jadmt

i got you beat….motorcycles should have done me in…i was addicted for most of my life.

Nachoman

I can't brag about my top speed. But on my last major downhill, my buddy passed me clocking 56 mph, grabbing a strava top ten.

cweb99

70MPH!!!!! Hell yeah. I remember seeing a YouTube video of a cyclist passing a motorcycle. It was probably you lol

Alan K

Why stop there, why not advocate removing brakes or at least use of a wobbly wheel to seriously prevent risky behavior among bicyclists! 😉

Alan K

On the topic: In my younger days, I have gone around 50 MPH during my commutes frequently for a short distance. I didn’t have a speedometer but one day I was stopped by the police and given a written warning for going 49MPH. I kept the warning for quite a while for fun.

I deliberately do not exceed ~35 MPH these days anymore, realizing that even the pricey helmets are not even tested for impact damage beyond about 20MPH. It’s probably safe to assume that way beyond 30-35 MPH, all bets are off and at 50MPH, helmet is a semi-useful brain-bucket.

These days, I ride to survive a long day’s ride (as in to improve my endurance) - speed has become significantly less important.

Bob Ross

Back in 2017 or 2018 I took my bike on a vacation to Park City, UT where we were staying at a hotel on top of a mountain; to get out of the hotel and to any of the local road cycling routes you had to descend a road that included a ~2 mile long stretch of -10% grade that was straight as a dragstrip. Twice on that trip (on two consecutive days) I hit 58mph.

Don't think I've had the opportunity to break 50mph since. Although my Wahoo insists I hit 204mph once this past year!

tomato coupe

Funny, my max speed is also 58 mph just outside of Park City, descending from Guardsman Pass.

rsbob 

All of which begs the question about terminal velocity. Mr Robot says, “According to a post on Bicycles Stack Exchange, the terminal velocity of a road bike can be estimated using the formula (2F / (CdA)), where F represents the force applied by the cyclist, Cd is the drag coefficient, and A is the frontal area of the bike. Using this formula, the estimated terminal velocity of a road bike is approximately 41.3 m/s or about 149 km/h.” or 92.58 MPH.

Edit: In winter it should be 90.58 MPH

terrymorse 

I'm guessing the hotel was the Stein Eriksen Lodge. One of our favorite places to stay, or to simply pop in for lunch at the Troll Hallen Lounge.

The fast descent to town is 224 (Guardsman Pass Road). Straight and steep, but do not attempt if there's any chance of ice -- zero traction. The winding climb back up is via Royal Street.


Lunch with Mrs. tm at the Stein Eriksen Lodge

SoSmellyAir

You and I must both live in the flat lands. My highest is 40.x mph

tomato coupe

Haven’t seen the post you’re referring to, but the force applied by the cyclist is generally a minor contributor to terminal velocity on a steep descent.

VegasJen

Not exactly flat, but flat-ish. I'm sure if I wanted to truck up to the top of the Spring Mountain pass, I could probably hit 50+ on the way down. My concern is what else I may hit on the way. I'm not as bendy as I used to be.

Bob Ross

That sounds & looks familiar, you're probably right!

btw (thread drift) cycling around Park City was one of the more frustrating experiences I've had when travelling with my road bike. I kept finding myself on routes where if I looked off in the distance to my left or right I'd see gorgeous vistas and I'd think "Wow, that is really pretty over there! Why am I cycling over here?!?!"

Lameness

Do speeds attained during my college era jackassery being towed behind a Honda Civic count?

Thigh Master

Back in 2004 heading north on 522 out of Taos to Questa on our tandem we hit 65 mph but didn’t have a computer on the Burley to record. 522 had perfect, new pavement that day + tailwind. The stoker usually taps me to slow down near 40 mph when she feels nervous (taps my back as the sign because wind noise above 25 mph too loud to even yell requests). But that day she never tapped , so we just crushed it in a 54-11 (133 inches.) That being said I have a spot where I hit 60 mph out of Allenspark, and routinely 50+ on my commute to work on 7-10% grade. Doesn’t FEEL unsafe. But I’m realizing the guys in the Tour de France who fall going faster than 40 mph rarely get up and ride… so in my older age I’m applying a little more brake.

marko_1111

60 mph on Stone Schoolhouse Road near Lake George in upstate NY in 1988 on a prototype steel mountain bike that's sitting right beside me in my office.

It was the first bike that got me riding as an adult and I've never stopped. Moved back to Boulder after a couple of years upstate and have ridden literally everything in the area but never exceeded that top speed again and not without trying.

But that was well over half my life ago, and I've got to say that for me, being older doesn't necessarily mean closer to death. Pretty sure I was closer to death when I was younger.

Along with everything else I was into back then - way closer when I was younger.

SoSmellyAir

We all (willingly) trade some top speed for wisdom as we age.

john m flores 

...so...let's hear the story...

jadmt

one of my buddies bought two new Honda CBR XX's and he asked if I wanted to go do a top speed run with him..sea level tests had these going over 170mph the time (this was around 2003). We were over 3000 feet and did not quite get that but speedos were indicating around 165.... the crazy thing is they were really relaxed going that fast..I started riding at 12 and was 15 or 16 the first time I was over 100mph on a motorcycle. I used to joke that when I was about 13 or 14 my folks did not want me to drive a car so they let me buy a Kawasaki h2 750 and took out a life insurance policy on me....

john m flores 

Ahh, those Blackbirds were iconic bikes...

jsallen

First time I rode TOSRV East, around 1980, Terrible Mountain (Ludlow-Weston Vermont, southbound). Mercier 10 speed with spoke reflectors. They unbalanced the wheels so badly that the bicycle shook up and down. No bicycle computer yet but probably 55 mph. Never again spoke reflectors! If one comes loose, it can turn sideways and lodge in the fork, too.

Johnny Rad

Ah, yes, descending Marsac Ave past the old mine. It’s steep and straight at that point. Like you, that’s where I hit my top speed.

Check out Cadel Evans and others race down this road in the 2014 Tour of Utah (RIP).

At 2:30, the front of the race goes past the turn-off to Stein Ericksen that you recall and then past the old mine.

(And the racers, especially Cadel who was chasing to catch on, were almost guaranteed to exceed 55mph between the numerous switchbacks before the clip started.)

terrymorse 

That's the Ontario Mine. They used to give tours. We used to have a place up the hill in Silver Lake Village, near the Stein Eriksen.

C_Heath

53 once.

Baetis

I know for a fact: 56.4. My Garmin Connect account says 80 MPH, but I remember distinctly how that happened. I forgot to turn off the computer when we took the train back from San Diego to Oceanside.