A F Baker

I work with a guy who tends to stretch the truth quite a bit. He's a wannabe bicyclist, but unwilling to buy a good bike. He claims that when he was about 13 he and a group of his buddies were riding their bicycles down a hill in Minnesota (I think) and reached a top speed of 65 miles an hour. This speed got him pulled over by a local cop who gave them each a ticket or a warning. This is actually one of his least ridiculous stories (not all about bikes...the best one is about being an agent for the NSA). Is it any way possible for a kid to ride 65 miles an hour on a 10 speed bike?

My top speed so far is 37.6 miles an hour (in top gear / 100 inches) on a hybrid bike. I know I could do much faster than that if I had a road bike.

Please list your top speed. BTW, this is not a competition.

LittleBigMan

I know it is possible for a kid to feel as if he's going
65 mph. on his bike. Did you ever see Art Linkletter's
show, "Kids Say the Darndest Things" (or something like that?) Seems like kids have wierd conceptions about measurements, like money and how much things actually cost, for example, they might think a house costs $100. Maybe your friend is not lying, just remembering through his childhood intellect. As for the cop pulling them over, he might have even told them they were doing 65, perhaps a sort of Andy Griffith type ploy to intimidate them. Maybe it worked.

Actually, Baker, it is possible to reach such speeds on a bike. The world speed record for a recumbent-type bicycle on a flat track is faster than 65 mph.

Ask him how fast he goes now. (ha, ha)

I've topped 40, but not lately, and that was downhill.

Abraham Lincoln was once told that one of his generals was a habitual liar. Lincoln replied that that was not necessarily a bad quality in a general. Being a liar does not necessarily disqualify one from being a great cyclist, either.

Hunter

My top speed was recorded on my cyclometer before it went to the crapper was 40.0 mph. This was done on the hill right outside the property line. I has a good friend with me who was beside me when we hit it. It was a goal we had for 3 years and finally did it. This was achieved on MTB's with compact gearing toatlly spun out with the biggest grin you can think of.

JonR

It's possible to reach 65 mph if you wear a funny-enough-looking helmet. (See separate thread on ugly helmets.)

Oscar

34 mph on a flat road. Chicago is pretty darn flat. On the steepest hill I descended, I slowed down to below 30 because I started to chicken out. Lotsa traffic.

Little5_Fan

The fastest I've reached on a road bike on a flat is 33mph. The top speed on a downhill has been 55 in good ol' Bloomington Indiana where its a bit hilly. I've probably could've gone faster, however I was tapping ther breaks. My riding partners reached 59 and 58. I was the slowpoke of the group. But I must say....What A Freaking Rush it was.

HuffyMan

I'm doing something wrong. On a wannabe mountain bike, going down hill, I got my best speed this morning: 32.9 while cranking my guts out. Maybe if I ditch the knobbies and add a fairing....yeah, and one of those goofy helments too. Guess I would be humbly choking on the dust of you rocket people. :thumbup:

Stan

My top speed(downhill) is 52mph. One time only. Wanted to see what the bike acted like at high speed. For those familiar with KC this was coming down the hill on North oak(by farmland) into NKC(Burlington.) Yes, I was speeding!! shoot me!!!
If the wind is with me, I routinely tag 30mph on the flat, although, I can't sustain that speed. Just don't seem to have the cardio and respiratory capacity.

orguasch

top speed downhill is about 70 kph, well remember I am from Canada and we do it in Kilometers, and 49 and 53 kph on flats for a period of 10 to 15 minutes, or a sustain speed of 30 kph for a period of 3 to 8 hours...

Cambronne

My best so far was 44mph on a very long, very steep downhill near where I now live. I descend this hill on my evening commutes from work, and I can regularly reach upper 30s mph. Funny thing, the hill does not seem so steep when I'm climbing it.

On my old route, sometimes I would duck through a gated "golf community" as a shortcut. Guards probably thought I lived there, being on a bicycle and all that...
There was a wickedly steep hill that wound gently to the right, past mansions and well manicured lawns and fairways... Always with very light traffic. I would blast down it, deep in the drops, hammering hard. A following uphill provided the requisite braking that prevented my becoming a suburban statistic.

Once, I was pulled over by the security force... I was cited for 1) Exceeding their 25mph speed limit by 10mph, and 2) cycling in the golf cart lane. I was to be ticketed, but once they discovered that I actually lived across town, they told me to "leave, and not come back."

I have since been back many times. I'm too old to be threatened by rentacops.

BTW, Bicycling magazine once ran a story of a fellow who built a 100+gear bike, and rode it behind a race truck on a dry lake bed somewhere in the western USA.
I believe he was clocked at 160+ mph... aided immensely by the draft from that pace truck. I think about that every time I tuck in behind a city bus.

nebill

My best flat-land speed on my hy-brid Fuji is probably about 21....had to look quick at the computer, too, 'cause I didn't hold that too long! Last weekend I only had a very short time to ride, but I felt like a workout, and there was a strong wind out of the south. So, naturally, I rode south of town, up the two big hills. Going up those hills, into the wind, gave me probably a little more workout than I had anticipated, but I finally made it. Then came the fun part....downhill with the wind to my back! I pedalled as hard as I could, but at 28 was having trouble keeping my feet on the pedals, so it was time to coast. Finally topped out at 35.6. Just a word of advice from when I used to ride a motorcycle...remember that your nose is your front bumper!! For my feat of daring-do, I was on a two lane road with no other traffic for miles, and no nearby intersections...sometimes it's good to live in the country!!

Campag Fetish Boy

Mine was 56.4mph down The Horseshoe Pass, on road, into Llangollen, Wales UK in the wet! I found that mountain a few weeks earlier by accident, my friend and I were actually heading elsewhere when we saw a signpost for it and decided it sounded good.

The Descent starts at about 2,300ft with a sweeping 30mph+ right hander.

After a couple of hundred yards you turn 90 Degrees Left, and go another 100 or so yards and then....

you go left ,again 90 Degrees (Hence the name Horseshoe Pass).

You feel your bars drop from below you as you enter a 1.5mile straight run, smooth tarmac, 20% descent.

56mph was reached on this section.

A sweeping right hander follows at 40mph+ with a cattle grid in the middle which you hardly feel.

That first fateful day my friend and I climbed back up after the descent to have another go!!!!!! - 3miles in total.

Has anybody else been there?

This is a picture of the straight - well ok it flows right, but not enough to cause problems.

https://davenewbould.co.uk/postcards1...%20Gamelin.htm

This Picture is at the summit - the longstraight and the following right hander is in view. Worlds End is a 33% gradient for approx 2miles

https://www.troubleshooter.clara.net/...docs/hshoe.htm

JonR

Talk about gorgeous scenery...!

But what about unexpected motor traffic on that horshoe curve?

Chris L

Top speed was 84km/h (around 52 mph) on a MTB during a 22% descent (and yes, I DID climb it first). I would have been faster but for a stupidly sharp corner right at the bottom.

Chris

Hunter

Cambronne,
You said: BTW, Bicycling magazine once ran a story of a fellow who built a 100+gear bike, and rode it behind a race truck on a dry lake bed somewhere in the western USA. I believe he was clocked at 160+ mph... aided immensely by the draft from that pace truck. I think about that every time I tuck in behind a city bus.

Here is some info on this.
https://www.hujsak.com/#
https://www.multisports.com/johnh.html
Here are some more interesting record's.
https://www.ihpva.org/hpva/hpvarec9.html

I have some more links somewhere I will post them when I find them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visualize whirled peas.

fubar5

I can't really say what my fastest speed is. I don't have a cyclocomputer. I hit 40 the other day going down a hill, but I wasn't pedalling, I was tucking trying to save my legs for the big hill around the corner.

Campag Fetish Boy

JonR

The Horseshoe is split by a short straight (_) - like that - sort of!

fubar5

how cheap? and what do you think shippinh would be?

A F Baker

Wales looks a lot like Kentucky...at least the Eastern part of the state. Thanks for posting the pictures Campag. I can't wait to visit.

mwmw

I hit 30+ every morning on my commute to work, going under a RR bridge (Mill Ave.) on my hybrid. BTW, the new Planet Bike computer is awesome--big numbers you can see and just tap the screen to change (8) functions.

RainmanP

According to my computer I hit 29.8 mph one day. This was a couple of months ago when I was in a hurry. New Orleans is very flat so we I get no assistance there. There are a couple of slight dips where I often hit 25 or 26 if I have a head of steam. Interestingly, that day, I did not, and I have never quite figured out where I hit that speed since I wasn't looking at the computer when I did. The only thing I can figure is one spot where I was pedaling for all I was worth for about 100 yards to get to a safe haven before being overtaken by a slew a fast moving traffic. But up until then I had never even been past 25 on a flat so I am still kind of puzzled.

fubar5

Great to see you're back and busy posting Rainman. Was starting to worry about you...