Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Washington County, Vermont, USA
Posts: 3,778
Bikes: 1966 Dawes Double Blue, 1976 Raleigh Gran Sport, 1975 Raleigh Sprite 27, 1980 Univega Viva Sport, 1971 Gitane Tour de France, 1984 Lotus Classique, 1976 Motobecane Grand Record
Mentioned: 77 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 765 Post(s)
I used to ride pretty hard, and had a habit of pushing the average speed button on my computer as soon as I got back to the house to see how I'd done. (I never came close to 20 mph, given the long steep hills around here; I only occasionally hit 15.)
The actual number fluctuated up and down from day to day. But at some point, I realized that tracking average speed is a mug's game, given that the long-term trend is inevitably going to be a downward one. My solution was to take off my bike computers and stop thinking about speed altogether. That has worked well for me, though maybe it's not for everyone.