Hypno Toad

I've talked about this in other treads ... I'm a wimp on descents. I can clock speeds around 40 mph, but not above. With 6 bikes, I can report that the bike has a lot to do with it. My classic steel frame Mondonico is very stable at speed, does a great job mellowing out rough roads. But my AL frame Felt is very stiff and you feel every thing. Then there's the drop-bar fatbike, it's fast ... with a steep enough hill!

I decided to take a quick look for max speeds over the last 2 years (Since I started using my Garmin 1030)(I'm not looking up the commuter bike or the pub bike)

Every year, I go to some of the best hills (smooth & straight roads) to work on my confidence on descending. I'm not seeing a great improvement in speed, but I am more comfortable at speeds over 35 mph.

zjrog

Ahhh, yes, I know this one... I crashed 9 years ago, broke my neck, massive concussion and more. But those are the ones that count today. Took me 3 years to even get back on a bike.

Any downhill and I'm on the brakes, I just can't let it roll over 20 MPH. Conversely, I've hit 38.9 on a flat section with no fear.

27 years ago, I got a ticket downhill for 60 in a 35... MPH. In court, the judge asked if I had my copy of the ticket, I did, handed it to the bailiff. The judge dismissed the case, but kept my ticket, "No trophy for you son!" I admit to thinking, what if the tire snakes off the rim...

Lemond1985

Well, I will say this. Discovering you have a flat tire in the mountains can be quite a rude awakening, especially when it's the front tire, and you happen to be flying around an off-camber turn.



Had my front tire roll off a week ago today. I was able to lay on my left side this morning, for the first time. Painful healing, infections, sleeplessness, limited movement, and anxiety. And now every random dog i encounter wants to lick my scabs.

CAT7RDR

The other thing that goes with my max speed is I am scrupulous now on the lookout for potential failures of tires, chains and the bike itself. Last accident was caused by a dropped chain at 15 mph. Hit a curb, flipped the MTB, landed on my back/shoulders and side of helmet in a scraping motion but hung onto the handlebars and likely prevented a neck and major head trauma injury. My Camelback took the brunt of the crash. Still was concussed and actually had deep bruising on my neck but was able to ride another 7 miles home. Lazer MIPS helmet was crushed on one side.

zjrog

Yikes, yes, I am always looking for things that could mess me up.

Funny thing, I almost wore a Camelbak the day I crashed. If I had, I might not have been hurt as bad.

Hypno Toad

After making a post yesterday, I went out for my typical Wednesday hills ride (less the rest of my club) ... and hit my top speed for 2020 - 36 mph. Actually, kinda impressed with myself since I knew I had a car following me, that normally stress me out, but I was confident and rode it like I would without any traffic. And to the person driving the car, they were kind by avoiding a pass until the road flattened out and I slowed below the speed limit (30 mph) and move to the narrow shoulder/bike lane.

Footnote, the road has a 2-3 'bike lane', this bike lane is peppered with storm drains and water main covers. The lane is OK at slower speeds, but when you get over 25 mph, you've gotta use the traffic lane.

BuckeyeRider

35 i start feeling a little anxiety. Over 40 is generally when I start slowing.

tomato coupe

Are you using Tegaderm?

Lemond1985

Thank you for your concern, I believe you are the first poster here to express any. I had never heard of the stuff, but I will buy some for next time. Thanks for the concern and the suggestion!

San Rensho 

Silvadene cream, it is magical. Many years ago I crashed hard on my motorcycle, had road rash from my pinkie to my elbow. Went home quickly, scrubbed it hard with soap and a washcloth, went to bed. The next day I woke up and the sheet was stuck to my arm. Had to get in the shower, get the sheet wet and peal the sheet off. About 2 weeks later, there was no infection but the scab was contracting my skin and impeded the mobility of my wrist and pinkie, and it hurt like H . So off to the ER. I told the nurse if you are going to scrub it, I'm out of here. Md. looked at it, prescribed PT, which consisted of soaking my arm in a warm saline bathe, picking off the loose scabs and then an application of Silvadene cream, cool and soothing, From then on, absolutely no pain, the mobility came back and no scar, even after it scabbed over.

Lemond1985

Large infection did set in, but I think I have fought off the worst of it. I had fevers and chills and felt drained. Major immune system workout. I'm thinking twice about the wisdom of not scrubbing them out every day like the pros (and burn victims) do. I'm just not sure I have the discipline to do that to myself when it's so painful and seems so unnatural.

I'm gonna have to think through an better strategy for the next time this (inevitably) happens. First time in 32 years, last crash I had like this was in 1988. Had a pretty good run I guess.

bluehills3149

This thread could also be titled "dumb things I did when I was young" but I hit 60mph on my old Shogun back in the early 90's. Flat out down one of the steepest hills in Melbourne (Oz) in full tuck. Wired cateye computer recorded it. These days 35mph starts to give me bad visions of 3rd degree road rash and I slow down.
But for those who want to know what's the limit, check out this guy hitting 126mph/202 kph on a public road drafting a Subaru WRX with a fairing. Scary stuff.

San Rensho 

On the flat, 42-45 in a circular paceline with about 10 guys that knew how ride. I pulled through once and then we gave up. On crazy downhills in the Berkeley hills? In the 80's nobody had speedometers, but I was spinnin a 52/13 at around 130-150, so do the math.

Hypno Toad

On this topic, there's this insane video from some years ago: Brazilian cyclists draft truck at 124km/h

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/l...-124kmh-120564

Makes me queasy every time I see this.

Lemond1985

It didn't look all THAT dangerous, except the gratuitous bunny-hopping. Those "blasting through downtown Mexico City at rush hour" videos scare me a lot worse.

bakerjw

My wife and I got our road tandem up to 54 once on a downhill. It developed a slight wobble so I sat up as a wind brake and slowed us down to the low 40's

Then there was last year headed to the US border at Rooseville out of Canada. We were on our fully loaded tandem mountain bike (tent, sleeping bags, clothes, etc...) and hit 48 on a downhill. My wife tucked down and was amazingly calm because we were flying. The Mezcal tires where whistling.

chaadster

I remember Avocet cyclocomputers from the ‘80s, because I was sick on those things! Greg Lemond put the Euros on notice with Avocet, and that was cool... I’d guess they blew up on the scene in ‘87 or so; I had ‘em on my MTBs by late ‘80s, but yeah, they were pretty rare then. I loved the early ‘90s models when they had all the colors, and we’d change those ****s out like fashion baubles!

tgenec86

Tuesday, April 7th, downhill on Higby Road heading into Frankfort, NY I hit 63.8mph. You can go on Strava and do a search for the segment "Higby Downhill Run to 5S" to verify. I run a Garmin 510, typically with GPS and Glonass running (even though it shortens battery life) and my wheels are calibrated. I also had a white Ford F-250 following me who screamed in exhilarated disbelief as he went by me on the bridge "Holy F**k Dude, I was going 60 and you were pulling away!" The steep downhill section has a maximum gradient of 21.5%. Trucks avoid it in bad winter weather.

I raced USPro back in 1994 to 1997 and learned descending skills from none other than Davis Phinney. If the road is smooth and I feel like I'm in control of the bike, there are no limits to what I'll try.

tomato coupe

Why are there so few (30) Strava attempts?

tgenec86

You'll find that the countryside around Utica NY is one of the most beautiful places ever to ride a bike, but one of worst places I've ever been for the amount of riders. No one races around here, and not many ride except for a few light touring clubs.

San Rensho 

Nice. I hated Davis Phinney he kicked my cat 2 butt. I was in a pro-am race in Minneapolis and the Slurpies (7-11, we calle3d them the Slupies because they slurped up all the prize money wherever they went) showed up with about 10 guys. My teamate, fastest guy on our team got 11th, I got 12th. Still made like $350, which was money back in the day. But yes, Phinney was one of the best crit racers, ruthless, strong and smart. and I think he went on to race in the TDF, no?

tomato coupe

Yes, he won a couple of TdF stages.

Chad991

A whole lot less that my bike will actually do.....unfortunately

jefscolnago

I hope you are healing well by now... at least starting to. OUCH!

jefscolnago

52 down a straight, moderately smooth surface. I get close to God and respect that he'll be telling me whether I've done a good enough job of taking care of my bike. Speed really depends on the conditions, as well. 45 down a curve is just as, if not more, exhilarating. 23 up a hill after about 50 miles was one of the best!