Yep, it's usually at terminal velocity (coasting in a tuck) that I start entertaining thoughts of a deer, or squirell, or mongoose jumping out of the bushes and ending an otherwise good ride badly.

I concur with the other posters, it's situational.

I've been over 50mph and it was scary. Too scary. Those 19mm, paper thin, 195 gram, Specialized Turbo R racing tires that were popular in the late '80's added an extra element of fear.

If I ever do that particular decent again, you can bet I'll be on the brakes.

on Cambridge city streets 10 mph is too fast - watch for doors in the bike lane!!! AGH!!!

I'm going to say 35 but I don't go even that fast very often.

+1

I've been to 46mph on my single touring bike (not loaded).

We've had our tandem up to 42.

I find myself totally focused once you cross the mid-30's. To me its a lot like flying at a high speed at a very low altitude.

Mrs. Mono likes to keep the speed below 30 on the tandem.

I met a young couple on a tandem rally last year who claimed to have seen 61 mph on their bike computer.

On our tandem, 56 mph, stupid fast and don't care to do it again. On this hill, we never spun the pedals, it was all donwhill coasting.:eek: Tandem was rock solid but shades and helmets were rattling like crazy. I just think of what could have happened to my wife if a dog had run out in front of us!:(

Single, 46 max. Over 40 is when I have to think about what I'm doing, otherwise feels pretty natural.

I've been over 49 on all of my recumbents, and I've hit 53 on two of them. Ironically, it's the two slowest ones. I'd have no problem with 55+, as long as the road was smooth and the sight lines were good. Heck, on one hill a few years back, I was coasting at 49 mph, and decided that wasn't good enough; so I put it in my 58/11 and cranked it up to 50.5 mph. The vista didn't look any different, but the number on the speedo was important!

For me it is the high 30s. I don't like cracking 40.

Back in my immortal days of youth, it wasn't uncommon for me to exceed 110mph on my motorcycle (Kawasaki Z-1B900), so the mid 40s I occasionally see on my bicycles don't really seem all that fast. Then again, coming down Brasstown Bald a few years ago, I started getting uneasy at 10mph.

You just aren't setting your goals high enough.:lol:

http://www.9news.com/news/local/arti...?storyid=94523

Factors I consider:
>If a dog, or a person, or a moose were to step out into the roadway could I avoid the collision?
>If I couldn't avoid the collision can I take the consequential injury and recovery (assuming no permanent damage) with good humor?
>Is this the "Today" in the old song "Everybody wants to go to heaven but not today (right now?)"?
>Just how much stress will this bike including its' components take? (I've been told no one tests them under heavy riders and high speeds)
>How much pain my SO will inflict on me if I crash.

My fastest was on Kanan Dune Road (Santa Monica Mountains) where I hit 60 mph when I was 27 or 28. I also hit 60 mph on the descent of Onyx Summit when I was 50 or 51.

Since then I've hit 50+ (but not much over) several times descending the Santiago side of Cannon, but otherwise haven't found the velocity I need to go faster.

As long as the road is (mostly) straight and smooth, 60 seems to be the limit at which I start to feel like I'm going "fast enough."

Rick / OCRR

My personal top speed is 57.5 MPH. But that was under ideal conditions. Touring bike, consistent tail wind, straight road with good pavement. I didn't realize how fast I was going until I got to the bottom and checked my top speed.

It was on this road:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...5/b866bc4e.jpg

I've since had a serious crash, albeit at "only" about 24 MPH. Lemme tell you ... asphalt hurts. And my crash was due to an equipment failure ... a blown (probably incorrectly installed) tire.

I now keep my top speed at between 30-35 MPH, even under ideal conditions. Any faster, and I remember my earlier crash and the fact that the energy dissipated in a crash goes up with the square of my speed. :twitchy:

I have gone about 35 and I don't get much of a chance to do more around here, as it's pretty flat. I think it's just something you get use to. I'm sure if I lived in a hilly area I would probably do more. I use to race motorcycles when I was young and had a size 3 helmet, but I wouldn't do that anymore either. Probably an age thing. I crashed at 20+ as well and that's a very bad experience. Don't want to do that again.

As a teenager on a 10-speed, I hit 56mph coming out of Brown County State Park. Never even approached it since.

One time, on my present bike (and, coincidentally, one time on each of the three previous), I've broken 30. It's not a matter of nerve, I'd go faster (probably start to get nervous >40), but I don't have the engine anymore. 28 is about my max, these days.

The fastest I've gone is 44 MPH. Some clown in an old Mercury pulled out in front of me. But the skinny little tires held and I managed to avoid a crash. :twitchy:
Like BluesDawg, I've had my Harley up to speed a few times. Let me tell you, the wind noise is intense at 100 MPH on a motorcycle, you have to hang on tight.

It depends on the grade, visibility, road surface, curves. I can think of a hill with a 3-4% gradient, no curves, good visibility and decent surface where I consitently get as aero as I can to eke out that last 1-2mph. I usually hit 33; best ever was probably 40 with a tailwind.

I can think of another hill with a 15% gradient where the road is straight but visibility isn't so good (trees). I'm on the brakes every time I see the speedo go much over 30 -- 30 turns into 50 awfully quickly on something like that (as learned on my first trip down). A stud-muffin I used to know claimed he hit hit 60 on that hill on his TT bike. I can believe it.

Heck, why do all that work going up the hills if you can't fly down? I feel OK at 45 on the hills around here. I did one ride out to the coast and was thinking "all this hill climbing, the descent will be awesome". it was way steep with an occasional cattle crossing. My wrist felt like they were going to fall off.

It depends on the bike, too. On some, I feel stable at high speed. On others, I don't.

For me it is about 40mph. However, my wife will usualy ride a little slower at the bottom of the hill and let me catch up!

Under ideal conditions, once I hit 35 I'm on the brakes. This is a considerable increase for me, since in the first two years of riding, I would never go over 25. But I think 35 will be my personal "ceiling".

I've hit about 50 in a downhill, had a moment of thinking "Oh S..." when I saw the size of the expansion joint I was about to hit ( No problem, 40mm tires have lots of volume ) generally, I don't worry much about downhill speeds, if I can see the road. On the flat, such a speed would have worried, about my heart leaving my chest catastrophically.

Seriously, if i was going downhill for long enough, I might start to think about that little piece of glass, that's just about to reach the tube.....

i did have a speed wobble once from a single front pannier, that de-tuned me for awhile.