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Average speed
What is a good average speed to be able to ride at?
I realise there are a lot of variables involved - age, road or trail, bike type, fitness, weather etc etc.
However I don't seem to be able to get above an average speed of 20km/h, and this includes both off-road and on the road. (However with the same bike - Scott Spark mountain bike.)
I did some road riding yesterday and today and was surprised to find my average speed was not really any higher than I've done in the past on fire trails. I didn't think my fitness was off by that much and was expecting something higher.
Also very disheartening to be overtaken by a road bike on McCarrs Ck Rd who went past me like I was standing still 
Are road bikes that much faster on road than mountain bikes? (Please say yes... 
)
I guess with some more sustained training I may be able to answer the fitness input to this question.
Do you have a goal average speed for training rides?
Does it vary depending on location?
cheers
Jon
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I ride on my Hybrid with at 23-24kmhr average around my pathways leading up to & on & off the M7 pathway in a 1hr+ ride if that helps ? I am not the fittest rider around either , sounds like you been doing more riding than me in the past 2 months .
Don't dispair - road bike are heaps faster in my opinion.
My crusing speed on my mountain bike is around 25km/hr.
I just bought a road bike and went for a spin last Sat and was easily cruising 34km/hr.
But its just not the bike- I was overtaken going up McCarrs creek road on my road bike by a guy on a single speed-hope this makes you feel better.
I don't think you can use average speed for training as such as it's influenced by so many variables. If it's training you are interested in you would be much better off using perceived effort, heart rate, or even power meter (not that I have ever used one on a bike).
Out of intrest I looked up my records on garmin connect and on the Dirtworks last year I averaged 20kph, while I am messing around the northern beaches trails I get around 13-14kph, on the road around Akuna and West head I average 25kph. I'm getting on a bit though, shouldn't be that hard to beat that
It's 100% location dependant. A technical track with lots of rocks and obstacles is obviously going to lower your average speed.
I find that often when riding on the road, because of the incremental wind, I feel like I am working reasonably hard, but then I look down at my heart rate and see I am at 145-150bpm. I then can push it up to 165bpm and don't feel that I am working that much harder, but clearly my average speed goes up significantly. Are you using an HRM and if so, compare your average HR on rides where your avg speed is similar on and off road.
That said, if you are talking about rides like Long and Perimeter then I can see why it would be reasonably similar, but if talking about the Cascades then road should be much faster avg speed.
Don't worry about the guy who overtook you.... look at how many you overtook vs those who overtook you... hopefully the ratio makes you smile
My average commute speed is roughly 20km but one day a few weeks ago I rode in with Hamo and my average for that ride was 25km. I was busting my lungs to keep up. He was cruising along in 2nd gear letting me keep up. He makes it look sooo easy.
Depends on who you ride with, although I went out on my own for one lap of WH and AB and had a average of almost 27kmh. Fitness etc comes into it, go out with Junkie and Steve01 enough and it will go up. Also on a mtb I wouldnt expect a really high speed, bigger tyres etc all add on the rolling resistance etc.
Road bike is heaps quicker
In general mtb average will be 15-20 km/h if you include things like single track, 100 km races, firetrails with hills etc.
Road would be about 24 - 30 depending if you ride alone or with a group, with hills etc.
Riding a mtb on the road is almost the same as riding on a dirt trail, only boringer.i think i just made that word up.
You should check your trip computer to make sure that the wheel circumference in correct. Maybe the speedo is incorrect? Maybe not?
Also, what pressure are you running your tires at? This is a completely different topic all together... I usually run mine at 35 on dirt, 45 on road. There's a HUGE difference in the feel and speed between these two different pressures.
Thanks for your comments and help everyone
I do ride with a Garmin and Heart Rate Monitor so I think next ride I'll set the HR zone alarms, including a lower threshold and see what happens. I do remember being a lot more out of breath when riding on the dirt compared to road so maybe I'm not pushing as hard?
Tyre pressures - I had 35psi in them. I'll try upping that to 45psi.
Speedo correct - yes it should be. It's on the Garmin and set to auto-calibrate. The distances and times of my rides are correct so it would be safe to assume it is displaying the speed correctly.
Cheers
Jon