this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Bicycles

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Today I did my first 20 mile (33km) ride on my hardtail XC bike. I learned how to ride a bike about 1.5 months ago, but I've been riding pretty consistently since I learned. I ride exclusively in the city, it's a very walkable city, but the paths aren't always the best. I did 33km in 2 hours 53 minutes, not including breaks for water or to eat.

I see people saying that 10MP/H (16KM/H) average is a good average to shoot for, but i can't even get my average above 7.1MPH (11.5KM/H), even on shorter rides. What am I doing wrong here? How are people going so freaking fast on bikes in cities?

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[–] noodles@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I see two big things that others have touched on. One, you wll not believe how much of a difference a real road bike makes in your speed once you have a chance to try one, and the average speeds you're seeing are almost definitely on road bikes. I don't think you need to go out and get one now or anything, get comfortable with what you have first, but also know that if/when you try one your average speed will probably jump at least 5km/h.

Second, cycling takes a lot of time to get used to. Anecdotally, when I first started I was a competitive distance runner and would occasionally win smaller races, and I started riding with a bunch of older relatively out of shape guys who had been cycling for decades. On about one sprint or hill a ride I could beat them, but they would kick my butt on the rest of the ride for more than a year before my conditioning caught up and I started to be able to keep up consistently.

[–] ThePiedPooper@discuss.online 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Hills absolutely destroy me even in the lowest gear, I feel like spinning the pedals that fast just wrecks my cardio for some reason.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Sounds like you were pretty out of shape. That won't change in just six weeks. You should start seeing progress, though. If not, see a doctor and get checked out

[–] ThePiedPooper@discuss.online 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's certainly possible that im just in bad shape, no arguments here :)

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Just keep going and things will get better.

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