Highest speed you've done on your bike?
- Thread starter mjw_byrne
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My fastest was 46mph, always seem to get max speeds stuck between 41 and 45mph.. Is anyone else like me though that when I first start on a seriouds descent im suddenly distracted by: an itchy foot, head to scratch; dirt to move from my eye; shorts to pull up; rear break to check etc etc.. I always have to force myself to concentrate!
I can do better.
15 yrs ago i was going down a 1 in 2 hill near my house. I managed to touch 60 mph, only i went into the back of a stationary tractor as my brakes did not work at that speed and there was oncoming traffic coming the other directon. I was catapulted completly through the glass drivers cab and landing in front of the tractor, skidded for approximatley 30 metres. I completly lost all my skin on my back and my head was nearly ripped off.
I broke 31 bones including my skull and spent 15 years in hospital. i was discharged two weeks ago and happy to be back on my bike.
15 yrs ago i was going down a 1 in 2 hill near my house. I managed to touch 60 mph, only i went into the back of a stationary tractor as my brakes did not work at that speed and there was oncoming traffic coming the other directon. I was catapulted completly through the glass drivers cab and landing in front of the tractor, skidded for approximatley 30 metres. I completly lost all my skin on my back and my head was nearly ripped off.
I broke 31 bones including my skull and spent 15 years in hospital. i was discharged two weeks ago and happy to be back on my bike.
53x12 at 200rpms. plug the numbers in on a 700c wheel, it's 70mph. i held it for a probally 5 seconds then backed off and pulled out of the drafted. 65mph winds are strong! I would have gone faster if I had a bigger gear, which lead me to buy a 56tooth big ring, and 11th cassette. I MIGHT be trying this again, but I am not sure, crashing at 80mph would be ugly. Anyone with good leg speed can do this, I bet a match sprinter could go very fast.leestevens said:What gear where you in? and how long did you hold that speed for?
it was 3 years ago, when I was 17.
101.5 Kmh
My friend Ron had a cottage at the base of a ski hill for a summer ten years ago, we used to ride up and down the service road (paved) that ran under the lifts from top to bottom. We got the great idea one day to try and set a world land speed record. We took my mountain bike, put a 72 tooth chainring on the front, 12 in the rear and a set of Conti 26x1.0 tires at about 100 psi. We wore dirtbike armor and full face helmet when doing this, no way in hell we were going to do it otherwise. Most of the runs were in the 80-90 Kmh range. Fastest speed of the day was 107, no one else came close. The bike started shaking like a ******* at about 95, suspension really does help at those kinds of speeds.
I now ride road more than mountain, but rarely get above 70 Kmh. I had a series of crashes that got me CAT scans and reconstrucive surgury on my face and partial nerve damage in 1996. I got smart after that, damn teenage years.
My friend Ron had a cottage at the base of a ski hill for a summer ten years ago, we used to ride up and down the service road (paved) that ran under the lifts from top to bottom. We got the great idea one day to try and set a world land speed record. We took my mountain bike, put a 72 tooth chainring on the front, 12 in the rear and a set of Conti 26x1.0 tires at about 100 psi. We wore dirtbike armor and full face helmet when doing this, no way in hell we were going to do it otherwise. Most of the runs were in the 80-90 Kmh range. Fastest speed of the day was 107, no one else came close. The bike started shaking like a ******* at about 95, suspension really does help at those kinds of speeds.
I now ride road more than mountain, but rarely get above 70 Kmh. I had a series of crashes that got me CAT scans and reconstrucive surgury on my face and partial nerve damage in 1996. I got smart after that, damn teenage years.
I posted a 92.8kph down motorway coming into Wellington a couple of weeks ago. Roaring Northwester wind helped and the fact that I had just posted my fastest ever time up Makara Peak and I was already feeling invicible. It wasn't planned it just happened. I was going fast, and I just couldn't believe how smooth the surface was so I decided to see if I could tap it out with a max effort and clocked in with a cadance of 169rpm(53x12) and passed four cars in the process.
It is not my fastest speed or anything but I got a decent crash and burn story. When I was Sixteen (About 8 years ago), I was taking a cruise down one of the steepest roads in my township. I barely had my brand new Trek 930 broken in and wanted to see how she could handle at higher speeds. I also thought it would be a good idea to bring my new Sony CD player. Anyhow, I got the bike to about 40 mph before a car decided to pull out of in front of me. Carrying the CD player in my right hand, I clamped down on my left brake as hard as I could. Unfortunantly, I locked up the front wheel; and the brakes worked flawlessly. The rear end of my bike did a perfect flip to the front, and threw my 200 lb body over the handlebars. After that I do not remember to much, except to waking up with a broken jaw and a nasty raspberry all over the front of my body.
On my road bike I hit 54mph descending Sagehen Summit in the Eastern Sierras. On that descent I was passed by someone who blew by me in their aero-bars, he must have been going 60mph+. I thought he was crazy, as if he needed his brakes they were out of reach. On our tandem my wife and I have hit 50mph several times, this gets pretty scary as we just have cantilever brakes and they don't do much with that weight at those speeds. It doesn't help either to have your wife yelling and getting stiff in the back.
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I hit a mid-pack speed of about 46mph down the Poway grade in SD. Its about 3 miles of 8-10% grade. I am gaining confidence at that speed, but still a bit scary at times. I been able to go down that hill without hitting the brakes and it still tops out at 46mph in full tuck. I think the wind is preventing higher speeds...and the fact I refuse to pedal any further at that speed!
We lived on a big plateau in Cincinnati, so any direction I went riding was downhill. Of couse, it made for some tough rides home back up those hills. Anyway, I hit 53 mph down a hill in Cincinnati on my Kestrel 200SC, and several times between 50 and 53. It felt rock solid each time. I live in a flat part of Texas now, and really miss those thrills of the hills.
Related side story: Going down another very curvy hill I was once doing about 45 mph. A guy in truck pulls along side, screaming out the passenger window how cool he thinks it is that I'm doing 45 mph. I'm thinking, "Man, I really don't want to be doing 45 down a curvy hill about 3 feet from a truck being driven by someone who's not paying attention! Please give me some room!"
Related side story: Going down another very curvy hill I was once doing about 45 mph. A guy in truck pulls along side, screaming out the passenger window how cool he thinks it is that I'm doing 45 mph. I'm thinking, "Man, I really don't want to be doing 45 down a curvy hill about 3 feet from a truck being driven by someone who's not paying attention! Please give me some room!"
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