11 Ways To Improve Your Average Speed On A Road Bike

All cyclists want to improve their average speed just a bit. Not only is it a pretty good indicator of your ability, but it also means you can spend more time in bed before your commute, or maybe beat your friends to the cafe! Hank's got some top tips on how to improve your all important average speed!

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:27 - Variables
1:01 - Fitness
1:53 - One Thing At A Time
2:30 - Choose Your Terrain
3:10 - Switch Up Your Cadence
4:35 - Pacing
6:09 - Plan Your Efforts
6:54 - Fuelling
8:22 - Choose Your Route
9:04 - Get Aero
10:20 - Choose Your Kit
11:20 - Maintenance

Useful Links:

Do you have any tips for improving your average speed? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

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[gcn]

Do you have any tips for improving your average speed?

[Vokunos]

you dont need to get a higher average speed if you just name every ride on strava either "coffee ride" "party pace" "casual ride" or "ride with friends" even tho you where completely alone lol.

[lookingdown]

I'll add - go on group rides. They will force you to be faster. Pick groups you hang with and move up to faster groups as you get experienced and faster.

[jonscottclark]

My favourite tip, besides #5 (pacing) and #6 (smart efforts) is to use the "Lap Avg." on your bike computer instead of the "Ride Avg." - Start a lap when you leave the traffic of the city, and finish that lap when you arrive back into the city. This way, you aren't worrying about riding fast in traffic, you get a warmup and cooldown that don't have any pressure attached, and your true average speed reflects your effortful riding time on the less-trafficked roads where there are fewer stops and obstacles. Who cares what Strava says about your entire ride average, you should instead focus on the average speed where it matters, the middle 80% of your ride (your mileage my vary).

[danielrussell]

Find a group or group within a group that is slightly faster than you. Hang on as long as you can and hang on even longer the next week. Rinse, later, repeat. You will get faster over time.

[JeepWrangler]

I’m 65. I’d like to see you provide tips for us older riders. Great vid’s

[maksoff]

After I started commuting through the city (~16km/10miles, 40 (!) traffic lights) it became my personal interval training (🚦➡🚦). In no time my average speed increased pretty noticeably.

[declanbroderick]

I used to have a goal of keeping my average over 30 kph for my commute for the year. It was part of my morning ritual to fill in my spreadsheet. I used to note down the Strava sections too on the way, aiming to be in the top ten of each section by year end. It kept me motivated. Now I am more concerned about power.

[junktionfet]

I'm guilty of using the same route over and over again, and I've noticed that it does lead to a bit of a plateau. Thanks for this video Hank, it's given me new ideas and inspiration for mixing it up

[MAdDyMatt]

In my case just getting out on my bike is an improvement 😉

[RobinT]

Negative splits are great to practice on a typical commute "hey I've got plenty of time to get to work: oh crap I'm gonna be late!"

[Ajumi-]

got the bike of my father, it's in the family since 10years and i've been the first to attempt to clean it. Cleaned it 3hours today. (like high effort cleaning xD) went to a bike shop afterwards, the first thing the staff there said "oh this is a dirty bike". :'D You CAN'T imagine how dirty it was, but i'm cleaning it now every month once and hopefully it will get cleaner with time....

[ketjuariittaa]

1) attack the hills 2) go over the top your best pace. Rest when you get the downhill 3) dont shift on easyer gear unless you realy have to. 4) maintain momentum when ever you can 5)most important is to keep safe riding in towns. Try to better your average speed ewery time is stupid. Dont be stupid.🧐😇🚴

[evanking]

I have 2 or 3 time trial loops, that I alternate, always trying to better my times.All varied terrain loops...btw...
Good general information delivered by Hank in expert fashion. I also noticed almost 3 million subscribers, you guys keep climbing in popularity. Congrats and job well done.

[newoldsteel]

GETTING AERO AND FITNESS! I really got into riding with a CAAD10 Ultegra in 2013 and it was destroyed in a move. Now I strictly ride steel bikes and new old stock equipment but made a huge effort with fitness and FREE aero gains by forcing myself to ride drops or aero hoods position, and I can seriously ride circles around my old stats and I'm 10 years older from that time too.

[mannyorozco]

I commute on a fixed gear bike, I change my gearing from high gear low cadence to low gear high cadence and back every few weeks and try to keep besting my average with both. So far I’ve bumped my average up about 2mph over the course of the last couple months. My buddies are surprised when I keep up with them and I’m spinning a 47/19 so relaxed.

[questgivercyradis]

Just a tune up and cleaning my chain got me 10% average speed back on my commuter.

I'm pretty content with my average 21km/hr going up and down hills, with a lot of stop lights, with chunky panniers on the rack, a general windbreaker jacket instead of lycra, and a hybrid commuter bike instead of a light-and-zippy thing. I'm not particularly aerodynamic but I get from A to B :)

[KenSmith-bvsi]

I have a couple of different routes I like to ride. When I want to do a different ride, I the do rides backwards, I had to buy two mirrors and am still practicing going up hill in reverse.

[lothburke]

This is the most useful information on how to get a good average that ive ever seen on YouTube. Happy cyclist.

[cathalkenneally]

I’ve started trying a more aero position, riding in the drops; from practicing on the turbo and then onto quieter roads. It has made me slightly faster but I am still mindful of changing my hand position when I come to traffic lights and busy intersections