a rusty chain will slow you down. Maintaining your equipment is key to ensuring the longevity of your bike, and making sure that you can keep enjoying your rides for years to come. We all have a tendency to pedal at a certain speed, called a cadence, regardless of what gear we are in.

That means that you can speed yourself up with minimal effort just by shifting into a higher gear. That makes a lot of sense, but it definitely has diminishing returns. So, one of the fastest and most permanent ways to improve your speed is to live a more active lifestyle and to ride more frequently.

It is important, however, to recognize the kind of fit that you are. This topic is very similar to bike weight, but it has a much bigger range of weights. The heavier you are, the more energy it takes to get you up to speed and get you to the top of a hill. So, keep your weight in mind when looking at how your average speed changes over time. Thanks to different hormones in males and females, we form muscles differently under the same conditions.

Men tend to grow larger muscles than women. So, on average, they tend to be able to pedal with more power than women going through the same training. On the flip side, though, women tend to be smaller. That makes them more lightweight and aerodynamic than men. Generally speaking, a female of the same training as a male is only going to be mph slower.

There are plenty of technical skills and knowledge to be had as well. It may be rare for recreational bikers to track their one-mile feat. However, it is still considered good practice to know how much time you take to get past one mile. The standard is only three to four minutes of cycling at speeds of 17 to 18 miles per hour. However, there are more factors to consider. So, it may go beyond or under the stated time. It only takes three to four minutes to bike a mile on average, given that you go at speeds of 17 to 18 mph.

However, you can only achieve this feat if you have a good bicycle. Biking on flat terrains is a bonus. Your health also plays a part in your cycling. If you are healthy and have good endurance, you may even reach one mile in less than three or four minutes. Thus, we can really conclude that the answer varies for every individual.

For instance, professional bikers and enduro riders can cycle more than a mile within three or four minutes. On the other hand, average cyclers that bike leisurely usually take six minutes to bike 1 mile, provided that they go at 10 miles per hour. You can also cover one mile within five minutes if you have an average biking speed per mile of 12mph. I listed down all the average biking times depending on the terrain and the biker.

So, check them out. You can also check this video for a more thorough explanation of mile coverage. These differences depend on many factors that affect your biking speed, which, in turn, affects the time needed to cover a mile.

The road affects your speed. If you are going on a sharp, sloping hill, it will take around seven minutes to go up and one minute or so to go down. Build your leg strength either through weight training or by practicing your hill climbing on an incline of 4 to 5 percent. You may also want to increase the amount of miles you ride weekly to build your leg endurance level.

Having a high level of endurance is critical if you want to ride at a consistent speed over a sustained period of time. Fitness Training Cycling. Ryan Haas. Writing professionally since , Ryan Haas specializes in sports, politics and music.

The average road bike speed is between 11 and 12 mph.