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How fast do you ride?

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Fifty Plus (50+) Share the victories, challenges, successes and special concerns of bicyclists 50 and older. Especially useful for those entering or reentering bicycling.

How fast do you ride?

Old 06-30-21, 06:41 PM
  #126  
tkamd73 
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LibertyFLS This morning on your old bike.
Tim


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Old 06-30-21, 08:27 PM
  #127  
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Post #10 by Wildwood - that's beautiful. Love that shot of cycling joy.
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Old 07-02-21, 10:27 AM
  #128  
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Originally Posted by Eric F
While racing in my early-30s, I topped 60mph on a long wide-open downhill, and would regularly hit 40mph in sprints at the end of a race. After 15 years off the bike, I got back to riding at the end of 2019. I've been regaining my comfort at speed, but it's been very slow to return. Approaching 40mph makes me nervous.
40 mph (64kmh) downhill on slightly twisty downhill pavement on the old Bianchi Nyala. My equal half just shook her head
Top speed back in the days (mid 1980s) 80+ kmh on the Nishiki on a road with a few gentle curves.

The SilverStar climb is an the menu .... after the weather gets back to what I consider normal. 18+ km, grade up to 16% with very few relaxing sections in between. Best part? Blasting down on the return trip.

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Old 07-07-21, 07:41 PM
  #129  
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Early Morning Perfect Weather

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Old 07-08-21, 09:05 AM
  #130  
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I'm 76, riding 50-75 miles a week. Average speed is 10-12 mph with splits (downhill and with a tail wind) up to 25-30 mph.
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Old 07-08-21, 10:15 AM
  #131  
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This the ride data that I saved from January to end of August 2019. Fastest was just over 60.

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Old 07-09-21, 07:20 AM
  #132  
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Originally Posted by big john
I used to be around 220# when I was still trying to go as fast as possible on descents and I have hit 53mph. I agree with being skeptical of some of the speeds people say they go. I suppose 60 is within reach but much beyond that I don't know.

It is the internet, though, so someone probably dug a bike out of a dumpster and went 80 mph barefoot down a 5% grade.
there’s always mile a minute murphy


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Minthorn_Murphy

ive hit 60 going down a mountain but that was when bike computers were a new fangled thing. 50 s is easier to hit. In the hills near me 40s are about the most I’ll hit and it wouldn’t surprise me if I start to slack off the next time I head out to a hilly area where I can hit those speeds. Heck I might not reinstall my bike computer. I haven’t used one this year. I like riding without one. It reminds me of when I first started racing and training. At this point it’s just about quality time in the saddle and your speed doesn’t tell you that

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Old 07-09-21, 01:34 PM
  #133  
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In my case, not sure "fast" is the word to use. More like "not slow."
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Old 07-09-21, 01:37 PM
  #134  
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In all seriousness, I average between 13-16 MPH depending on bike and who I'm riding with. I'm sure I could go faster, but I'd be riding by myself.😐
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Old 07-11-21, 11:20 PM
  #135  
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17.6 - 103.8 in the last six days - breaking in the new T5.
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Old 07-12-21, 11:54 PM
  #136  
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Originally Posted by tkamd73
LibertyFLS This morning on your old bike.
Tim

Tim that’s awesome! I have been meaning to shoot you a text and see how it’s going! Glad you’re enjoying the bike
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Old 07-14-21, 07:09 AM
  #137  
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Last night? Not very fast. With high humidity, I overheated and slowed to 14mph on the final flat section, no wind. Sweating like buckets on the last half of a 16mi ride. Temps were only 75deg but humidity was 90%.
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Old 07-14-21, 08:22 AM
  #138  
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About 10 years ago I was averaging around 20-21mph. I took a long time off and have just recently gotten back into cycling. My current pace, as of yesterday, is 15.8mph over a 12 mile flat course. That is up from 13mph two weeks ago when I first got back into it. My goal is to get back up to around 18-19mph by the fall.
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Old 07-16-21, 07:35 AM
  #139  
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Close to where I live there's a fairly big hill on a highway that I like to bomb down. I don't like riding that highway much because it's a 60 MPH road with no shoulders, but one of my routes puts me on it for just one mile, with the hill being at the beginning. So last time I rode down it on my current road bike, which was the first time I've ever ridden it on this bike, I put it in high gear and started pedaling down. It was probably equal parts exhilarating and frightening, but it certainly got the adrenaline flowing. I think I topped out at around 37 MPH or so. The road is nice & smooth (especially compared to the chip sealed road you take to get there) and I was in control the whole time, but at the back of my mind I was thinking "this is really gonna hurt if you crash."

But generally, my rides tend to average around 12-13 MPH. When I'm doing my morning 10 miles for exercise, usually between 13-14. On long rides for fun, it tends to be a bit slower.

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Old 07-16-21, 08:08 AM
  #140  
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Originally Posted by Milton Keynes
...................................... The road is nice & smooth (especially compared to the chip sealed road you take to get there) and I was in control the whole time, but at the back of my mind I was thinking "this is really gonna hurt if you crash."
Friend and myself blasting down the hill at 80kmh (50mph) My friend yells "I have to slow down!!", his front wheel started oscillating in a big way.
Me: "so what happened?"
Him: "I had the bike in for a tune up ...... yesterday."
Me: "I like to do my own tune ups."
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Old 07-22-21, 10:54 AM
  #141  
Clyde1820
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Originally Posted by OldRailfan
Friend and myself blasting down the hill at 80kmh (50mph) My friend yells "I have to slow down!!", his front wheel started oscillating in a big way.
Me: "so what happened?"
Him: "I had the bike in for a tune up ...... yesterday."
Me: "I like to do my own tune ups."
A great lesson imparted to me, decades ago: Never do maintenance on a bike the day before a "challenging" ride.

Sure helps keep things safer, knowing it's been flogged at least a few times prior to being taken down rough descents, or across challenging XC routes, on a long tour far from telephones and fresh water ...

Of course, I've always been a bit of a cycling hill wimp, in a way. Only went down a ~4mi ~12-15% grade once. Didn't trust things enough to feel comfortable, on that road. Far too many cliffs off one side, too many occasional cars appearing in the "blind" corners, etc. Once was enough. Even with wheels that ran true.

Happier in my dotage puttering about on the upright "city" bike. No hair streaming behind me, or on fire, but I'm okay with that.
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Old 07-29-21, 06:46 PM
  #142  
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Originally Posted by BCAC
I live in Florida, No long hills near me. I get a sense of achievement and satisfaction doing 27-31 mph in a Paceline for miles. Lots of guys faster, but that’s pretty good for me.
I'm in North Georgia, where there are plenty of mountains. Once I joined a Florida group in one of those screaming fast pace lines - Fun, but that 'always on' threshold endurance zone was super hard for me to hold. I can see how that's satisfying if you're good at it
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Old 07-29-21, 06:56 PM
  #143  
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Speed is very much 'it depends'. Myself; on the road I can sometime still hang with the regional racers & do OK in the sprint (but usually I'm dropped on the big climb). But usually I'm just tooling along on some endurance ride, As I'm getting into bikepacking, and having a huge endurance motor matters more.
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Old 07-29-21, 06:57 PM
  #144  
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Originally Posted by IronM
I'm in North Georgia, where there are plenty of mountains. Once I joined a Florida group in one of those screaming fast pace lines - Fun, but that 'always on' threshold endurance zone was super hard for me to hold. I can see how that's satisfying if you're good at it
I’ve been talked into doing something that’s called the ‘Horrible 100’’ here in Fl in November Though they are doing their best to scare me with tales of how hard some of the hills are. I suspect what you do on a routine bases has more vertical than I’ll do!

Yep, to go fast in a group here, it takes smooth pavement, some good riders to mostly pull me along, and every once in a while everything comes together with the group and it feels like we are flying.
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Old 07-30-21, 06:15 PM
  #145  
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ask me about my bench press
gm
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Old 07-30-21, 09:21 PM
  #146  
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Slow. I ride slow. I’m happy to ride at all. And I’m guided by…sensations. Most of them are bad sensations. But whatever.
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Old 07-31-21, 02:37 PM
  #147  
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How fast? As fast as I can make the pedals go.

Pedals don’t go as fast as they used to, but there you have it. Getting passed on the climbs is an every day thing now.

I have a power meter now, which I pay attention to. I don’t care about the speed.
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Old 08-02-21, 05:16 PM
  #148  
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A recent solo century
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Old 08-02-21, 07:08 PM
  #149  
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I never measure how fast I ride. Sometimes it's fairly slow and leisurely. Sometimes I am wondering if I'm going fast enough that the crash would just kill me rather than leave me seriously maimed. I hate thinking I might survive only to be taken care of the rest of my days. LOL. I honestly just don't get into any kind of numbers. I ride purely for fun. I ride about 360 days a year. Some days it might be 5-10 miles or some days 20-40. It just depends on how I feel. I get to feeling good and push things sometimes and I think that's good, but I'm not going to kill my 53 year old self to try to match some numbers some 20 year old bean pole posted. LOL: And PS,I love you guys and I am in pretty good shape for my age regardless of how slow I am sometimes.
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Old 08-03-21, 12:53 AM
  #150  
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~22 miles today, average speed about 15, max about 34. I think mid 30-s is fast enough that it’s fun, but not reckless.
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