City riding is slow.

Pump up your tyres.

Go at whatever speed you like.

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.

Don't worry about speed. Speed is a practically worthless metric, especially when you're starting out.

Your focus should be on developing a sustainable cadence: the frequency of your pedal strokes, and the pressure you exert on the pedals. It's a balancing act. For a given output, the faster you pedal, the less pressure you need to put on the pedals. Speed up or slow down from your ideal cadence, and you just wear yourself out without improving your speed.

I looked to maintain about 65-75 strokes per minute, and not pushing so hard that my thighs would start to burn. Some people prefer slower and harder; some prefer faster and lighter.

The purpose of shifting is to maintain consistent stroke rate and pedal pressure. Speed is incidental: if your cadence is good, whatever speed you get will also be good.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.