yarb

Was quite chuffed this morning, bombing down my regular route, to register on one of those "your speed is.." displays - must have been a new one as I've not noticed it before.

My speed was 44 (or about 27mph for those of you south of heaven).

Anyone ever broken the limit on one of those displays?

B. Carfree

I did when I was younger and carried my weight a bit lower (less abdomen, more leg). The city I used to live in liked to set them up in residential neighborhoods, so as long as I could break 25 mph, I could beat the machine. I stopped doing that when I found out that they were recording the data as a road speed survey. The only way the cops could use radar to cite speeders is if the speeder is going faster than 85% of the drivers on that road. In other words, if everyone breaks the law, the law could not be enforced.

AdamDZ

While touring and going downhill through small towns I broke 30mph maybe once or twice and 20mph several times. Then I saw kids running around I figured it's better to slow down. Me (200lbs) plus 100lbs loaded bike would be enough to seriously hurt someone at 30mph and end my tour.

But it's rare for me to hit 30mph unless going downhill and plain impossible on my commuter. Both my bikes have very low gearing and I just wouldn't be able spin fast enough to hit 30mph. I don't remember how fast I used to ride when I had a road bike though.

cycle_MD

I've hit as high as 44mph on a commute, and there are only a few hills so it had to have been one of those. The speed limit on my route maxes at 35mph so I know I've broken limits before. I don't have a speedometer on the handlebars since the one I bought doesn't fit, so all I get is my max speed per the GPS. It is pretty sweet when I get to go down all the hills and catch the lights to gain that kind of speed, wakes me up in the morning!

CCrew

Hey, my son got a 36 in a 25 real ticket in our podunk town. He has proof

Jose Mandez

I wonder if those radars will pick up carbon-fiber bikes...

Jose Mandez

Highest I ever got was 40.4 mph on my cycling computer going down a hill in the Flint Hills of Kansas...I think the speed limit going into that little Kansas town was 30 mph

colleen c

In my area, they only set up those speed trap with camera in the higher speed road that is like 45mph speed limit. Kinda hard for me to break that at all.

I was riding fairly fast in a 25mph residential street and came to this intersection with a city motorcycle cop shooting cars with a handheld radar. He saw me and then proceeded to point it at me and and did a full swing of motion with his arm and the radar gun. Argh!, I was tempted to turn back and ask him what my speed was just to check the calibration on my computer.

nelson249

Cool, stealth bikes....

tpelle

Many, many years ago....let's see, it'd be about 37 years ago to be exact....I was a cop for a short while (until I figured out that I didn't like it and moved on to the fire department). We had these big ol' radar units at the time that the control heads were about the size of a cigar box that would sit on the dashboard, with an antenna that was about the size of a small telescope that mounted on a bracket on the inside of the rear door side window, pointing out the rear window. We would calibrate them with a tuning fork at the start of each shift, but that brings a story to mind for some other time.

Anyway, if you were sitting on the side of the road running the radar, the radar could detect somebody walking up behind the car. You'd hear this rrr....rrr....rrr...rrr noise with each step, and the digital readout would register their speed at 2-1/2 or 3 mph.

If radar that many years ago would do that, I would imagine that the new radars would pick up even better. If not the carbon fiber bike, then the rider at least.

exile

We have one of those displays at my school. Speed limit is 25mph but since it is on an incline I only register 6mph. Hopefully I won't be cited for not going the speed limit.

daven1986

I regularly go over 20mph in a 20 zone so if I am positioned correctly on the road I can get a " slow down" sign to light up. Although I didn't set the sign off, someone got flashed by a speed camera when overtaking me in a 30 mph zone my speedo said I was doing 35mph.

DX-MAN

I used to see those about once a month or so when commuting to my old job location; never registered on one, though -- and I've been riding FS MTB exclusively for the last decade! SO my big bike and body never set off the machine... another example of this city's "efficiency".

bored117 

Speed trap I have is on average 6% down for 3 miles straight hill with speed limit of 55mph. Obviously, I just can't hit it...
I've hit around 39mph once pedaling like maniac behind a big rig once (had to make left turn). Typically, it's my 32mph section (or 7mph section...) when cars are wheezing by at 50-65mph...

SnowTown

My comp showed 65.x mph on a 55 mph down hill road... I was passing cars!!! But it was rush hour...

skijor

54mph on my Cannondale in NM...got passed by a tandem doing 65 on a long downhill run into a small town. Posted limit was 40. This was on the Pedal the Peaks tour in '98. I'm not nearly so fearless these days.

mrosenlof

One of those displays near my home picks me up while I'm running...

nkfrench 

Still, I still wouldn't try that in a school zone.
There are some local park roads with 20mph posted speed limits where it's easy to coast over 30mph downhill. I still think I should get some kind of award for going so fast, not a ticket.

Malemute_Kid

I had one of these on my commute this summer, too. And it was on the nice downhill....my best was 42 mph (in a 35 zone), and that required me getting into full tuck position on my flat bar hybrid....

unterhausen

the signs they use around here seem to be optical. I usually start sprinting when I see one, but I haven't exactly been hitting the limit recently. Even the one I passed today going downhill. I was messing around with my shoe and didn't get clipped in in time to sprint

Seattle Forrest

It's some other time...

CB HI

I have exceeded the speed limit and been clocked by both the road side sign and by a cop.

Never gotten a proof of speed document issued though.

yarb

This morning I clocked 56k / 35mph and triggered the warning. I often go faster than that on my road bike, but the fun here is having the numbers displayed for all to see in glorious LED.

Of course what we really need are "your power is..." signs on the ascents!

jeff^d

My wife and I have had our picture taken by a traffic camera at one of these speed traps. We were riding our tandem, going about 50mph in a 35mph zone. The picture would have been her butt and the rear of our bike. Big surprise, we never had a ticket show up in our mailbox...

Tor

Never triggered one of those critters myself, or at least that I could verify, though we have a few that I have passed. The problem for me is that there are too many cars passing to let me get a crack at the critter.

Jeff^D, I find myself wondering just how you know that you were photographed by the little monster if they never sent you a ticket. We don't have any of those beasts around here, to my knowledge, but I wouldn't have expected anything particularly obvious when it took a picture.

Not bicycle related in the least, but quite interesting in the context of speed traps: Speed Camera

Tor