this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Bicycles

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Today I did my first 20 mile (33km) ride on my hardtail XC bike. I learned how to ride a bike about 1.5 months ago, but I've been riding pretty consistently since I learned. I ride exclusively in the city, it's a very walkable city, but the paths aren't always the best. I did 33km in 2 hours 53 minutes, not including breaks for water or to eat.

I see people saying that 10MP/H (16KM/H) average is a good average to shoot for, but i can't even get my average above 7.1MPH (11.5KM/H), even on shorter rides. What am I doing wrong here? How are people going so freaking fast on bikes in cities?

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[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Besides purpose built bikes for speed and distance, swapping out tires for a different tread can make a large difference. If you aren't doingactualy technical trails and just like road or flat gravel you can get a tire that has some nubs on the outer sides but a smooth patch down the center for way less resistance when riding. When I switch to my winter tires the bikes is so much slower

[–] ThePiedPooper@discuss.online 1 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Could you possibly recommend what sort of tires these would be? I occasionally go down gravel trails but no jumps or logs or anything like that, just like dirt trails. Would those still be okay on these tires?

[–] kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I run Michelin Country Rock as a hybrid tire. Anything that's not knobbly is going to be a huge upgrade on pavement.

You also don't need to run the same tires on both wheels. Having a slicker tire in the back can make sense as you put more weight on it, and slipping with the back wheel is a nuisance, while slipping with the front is often a disaster. So you could start off just swapping the rear. That way if it doesn't work out, you also spent only half the money :)

Lastly I'd want to share that I really disliked those wheels that are knobbly along the edges. Leaning over when taking a curve at speed, and suddenly transitioning from smooth to vibrating was very unsettling to me.

[–] ThePiedPooper@discuss.online 1 points 3 days ago

Besides the vibration issue, did you notice anything else like poor wet road performance, stuff like that?

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