Average Speed Is Overrated And Here's Why 

The huge problem with average speed is when used as a comparison metrics with OTHERS. No pb measuring self progress on a given route but comparing to other people average speed with different bikes, weather conditions, elevation grades, terrains and so on makes absolutely no sense, and may actually make you feel bad - or "proud" - for bad reasons. I know people obsessed with avg speed and they avoid taking any break, barely looking at the landscape and even avoid stopping to pee for the sake of not going under 30km/h avg on their ride because that would make them look bad online. Mad. Ness.

Avarage speed is an Excellent metric if you regularly ride the same route, for example when commuting or a regular ride for fitness or enjoyment. I commuted every work day 20km one way from February to mid December and easily observed a gradual reduction in time over the course of a year from intially 55 min down to 45 min going to work and slightly longer going home due to ascending 200m (and being tired after work). When I ride my regular work out route i know that i will arrive at the half way point after 2:05 if fit and the wind is right. The overall route is 89.9km and has 1100m ascent. If I finish it in under 4 1/2h I know I am quite fit ( BTW I am now 70 years of age) By the way: If avarage sped is not a useful metric, what then is then point of a K(Q)oM trophy. Time up a climb is the the equivalent of average speed.

I always think that average speed is an excellent indicator of the amount of traffic I encountered on the route.

“Jimmy wearing Emily’s bracelets” underrated 💄👠😂😂

Smaller wheels also give you lower gear ratios. I was comparing different cassettes for my 29" bike vs. my girlfriend's 26" bike and I realized the difference is actually quite big

Love my Redshift stem ...thanks again !!

When I got my first road bike I had 0 fitness and was doing 24km/h average, now with 6 years of riding every weekend I can only just get 23km/h on the same rides. I only recently realised I got slower. Anyway im on gravel now doing 16km/h 😊

I don't personally pay much attention to average speed. However, if you do the same loop regularly with the same warm up and xool down routine each time, then you can compare your average speed, hills or not it tells you something. Then again weather has a big impact especially wind.

Average speed is such bs. I use a polarized training method so my average speed most of the time is relatively slow because I'm training in zone 1 (of a 3 zone system), endurance pace. The other day or two per week I'm doing hard intervals with rest breaks, so again my average speed is pretty slow. You're not impressing anyone with your stats on Strava, unless of course you're taking KOMs, but that's a different topic. Ride however slow or fast you want and stop riding to impress people who don't matter.

This chat format works 👍👍👍

Edward the Longshanks: “Who is this person who speaks to me as though I needed his advice?” 😂😂😂

Suspension Gravel bikes.... Just got a Lauf Seigla. That front end is a game changer when riding rough gravel fast. Love it

as mentioned before , avg speed is a good mettric if its the same route you can time your route and if its one you frequent you can absolutely use average speed , keep in mind that most of the time i am cycling on singletrack or gravel/hardpack so i dont really have any traffic stops and such

I'm a touring cyclist( recumbent) so I use average speed initially to gather data so I could calculate what distances I could hope to achieve in various types of terrain. I do that so I can plan where my campsites are going to be. When I tried to keep up to a certain average just for performance purposes, I'd end up killing myself for nothing

About the purple sparkly Liv bike. It exists and has been floating around the web, so it could definitely be that you guys saw it somewhere and forgot about it!

Average speed on known routes is an excellent metric. It correlates very closely with fitness. I used it for many years. On circuits, wind and conditions make less difference than you would think. The Average speed/ fitness correlation is very high.

I thought it was just me that hated rucksacks. I commute using a 15ltr seat pack. Fits trainers, pants T shirt and towel.

what is the brand of black shirt - the one with buttons? I need one.

1:38 this is an even bigger thing in the running community. So many times I'll look at somebody's run on strava and it's like 11.5 miles 6:53/mile pace but their elapsed time is like 35 minutes more than their moving time lol

Surly Midnight Special comes in Lilac. 650b wheeels too :) Steel frame

Fully agree on 650B as very underrated. My gravel rig is equipped with it for 4 years now and has never disappointed me in sense of speed and is extremely comfortable in rough terrain. At gravel events, I rode several gravel bikes with 700c and tyres from 38mm to 42mm width, none of them had an overall good performance like my 650B setup. Sadly, 650B is currently getting less attention and availability in shops is decreasing rapidly (speaking for Germany).

I will be doing LEJOG this summer. If I don't have any idea of my speed, and what I am capable of, I won't know what time I should arrive at each destination, and more importantly, for my flight home at the end. So it is vital.

I use Strava for my cycling tracking, and it always takes 5 secs to register a stop lights (and records those 5 secs at 0 mph) and then another 3 secs to register me moving (again taking in those 3 secs at 0 mph). So, even though I live in FL, the most flat of flat states, the Denmark, if you will, of the United States, I usually state my moving average as my average.

In London - Zones 1 and 2 average speed is meaningless because of traffic lights and junctions. My average speed increases by 3-4 km/h if I’m out of central London, even though I’m climbing much more.

Personally I couldn't give a monkeys about average speed, as a gravel bike rider in the North East of England and having to hike a bike up and down stairs or over fences or stopping to open and close gates it's pointless, however if you're training and doing regular routes to compare I get it.

As a big guy (about 120-130kg) I will take a 700x50 over a 650x2.1-2.2" all day long. It has to do with the casings/treads/compounds available. Most 650x2.1-2.2" tires are coming from the mountain bike would and do not make good gravel tires. Also, just increase the chainstays by about 10mm and you can run 700c tires that are the same as 650b and then you have the best of both worlds. I do not understand the fascination with super short chainstays on dedicated gravel bikes. If you gravel bike is also your road bike, like mine, a shorter chainstay is nice as it remains less stable and more able to flick around.

Agree with avg speed is overrated. Wheels.. i have 700c wheel for my roadbike and gravel bike, 650b and 26" for my xc. But the most enjoyable and the most fun to ride for me is the 26" wheeled cx bike.

Mountain bikers have been using 26 inch inner tubes for 650b and 29ers for years. The smaller size is universal because it will stretch.

700c / 29" is here for good and bike manufacturers need to adapt more for small size frames and bigger tyre clearance. 650B/27.5 is an endagered species, if anything look at the high second hand prices which illustrate their rarity. The only thing the smaller size wheel is good for is retro fitting bigger tyres as mentioned, but then the high prices for both wheels and tyres sort of inpsires getting a newer bike frame and forks which already have greater tyre clearance for the larger wheels.

What about 650b tyres vrs. 29ers? You need to deal with MTBs also.

You need to be careful with certain bike washes the ph can be really high which causees corrosion or you can turn screws black which is why you should try Motoverde it’s salt free and really low ph so no corrosion and great for carbon and any other material

#Partypace is the best pace sometimes

It’s an decent metric comparing the same route over time with same wind speed.

I feel, "speed as a metric" only matters when you are close to a "magical mark", such as riding 30 or 40 kph or fixed-duration events like as the 1-hour record. For timed efforts (such as KOMs), elapsed time is a better metric and in training, you always need context, mostly in which power/heartrate zones you were riding. It obviously makes a difference if you can sustain 30 kph for one hour in zone 2 or that's more like your VO2max.

Thinking in absolute sizes is silly -- everything should scale with size and weight.

Emily........underrated!

Smiles per hour is the best metric

Ofc it's not a performance metric. It gives you idea how will much time you need to do X amount. I wasn't expecting you people not to see it's importance.

I only look at my Strava’s glitched 65km/h top speed 💪

650B was only a Marketing Campaign from MTB-Industry. They could just have stayed at 26inch. there is not much difference.

Tosh. Same routes, increase average speed. It's also how you win races, going faster for a set distance.

You even go in to say maybe what you ate that day didn't work out to as good a speed as usual - that's exactly the kind of information I want. I want to know what conditions are optimizing my speed. And if you're talking about bringing this to the everyman, a $50 speedometer is a lot more palatable than a power meter.

Average speed is good way to measure the progress in artificial environment like Zwift. In real world this is close to meaningless, as every time we ride we experience different wind, traffic, climbs, descents, etc. I would say the normalised average power, or weighted average power should be a better indication of effort.

Hack that average: take a flying start before starting head unit, sprint right up to stops, sprint from stops, find anything and everything to draft, only ride on wind assist days, delete rides that ruin your streak of improvements. lol why cyclists are so performance obsessed could probably make a sad video. Off to ride Zwift and see my new watts per kg, 20 min power, placing on Zwift power for that last tour of Zwift ride. If I could just up my average power around the block. Things dreams are made of. 😅

I don't use a power meter because it would be wasted on me. I do use average speed because it's fun to brag, lol

Power meters are so expensive. I use average speed because I ride the same few courses a lot. I also don't use it as an important measure, it's just interesting to know how I'm going this winter, compared to last etc...

why has does every other thumbnail have to have the presenter holding their hands together in front of their face like that? it's so contrived

Speed is absolutely a good indicator... don't be fooled. You can't go fast without power and fitness. Yes, of course average will be slower in the hills... so what? What a mind numbingly dense thing to say. Average speed on flats = faster. Average speed on hills = slower. Both produce average speeds, different but equally useful.

Do not say y'all. Were in England

saying average speed is not a good indicator is something unfit usless individuals like to hear. its like saying run and dont bother with your average pace. stupid and lazy . the weak among will love to hear it tho

Cade Media... the channel of triggered nonsense, irrational reasoning, and flawed logic. Speed is a rubbish indicator? Speeds comes from power, is power rubbish? HR increases with power, also rubbish? You can't have one without the other, they are interconnected and equally useful, if used in the proper context.

"If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission." ---Motivation

Wrong, average speed is a great performance metric. And trying to comparing varying terrains - USE the average on the same types of terrain -_- 650B sucks