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What average speed tells you, and what it hides
Average speed is the first number most cyclists quote after a ride: distance divided by time. It is simple, comparable, and useful, but it hides almost everything interesting about the ride. A flat 40 kilometres in 80 minutes and a hilly 40 kilometres in 80 minutes share an average of 30 kilometres per hour, but they were very different rides. This calculator works out the average, and the rest of this article explains how to read it honestly.
Average speed is still worth knowing. It lets you compare rides on the same route, estimate how long a new route will take, and track fitness over months. A route you rode at 24 kilometres per hour last spring and 27 this autumn shows real improvement, as long as the route, the bike and the conditions were similar. The key is “similar”: average speed only compares like with like.
How to use the calculator
- Enter the distance you rode, in kilometres.
- Enter the ride time, in minutes. Do not include long cafe stops unless you want them in the average.
- Read your average speed in kilometres per hour and miles per hour.
- Compare it only with rides on similar routes.
- Use it to estimate times for new routes of similar character.
A worked example
You ride 40 kilometres in 80 minutes. Eighty minutes is one hour and twenty minutes, or 1.33 hours. Divide 40 by 1.33 and you get 30 kilometres per hour, which is about 18.6 miles per hour. Now ride 60 kilometres in 2 hours: 60 divided by 2 is again 30 kilometres per hour. Same average, different ride, and that is fine: the average describes the whole ride, not any part of it. Your speed on the flat may have been 35, and on the climbs 15, and the average sits between them, weighted by time.
Try a slower example. You ride 10 kilometres in 60 minutes, perhaps through town with traffic lights. That is 10 kilometres per hour, or about 6.2 miles per hour. The number looks slow, but it says nothing about your fitness: town riding is stop-start by nature. Judge a town ride by its own history, not by a country-lane ride. Context is part of the number, even though the calculator cannot see it.
Moving time versus elapsed time
The biggest trap in average speed is the clock. Most bike computers show two times: moving time, when the wheels turn, and elapsed time, from start to finish including stops. A ride with a 20-minute cafe stop looks much slower on elapsed time than on moving time, and neither is wrong: they answer different questions. Elapsed time answers “how long was I out”, moving time answers “how fast did I ride”. Decide which question you are asking before you enter the time, and be consistent when you compare rides.
The same trap applies to traffic lights, junctions and photo stops. A ride through town will always show a lower moving average than a country ride, because even moving time includes slowing for junctions. If you want a clean fitness measure, use a quiet route with few stops, ride it the same way each time, and compare those rides. Everything else is a ride to enjoy, not a test.
What moves the number
Hills dominate. A climb ridden at 12 kilometres per hour drags the average down far more than a descent at 50 lifts it, because you spend much longer climbing than descending. Wind matters too: a headwind on the way out that becomes a tailwind on the way back does not cancel out, because you spend longer fighting the headwind. Bike and position matter, but less than most people think: on a flat road at moderate speed, fitness and wind matter more than frame weight.
Group riding lifts average speed a lot, because drafting saves energy, sometimes a quarter of it or more. A solo average and a group average are different sports, and comparing them flatters the group rider. The same goes for electric assistance: an e-bike average is a fine number for journey planning, but it is not comparable with an unassisted average. Note the conditions of each ride in your log, or the numbers will mislead you later.
Using speed to plan a ride
Like the other tools here, this calculator is a planning estimator only. It gives an average, not coaching or medical advice, and it cannot see hills, wind, traffic or your fitness on the day. Use it to plan and to track, compare like with like, and remember that the best ride is not always the fastest one. A slow ride with friends, or a slow ride that explores a new lane, is still a good ride, whatever the average says.