ColonelSanders

What kind of Kona did you have?

starkmojo

2008 ish Kona Jake with commuter tires. Its a great bike but pushing it much past 12 MPH for more than a few miles seems like work to me. Even when I was in good shape its average would end up being about 10.5 MPH for anything over 10 miles. My guess is a combination of the gearing and the overall not aerodynamic nature of the bike really limits it for speed. For urban cycling where your going to be forced into potholes and otherwise banged around its great though.

ColonelSanders

One of the things that interest me the most on this forum is how big a speed difference exists on different bikes(with the same rider) and how much of that difference can be attributed to various factors like :

• bike weight
• wheel weight
• tyre compound
• aero considerations(both frame and tyres)
• bb area stiffness
• geometry
• anything else I haven't thought of, or thought to mention

And I am surprised at times how many people would insist that the sort of speed improvement you saw from one bike to the other, isn't likely or even possible.


Obviously the most important aspect of speed is the motor(i.e. rider), but the part all of the other components play is very interesting to me and I am always surprised when people seem reluctant to want to explore this further.


So thank you for your posts.

starkmojo

IIRC one ride that I did a lot (about 12 miles) in Portland I would average 10.2 on the Kina and 17.8 on the Cannondale for an apples to apples comparison.