6 Easy Ways To Improve Your Average Speed On A Road Bike

Want to see your average speed climb on every ride? It’s the one number we all look at, and in this video, Si and Ollie are breaking down essential ways to make it go up! This isn’t just about getting fitter. We’re diving into the secrets of aerodynamics, smart pacing strategies, and the simple bike maintenance checks that give you free speed. From sweetspot training to making the wind your friend and knowing which upgrades actually make a difference, this is your ultimate guide to getting faster.

⏱️ Timestamps: ⏱️
00:00 Here Are 6 Ways To Get FASTER
00:24 What’s going to make the biggest difference to your average speed?
02:00 Make Yourself More Aero
02:26 Starting Slow
03:19 Fuelling
03:52 Give Your Bike Some Love & Maintain It 🚲✨
04:17 Upgrade Your Bike
04:56 Even Efforts VS Riding Hard & Recovering
06:40 Bonus Hacks

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so you want to improve your average speed eh well you clicked on the right video [Music] we’re going to give you six tips and tricks to get you faster all but one of them are free and only one of them requires more effort brilliant and stay tuned for the last one cuz it’s the best one average speed is a great way to benchmark your cycling ability so it is worth thinking about a higher average speed means that of course you can go further in the same time and that you’re faster which is just more fun but it is also a sign that you’re getting fitter so let’s start with that the thing that’s going to make the biggest difference to your average speed is simply by getting fitter and stronger on the bike this is the bit presumably that requires effort yes now how you go about that is going to depend on how fit you already are and how much riding you’ve done for beginner cyclists the good news is that simply by riding your bike you’re going to get fitter gains thanks man yeah now for a pro cyclist or an aspiring pro it’s not as easy in fact it’s exponentially harder it might be that in order to improve your fitness a tiny bit you have to add an inhuman number of hours to the amount of time that you spend in the saddle every week for most keen cyclists though it’s not as hard you might want to think about adding in some structured training which is where you focus on specific effort levels and for our money the best thing you can do is sweet spot that’s the intensity where you are gently out of breath and you can ride at it for about 30 minutes at a time not only will this get you fitter as a bonus riding at this intensity also gets you going quite fast [Music] so that’s the hard bit out the way let’s get some easy wins firstly if you want to go faster make yourself more aerodynamic think about making yourself smaller try and hide from the wind bend your elbows make sure they’re tucked in roll your shoulders in and lastly tuck your head in too go the whole hog and you’ll probably be pretty uncomfortable but just bending your elbows could get you 1 km per hour faster at least lots of us might set out on a bike ride start feeling tired and then get slower and slower and slower which is natural but it doesn’t have to be this way if you ride slower to begin with you should be able to maintain that pace for longer which is likely to mean that you then finish your ride much faster in reality this doesn’t mean setting off at a snail’s pace but typically it’s most relevant when you get to a climb the harder you ride the faster your energy levels will run down so rather than go and ride up the first hill of the day as hard as you can ride up it steadily meaning that you will save your reserves for the next climb and then the next one and the next one and so on another way you can make sure you keep your energy levels high is by eating food while on the bike now no matter how good a cyclist you are if you don’t keep the carbohydrate coming in you’ll eventually run out and bonk now dedicated energy fuel such as this chew from Precision Fuel and Hydration is absolutely brilliant uh they’re convenient and easily consumed on the bike plus this one mint and lemon is my favorite flavor but other real food is great too think things like dates bananas sandwiches and cereal bars they’re all good stuff your bike can of course also help you go faster so give it a bit of love too make sure your tires are pumped up to the right pressure not too hard or too soft we’ve got a video on that that you can watch make sure your gears work smoothly as well and that your chain isn’t covered in gunk and grime which will rob you of power and check to make sure your brakes aren’t rubbing you can also make your bike faster too by upgrading it and here is where you can go a little bit bonkers perhaps funding it by taking out a second mortgage but you don’t have to something like upgrading to fast rolling tars and fast rolling inner tubes will give you the biggest bang for your buck clothing too will also make a massive difference tight fitting clothing yes we’re talking spandex here not only looks really good you sure about that yes it’s also faster as well and what about the biggest and the best tip then the one that we promised you at the beginning well it’s not going to revolutionize your cycling but it can still make you faster and well most people don’t know about it and those that do are often confused by it basically on a flat road with no wind the fastest way to get from point A to point B is with an even effort however when you add in hills and wind that changes the fastest way from A to B is no longer with an even effort but trying harder in places and then recovering in others so it’s much faster to ride up a hill hard but not too hard and then recover on the descent rather than riding up and down at a medium pace once you start thinking about your rides in this way you’ll see there’s loads of ways in which you can get more speed for less yeah for example conserving your momentum as much as possible if you’re approaching a short climb consider putting in a few extra strong pedal strokes at the bottom of it so that then it can propel you halfway up that climb before your speed starts to drop for virtually no extra cost that’s Dan Lloyd’s favorite little trick or staying smooth through corners rather than jabbing your brakes on even coasting up to traffic lights to try to time them changing to green before you have to come to a stop although as if it needed saying always respect the rules of the road no matter if you are worried about your average speed or not now these sound like small things but they will all add up to make a big difference gain exactly now after all of this if you still want to go faster then well you can choose a route that has fewer hills also look at the weather forecast and that way you can try and avoid long stretches of road that can be exposed to head and crosswinds yeah and you know what makes the biggest difference of all finding someone to ride with someone that can help set the pace with you is the best way to see your average speed shoot up ideally someone that’s stronger than you that you can sit behind ah right okay well actually that isn’t six tips we’ve we’ve given you three Brucey bonuses as well nine tips to help improve your average speed let us know what you think about that one about riding harder when you’re going slower cuz that is a controversial tip isn’t it in fact we had quite a lengthy debate on this very subject just last night get involved in the comments section down below i was going to say a mass debate and then I thought I shouldn’t say that i mean yeah I don’t know what to say to that give the video a like if you enjoyed it people involved please hit subscribe if if you haven’t left the video