The moment you ask how fast can a mountain bike go, you might hear some people telling you it is up to you how fast you pedal a bike.
On the other hand, when you conquer a technical person like me regarding Mountain bike speed, I would give you numbers defining momentum, mph, kph, and lots of things that might go straight from your head.
The average speed on a mountain bike varies depending on various factors like gears, conditions, and skills.
- The speed of a mountain bike will be between 35 and 38 mph (35 to 38 miles per hour).
- On single track, it can be 10 mph or 16 km/h, on elevations: 12 mph or 19 km/h, and on a professional downhill terrain the speed can be 17 mph or 27 km/h.
To be honest, not everyone is so good at understanding such terms and does not excel in math.
So, how to understand average bike speed terms? Is there any easy way?
Once again, your favorite biker, Trevor Humphres, is here to make all things easier, whether it is about mountain bike weight or a rundown on raising handlebars on a mountain bike.
Bear with me, and let’s decode Mountain bike speed to find how fast can a mountain bike go. (For more helpful journals, blogs, and tips, you can check my other articles at https://mtbknowledge.com/mountain-bikes)
Average Mountain Bike Speed
The average speed on a mountain bike varies depending on various factors (gears, conditions, skills). The factors include MTB type, weight (rider and biker’s), pathways, kits, and weather conditions.
When everything is ignored,
The mountain bike speed will lie between 35 and 38 mph (35 to 38 miles per hour).
Allow me to explain with an example; suppose a professional biker with excellent biking skills and a good quality bike with all necessary gears riding on a day with weather variations; their Mountain bike speed will be:
- When on a single track: 10 mph or 16 km/h.
- When riding on elevations: 12 mph or1 9 km/h.
- Professional downhill mountain bikes: 17 mph or 27 km/h.
* The non-scientific abbreviation for km/h is KPH which stands for kilometers per hour
Now, when the gear changes (MTBs have three gearing types: Low, Medium, and High), the results for how fast can a mountain bike go will be different; for instance, at low gears, the biking rate will be lower than average and vice versa.
How Fast Can a Mountain Bike Go?
How fast mountain bikes might go depends on various factors and conditions.
Here, I would love to tell my novice MT bikers that starting mountain biking without a mentor was never easy for me. Nobody told me that learning about bikes is as mandatory as learning about biking.
The more I know about bikes and their gears, the more I excel in Mountain Biking. I know when to do what to make my mountain bike easy to maneuver or more speedy.
So, learning about these things, my friends, has utter importance. I would never ever suggest you go on mountain biking when you don’t even have an idea about speeding up or down your mountain bike and its maximum mileage.
Besides, as you dig deeper, things will get easier for you.
Now, I shall discuss these factors, conditions, and mountain bike types that can transform the speed on a mountain bike to a greater and unneglectable extent one by one so you can understand these terms better.
Singletrack
Singletrack or single track is a trail, terrain, or pathway that is not so wide but almost the width of a mountain bike.
Double Track
Double tracks are wider enough that even a four-wheel off-road vehicle can easily walk through them, and cyclists have enough space to run.
How fast can a mountain bike go? “Mountain bike speed on Singletrack is quite less challenging versus Double Track because of the narrower path, wind around obstacles, and high technical experience requirement.”
Throttle EMTB
Throttle EMTB means a non-pedal assistant electronic bike; however, I personally do not quite favor these mountain bikes. If your budget can bear with E-MTBs, better go with “pedal-assisted E-MTBs.”
Pedal Assist EMTB
As the name denotes, electronic mountain bikes with pedals come with machines that produce energy to increase the speed of how fast can a mountain bike go. These are dream bikes for mountain bikers but can be a bit hefty financially.
Acoustic MTB
Nonelectric mountain bikes are acoustic bicycles, and I mostly use them during competitions and my day-to-day expeditions. They are pretty easygoing and fit in budgets of novice mountain bikers. Besides, you can also get some preloved deals for even economical choices.
“Mountain bike speed varies with pedal-assist EMTB and traditional acoustic bike. The average speed on an E-MTB is 7kph faster than traditional acoustic cycles or MTBs.”
Electronic Mountain bikes give you excellent cycling acceleration at elevations, and you can reach faster on the higher peaks while imposing the lowest energy. However, you cannot utilize them as mountain biking for weight loss.
How fast can a bike go downhill?
Where uphill biking requires the most speed and energy, downhill biking needs more technical experience to ride with obstacles on the way.
So, how fast can a mountain bike go on the downhill single-tracks with challenging obstacles like vertical drop-offs, switchbacks, and a combination of rock, sand, and packed dirt?
During downhill biking, everything is kept constant:
- The average Mountain bike speed can be between 11 and 17 mph.
- Top or maximum mountain bike speed will be around 21 to 27 mph.
Mountain bike speed for different ERs
ER indicates the mountain bike wheel size and is often denoted with straight quotes “or ers with numbers. For instance, a 26 inches wheel will be denoted by 26ers or 26”.
The wheel size can also affect how fast can a mountain bike go. According to different studies, a wheel with a bigger rim diameter will have a higher speed than a lower rim diameter.
In other words:
When I compared average speed 26er 26″ to 29ers or 29″ tires, mountain bikes with 29ers were noticeably faster.
How to mountain bike faster?
Your mountain bike speed depends mainly on your skills and your bicycle. To mountain bike faster, you will have to work with the skills of a biker and the gears added to a mountain bike.
To maintain faster bikes, you need to:
- Select wheels with bigger rims
- Choose electric bikes with pedals, as these are speedy
- Practice regularly on the different and same terrains
- Be confident while riding and look ahead
- Challenge yourself realistically
- Make some goals
- Know your brakes and shifters
- Understand and practice with obstacles
- Learn bike and body separation tactics
- Cram how to corner properly
By using these ten techniques, you can effortlessly go faster on a mountain bike.
Average Speed on a Mountain Bike – Findings
From the above discussion, you will definitely find out each and everything about the average speed of MTB.
But, I have found more factors that can contribute to the mountain biker’s speed. I mostly don’t see these in the online guides, which I have read so far by my mountain biker fellas, and these might be newer for you too.
I have already discussed all the elements in detail, from gears to environmental factors, terrain types, and mountain bike types. But, something which you should know is,
For those who want a high-speed mountain biking experience, the best they should do is select the wheel rim in a bigger size and add some electronic and non-electronic kits.
Besides this, they should have good skills in mountain biking on downward and upward slopping pavements and must be able to pass technical obstacles.
FAQs
My discussion is not over yet. I am never-ending it without discussing the queries you sent me on my personal email info@mtbknowledge.com.
How fast is the average biker?
The average speed of a biker varies skill-wise if everything else is kept constant. For instance, as a skillful biker, I can go faster than my amateur friend who just started with biking, even on an average bike.
However, as a novice, one can obtain a 17-18 mph speed on a flat trail. On the other hand, I have managed to bike between 25 and 28 mph on rough terrain.
How fast can you pedal a bike?
Regular bikers can pedal bikes at 10 to 14 miles per hour. Contrary to this, bikers with proper training can pedal a bike even more and faster, up to 30 miles per hour. I have recorded this value myself.
How fast do pro mountain bikers go?
On an open road, getting a fast speed is not difficult, and top cyclists have maintained to go 35 to 38 miles per hour on flat roads. In downhill riding, pro mountain bikers can obtain 20 miles an hour speed.
Can mountain bikes go as fast as road bikes?
Comparing a mountain bike and a road bike, a road bike, as it doesn’t require going through obstacles and rough terrains, shows 10 to 30% faster speed than mountain bikes.
Actually, mountain bikes are designed with the strength to bear the shocks and roughness of the pathways, while road bikes are offered for racing purposes. I don’t think the comparison is reasonable.
Bottom Line
Now, the discussion on How Fast Can a Mountain Bike Go ends here. For more information and exciting reads, you can visit my website and bookmark it for future posts.
The more exciting reads I am working on are:
- Easy ways of Converting mountain bike to road bike
- How to make a mountain bike faster
- What muscles does mountain biking work
Until next time, ciao. 🚲 🚲
