Originally Posted by
MinnMan
Like most everybody else here, I love taking a good hill at 30-35 MPH or even faster. But we are taking significant risks at those speeds. I don't think I ever lose sight of that when I'm in the midst of the "whoosh", and I just hope that my vigilance and luck continue.
I hear you. For me, faster was always better. We have a hill or 2 around here I've hit 50 on. My bike's are stable at that speed and I was comfortable going that fast. However, I'm rethinking that...no, consider it rethunk. Part of the problem is that the older you get, you have a slowdown of reaction time. Maybe it's imperceptable, but it's there. That's when the luck end of things runs out. The risks definitely increase with speed...exponentially? Here's a link to study results of car / pedestrian deaths related to speed. Not exactly what we're talking about, but food for thought.
http://humantransport.org/sidewalks/SpeedKills.htm