I can flip the wheel over if I want and use the bike as a fixed gear, but for now it's on the singlespeed/freewheel mode.

I commute on a road bike, and there's a decent descent on the way home. On nighttime trips (most of the time), I try to keep it down to 35 MPH or so. On the rare daylight trip home, low 40's isn't too hard to achieve.

i commute on a redline conquest. i'm a really a big at 6'3 260, and on the flats with lower wind i usally go about 19-21 mph. down hill depending on how steep i've gone about 35 mph, but i wasn't really pedaling too hard, i mean gravity was enough with me and my heavy ass back pack on.

I ride fixed, so 30 mph already means I have to deal with a 140 cadence... That's my max so far, done downhill and drafting buses and a buddy of mine.

My commute doesn't have many hills except for one that is not long, mostly flat with minimal inclines and declines. Today I hit 28.8mph and an average of 17.2mph, this is according to my Trek incite 11i but I could probably do better if I didn't ahve all my junk in my backpack and whatnot. None the less, I'm happy with my commuting speed.

I can hit 35 for short bursts in ideal conditions on a specific stretch that is slightly downhill on good pavement with few lights. I've topped 35 on a commute only once that I know of, so I picked 35-40 (you did ask for the max speed). Most days, my maximum speed is probably 25-30 mph.

This winter, my average speed is probably 12-14 mph, depending on how I feel. In the summer, my average is usually 15-18 mph, with 15 mph being more frequent than 18.

Downtown, I usually can keep up with traffic, but that's going slower than 35 mph.

Ok, I rode my geared road bike this morning instead of my fixed and I hit 34.4, and I was really pushing it hard. Average speed was only 15.7. I need a steeper hill, or one with less cars and potholes, to get into the 35-40 category.

I want a do-over!

The tech at the bike shop (where I purchased both my Redline 925 last week and also a new Cat Eye Wireless cyclocomputer) had my cyclometer calibrated incorrectly. He set it at 2070 instead of 2170. Honest mistake I suppose. Anyhow, that translates to this: The Cyclometer thought my tires were 700x18 instead of 700x30.

Perhaps I'm not as slow as I thought... I'll test it out over the next few rides and see what kind of readings I get.

I have no hills, all flats on my commute

33.8mph max speed on many geared bike
30.1mph on fixed 74.5 gear inch bike

Normally I hit 28-30mph as max for the commute.

Al

Mine's flat too but I've hit 36 mph drafting behind a city bus. Easy spinning in the 52/12 combo.

My max ever on a perfectly flat, smooth long stretch is 36 mph (cannondale 9 spd, 20#). The max every other day is about 24 mph.
Hitting 40 mph on a flat unaided has been a season long dream for me.

One of my goals is to get a nice road bike geared high enough where I'm not spinning at 120 rpms and bouncing my butt in the saddle and fly down the mountain at 50 mph. I use both a GPS and cyclocomputer, but trust the GPS more. There's a mountain pass highway as you exit Van Nuys north into Santa Clarita where I got up to 44 on my commuter. Now that was a rush!

For measuring an instantaneous top speed I would rely on a calibrated computer long before a GPS measuring system. There is too much individual sample error in GPS units to get an accurate single point or peak measurement (i.e the difference between two samples), for averages they work much better as you are using many more samples and measuring greater distances, so a few feet of error becomes very minor.

Al

Ah, but I have never had a bad point on my GPS. I upload my tracks to my PC and plot them in both National Geographic's TOPO! series and Garmin's Maps & Waypoints. I can see my speed increasing as I get further down the mountain, peaking, then slowing down as I bottom out. And I've done that route multiple times so I'm very confident I have an accurate number.

I use Garmin's GPSMap 60CS and have never had a problem with it, even in rain.

And, FWIW, I also reduced the circumference measurement on my cyclocomputer. I sat on my bike and rolled forward as my old man marked off a full rotation, but, according to my GPS, it was still a bit too large. So I dropped it about 10+mm and came out with the exact same top speed as the GPS.

No problem. Just noting that Garmin standard GPS accuracy is 15m on average. With WAAS (which the GPS60 has) it is 3m. If you are traveling at 50mph you cover 22.3m in 1 sec. A 1 mph error can be achieved with a .5m measurement error. So you may not have any bad (i.e. wrong) readings but if the distance between two readings is off by 3m, you could have a 6mph error if the samples are taken 1sec apart (which is the sample rate of the GPS50CS). Some GPS systems also may average readings, which reduces the error, but also smooths out any sudden speed changes you may really have. GPS with WAAS is very accurate for measuring longer distances or steady state speed, but not so good for instantaneous speed due to measurement accuracy for individual points that are only 1 sec. apart.

Al

Couple of big hills on my commute... I easily hit 35MPH on them and usually take the lane while doing so. Anything over about 35 and I start easing on the brakes...

I usually max out at around 28mph on the flats, but there is one hill where I hit 35mph, on a regular basis. Once, I made the light at the top and had a tailwind. I got up to 41.8mph. I've made that same light since, but only got over 38mph that one time.

Haha. I'm busted.

A straight shot downhill in a residential area (Cummer Avenue for you Toronto locals) is on my way to work. It's not a big hill, but it's steep enough to push me up past 70kph there, as it's usually augmented by a tail-wind.

Yes, this is on my road bike. On the studs last week.... not so fast.

I don't have a bike computer. My wife does have one, however. She clocked me at a minimum of 5 mph uphill, 20 mph downhill, and 12-15 mph on the flats. Since I was towing a trailer with our daughter at the time, I suspect my normal commuting speeds may be higher.

Paul

There's a long but gradual downgrade on my ride home and I've clocked myself at 26 MPH before my chainring maxes out (I have a mtb crankset). The fastest I've ever taken the ole clunker was 45 MPH on a weekend century ride where I coasted down a very loooooong but steep closed road. But since that wasn't part of a commute I can't count that in the poll :( My average speed on the flats is probably 17-19 MPH. There's about a one-mile section of my ride that goes through some marshland (they built a smooth concrete bridge/roadway over the marsh) and I get a pretty good tailwind so I always feel like a champ on that part. Woooo! :)

My usual commute takes me up and down a 10% and 17% climb. If it wasn't for the fact that the 10% drop has a hairpin halfway down and the 17% a 90degree right I'm sure I could get into the 40+ brackett

Maximum on a flat is mid-to-high 20's, 26-28 or so. I don't remember exactly, and my computer doesn't track max speed so I have to look at it while pedalling like crazy.

No good long downhills around here, my max downhill ever on the commute was like 32-33. Of course, I'm as aero as a brick, 6'4 upright riding position on a big ol' hybrid.

"normal" max is probably 25. I normally get 21-22 leaving a couple lights (making a left turn in traffic inspires me ;)). However my average per the computer over several commutes (because I never remember to check it after just one) is like 13 mph.

I guess an average of just over 50% of your max is reasonable.

I usually top out at around 27 - 28 MPH, but that's because the steepest hill on my commute has a stoplight at the bottom of it, so it's best to keep my speed in check. And anything over 30 on my fixed-gear is not really a comfortable spin. I've exceeded 30 a couple times down that hill, but normally keep it in the high 20s.

I took a slightly different route a few months ago when I was house-sitting for a friend. That route took me down a longer, steeper hill with a nice long run-out at the bottom. I hit 40MPH on my fixie (geared 42x16) down that hill, but was spinning like mad and barely in control. That scared the **** outta me, so subsequent trips down that hill involved judicious use of the front brake ;) and topped out at around 35. Still a pretty fast spin...

-Trevor

Hi Guys,

I ride a $49.00 Quest X-Fire MTB from Wal-Mart that I hade for about 3 weeks now. In that time a have loged 400 miles on it. I commute 16.8 miles each way. It has 26"X1.75" MTB tires on it that really drag me down. I ride around 10 to 16 MPH. My Fastest speed was 26MPH down a bridge that is 2.75 miles across the Bay.

Thats great. You can get higher pressure slick (smooth) tires for it that will make it easier to pedal and give you more grip on corners. The buzz/vibration will also go away making for a much more pleasant street ride. You can swap between tires if you ever ride on trails.

Al