choddo

Now that speed really would kill you if anything went wrong. Unless you had a track to slide along the perimeter of.

choddo

Controlling the bike well and understanding what increases the risk, all of which comes with experience, is way more important than a helmet at those kinds of speeds. Arguably not wearing a helmet is possibly safer because it makes most people more cautious.

Dave Mayer

53 mph on a sustained 7% descent at 7,000 ft. Thinner air allows you to go faster. And we had a serious swirly tailwind. My buddy, who had/has a significant weight advantage passed me by at least 3 mph.

There were some white spots far in the distance on the side of the road, and before my brain could process what they were, I had passed the family of mountain goats licking road salt. In retrospect, if I had more time I should have been very worried, as my pal might have spooked them and driven them right in front of me. Not that I would have had the time or skills to dodge them.

tomato coupe

Bad logic.

john m flores 

This is not an either/or. You can be good at controlling a bike and still have a deer jump out in front of you at 50mph. The helmet is there for the things you cannot control.

I have a traffic engineer friend who has said something similar. But we're talking about speed in this thread.

choddo

The point was that Larry’s “safety is about things like helmets” is a very small part of the picture and arguably a misleading one. If someone only does 30 because they are more risk averse with no helmet a deer jumping out might be far less dangerous.

and having had a front wheel slide out at about that speed and my helmet hit the deck, I am not about to suggest anyone stops wearing one for safety improvement.

choddo

OK

https:/amp.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/24/bike-helmet-appetite-danger

Rick_D

Will never know because my wild-and-crazy days are in the rearview, but can attest to pacing highway traffic on a long downhill coming into Victoria, B.C., where the posted speed limit was 60 mph. Whee! Descending certain Sierra Nevada highways I've passed motorcycles, but no idea what that translates into speedwise.

Today's electronics would capture and document, but did not have them back when I did most of my advanced riding. Or helmets, but a different topic.

tomato coupe

For those that don't want to click on the link: A couple of psychologists had people inflate animated balloons on a computer screen -- some wearing helmets and some wearing hats -- and concluded that the ones wearings helmets were willing to take more risks. Seriously. Real science.

Koyote

Your tl;dr only made me want to click on the link. Wowza. The article refers to the study as "extraordinary." Since it's the Guardian, I'm hoping that was an example of British sarcasm. If I were teaching research methods, I'd use that study as an example of poor research design.

The idea that safety equipment leads people to engage in riskier behavior is called risk compensation; this review of the literature (as of 2018) concludes that there is no such demonstrated effect for helmets and cyclists.

tomato coupe

And, for people that don't want to click on that link:

choddo

The interesting point was that it, in spite of having nothing to do with taking real risks, had an effect that replicated other studies demonstrating safety equipment like helmets worn in the type of activity they would normally be used also showed results of increased appetite for risk.

But I’m sure you have citations of real psychology studies showing that this is flawed logic.

choddo

Thanks for an actual link. I’ll read it in a bit.

tomato coupe

The link in post #60 is a good place to start. As quoted from that link, far more studies show the effect does not exist.

One Wheel

54.8 mph according to Strava, recorded on a Garmin 230 running watch. I'm at least 30 lbs lighter now, which has a significant negative impact on my max speed. I've gotten over 50 mph at least 2-3 times this summer and fall, most rides I'll go over 40. I think with the right hill and tailwind, and probably a more aerodynamic helmet, 60 mph is very doable.

Trakhak

But back in the real world, if riders without helmets are more cautious, it follows logically that the safest riders of all are helmetless brakeless fixie ninjas.

tomato coupe

... that carry knives in their teeth.

Trakhak

More likely, throwing stars: i.e., sharpened jockey and pulley wheels from the derailleurs that they Drewed off.

eduskator

56mph (90kph) once and I'd never do it again. I went downhill a 20-25% gradient hill, freshly paved road, no cars.

DaveSSS 

It must have been short to only hit 56. I've never found any road nearly that steep.

eduskator

Yes, short and dangerous. It's between 2 mountains. The acceleration was insane. A good rush of adrenaline.

genejockey 

There are a couple short descents on my usual routes where I routinely push 40 mph - I am somewhat 'gravity enhanced' - but one day gravity and a tailwind got together to get me up to 45 on one of them. For folks who know San Mateo, it was on Alameda de las Pulgas by Aragon HS.

Then the city in its infinite wisdom reset the timing on the traffic light at the point of maximum velocity so that I can't depend on it being green when I get there, so I've had to moderate my enthusiasm there.

StanSeven

Good thread going. But let’s stop with helmet discussions. Long term experience here with that subject shows threads quickly get off on a sensitive subject. Tharts why we have this dedicated thread on helmets. Helmet sticky

aliasfox

That might be the hill I specifically tried to avoid yesterday. I instead routed myself around to Polehmas and Ralston to get onto Alameda de Puglas. Polehmas's climb isn't so bad, but I forgot how terrifying Ralston's descent is (I probably last did it four years ago on a trip, before moving out here). Feathering the brakes on slightly broken pavement with traffic coming up from behind... kept it under 40mph, though I think I would've been more comfortable closer to 35.

Big Basin going into Saratoga can be a blast though - freshly paved, and there's a fairly straight, -7% section for well over a mile...

Eric F 

60mph - sitting on my top tube, with every part of me tucked in as close as I could get it. This was on a long, wide-open, 4-lane road in Death Valley (Hwy 190, descending to Panamint Springs from Towne Pass), during a race where I was trying to catch the lead group who had dropped me on the climb. I caught them after the descent, only to be dropped again on the next climb. That was 20+ years ago. These days, I don't go over 40mph very often.