bobwysiwyg

@BirdsBikeBinocs - close, but a bit more of a chicken, around 26-27 mph I suddenly have any number of "what if's" flashing through my mind along with a strong desire to ride again another day.

joeruge

It is not usual for us to hit 40+ on our tandem and 50 a few times with favorable conditions. Coming out of Pinus Altos heading toward Silver City in southwestern New Mexico, we hit 58, which I think is probably our top speed so far.

That day, just about everything was in our favor; the road is in very good shape. The decent, about 6 miles long has a sufficient grade, but is not crazy. It is fairly straight with long, sweeping curves. Traffic was very light to non-existent and there was almost no wind in our faces (except the one we created.)

Over about 35mph, we just sit in a crouch and let her fly. I think we'd soon spin out anyway if we tried to pedal above that speed.

f4rrest

Squirrels.

Stay safe.

DaveLeeNC

When I was riding in the Livermore, Ca. area there was one really steep and straight hill. I suspect that 60 mph was possible, but somewhere around 50 or bit over it that, faster just didn't seem like a good idea.

In the area where I ride now there isn't anything long and steep enough to get me much over 40 mph.

dave

KraneXL

All I can say in those instance is -- aim for the owner.

sputniky

While I agree with your basic premise, it seems that your own ability doesn't match up with your boasting here. Looking at the link in your sig, thee are pictures of the "scary" (in reality, mundane) descent that you were forced to walk down due to lack of skill.

McMitchell

The little buggers do try to jump through ones spokes. Deer and Turkey are almost as bad where I ride.

MikeyMK

48mph. Every day. That's all it'll do in it's current set-up of just over 2,000w.

With the power switched off, about 14mph...

79pmooney

One consideration in favor of non-pros - they often outweigh the pros. Being in top Tour de France condition means being far, far from your best descending weight.

I've never been a good descender. Long limbed and light. But in my racing days we led our pace car, a local cop, down Smuggler's Notch in Vermont. To stay with us, he said he had to go 60 between the corners we were not braking for. (The six leaders of our race, the Cat 3 & 4, passed a number of Cat 1 & 2 riders struggling to get up the Notch. They were zigzagging using the whole road. We just blasted past them and our pace car. My one and only pass of a police car, at what? 6 mph?)

My computer told me I was going 49 down a road SW of Portland on my old Mooney. Completely believable. Probably 900' vertical and steep. Quite sure I went faster down the parallel decent later on my best bike with a strong tailwind. (I rarely have electronics on my bikes that are not serving trainer duty.) That best bike will get too close to the wobbles if I am either cold or nervous. (Quickish steering. I love it 99.9% of the time.)

Ben

Dr.Lou

I am not a speed demon. 40 is my fastest and was comfortable, but usually don’t go much over 30.

cyccommute 

Perhaps you should read the article rather then just look at it. The ride in question is not "mundane". It has a -16+% grade which is steep in anyone's book but is even steeper when you throw the fact that it is a very loose, very rocky descent. Yes, there are people out there doing steeper stuff but not by much.

It also happen to be far from any kind of assistance if you happen to biff. Not "far" like in a few miles but "far" as in 2 to possibly 4 hours if you need help. As I said "Walk down it unless riding in a helicopter is a personal goal."

Finally, the article is a post on a public website. Do you really think it's a good idea to tell everyone to just "bomb down that hill"? I like having a house.

bikecrate

Pretty flat here. Going down some over passes I've gotten to 30 MPH. I guess that's my limit.

Riveting

5 years ago, 52 mph max. on a long straight downhill, drafting a tandem with a heavy captain. But at those speeds, the wind around my glasses made my eyes tear up making it hard to see, and I kind of enjoy seeing what's ahead on fast descents. Nowadays I starting feathering the brakes at 40'ish.

Skipjacks

186,000 miles per second

That is the absolute fastest I can theoretically go

So far I have come a wee bit shy of reaching that theoretical barrier.



Back in reality....I've touched 30mph on a down slope but I can't sustain it for more than a second even when going down hill. It's also not something I do often as its fairly nerve racking.

I hit 25mph on that same down slope nearly every time I ride to work. Hitting 25 is pretty easy for the short burst. But even at 25 I can't hold it for long as it takes a lot of pedal power even with teh down slope.

subgrade

I have hit low 40s (mph) (67-70 kph) a couple of times. It's a flat area where I live, so I haven't had much opportunity to test out how fast would I go before it would feel unsafe to me. Once was drafting behind a bus, and at that speed keeping the close distance required for the drafting to work became too uncomfortable; one other time it was down a hill, and over 60 kph my eyes started watering profusely (I wear regular spectacles, and don't have cycling goggles with sight correction). In my teens I once did 60 kph down a rather short slope in a forest, barely managed to stop before crashing into shrubbery at the foot of the hill. However that felt faster than 70kph on the road.

Slightspeed

Back in the 60s, as a junior racer, my dad clocked us in his car at 60 mph on a training ride on White Wolf Grade, a long downhill east of Bakersfield. It was sort of like the Breaking Away scene on the movie, except we were not following a semi truck. Dad pulled alongside in his '57 Plymouth Fury, tailfins and all. He held up 4 fingers, then 5, then 6. Pretty fast on a 1 inch sew up. With an 84 inch gear rule, we were spun out long before then. I still have and ride the same bike, my '64 Legnano., though, I'm a lot smarter now. My "modern" record is 46mph, coming downhill into Solvang, CA on highway 246. Yesterday, I hit 32 mph on my Roubaix on a very small hill. I didn't even realize it till I saw Strava. More important, yesterday I did a personal record on a climb, on a day that I was tired from yardwork, and didn't even feel like riding. Take your victories where you can. Most days I'm usually topping in the low 30s. Plenty fast, for a guy pushing 70,

sputniky

Oh, I read it alright. The fear was oozing from my screen in fact.

That's why I commented on it - because it's funny that someone suggesting that "learning how to mountain bike" would help with descending on the road while at the same time providing evidence that they lack basic mountain biking skills.

The photos of the mundane descent were just the topping on the fail cake.

Wait, you think that you would incur legal liability if someone read your "bomb down that hill" and was such a poor rider that they crashed on that little hill? And you would risk losing your house because your blog suggested that folks "bomb down that hill"?

Wow! I don't know what is worse, your abject paranoia or your lack or understanding of tort law.

Phil_gretz

If I understand the OP's question correctly, what is the highest comfortable speed for me?

I don't know. I think that the answer is highly dependent on road conditions, sight lines, and which bike I'm riding.

I remember descending down MD-77 outside of Thurmont, MD (around to the backside of Camp David) on my carbon road bike at ~53 mph. The shoulder was well paved and clear for a mile. There was a fog line with cars even with or slowly passing me, to the extent that I could reach out and touch a fender, if I so chose (or so it seemed). I wasn't really afraid, as the bike was confidence inspiring.

Other times, south of Middleburg, VA on semi-rutted country roads, 45 mph feels pretty sketchy on a steel road bike that was otherwise very solid feeling.

In either of the above cases, I didn't apply brakes at all, but simply let the bike go as it would.

On a rutted double track fire road descending through a forest, with the possibility of wash outs or blind approach to significant rocks, then I'd trim off speed to something that gives enough reaction time to evade, jump or whatever's needed.

base2 

I think you would need at least a 2000 watt system & a couple of 48 volt battery packs...in parallel, for current reasons, of course.

You'd need to hack the motor controller though. That goes with out saying.

Tough job, but doable for sure.

Where's that guy that was running 70x11? He'd know.

Skipjacks

Well he was running that 70x11 set up a week ago...

So you'll have to check the history books from 1492 to see if he recorded how fast he got up to before stopping.

(Little relatively humor for you there)

starkmojo

Once in Lander Wyoming coming down a mountain I hit 58MPH on my bike (per computer.) but my guess it was more like 53-55
The next week I was going down a different mountain doing 45-ish and came around a corner to find a cattle guard on the road. I left a fair amount of rubber on the pavement, and brought some chip seal home subcutaneously, but spared the wheels.

I go as fast as I feel safe and reasonable mostly. Although my wife and I have differing definitions of "safe" and "reasonable". YMMV

oldgeezerjeff

Around here the roads are relatively flat. You have to look some to find a hill. However, I have hit 35 MPH on a slight downhill and maintained over 30 MPH on a flat section for about a mile...but normally 20 or so on flat road. I used to live in British Columbia on some very hilly roads and I am sure on my old 70's Peugeot 10 speed I hit close to 50 on some of those downhills.

Lemond1985

Probably bears mentioning that should you ever find yourself already going 53 mph, hitting the brakes is probably about the last thing you ought to do. It'll severely affect your ability to corner and could cause you do go down in even a minor turn.

Harumph

I hit 62 mph once while descending Loveland Pass while riding in the Triple Bypass in Colorado. Wasn't too bad until a slight crosswind hit me out of no-where. Scary stuff.

Korina

My pucker factor is around 28 or 29 mph for short distances. I tell myself it's because I like riding my bike and don't want it to be over too soon, but really I'm too acutely aware of what could go wrong. Especially as my dad's childhood nickname for me was Klutz.

During one memorable descent, I decided to keep my hands off the brakes in an effort to get comfortable with higher speeds. When I hit 30 mph, the front end started to shimmy like a hula dancer (may have been the crosswind, may have been the hybrid's design); instinctively I did the right thing and gently applied a bit of the rear brake to dump some speed. The shimmy resolved and I've gone back to applying brakes on steep descents on the theory I'd rather fall off the bike at 25 mph than 40. That particular hill is shaded with tall trees, so there is a real risk of running into a pine cone, big stick, or broken glass; it even has storm drain grates.