Why am I so slow at cycling?

It's awesome that you are cycling! If you learned only 1.5 months ago and are already doing 20 mile rides you are doing great. Your body probably needs to adapt to the movement a bit, so I wouldn't worry too much about speed just yet.

City riding is slow.

Pump up your tyres.

Go at whatever speed you like.

Cities do lower average speed significantly, but 30k in 3 hours is indeed very slow.

Hard to diagnose from afar, but I'd say take a look at shifting technique and pedaling cadence. It's actually not so easy at first to know when to shift and which gear is right (until it becomes second nature and you never think about it again.)

Pedaling speed should be viewed as somewhat of a constant (try to aim for 60rpm at first, maybe?), and your job is to pick the gear that feels comfortable for that cadence in a given situation.

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.

The more you ride, the faster you get, generally speaking.

Mountain bikes are not primarily made for speed, for what it's worth. You'll find the fastest speed in road bikes (actually time trial bikes, but these are not made for general riding).

It's already been stated plenty, but less than 2 months and you are going 20 miles? Absolutely wild. You do you bro, you've certainly got yourself figured out better than we do. Mad respect.

I think considering you started biking 1.5 months ago you are off to a great start! I think many people in your position would be unable to complete a 33KM trip, especially considering your practice is overwhelmingly city biking.

I of course am unaware of your previous physical shape, but assuming your body has not been trained to bike it will take you a while to get into shape.

My average is around 20-25km/h not including traffic stopping etc. It took me over three years to get here by biking to work daily, which is half uphill and half downhill (so I always have to bike uphill somewhat) and whenever I started feeling comfortable with my speed, pushing harder until uncomfortable again.

Some tips I learned in this experience and some I got from others:

1. Your muscles will get good and more efficient the more you use them. To avoid becoming complacent in your speed in the city for instance, consider every opportunity to push yourself.

2. Never going to make that green light anyway? Not today, try to make it as if your life depends on it. If you don't and have to break hard (you won't at first) remember you did it to be able to do it in a year if bot today.

3. Similarly racing plublic transport (where safe) can be fun as well as good training.

4. Isn't it nice biking in the wind shadow of this e-bike? Fuck e-bikes(cheaters(JK)), try to always pass them (great interval training) (the slow ones anyway, in my city some are capped at 20kmh and go more like 15)

5. Nutrition: I noticed after a year or so that certain breakfast items made it easier or harder to push myself biking

6. I don't know if you are EU or NA, but if EU or similar consider biking places that are relatively nearby, but you usually drive. This way you get new experience and slightly longer trips than you are used too which always 'stretches' you a bit more, then you 'snap back into place' a bit better that where you started.

training, conditioning (more than a month) routes, gear (you'd be surprised an how much you gain from new wheels, for example)...oh....and age?

Basically be comfortable where you are right now, you just started. Set yourself up for incremental and sustainable gains, the when you are able to try and hit the higher speeds.

Reading the thread and your responses, I thought it might be useful for you to try some other bike types, like a trekking bike and a racing bike. Because you are pretty new to biking in general, this might expand your context window efficiently and effectively. I love the feel of 'fast' bikes because your muscle power gets you so much, giving me a little bit of that same feeling when windsurfing or sailing. I also like the versatility and confidence a mountain bike gives you, but it's like it eats your speed when you're not using it for rougher terrain. Had the same experience when pushing my grandma through the forest in an offroad wheelchair, getting back on the tarmac was actually _ worse_

1.5 months is also basically just starting out, no matter if you are fit or talented, it takes some km/hours to 'attune' or adapt or 'get the feel'. Same with saddle discomfort/monkey butt. Your butt and the saddle take a lot of time to get used to each other, and more time will increase comfort. Your speed will improve with just time, I'm sure. Can we have a pick of your bike?? Have fun pedaling!

I've been thinking about your post as I was biking to work this morning. I see others have talked to you about tires in the meantime but for on road riding I can really recommend pretty slick tires even on a mountain bike they will make a huge difference in resistance, especially if you inflate them as hard as they can take(look on the side of te tire for something that says inflate to xx psi). Hard smooth tires run nearly as good as racing tubes.

Another thing I was thinking about is saddle height. Most new cyclists put their saddle way too low, which is understandable as you want to be able to put your foot on the ground when you lose balance. However that is not the best thing for transferring muscle power to your pedals. I found that for good force you want to have your saddle so high that when you sit on it and you put a foot on the pedal at it's lowest point, with your foot parallel to the ground, your leg is fully stretched.

This does mean that to put a foot on the ground you have to keep your other foot on the pedal and slide forward off the saddle. The posture of your leg for pedalling will be way better getting more power to the bike and reducing stress on the knees.

Make sure your foot rests on the pedal with the front part, like you can see bike racers do. That allows for more muscles to work on pushing than when the pedal is under the middle of the foot.

Beware that raising the saddle does change the front-back balance a bit as your weight sits higher.

I read you bike down stairs, if it is only one or two steps that is not going to change much but if it's a full flight of stairs that might be a problem.

Frankly I'm 52 years old and have been riding bikes since I was 3 and I have not ridden off more than a couple of steps at a time for the last four decades, it's just not something I wish to inflict on my bike, nor on myself. Hopping down half a meter while at speed is no problem, but really riding of flights of stairs? You are a braver man than me.

Another thing to review is your riding position and bike fit.

You'll notice people on road bikes will have their bodies very horizontal which allows them to put more power in to the pedal strokes. At the other end of the spectrum you have a kind of Dutch riding position where the body is straight up. This will be inherently slower just because it's more relaxed.

On an XC bike in the city you are probably somewhere in the middle of those positions, i would guess.

Then it is good to make sure you have your saddle at the right height so you are able to use all your leverage. If it is too low then you'll be pushing more with your knees and you'll need to spend more effort to move the bike. You want your leg to be almost but not fully straight when you have the pedal at its lowest position.

I agree with the other comment that if you're already doing those kinds of distances, if you keep riding then your "bike fitness" will come together quickly.

hardtail XC bike

This might be part of your answer. Modern mountain bikes aren't nearly as good on the road as vintage ones were.

However, don't replace your bike before you check your technique. Did you get a professional fit when you got your bike? If not, did you talk with anyone experienced about setting up a bike for a comfortable riding position? Bikes do NOT come out of the box or out of the aisle set up well for most people, and it's not always intuitive what the best position for you might be without experience.

Average speed is going to be highest when you can maintain pace. Straight, flat paths with few stops. Are you able to find a stretch of, say, 2 miles that has few to no deviations or stops? Including curves - if you have to slow down and then accelerate again, that's inefficient and will tire you out.

How's your tire pressure? Rolling resistance is greatly affected by tire pressure.

Gears? Are you able to pedal at your most comfortable speed of pedal rotation at a maintainable pace?

I'm by no means a pro - I'm also old and overweight, but 10 mph average over a long ride comes very easily when I compensate for those factors.

It got a lot to do with leg strength and endurance. You mentioned that you started to do it 1.5 month, that's like still very early into that skill so 11.5kmph is really normal, like REALLY normal, and nothing to stress about it.

Another thing affecting your speed is you still getting a hang of it on when to apply power and when not to. Cycling is a whole new thing you need to get your muscle memory used to. Even if you jog regularly before, the difference in muscle use and timing would impact your cycling speed. Keep riding and have your leg tuned to it, there's no technique or theory to read for this one, you just have to keep riding and you will eventually get it.

Also sometimes city riding isn't always the fastest, it depend on your route. Turn will slow you down, junction will slow you down, pot hole or uneven road will slow you down, headwind will slow you down, ascent will slow you down.

Keep it up! I think you did good for 1.5 month of cycling, riding 33km takes a lot of endurance. I did a sightseeing tour at a neighbouring town recently for 26km and my average speed is 13.7kmph. So i'd say ride in your own pace, it's not a competition.

Are traffic lights added to your average? On my commute I lose up to a third of time on red traffic lights.

Are you riding on pavement or trails? Mountainbike tires are generally a lot slower on tarmac, due to the tire pattern, and width, compared to a road tire. Also on tarmac you should increase the pressure in your tire quite a bit.

Don't listen to which speeds people tell you to aim for. Look for improvements in your own rides.

Road surface, hills, wind, tires, style of bike, your height, position on the bike, traffic and many more things have an impact on your speed. Compare yourself with yourself

How long are your breaks? How much time do you spend waiting for traffic lights or letting other vehicles pass? What's your standard speed?

Maybe you could go faster if you did shorter distances. 3 hours is kind of a long time for doing a sport you only picked up 6 weeks ago.

Gearing, tires, and geometry make all the difference in the world.

My Transition Sentinel is only geared for mountain biking. It's a terrible city bike. Tons of shock, high torque gears for steep hills, cannot go very fast. But it's insane when you need to climb or descend mountains. It has knobby, 2.4in tires.

My city bike is an ebike, and even though it's a single speed, it's pretty comfortable going between 10-30mph on that gear alone. The battery allows me to haul lots of groceries or baggage (and climb steep hills), and it's tires are wide enough to not get stuck in tram rails or gaps in the concrete road. I have knobby tires to avoid popping tires, but smoother, thinner tires will be more efficient.

Edit: if you have a shock, try locking it out if it has lockout.

I'd also recommend checking out city bikes, such as road, gravel, and upright bikes. There's an incredible amount of diversity, and a downhill mountain bike is about as far from a road bike as one can get. One can roll over a rock the size of a watermelon, the other can coast for meters off of a pedal stroke. Ebikes also are phenomenal as car replacements (or even just as car offsets), but generally cost $1,500+ with tariffs.

As an (ex currently post child..) mountain biker my threshold for having good endurance or not was being able to ride at pace for hours without sitting down. It takes a lot of fitness to do, but I found when you train like that it comes fairly quickly.

I say that because riding standing I found let's you put more power down and also makes using minimum suspension comfortable as you use your knees instead. You need to find what works re bars and stem though as you can fuck your back up in the wrong position. To ride xc or full sus bikes off the trails I had a second set of wheels with smooth road tyres. Anything but road tyres will dramatically increase your rolling resistance on tarmac.