Inpd

Ah good point as usual by @Stucky. It's not the speed only but also the terrain.

I remember having just gone clipless coming down a rolling hill at 25mph. Beautiful day and beautiful MUP around a lake. At the bottom of the hill there was a slight turn following by a blind sharp hairpin turn which butted directly onto the lake.

I literally screamed and some how managed to rip my cleats out of the clips. Otherwise I would have been at the bottom of that lake clipped into my 25 pound BD bike cursing all of you who suggested I go clipless whist I drowned.

Clipped_in

Agreed.

I live at the foot of mountains--real mountains so I have a lot of opportunities to go fast. I'm a bigger guy so I can get things moving on a descent as well as most people, but I don't like to get too crazy. The fastest I've ever gone is 56mph, but I didn't like it.
The pro's amaze me. Sagan is the real deal. There is a very popular local descent that was part of the Tour of Utah a few years ago. I've hit 50mph on it--certainly could have gone faster if I had opened it up, but the wind can be scary gusty at times so 50mph is above my comfort zone. I watched on TV one ToU race where Levi Leipheimer was rolling down this same section of road quite casually, fiddling in his jersey pocket for something to eat. A moto rolled up next to him and clocked him at 63mph. He looked like he was barely paying attention. Geeeeze!!!

smarkinson

I remember watching the TDF quite a few years ago and the commentators were talking about how some riders would prefer to ride clinchers rather than tubulars in the mountain stages. The theory being that on the descent all the braking heats up the rims which melts the glue holding the tubulars on which leads to bad things. I don't know if they still do it what with everyone running carbon fibre rims nowadays.

Mind you, last year at the Tour of Oman there was a spate of tyre failures that appeared to be due to overheating rims in a neutralized downhill section.

Technical FAQ: Hot tires and rims in Oman - VeloNews.com

So, maybe riding the brakes all the way down a hill because you're too scared of a little speed might not actually be the safest thing to do (or you should switch to disk brakes).

rmfnla

Perhaps motorcycle experience helps, and I am sure the bike being ridden does as well.

Years ago ('97?) I built up this Trek 970 just for the Rosarita-Ensinata fun ride.

The last few miles are all downhill on a freeway-quality road with great banking and wide sweepers.

Hit an indicated 58 MPH (my buddy had a computer) and never stopped grinning the entire way...

rmfnla

Dibs on the 300SL...

macca33

In the recent Tour Downunder, the peloton averaged 105Kph on a stretch, with maximums of 130Kph mentioned, so they were up there.

Personally, I've managed 90Kph on my road bike on a long, clear, straight downhill - exhilarating!

cheers

zonatandem

50+ mph many times on our tandem.
Now at ages 83/80 we are no longer that foolish . . . but it was fun!!!

jamesdak 

Just stay relaxed and ride it out I guess...

jimincalif

I hit 49.7 once coming down Cannon in Orange, had a tailwind. I did not know exactly how fast I was going at the time as I was concentrating on the road and not looking at the speedo. Only saw it when I downloaded the data from my Garmin. I didn't have any special problem with it, but usually I max out between 42-45 mph. Anything over upper 30s is a bit tense.

SevenTwentyNine

Straight downhill with good visibility and I've done 50 - lack of road stopped me. I imagine I'd go as fast as possible with enough distance and if it's safe i.e. no traffic etc.

Sy Reene

Just to point out the obvious. In a thread like this, you only ever hear from the lucky ones who made it back home.

chaadster

Hehehe!

exmechanic89

Some great replies in this thread. I dont brake like mad going down hills but I definitely dont get up into the speeds some of you have mentioned. And I agree with the comments about it being best not thinking about what could happen, probably the only way to ride that fast successfully, lol.
For me though I'll stay a bit slower, I'm just too chicken to risk it. I forgot to mention earlier that I had a bad crash 25 years ago on a mountain bike while blazing down a dirt hill. I ended having to go to the ER because I cut up my right knee pretty bad and bruised some ribs too. And I doubt I was even going 30mph on that run. In any case it probably changed my attitude a bit about fast downhills, lol.

Adrianinkc

I hit 47 mph yesterday on my cross bike on 700x38 with disk brakes, I've hit speeds that fast before but only on my road bike. The cross bike felt so damn stable and planted, I'm really wondering why I have a road bike. (I don't race)

KonaRider125

I have little interest in going faster than 35 MPH downhill on a bicycle, I just feel the stakes are too high if a tire blowout or frame failure were to happen at that speed or higher.

Inpd

Was this downhill or are you saying that in tandem you can ride a lot faster than in single?

BTW Congratulations on cycling so long. Gives us all something to aim for!

Oldguyonoldbike

I live in Oklahoma and there aren't any long descents near where I live. I have, however, hit 45 mph on my rock-solid steel Colnago with reassuringly great Campy Chorus brakes. A couple of weeks later I was on the same descent on my carbon bike going around 40 when a pickup swerved into my lane coming straight at me. Under HARD braking the whole frame started shuddering and scared the daylights out of me. I don't hit those speeds anymore on that bike.

allen254

Pretty much lol

allen254

One thing i have noticed is if it gets a little to windy at least for me i won't go any faster than 30-35 if its windy.. I hit 45 once and it was windy, it was pretty damn scary and i have 30mm rim height not as grabby as 50 mm's but still scary

chasm54

There's no "maybe" about it. You should use the brakes briefly and intermittently on a long descent. If you ride the brakes for extended periods rims get so hot that if you touch them you'll leave skin behind. Much more importantly, at those temperatures it isn't unknown for tubes to explode.

redfooj

"42"
"42 what?"
"um...speed"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k1OapekYzM

kbarch

Yeah, and there are some neighborhoods where the question might be: how slow can you safely go - you need to get out of there as fast as possible!

OldsCOOL

I've bumped 50mph and thought it rather exhilerating.