RiverHills

How fast could you safely negotiate the turns on this decent? I have found that terminal velocity for most bikes in most situations is somewhere 45-50 mphs.

Let me clear up a common misconception. Being a clyde does not make you descend faster than the stick people!! On a descent, there is one and only one force that acts on all of us that is responsible for picking up speed: gravity. The acceleration of gravity is constant regardless of your mass (weight). If you remember back to 6th grade science class, this is why a bowling ball and a ping pong ball would fall at the same speed dropped from a building (ignoring air resistance).

But speaking of wind resistance, this is the major force that acts on us when riding. There is also wheel friction, but on a fast descent, this becomes negligible in the face of wind resistance. Unlike gravity, the wind's force is different for all of us. The force of the wind resistance acting on us depends on our aerodynamic shape. The bigger the shape, the larger the surface area for the wind resistance to act on. So us clydes have bigger "billboard" for the wind to act on. And though it doesn't make much difference, the heavier clyde rider will have more rolling resistance (friction) from tire contact with the ground.

Terminal velocity is the point at which the force acting to speed you up (gravity) and the force acting to slow you down (wind resistance) are equal to each other. This is possible because wind resistance increased exponentially with your speed. This means that if your speed doubles, the force of the wind acting against you quadruples. At some point, the resistance forces acting on you equal the force of gravity trying to pull you faster. My personal experience with terminal velocity on my bike is as mentioned above, about 46 mph. No matter how steep the descent, I can't seem to break 46 mph. I actually have a stick buddy who has never broken the 50 mph mark either, so I doubt you will find that you are able to go much faster than this no matter the descent.

So anyway, my whole point is that if you can safely learn to descend at or near your terminal velocity, you can work with nature instead of against it, save a lot of break pads, and have a lot more fun. But, many would argue that 45-50 mph is never safe on a bike, no matter your skills or the road.