cweb99

Sorry if this has been posted. I searched and didn’t find it. Just wondering how fast you have been in your road bike. Years ago I hit 50mph coming down a mountain during the Tour De Big Bear Ride. I frequent 35mph down hills in my area. It’s fun yet scary if I crash cuz I’ll probably die.

how fast have you gone?

Bald Paul

Does it count when you forget to turn off your Garmin after being hit by a car, and you're in an ambulance?

Steve B.

54 mph, twice, in Santa Fe, NM, one of those on Interstate 25 SE of town on a LONG downhill stretch. Never again.

jadmt

in years past over 50mph this around 45mph....older and wiser I guess.

Trakhak

Retired pro cyclist Erk Zabel, interviewed for a cycling documentary, said that he sometimes wondered what he was doing, descending Alpine switchbacks at speeds approaching 100 kph while riding on tires 2 cm wide. He mused, "I should have been a surfer."

79pmooney

An undocumented probably 55. The Stow race over Smuggler's Notch 46 years ago. Our pace car was a local cop. He had to do 60 between corners to stay ahead of us.

That decent made me a total believer in the Fuji Pro I'd has a few weeks. In the wet and drizzle, I couldn't see through my glasses. I hit a frost heave I didn't see until it was 20 feet away. The butt kick I received tossed me 2 feet into the air. Bike came down straight and on it's feet, like a cat. No big deal. (I now have an '83 Pro Miyata. Got to ride some gnarly pavement on the Oregon coast range 2 months ago. Another surefooted cat. And both on the skinny rubber that is - according to the modern word - totally unrideable!)

The Mooney did 49 down a local hill. My nerves were the limit. Hill is steep enough and long enough for faster. I just needed a younger me. Did the less steep sister hill on my TiCycles its first year with a huge tailwind probably faster but no documentation.

I now rarely ride with computers so unless a car pulls up and rolls down the window, ??

79pmooney

The Clement Criterium Setas I raced down Smuggler's Notch weren't much wider. (Nobody measured tires back then. They were just the road race norm and fit in our bikes.)

frdfandc

The fastest I've been was 48 mph on a nice downhill. Previously it was 42.

BkSaGo

I’d estimate 45 mph. Back when I was a teenager. A friend and I climbed the local “big hill” with a lookout tower on top. My bike had one of those old fashioned odometers with a pin on a spoke that came around and “ticked” the odometer one per wheel revolution. It sounded like one continuous click all the way down the hill.

6thElement

Nudged 50mph many times, over 40mph almost every ride.

Tempted to go to a semi-compact from a compact on my next build to give me a bit more top end.

edit: Looks like 46.7mph was my high speed for this year.

MikeWMass

Fastest ever was 52.8 mph about 15 years ago (per my Cateye Astral 8)
Fastest since I crashed in 2011 and fractured the transverse process of C7 is 46.2.

MinnMan

I don't know the exact record, but somewhere around 45-46 mph. I've been above 40 many times. 50 mph would scare the daylights out of me. When riding long descents with capable friends, I always fall behind. I'm just more cautious.

The ideal place to really blast is a very steep straight downhill roller that ends in an uphill climb. The people who bomb down long twisty descents above 40 or even above 50 mph have both skills and sangfroid which I lack.

bampilot06

55 mph descending winter green on my checkpoint,
if I had been on my madone or emonda it would have been faster. The steering got sketchy on the checkpoint and I had to start braking.

choddo

A Sportive about 10 years ago…



and the first Ride London, the same year. Not quite sure where there was scope for this.

cweb99

Wow love the replies. 50+ on a road bike is pretty crazy. No room for error. We are a different breed

cb400bill

48 MPH on a downhill. Unaided 31.5 MPH on a level ground sprint.

CAT7RDR

45.5 mph according to GPS on a fully rigid MTB with touring tires on a 10% decline.
I had to make a right so I shut it down but 50 mph would have been easy to get.

Steve B.

It helped for me that I was on a reasonably heavy Miyata tourer, repurposed for the season as a basic road bike with 28mm tires. The long wheel base made for a stable ride.

rsbob 

53 on my road bike and 62 MPH on a tandem - passing an RV, all in my 30s. 45 is my comfortable max now.

Koyote

This has been done to death on bikeforums. Try the search box.

My fastest descent was an indicated 75.7 mph… Coming down a very steep canyon road in the middle of a race.

Kontact 

Add a motor and you can go over 100 without thinking about it much on two wheels. I used to hit 50 on a straight downhill in Wisconsin - it didn't seem all that scary.

MinnMan

No way would I have the nerve.

aliasfox

The highest my iPhone 13 mini with Strava has recorded is 53.6 mph. I highly suspect that it's a little optimistic though.

The Chemist

71km/h is the fastest I can find on Strava, this past summer riding in the Rockies in Canada. I don't get nearly that fast at home, since Shanghai is far too flat to find any hills long / steep enough to get close to that. Best I've done here is around 55km/h.

Kai Winters

One time and one time only I hit 65mph, according to my old Avocet computer, on the downhill over Bear Mtn during the Killington Stage Race in the '90's. A group of us were chasing the breakaway group and it was full gas all the way just to hang on. It was pretty scary and I had no idea how fast I was going. No way was I going to chance a peak even for a millisecond. It was after the race when I was looking at the comp did I see 65 for max speed...likely it was not completely accurate but still...yikes !
Nowadays I still hit the mid to high 40's on a couple of the downhills in my area but I'm no longer comfortable giving grabity its head.