Originally Posted by
spelger
hmm...what does this say about my descent today? 53x12 and only ~100 RPM...i never felt like i was out of control.
It doesn’t say much at all. No reason you would be out of control. My fast speed while pedaling and applying power (as opposed to coasting) was done in a big group. No way could that speed have been reached solo on a 1% downgrade. Dynamics of a group are very different. When taking giant steps in a big gear, when wearing seven league boots, a lot of fine control is lost. My big group did spread out a lot because of the speed. In bigger gears we would have been spread out so far the aero effect would be sporadic.
Today I descended a small hill at just about same speed as yours but was in a fixed gear of 48x19.
Many things are possible on bikes. Having pedal speed in your quiver increases the possibilities.