Road Cycling - Cornering--Max Speed

I'm new to road cycling and am trying to get ideas of average performance levels--i.e. what I can expect to work up to riding 3 or 4 time a week.

My question for today:

Given a 90-degreee crossroads on perfectly flat terrain, and a perfectly level (ie, not crowned), two-lane asphalt road w/o any debris, how fast can a 200lb biker expect to make the turn?

I've done it at 15mph so far on a road w/ a little bit of crown, and am not sure how much faster I can push this...

Thanks!

you can push it 'til you fall and skid and go sliding across the pavement and limping home licking your road rash. I hate to say it, but if you wanna take corners fast you've got to be prepared to fall. Besides, if someone said "18mph" would you just stare at your speedometer and trust it?

oh and to answer you question: just before you fell, that's how much you can push it. :p

depends on the friction and how "tight" the turn is.

Just gotta feel it out. I could probably take it faster than you just 'cause I'm more used to the feel of the bike. I'd say take no chances until you don't even know the bike is there. Until your body is used to how the bikes moves, what the road feels like, etc you shouldn't try to push too many things. If you do, you're asking for it. Focus on things like cadence, pedal mechanics (heels down), etc right now. The high-speed cornering will just kind of come with time.

PS It goes w/o saying that if the corner is blind, *never* take it high-speed. Might meet a car coming the other way... :)

Just a suggestion: ride the corner with friends pushing each other each time (not off the bike :)) I found that when I see some one else go thru it I figure well I can do that and increase my speed...

I was taking corners on crappy chipseal with potholes and gravel at 20+ the other day, and I weigh 229. That being said, I'm incredibly comfortable with my abilities through corners, practice them a lot, and I'm not afraid of washing out my rear tire (as I was doing quite a bit on those corners), since I can correct it on the fly fairly easily.

That being said, here are some techniques to work on: put your outside pedal at 6 o'clock and your inside at 12. Stick your inside knee out, and put extra pressure on the outside foot. The knee pulls you around, and the extra pressure tacks your tire to the ground. Lean your bike inwards along with your knee to really pull through the corner. Choose a line that starts at the side of the road opposite the corner, crosses the apex right at the corner, then ends up at the outside of the road.