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UPDATE: Why am I so slow? (discuss.online)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Today I went back out to try another 20 miler on my XC mountain bike after using the tips y'all gave me. I was around 2.3 km short of a 20 miler, so a little more than a mile, but that doesn't matter too much.

Tips I tried:

  • Aired up my tires by 10-15 PSI (Now at 50 in the front, 55 in the back.
  • Fixed my handlebar sweep (I had installed them backwards before...what can I say, it was my first time building a bicycle ๐Ÿ˜…)
  • Focused more on cadence than easier peddling - I.E instead of going to a low gear up a large hill and tiring my legs out by spinning, I kept it in a higher gear, pushing my cadence down a bit, but both getting me up the hill faster, and keeping my HR down.
  • rode on the road more as opposed to the sidewalks to avoid potholes and obstacles.

Things to consider:

  • I paused my smartwatch on stop lights, water breaks, pedestrian stop lights, and while I ate a snack.
  • There were three rather large hills on this route I took and one pretty steady climb upwards. The last two of these hills would have been impossible for me to climb, as they were almost a kilometer long and just too steep, so I put my smart watch on pause for these hills as well.

Things I'm planning to do in the near future:

  • going to buy myself some semi-slick tires: specifically, the Kenda K908. They seem to be a decent budget option, but if y'all have any other suggestions, I'd be open to hearing them!

Anyway, now for my results.

I don't know if these stats are more in line with what everyone else is getting, considering I paused on stop lights and 2 hills, but I would say I'm perfectly happy with a result like this.

Thank you so much to everyone who gave advice and help!

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

rode on the road more as opposed to the sidewalks to avoid stupid pedestrians

Sorry for the offtop, but what the fuck dude???

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

EDIT: I'm in the wrong here. I deleted this part of the post, but am leaving this up for you to shame me for my assholery.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Sorry man, unless you live in a place where bikers are allowed to ride on sidewalks (which I doubt even exists), you're absolutely in the wrong here.

Sidewalks are for the pedestrians. Period. You are the guest there, and it is you who have to respect their sanctified right not to be bothered by a 80kg bullet rushing through them.

I'm a biker too, and I sometimes use sidewalks if I don't feel it's safe to use the roads, so I do understand your sentiment. But yuu are still just wrong. They are on their turf and it's your bloody responsibility not to disturb them.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

when you see this sign you can

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

When you see that sign you must. When you see this sign you can:

Often it is preferable anyway, but there's a difference between informational signs (blue rectangle) and mandating signs (blue circle). Here in Norway we generally don't have mandatory bike & ped paths, just the voluntary ones.

These combinations are generally not a good fit for urban areas, there we should have bikeways with sidewalks:

(Generally new infrastructure in urban areas is being constructed as bikeways with sidewalks, and old shared bike/ped-ways are being upgraded to bikeways with sidewalks.)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

In my city they're converting many sidewalks to bike&pedestrian paths, this way they can claim they created bike lanes when all they did is paint it a different color and put up a few signs

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

If you want you can contribute to this: https://feddit.it/post/19215398

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

But you always to have to yield to pedestrians, so my point stills stands

Unless you can give me an example of a country where it is not the case

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Looked up the laws, yes, you are correct. I'm going to delete that part of my post because I am a bit of an asshole for posting it, but I'll leave this comment chain so that I can be ashamed.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

That's my man! I appreciate that ๐Ÿ™‚

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

It's hard to admit when you're wrong but it's a necessary character trait.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Bikes are allowed to be ridden on sidewalks where I live according to traffic laws, as are electric scooters. It's the electric scooters that cause 10x more problems. We have literally 0 bike lanes so it's either sidewalk or super busy road.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Bikes are allowed to be ridden on sidewalks where I live according to traffic laws

But you still have to yield to pedestrians, correct?

It's the electric scooters that cause 10x more problems.

I don't know man, bikers with superiority complex seem like an issue to me imho

We have literally 0 bike lanes so it's either sidewalk or super busy road.

You aim to go fast, so I don't see the issue here

[-] [email protected] -1 points 2 days ago

Yes, I agree.

In terms of electric scooters - it's the rented ones that are the problem. They actually want to ban them here. People under 16 years old get ahold of them and treat them like shit and practically destroy them. They do stupid tricks on them that are dangerous to pedestrians (and bicyclists as well). There's so many stories of them running full speed into pedestrians because they have no business riding them. That's why I hate them.

I have 0 issues with the people who buy them because I've never seen them riding irresponsibly.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Doesn't matter if you're allowed to ride on the sidewalk, when doing so you need to make sure not to bother pedestrians. They shouldn't have to be paying special attention to cyclists. You have to make sure you're paying attention and not getting in their way, not the other way around. If that means riding at walking speed, or pushing your bike, then that's what you have to do (or ride on the road). Remember, pedestrians are vulnerable road users too.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

You are correct.

If it matters, my complaints about pedestrians apply even when I'm on foot, they act like idiots and as a group can block the whole sidewalk without realizing that there are people with places to go standing behind them waiting to pass.

It just bugs me twice as much on a bicycle, but you are correct.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

I don't know where you live, so I don't know the rules for your country, but pedestrians should always have priority on a sidewalk. As cyclists we have to subordinate ourselves to the pedestrians and can't be rude to them just for being pedestrians.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

You'll get faster the more you improve your fitness. Years ago I decided to bike to work, which was about 10 miles at the time (16km). When I first started, it would take me well over an hour. After a few months of doing it nearly every day and trying to go faster, I was consistently under an hour, and then I was consistently about 40-45 min, with an occasional day under 30 min if wind conditions were right.

I think you're doing well. Keep up the consistency, try to push yourself every so often and you'll get faster. As they say, "it doesn't get easier, you just go faster." You got this!

[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

Good work, there should be a feature on your smartwatch app that pauses automatically when you're stopped?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Oh god you just saved me so much headache..I didn't even think about auto-pause. There were times I paused and forgot to restart, and stuff like that.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

lol....same when I started out!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

You might be using the wrong type of bike.

A mountain bike is for offroading, while you seem to only be going on paved roads.

Your main issues are tires and suspensions. Offroad tires are terrible on paved surfaces, both when it comes to rolling resistance and grip. If you are only going on paved roads, get slicks. If you sometimes go on light offroad, get semi-slicks. Only use offroad tires when you really need them.

It might be worth investing in a second set of wheels with quick-release so you can swap between both use cases depending on your journey.

The other issue is the suspension. Suspensions eat up a lot of the force you are putting into the bike. If you are using the bike at all on paved roads and you have suspensions, you should have gotten lockable suspensions and you should lock the suspensions when you are on pavement.

If you never really go offroad, suspensions are just a waste of weight.

If you can borrow a road bike from someone, give that a spin. That's a difference of easily 10km/h without any additional training.

I can hop on my road bike without having been on it for a year and do 25-30km/h average on the mostly flat roads we have in my city.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Make sure the chain is clean and well lubricated, it makes a ton of difference.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

The bike is pretty new, should Lubricate it again just in case?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Should probably probably lube about every 100-200 miles

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

That sounds like overkill to me, but it depends on conditions. If it's a wet area, sure, 100-200 miles between cleanings sounds reasonable, but if it's pretty dry, I usually wait until 500 miles or so. There's no downside to doing it more often aside from time spent.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Are you happy with your results though? Seems like a decent improvement to me!

Also how did you feel with the bars up the correct way? Any better there?

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Bars feel 10x better, no more wrist pain, and pain in my bottom area also seems less.

I am pretty happy with the results. Can't wait to see how I do with semi-slicks.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Nice!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

50% up, that's more than a good start. Keep at it!

And remember your ABCs:

  • A- Always,
  • B- B
  • C- Cycling

Always "B" cycling.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Thank god I have a ton of free time. I love cycling, it's so much fun and it's 10x easier for me than running.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Interesting... I target 90fps cadence on flats and 70-80 on climbs...

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

15kmh ain't nothing to sneeze at

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nice! If you want a more quantitative way of comparing performance, a power meter is a great way. Average speed is affected by the route, the weather, etc., whereas power is much less influenced by these things (not entirely of course

I put out more power on hills, and temperature has an effect, etc.).

The only downside is they are really expensive, and for MTB I'm not sure what the options are.

For reference, ~800kcal in ~2hours should mean roughly 110-120W average power, but without a power meter that's pretty much just a guess.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

He's learning to shift and pedal right now and basically stay on the bike for a little longer, and you're suggesting he spend another few hundred at the very least on a power meter? That's bad and gate keepy advice in my opinion. He does not need a power meter; not for a while, if ever.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

If it matters in terms of w/kg, I weigh around 85KG.

Is 110-120W okay for around 2 hours?

Ive researched a power meter, but I thought that for now, a cadence meter would be more helpful.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Cadence definitely the right place to start, since it shouldn't break the bank.

I'd do some research on cadence if you haven't already

you mentioned getting up hills in a higher gear to be faster while also keeping HR down. That's definitely an option, but it can come at the expense of your legs (and worst case, knees).

Conventional wisdom today (as I understand) is that if you thrash your cardio, it'll recover fast; thrash your legs, they'll recover more slowly. So there tends to be a bias towards higher cadence (80-100rpm or so) for performance, with lower cadence useful for strength training.

Good luck! Cycling is a wonderful sport. Focus on the numbers and gadgets if you like, but at the end of the day remember to have fun :)

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Watts are very individual, I wouldn't compare to anyone but yourself over time, if you're looking to improve your power.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

15km/h manual pedalling given you live in an area with at least moderate hills is just fine.

One tip: Check your riding height (seatpost height). Sitting higher will make pedaling easier. Usually I go with a height which I can barely touch both toes on the ground at once.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

My seat post height should be decent, no knee pain, which I had a lot of before. One issue is whether my seat is too far forward or too far backwards, but that'll be harder for me to figure out by myself.

this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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