Originally Posted by
BoraxKid
I don't think anyone else has mentioned it concisely, but since you're new to cycling, here's a good checklist of things that can help your pursuit of speed:
- Get a cadence meter and train yourself to pedal low-resistance at high rpms. Everyone has a different optimal cadence (generally in the 75-100 range), but this will help you find where you feel most efficient. Also, cadence meters are generally inexpensive compared to power meters. Start with the cadence meter, and then consider the power meter later.
- Use a gear calculator (such as https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html) to figure out how fast you can actually expect to go in each gear at a given cadence. Once you know your optimal cadence, you will be better able to assess if your bike's gears are right for your fitness & speed goals.
- Get your bike position dialed in, making sure you are giving yourself the ability to hold an aero position for long periods. Consider whether or not your handlebars allow you to get aero easily (and no, leaning over flat bars with your elbows flared out doesn't count).
- Optimize your tire pressure for the ride you are taking each day. This has been discussed elsewhere ad nauseum, but narrower tires are not automatically "faster" than wider tires; it depends on several different factors. The great equalizer of rolling resistance seems to be tire pressure: too low and you'll have excess rolling resistance, too high and you'll lose power as the tires bounce over rough pavement. The aero factor of the wheel-tire combo matters as well, but before you buy new equipment, you can better assess the gains you'll get if your current equipment has been optimized.
Anyway, good luck setting up your bike(s)!
First one doesn't really matter. Going out and buying a computer just to measure cadence is a total waste, in my opinion.
Second one certainly doesn't matter.
Third one definitely matters a lot, but will take lots of trial and error and time to adapt. Never too late to start.
Fourth one matters, but the actual tire and tube is what I'd worry about first and then maybe start with a calculator as a starting point for pressure and go with trial and error for riding style and roads (pinch flatting a lot = too low, regardless of what a calculator says).
Speed comes down to decreasing drag and increasing power. Get tight clothes, get your head as low as you can without impacting your vision (this is what will take a while to figure out and adapt to), get good tires and tubes, and start doing progressive workouts and you're mostly there.
It's easy to say, but a helluva lot harder to implement. And actually getting "mostly there" will probably take a few + years.