Highest Ever Speed ?



MuzzaB said:
80 kph (say 50 mph) down a long steep hill in the countryside near home (Auckland New Zealand). I pedal like hell down the hill in 52/13 (hey - I'm an old fella OK?) I've hit this speed several times on the same hill, then hit my nervous threshold and apply some brake! You guys scare me with your top speeds!
Which road? Senic Drive?

Back in the late 70's, I was riding back from Owera down a hill and a car pulled up beside wound down the window and yelled "you're doing 80kmh".

In more recent times, ie earlier this year, those in Sydney would know the dash back from Waterfall to Sutherland, the last hill where they put that **** seal on the bike lane so everyone uses the car lane, we hit 72kmh going up the hill. There's something strange about the piece of road, that kind of speed shouldn't be obtainable. 72kmh was done on 52*12 and I hit my spinning limit. Now I have 53*11 and have improved my cadience too.

Today there was an excellent tail wind, but the boys wern't hammering it, so we only hit 65kmh going up that hill.
 
izzodesh said:
mine is abotu 58mph and my bike was shaking like crazyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Gosh, might have to take your wheels and bike to a local tyre place and have wheel balance and laser alignments done! :eek: :D
 
We do 65km/h downhill on a jeep track,gravle surface regurlly on our MTBikes,stoping suddenlly is impossible,avoiding soft sand drifts and not changing your line to suddenlly,is advised.As you you do it more often it doesn't seem that fast.
 
sogood said:
Gosh, might have to take your wheels and bike to a local tyre place and have wheel balance and laser alignments done! :eek: :D
You must not be familiar with frames.

Some of them get a shimmy at higher speeds and there is nothing you can do about that except get a new frame.
 
48 mph a couple years ago on the florida flats. Really great tailwind :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:. Makes ya giddy at them speeds, does it not? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:. One wrong move and yer SCRAP! GOTTA love it!! Regularly hit upper thirties and even that feels like a really dangerous video game :D :D :D :D . If I go it'll b doin somthin I love
 
38.6 mph, very slight downhill, maybe 2-3% and pedaling my @$$ off. gearing was (don't know proper terminology) big ring in front, 2nd from smallest in back. Bicycle was the aluminum version of the Schwinn Varsity.
 
I hit 56 mph in Germany back in 1991. Going down a huge hill in Bavaria, my wheels wobbled a little and it scared me.
 
Ok, flying down is easy if you have the guts. The technical question that follows is how did you stop? :eek:
 
sogood said:
Ok, flying down is easy if you have the guts. The technical question that follows is how did you stop? :eek:
nearly didnt many times

I got about 90kays down Lapston Hill. (speedo was having a day off, so I cant really proove it) Passing a VT Commodore near the bottom, and seeing the passangers horror was classic! It was like ' What in f***??? How slow you going Honey?

My worst moment at speed was going round a bend at 75kays down a ggooood hill, which has about 2 car crashes on it a month, and having the bike bounce from the center line, to the outer white line, with a 3 foot drop only a foot to the left. AGGGHHHHH!
 
45 mph leaving Glastonbury, CT. Wasn't pushing a gear for long as gravity took over and provided all the speed I needed. Started to think and stopped peddling!:eek:
 
42.6mph for me, going down a hill in Cornwall, England. When I saw this my hand hit those breaks to slow me down a little. Funny thing is that the hill is short, straight and after the decent its just a steep but going up hill, so 30 seconds after hitting my fastest speed I was walking pushing my bike back up the hill!!!!
 
31 on the flats.....nice stout west texas wind behind me, pedaling as hard as I could....some of you folks frighten me :eek: ....anything in the 50+mph range is freakin fast!!
 
Pharmr said:
31 on the flats.....nice stout west texas wind behind me, pedaling as hard as I could....some of you folks frighten me :eek: ....anything in the 50+mph range is freakin fast!!
Its those big knobby tires we got, we will never catch them roadies.
 
Fastest I ever hit was 59mph. Never been so scared in my life.

Was going down a hill in Lanzarote, hadn't been down before but long and straight so decided to go on tri bars. Bad idea!!! Tail wind took me upto about 50mph and then bars started shaking. But was so scared couldn't get off tri bars, so kept getting faster until hit 58mph:eek:!!! Volcanic rock or road were the options if it went wrong.

Never went down that hill on tri bars again, but on drops could hit 55mph no probs.
 
nicklloyduk said:
Was going down a hill in Lanzarote, hadn't been down before but long and straight so decided to go on tri bars. Bad idea!!! Tail wind took me upto about 50mph and then bars started shaking. But was so scared couldn't get off tri bars, so kept getting faster until hit 58mph:eek:!!! Volcanic rock or road were the options if it went wrong.
The death wobble... Scary! :eek:

I hear the solution is to get a stiffer fork/frame/wheel and rider... :D
 
Kona_Blue said:
What is the Highest speed you have ever done on a bicycle ? What was the gearing (roughly) and your cadence ?
Missing a turn on the mountain and freefalling down a cliff does not count.

Dang!! That means I could have quoted 85 mph!!

But with wheels on the road, 38 mph....even that was too fast for me...at 50 it will take all the broken bones ages to heal...so I try to ride harder on flats with a head wind to get some benefit rather than risk crashing on fast descent...but that's just me...
;)
 
24 on a flat, reached 28 down a small hill. No big "long" hills around here lol.
 
I think the year was about 1981...my buddies and I watched a new movie called "Breaking Away". What got our attention, was the scene where the Biker fella was drafting a tractor-trailer down the highway...presumably at highway speed.

Well, Fred had a VW van...so we loaded up and headed out to a flat stretch of highway 6 between Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. With the back window flipped up...the drafting condition was enhanced a bit, as well as provided the ability to communicate somewhat. We drafted the VW in pairs, and with standard gearing of the day...52/13(?) we spun out at 50-55 mph. Fred had a 53 tooth chainring and was able to go a bit faster.

We got some strange looks from the occasional motorist that passed us.

It was great!!!:)
 
72.5kph (45mph) on the MTB (Giant Trance 3) on bitumen. First time I had experienced the "death wobble"- I like that term. Got a bit worried at that so hit the brakes, cautiously! Measured with GPS.
Halcyon1
 

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