If you’re taking a short journey by bike, you may be wondering, “how long does it take to bike 3 miles” and to be honest with you, I can’t tell you how long it’ll take for you to ride three miles.
However, this short guide contains plenty of helpful information to help you understand more about the average cycling speed, allowing you to estimate how long your three-mile bike ride will take!
Keep reading, and you’ll learn about the speed of different bikes, factors affecting your cycling speed, and the answers to the most popular speed-related cycling FAQs.
I’ve also put together a detailed guide that’ll educate you on the average speed of different bike types. So have a read and find out how fast you can expect to ride.
How Long Does It Take to Bike 3 Miles?
So just how long does it take to cycle 3 miles, you ask. The average cycling speed ranges from 10 – 14 mph (16 – 22.5 km/h), so the average cyclist will take between 12.85 – 18 minutes to bike three miles.
As I stated at the beginning of the article, I can’t tell you exactly how long it’ll take to ride three miles as I’m unaware of the many factors impacting your journey.
But keep reading, and I’ll give you several key factors that you can monitor and change to improve your average cycling speeds.
You’ll find a chart displaying the average 3-mile time for four of the most popular bike types below.
| Average Time Taken To Bike 3 Miles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Beginner Cyclists | 18 minutes | |
| Intermediate Cyclists | 11 minutes 15 seconds | |
| Advanced Cyclists | 9 minutes | |
| Professional Cyclists | 7 minutes 30 seconds | |
What Is the Average Bike Speed?
I wanted to dive deeper into the average cycling speed to help you understand how long it’ll take to ride a bike 3 miles.
Strava, the well-known and top-rated cycling statistics tracking app, released key ride data in 2018.
They compiled over 5.2B miles of ride data, which, as you can imagine, produced some exciting figures!
From Strava’s rider data, in 2018, the average cycling speed on their platform was 13.5mph, equating to 21.72 km/h.
Now, riders that use Strava tend to take their cycling more seriously since they’re interested in tracking ride data.
This means that the Strava average cycling speed is faster than your average cyclist. That being said, there are many beginner cyclists that use Strava.
The Strava average cycling speed is representative of cyclists who track their data rather than your average cyclist.
Average Speed Over 3 Miles For Different Bike Types
The above chart displays the average speed of four of the most popular types of bikes.
If you’d like to learn more about different bike types, read my informative guide here for free!
You’ll also notice that the red bars in this chart display how many minutes it’ll take on average to ride 3 miles on each bike.
How Long to Ride 3 Miles on a Road Bike
Riding on a road with a flat elevation profile, the average speed of a road bike is 16 mph (25.7 km/h).
Based on this average cycling speed, it will take a road bike 11 minutes and 15 seconds to ride 3 miles.
How Long to Bike 3 Miles on a Mountain Bike
The average speed for a cyclist riding a mountain bike on a road with a flat elevation profile is 12 mph or 19.3 km/h.
This means riding at the average speed a cyclist on a mountain bike will take 15 minutes to cycle three miles.
How Long to Ride 3 Miles on a Hybrid Bike
Cyclists riding a hybrid bike on a flat road have an average speed of 14 mph or 22.5 km/h.
This means that it’ll take 12 minutes and 51 seconds on average to ride three miles on a hybrid bike.
How Long to Bike 3 Miles on a E-Bike
By law, in most US states, e-bike assistance is capped at 20 mph (32.1 km/h).
This means, in the USA, your average e-bike rider will take 9 minutes to travel 3 miles if travelling at max assistance speed.
The United Kingdom limit the legal speed of their e-bikes to 15.5 mph (25 km/h).
This means that if you ride an e-bike in the UK at max assistance speed, it’ll take you 11 minutes and 36 seconds to ride 3 miles.
Average Bike Speed FAQs
Will I Lose Weight Cycling 3 Miles a Day?
By cycling 3 miles a day, you can burn between 150 – 180 calories. Increasing the number of calories you’re metabolising is key to helping you lose weight.
To maximise the number of calories you’re burning, try to stop as little as possible and push yourself to cycle faster and further each day!
As long as you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming, you’ll start losing weight.
Is Cycling Three Miles a Day Good?
By cycling two miles per day, you’ll burn around 100 – 120 calories and whilst two miles isn’t a long distance to cycle, it’s a reasonable distance for beginner cyclists to start with.
It’s crucial to incrementally increase the distances of your ride to avoid injury and increase fitness, rather than going from 0 to 100!
How Far Can Your Cycle in 15 Minutes?
The average cycling speed is between 10 – 14 mph (16 – 22.5 km/h), which means in 15 minutes, the average cyclist can expect to travel between 2.5 and 3.5 miles (4 – 5.65 km).
Conclusion - How Long to Bike 3 Miles?
And there you have it! If you had been asking, “how long does it take to cycle three miles” you should now understand that on average, it’ll take you 12.85 – 18 minutes.
You should also better understand several factors that’ll affect your cycling speed.
Read this guide if you’re interested in learning more about the different factors affecting your speed on two wheels and several simple steps you can take to limit their impact.
And to finish, I’m not sure if you’ve felt the same as me, but with the high levels of bike theft in cities and even rural areas, I used to be constantly worried about leaving my bike locked up, unattended.
I love my bikes and hated the thought of losing another to theft, which is the main reason why I began studying bicycle security and subsequently created BikeLockWiki.
I now use some of the best bike locks and uncuttable bike locks to secure my bike whilst I’m away from it.
If you’re interested in increasing your bicycle security, check out the two guides above.
Or, say you’re on a tighter budget, read my review of the best cheap bike locks for locks that won’t break the bank but will send thieves home empty-handed!
As always, lock it or lose it.
Ciao for now!
