Broke My Max Speed Record Today
 

There are few hills here that are steep enough to accelerate a rider with this kind of velocity in our area. I stopped, checked both tires and proceeded to pedal a short ways before settling into a tuck. There is a 90deg curve within the 350ft of this grade so you must be sharp and position correctly. What a rush. I wasnt trying for a PR but neither was I disappointed to see the number on my GPS....

https://vgy.me/gSW7Fd.jpg

Aces! What's your high gearing? 53T-13T? You were knocking on the door of 50mph for a while!

From another thread, a cautionary tale...

How fast can you safely take a corner you ask... You won't really know till you crash on one, as I found out... I have been going down this paved trail with a hill in my area for 10 years probably over 100+ times, with about a 35*/40* corner at the bottom, every time 52KM/Hr... Then one day I came back from a road trip and still had my road tires on instead of my trail tires and 54 KM/Hr WooHoo, so the next day I went and put some effort into it and went down noticeably faster... And crashed, got up and said to myself "wow, I think I got away without breaking anything" pushed my bike home 1.5 KMs and the next morning went to the hospital because I suspected my neck was broken, the nurse and doctor practically rolled their eyes and I actually had to DEMAND an x ray as they wouldn't believe me. Anyways to make a long story short I did have a broken C6 vertebrae? A few weeks go by and I'm at home and decide to look at my bike and the speedo said... 56 KM/Hr top speed, so now I know 54 KMs is the fastest I can take that corner, safely? I doubt it... I slow down to about 30-35 KMs every time now...

EDIT; I guess the real safe speed is 35 KMs/Hr on that corner, or at least it is now...

Still running the 53-12. It's been 2 years since the last run on this one. Not exactly a route I cherish except for training. Did 1050ft of climbing in 14mi of rolling hills. One quick ride. Hit several 35mph descents to help power up the next one. Quite a hoot.

Congrats! That is awesome!

But according to your radar... Look out there is a Tie-Fighter behind you!

I often come cranking full on 58kmh on a long descent coming into town daring the cops to pull me over. :lol:

Glad you are ok from that wreck. My last wreck was at walking pace and had a fractured wrist.

Excellent!

When you have hurricane-force winds rushing past your ears, and your bike is screaming, "Yeah, man! Yeah!".., you know its a good day.

Nice! That pix is suitable for framing. :thumb:

High speed descents are funny ... it's all a matter of how comfortable you feel about the road, your equipment, the winds ... all kinds of factors. I like technical descents and cognizant that the energy dissipated by your body in a crash generally goes up with the square of your speed, I usually keep it down to 35 MPH or less (or maybe it will just make for a better looking corpse if I have a nasty crash).

But at the same time, there are some roads that just seem to lend themselves to high speed descents. There is a certain section on the Eastern Sierra Double in which almost everyone hits their highest speed ever ... most in the 50 MPH range or better. And all of us agree that when you're doing it, it doesn't feel all that fast or dangerous.

VERY smart to do a tire check before a high speed descent. I try to remind myself to do that, and manage it perhaps only half of the time.

Yes!! :lol:

Spot on. This is a lightly travelled rural road that is decent pavement near the centerline. It is a technical descent with a blindspot at the top and the curve to the right at the "bottom". Speeds are dissipated to 30-35mph after negotiating the curve and then it's an all-out descent/race to East Jordan 2mi away.

To the OP : I know exactly how it feels : https://www.strava.com/activities/10...ts/27033829859

The whole time I was riding down, I was asking myself, please don't have a puncture now, please don't have a puncture now.

your bike must be tuned really well. no sign of the dreaded death wobble?

There are a lot of hills around here that are steep enough that you can easily coast up to 45+ mph in a tuck, though I'm always a bit paranoid about having a deer or turkey leap out of the bushes ahead of me while bombing down them. I have not yet seen the big five-oh registered on the speedo, but I did reach 49 mph going down the back side of Mount Diablo about a month ago.

My mind does tend to wander on those high speed descents...to topics like "I wonder what the max speed rating is for these tires" and "did I completely tighten my front quick release".

That's it, I'm following you on Strava. :)

I'm Ryp Hankins

I'm pretty sure it's the Cannondale Criterium stiffness keeping it online. This isnt a ride for my lesser bikes of the flexy Reynolds or Columbus lightweight tubing. A guess anyways.

50 mph, I'll give you props for that! That's a bit frightening ... I find myself dialing back in the low 40's.

I've never had a max speed record however, when I tried for a minimum speed record I fell over.

50+mph speeds can easily be attained through a combination of steep grade and gravity. I live in a flat part of the USA and still manage 50+ speeds regularly on short steep grades.

Here's an example done on a 20% 1/3 mile hill. This is nowhere near my fastest which is ~58 mph. BTW, it was done on a Catrike tadpole trike. :)

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3933/...399bbc6e_z.jpgUntitled by trsnrtr, on Flickr

We have one nice downhill with a pretty straight road and good pavement and a conveniently placed radar speed sign right at the base of the steepest part. On days with a good tailwind I get into a tuck and then sit up so the radar will be sure to 'see' me. Usually it's in the mid to upper 40s, but if I can get up to 50mph or more it switches to flashing "Slow Down."

:thumb: Congrats

I've broken 40 a couple of times on long downhills (by Minnesota standards) and get nervous over every pebble and crack in the road :twitchy:

Yeehaw. Always loved the fast downhills when I was younger. Even occasionally drafted behind trucks.

Unfortunately we don't have any long uninterrupted downhills. Offhand I can't think of any longer than 1/3 mile between flats or troughs. We have lots of 3%-6% downhill runs around 1/4-1/3 mile, but that's about it. And a handful of mostly downhill runs up to a mile, but with flats or troughs between downhills.

It's tough to peak at 35 mph, and average better than 25 mph, on those hillettes. Most KOMs showing significantly faster times are wind assisted.

One year I rode down The Wall twice (climbed it three times) but never for speed. Good job!

Wow, that's impressive. It's aptly named "The Wall". It is brutally steep.

The Wall! In Michigan? where?