I know I have hit 60 mph on a few descents years ago on some Colorado tours. That was not the rides that scared me though.

50 mph on a Trek 540 touring bike that had the frame stretched out. It went into a high speed wobble. I put the bike in the middle of the road and starting grabbing brakes and tried squeezing the top tube. A women behind me saw what happened and stopped and asked if I was ok. I probably was white as a ghost. :lol: I never rode that bike again after that ride.

I own a 2006 Lemond Victoirre. It never had a high speed wobble in it until about a year ago when I was letting it rip on a fast downhill. I think the wheel hit a pothole and the bike's front wheel went out of balance. The handlebars were shaking so hard that I had a hard time hanging on to them. Scary for sure. I was going 47 mph when that happened.


Last but not least. I climb a local mt. and have hit 50 mph on the bottom of the one hill many times. The one night when I was climbing there was a 10-15 mph headwind going up the mt so no way could I beat my fastest speed. This car passes me and brakes on the corners which I don't. I was gaining on him towards the bottom of the hill. I thought I was going fast and didn't realize what was going on until after the fact. The car was sucking me into it's draft and I hit 53 mph on that windy night. That will never happen again as that was very dangerous.

Zman

Although I did get up to 41mph the other day, after seeing the speeds posted in this thread, I'm seriously rethinking the wisdom. Letting a bike go faster than 30mph is starting to sound really stupid.

When I was in top shape 30+ years ago on a road bike, observers said I was over 50 mph while drafting a truck in Mexico. I wouldn't do that again. And in commuting I could keep up with traffic on routes with 25-35 mph speed limits. But that was a long time ago.

Nowadays I'm much slower. High 30s on a couple of downhill runs in ideal conditions -- long run, no wind or wind at my back. Usually 33mph on some favorite downhill runs in typical conditions. I'm limited by wind resistance since I ride upright bikes.

On a fast downhill run Sunday I reined it in a bit because of wheel swallowing ruts. It was an unfamiliar route but as I get familiar with it I might be able to top 40 mph.

My real world overall average speed over 10-60 miles has climbed from 10 mph in 2015, to 12 mph in 2016, to 14+ mph this year. I finally broke the 15 mph barrier on a couple of favorite routes that are a bit hilly and often windy, but it was exhausting. Above 14mph it demands effort disproportionate to gains in speed on an upright bike.

But I'm pretty much topped out until or unless I can adapt to a lower profile bike with drop bars. Maybe this year. It took me a couple of years to get into good enough condition to consider a more serious bike. Wasn't really a priority the first couple of years since I was coming off some injuries and illnesses.

The KOM on one fun downhill run (very modest by most standards but, hey, this is Texas) is 33.4 mph, by a friend who's seriously fast. My best on that run is 22 mph, usually closer to 18. So I'm a long way from fast.

On my recumbent, 53mph down Kensington Rd. hill near Brighton, Michigan while drafting a pickup truck.
On my road bike, 51mph while descending eastbound US2 into Gorham, New Hampshire.

In both events, the bikes felt safe enough that I wasn't too worried. In the recumbent at 53mph, I actually though I was going slower till I looked down at the speedometer. I'd love to take it up Whiteface Mountain. But hills on my recumbent suck. It was hard enough on a old steel road bike.

33mph phone Samsung health app gps. I got down a hill all the time to get on a bike trail. A big pot hole on one side and a small one on the other. Luckily I hit the small one once.

Fify.

I started out around 8-10, and even with as little riding as I do now the road bike seems to stay around 12. The only time I have been able to break 14 consistently was riding with a group.

Some days it's more trouble than it's worth to push harder than 12 mph. I do it about once a week just for conditioning. Other than that I prefer more relaxed rides most days.

Yup, and going the speed some of these folks are claiming isn't on my menu either....

37mph top for me and it was scary. I couldn't imagine riding at 55mph. :eek:

I have for some reason lately had some of my rides logged with a top speed of around 38 MPH. I know I'm not traveling that fast, must be a satellite error.

The 31.something MPH I had on a group ride a couple weekends ago is likely true, we went down a big hill pretty quickly and even with my bike in top gear I could spin the pedals without any resistance. Wouldn't want to do that all the time or go much faster than that.

There are a couple of downhills that I ride regularly where my comfort level is high that I'll hit 40+ on but never to 45. It's surprising how much difference it makes to be down in a more areo position. I got a video through my YouTube feed recently where are guy gets into a flat position down hill and passes a line of other cyclists who are spinning out.

40 km

Around 40 is all I can get on our local hills. Although I ease off in the upper 30's, figuring that I could get more speed by tucking than pedaling, if I wanted.

I did hit 45mph downhill, 4-5 years ago, but that was using my home-brew faring. That was a little daredevil since it was just built, still getting the kinks out and I wasn't 100% that it would hold together at high speeds. But what I really got a kick out of, trying to keep the speed up I topped the next hill at over 30! On my regular bike I'd have been 8-10mph there, and huffing.

A few years ago I was hitting 35mph on flat sprints, on my road bike. I'm not sure I can do that now, probably not.