The average cyclist? Male, in his 40s, rides six times a week and 1,000 miles a year

Depends what it's an average of. If it only includes people who identify themselves as cyclists, that would probably exclude a lot of those who are only cycling 6 times a month to start with. Even if it only includes those who, say, cycled at least once in the last month, that would skew it considerably.

Anybody who commutes 5 days a week by bike is going to rack up 10 trips before you even factor in any leisure, shopping, etc., so if you assume* a normal distribution between them and those who only cycle now and again, then the average would come out around the 6 mark. (And that's before you throw in the outliers - the likes of cycle couriers, etc. who might be making several trips per day.) 

*Granted, that's rather a big assumption.

(face-palm) then 

So is that like the difference between "average man [sic] that owns and uses a motor vehicle" rather than "average motorist" ?

For instance, when people complain that "motorists drive down the road at excessive speed"....no they don't I guess ?

..or is it just a cyclist vs. human thing ...

I'm sure they do exist, I just dispute they represent the real 'average' cyclist, because I dont believe they collect anywhere near enough data to draw such a conclusion,as they themselves acknowledge by urging caution interpreting their data

Even if they were collecting sufficient data, I'm not sure the concept of an 'average cyclist' even really makes any sense. I suspect what they have is a series of averages - an average age, an average number of trips, an average distance, more men than women (which isn't really an 'average') - but that doesn't mean that all those averages are represented at once in one, or a group of, actual 'archetypal cyclists'. Even if there is someone that meets all of them, they might actually be quite atypical.

Obviously I don't know your work but the ride might help mentally.

If you can maintain a steady average of 16mph on the backroads route, it would take you about 1h20min (I mentally Stava and addon stoppages) but you would definitely need shower facilities I would suspect. If still doable and acceptable travel times AND you can get back home or too work without driving, maybe think about alternating days. Cycle into work one morning, cycle home from work  the next afternoon and use other transport the other days. Obviously you would need secure cycle facilities at work to do this as well. 

im basically working out of a shed on my own, so i could probably lock the bike up inside with me. shower is a no no. Could take wet wipes though. I may start doing three days motorbike, two days cycling. 

Any chance of breaking up your journey with a bit of a train ride.

I get to do this, though I am looking to move closer and just do the road/mostly off road ride.

From that link.

"spent about 7 minutes a week travelling by bike"

"cycled 54 miles". (in a year)

I'm male, in my (late) forties, and mainly ride to commute.

About fifteen miles a day, five days a week.

So, I start at about 750 miles per year.  3000-3500 miles per year.  Add on 'recreational' cycling, shopping, etc, and I probably only creep up to 1,000. and it probably goes up to 4,000 miles - edited!

I imagine I'm pretty representative.

Do you only commute 10 weeks a year?  

15 miles a day for 5 days is 75 miles, so this would take you over 3000 miles even taking into account holidays and the odd missed day

Yeah, sorry about that - I got distracted! 

So you ride 75 miles per week commuting...say 40 weeks per year? That's 3000 miles alone. You calculations are a bit out?

.

Not this year unfortunately. 

I'm 54, cycle six days per week, five commuting and my weekend ride, so far this year I'm at 4300 miles, I would guess that I'm about average for someone who cycles six times a week. 

A whole lot depends on what they mean by 'average'; mean, median or mode? For the sex it has to be mode, you can't add up x males + y females and divide by x+y (although they do multiply of course...). But if they take the mean average of miles cycled you could end up with a meaningless (sorry) figure. A bit like when the 'average' salary at a small firm is £65k, when nobody makes over £25k, except the boss who rakes in several million.
It would be better if they tried to discern the 'typical' cyclist, but of course maybe they are all just quite different and no 'typical' emerges.

jollygoodvelo wrote:

Six times a week, yet only 1000 miles a year?  An average of 3.2 miles per ride?

Something's not quite right there...

I used to cycle 3 miles each way to the train station, 2 or 3 days per week to get to work. I think that's fairly typical of people who cycle for transport.