jjames1452 

I am soon to be 52.
I came back to riding 5 years ago from a 25 year absence. Even in my youth, I rode centuries and charity 50/60 mile rides, but never raced. (I ride C&V bikes, but have a fairly modern Kona Kapu and mid-90's Waterford. Not interested in Alum or Carbon.)

I want to increase my speed to around 20 mph.
Last year - went from about 12-14 mph to about 14-15 mph.
Lost 20 + pounds - from 218 to 196.

I plan on riding hills until I can't see straight this winter.
I have a bomb proof Trek 520 - and I plan to ride hills to improve stamina.
In the Spring, when longer rides are practical, I will ride longer distances on lighter, more sport oriented bikes, paying attention to my rpm's and speed.

What else can I do to improve my average speed on 40 + mile routes? Quite frankly, I want a bigger bang than a couple mph.
My test comes in May of this year. 110 mile ride, through gently rolling terrain. I would like to ride it in 6 hours.

thank you.

qcpmsame 

Not to move you from this forum, I'm sure you'll get some good input and recommendations on how best to increase your speed, but you might want to post your question about this in the Master's Racing Forum, too. Not so you can race, that is your own decision, but because the members that are active there have experience in doing this. They are a super bunch of people and will be more than happy to help you out with increasing your speed.

The best thing I have done in this aspect, and they recommended it to me, was getting Joe Friel's books, The Cyclist Training Bible, Robot Check, and Cycling PAST 50, https://www.amazon.com/Cycling-Past-5...ycling+past+50, These are both good, well written books that helped me a ot, not only with being able to gain some speed, but also in almost all aspects of my cycling. worth the purchase, in either print or a Knidle edition.

Best of luck on gaining more speed for your cycling, I am completely understanding why you would want to do so, don't let the nay-sayers discourage you.

Bill

OldsCOOL

I'm with Bill.^^

I can totally relate to your quest for speed. Hills, TT-style fast 20's and one day a week of base miles. That has been what took me above the 15-16mph speeds. Each year speeds on the flats increase approx 1.5mph, not huge but very steady. I like your attitude on hills, they are your friends. Are you on Strava? That has been the fuel that motivates me.

Enjoy that 520.

tigat

Your history and current goals sound similar to a good friend of mine, who picked up cycling again in his early 50s after many years off. We had ridden many fast miles together in college and beyond before careers and kids intervened. He pretty much followed your plan, did a beautiful restoration on his late 70s Bob Jackson frame, and rode it hard. A year in, he was up to a 17 mph average on some pretty hilly stuff, on the flats could hold his own in a 25 mph paceline, and had a big engine for the rollers.

There he has stayed for close to five years now, and his volume of riding has dropped off a bit. Our first time out together in 2010, on similar technology, he rode away from me on the first climb. For the past three years, I've been chatting while he's been sweating. He's taken a pass on every bike adventure I've proposed over the past several years, claiming to be old and fat again.

When he talked me into picking up the sport again as well, I went straight to carbon. Getting up to speed, so to speak, took less than six months. I rode more often than my friend (probably a 5 to 1 ratio these days), and climbed more because it was easier to do so and I live in a place where there are mountains rather than bluffs. Although I still have a wonderful vintage bike from my college days on hand, I only use it for neighborhood rides with my daughter.

I'm not presuming what is right for you. For me, the adage "get the bike you will ride the most" has worked well. In 1979, with 23 year old legs, it was 26 beautiful lbs. of chrome covered steel. Today, no amount of grit could get my 58 year old legs up to the speeds you are desiring on vintage technology.

Whatever it is, enjoy the heck out of it.

crazyb

To increase your speed, ride with people faster than you. When you can keep up with them, find some even faster riders. Repeat as necessary

rm -rf

Wind Resistance
While riding in the same position, it takes a lot more power to go just a few mph faster. Wind resistance increases dramatically as you go faster.

For example, see this Bicycle Speed Calculator (from kreuzotter.de). Taking the default settings, delete the Power-Watts entry, and fill in the Speed-Mph entry to calculate watts.

Hands on the tops, 15 mph: 110 watts.
Hands on the tops, 17 mph: 153 watts.
Hands on the tops, 20 mph: 239 watts. More than double the power to go 5 mph faster!

Hands on the drops, 15 mph: 83 watts.
Hands on the drops, 17 mph: 114 watts.
Hands on the drops, 20 mph: 176 watts.

Triathlon bike, 20 mph: 151 watts. Aerobars, etc.

You could get as much as 3 mph just by changing your riding position. Of course, that's not always easy to do. I got some "shallow drop" handlebars, with 80 mm reach and 125 mm drop. It's actually comfortable for me to ride in the drops now, instead of just using them for strong headwinds or downhills. (But I still ride on the hoods for most of the rides)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Equipment
There's only two equipment changes that will show a noticeable improvement: tires and clip on aerobars. Other changes, like carbon wheels, etc, can shorten your times by minutes on a time trial, but the mph increase is pretty small.

Tires can vary a lot in rolling resistance. Something like a Continental GP4000 will take less power than the cheaper stock tires that come on many bikes. Maybe .25 mph gain? And the good tires are way more comfortable on bumpy roads.
Aerobars can get you into a more aero position. And some riders like them for more riding positions on long day rides.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Training
Riding in a group can make a big difference, too. I think I'm about 2 mph faster in a group, just due to the wind blocking while drafting. And I don't slack off, since I need to keep up with the group. I don't climb hills nearly as fast when solo as I do when I'm going all out to match the other riders.

To put out more power, you need to be riding at least three times a week, and include some intervals in the ride. Intervals can be as unstructured as just attacking on small hill climbs, or you can do sets of timed intervals. I get my intervals from riding with a fast-for-me group ride, working hard at times to keep up.

Climbing hills will slow your average speed for the ride. And losing excess weight will boost your hill climbing speed.

OldTryGuy

Pretty much what I have done. I am not a "train hard on my own" kind of person. Intervals, hill repeats, free-weights, stretching, blah-blah-blah.....not happening. No disrespect intended, , you all who do so have my utmost admiration.

I can't push myself because it simply isn't FUN for me. Get me out with some other riders and I will do what ever my body will allow just to try and stay with them. Besides, I never was an athletic individual to begin with.

Good luck and have fun.

OldsCOOL

Older bikes can go fast, too.

Behold, the almighty '88 Cannondale Criterium Series:




My '86 Trek Pro Series 760 is no slouch:

climberguy

To simplify greatly, a very common and generally correct recommendation for going faster is to do intervals. While not as much fun in themselves as just riding around, if you are strongly motivated to increase your speed, they are do-able and can be rewarding in their results. The books Bill cited, for example, give suggestions for doing various types of intervals. Good luck.

wphamilton

I had a very similar circumstance and goal, starting in my late 40's and I had a rolling terrain century coming up. I'd been riding 4 or 5 years, and set six hours as my goal.

There are a lot of sophisticated training programs, and riding with fast groups is no doubt good advice, but that's not how I roll. I have a flat 17 mile loop and I simply did it every weekend. Three laps in under 3 hours was the target pace - obviously to my mind anyway, until I could do the 50 miles comfortably in three hours, the 6 hour rolling century wouldn't happen. When I got closer to two and a half hours, then 4 laps, then 5. Kind of boring. But after I was satisfied with the pace there, I switched to routes with hills. I can't say that this is a better idea than the popular training programs, and a lot of people will say that it's the wrong way to go about it, but I made the improvements. I think that it shows that there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Barrettscv 

+1. I was very fortunate to find a small group of faster riders that maintained a no drop philosophy. My speed climbed from 16-17 to 19ish mph on 50 mile rides. Combining this level of speed and 400 to 500 miles per month of riding made a huge difference.

I also ride vintage bikes, but don't skip over nicer wheels and tires. Consider the following combination,

23mm wide H and Son rims with modern Shimano hubs: H + plus Son TB14 Polished Silver - Shimano 5800 105 - DT Champ [0072774740895] - $199.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

700x25 Vittoria Corsa CX tires: https://www.velomine.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1849

This combination will make an immediate difference over the OEM wheels and tires on your vintage Trek.

Carbonfiberboy 

So true. For many years I did the complicated training programs and rode with groups faster than I and I made improvements. Eventually did a 12 hour double in my early 60s. However, there's also this:
https://www.bikeforums.net/training-n...hile-back.html

which probably would have worked better if I'd had the discipline. It's what I'm doing now. So far, I'm not showing any tremendous gains, because I've been fairly fit for many years, but my wife and Stoker certainly is, much greater gains than she's had with the more of the usual programs.

fietsbob

Motor Pacing .. someone in front of you pushes the air out of the way first .. and you follow in their slipstream , saving you energy

its how the Pro Peloton works .. for any bike behind the front row.



Or Velomobile .. its a streamlined body tad pole 3 wheel recumbent ..


faster you go the more air pushes back..

Road Fan

Just a simple physics look: Speed is limited by air resistance. The work to overcome air resistance increases as the cube of speed. If you want to improve from 14 mph to 20 mph, the percent improvement is

100%*(20/14)^3 = about 300%!

If it was from 15 to 20, it would be more like 240%, a little better agreement with the other calculation.

That sounds like a challenging degree of improvement. Focus on riding in a drop position as you train up to that power level.

jjames1452 

Thank you Bill. I will get books, read them and follow them.

jjames1452 

Thanks to all. The answers, advice and books will provide help for the upcoming season. Here's to 187 and 20 mph at the end of next season!

BlazingPedals

That's "tadpole" as in a baby frog. Due to the wheel configuration, it's 'fatter' in front and narrow at the back. Like its namesake. The bike in my avatar also reduces air resistance, although not quite as much as a velomobile. I agree with Road Fan - going from 15 mph to 20 mph is a big jump. Don't be surprise if it takes a few years.

fietsbob

Have to beat the clock , in 2 ways ..

MikeWMass

How tall are you? You are still not exactly light for a cyclist; may not matter much on the flat, but it certainly does on the hills.

jjames1452 

I am 5 11 and 3/4 and rather large framed.
I have never been full grown and 160.
When I had mono in college I only got to the mid 170's in weight (and looked thin). My best condition was 186, when working on a construction crew after college. 187 and still lifting weights at 52 is a great goal. That's about as good as it gets. Not ideal for cycling, I know.