Simply curious: anyone care to post their avg mph along with mpg? (I noticed last night that my wife's PiP was 116 mpg with an average speed of 17 mph. I then made a disparaging comment about the same averages for my bike, which is about 112 mpg (of beer) and 17 mph--she unfortunately didn't consider it very humorous.) Thanks.
Average mph take into account stopping, acceleration, idling etc. so it is usually much lower that one would expect. 99% of my commute is freeway at speeds of 60-65mph yet my avg speed will usually be 50mph or less.
I'll take that at face value, and rather than respond as I often do to the many who somehow take me for the whipping boy of all cyclists with, "do you always obey all the laws?", I'll say most all the time, yes. There are a few spots where I don't always follow the exact letter of the law because after about 50K miles of my commute, I have learned the *hard* way that there are spots where so little consideration was given to cyclists and drivers are so prone to do something intensely stupid that I have to be creative to save my skin. Then I'm some kind of crazed desperado I guess. So, anyone have avg mph figures?
F8L: that's just what I'm after, as I'm curious to see what sort of correlation can be drawn between average speed and mpg (and should probably include % EV use). Certainly wish I'd left out the distraction of bikes, ugh.
I took his comment another way. Lets assume your wife commutes to the same place you do. If she is obeying the traffic laws and get a 17 MPH and you obey the traffic laws and get the same 17 MPH average, you both need the same cruising speed. Most likely in excess of 30 MPH. Two ways to alter this is to not stop for all the traffic lights the cars are stopping for or win the Tour de France. Here is a pleasant article that recommends trip meters to find your true average speed, 9 MPH was not unreasonably slow for a Mountain biker, the author did 14 MPH The Average Speed Page (how to find your average speed, what is a ‘good’ average speed) « The Highway Cycling Group
I just checked at lunch.. on my 3rd tank after 3 months of ownership, 4 bars left on the gas gauge: 159MPG, 23MPH average. My 13.2 mile commute is all city, lots of stop lights. I've seen my DAILY MPH average vary between 18 and 24MPH. Today's was 23MPH, which reflected a ~3 mile EV range left when I got to work (normally closer to 2 miles left).
It's hard to say anything definitively. Lower average speed may lead to better mpg but if one spends much of their miles in stop and go traffic or idling then their mpg will be worse than low average speed would indicate. I don't have a PIP but I'm sitting at 64mpg with and average speed over 48mph.
Tracksyde: thanks, that's exactly what I'm after. And you at 159/23 gives me fodder for an experiment. I have learned a lot from these forums & hope to contribute something in return at some point. JimboPalmer: I do have what you call a "trip meter", cyclists bizarrely call them "computers". I know my commute is 7.5 miles, and it usually takes me about 25 minutes. The difference when riding (vs driving) is that I have much more flexibility in street choice--in a car you might choose a street with a higher speed limit, and wait at lights or go out of your way to get there. On a bike I can travel basically at max speed on any street, and where there are bike lanes I don't have to sit and wait in a line of cars. This notion is reinforced by when I run to work at less than half my riding speed but in only double the time. The guy averaging 14 is probably a nice & intelligent fellow, but slow. I'm really not interested in discussing bikes here, and won't bring it up again! There are certainly better forums for my $200/4000 miles/yr method of staying healthy. (Avatar change impending.)
OK, I just wanted to point out he was not necessarily dissing you for not following traffic laws, we do not want to alienate anyone cutting back on gasoline usage!
I'd say my average mpg is around 63 give or take. I have just over a 90 mile RT commute daily with about 16 or so miles on surface streets (stop signs, stop lights etc....) and the remaining is all freeway. I prob ave around 60-65mph..I'd get better if I was able to charge my car at work but still not too shabby all things considered. The charging at work may soon happen if approved so I'd imagine my mpg will go up a few.
Not sure, On the freeway which is about 80% of my commute I prob average about 65-70mph, side surface streets is somewhere around 40 mph give or take.
