I hit 41 mph this morning. It seems like I have trouble hitting those high speeds now that I've dropped a few lbs. 48mph is my personal best and that was about 5-6 months ago down the same hill I hit 41 on this morning. I didn't get a jump on the hill though today as I hit the light red at the top.

I was leading a group down a descent in Cape Town, SA last March at 45 MPH when someone in a truck (bakke) pulled out in front of us and I hit him. I had a lot of handling problems then.

But, you know, generally it's fine as long as the pavement isn't sandy or speckled with bits of gravel.

I routinely touch 55-60 in the Western NC/VA mountains. My only handling problem is that my hands tend to grip the bars really tight and I bite my lip and shriek.

:eek: Ouch! Were you okay?

that's me, today. I'm typing with just my left hand because I can't raise my right arm.

I was in a scenic park with lots of small hulls and sharp turns. I've raced around this downhill curve hundreds of times at around 20-25 mph with no trouble. this time, however, the groundskeeper must have overloaded the truck with leaves and branches because when I rounded the corner there was just enough debris to steal all the grip from my tires.

I've never gone down harder or slid further in a crash. The damage, beside the caved in the end of my track pedal, was confined to my shoulder (well, I did need to realign my handlebars) and a slight scrape where the road ate through my jeans.

I'm lucky that it was so cool today and I had gloves, jacket and trousers on. I ran the same route in shorts and teeshirt yesterday.

I never get that fast coming down tam...tam is too technical. coming down that road on tam to 4 corners, I got a flat after hitting a pothole a few years back. I ride up to san bruno mountain on training rides during the week...heading towards the bay on guadalupe canyon drive it is two lanes and a wide shouder with not much traffic. there are also very few intersections so it is pretty safe for speed runs. there is a road (carter) that heads towards the cow palace and it is steep! I'm pretty sure I could get up to 60 there, but there are too many side roads feeding in and not much room to stop at the bottom. guadalupe going west is not as steep, but still pretty fast.

I've never really thought about making speed runs here but this is going to make it a little more interesting.;)

I got a shimmy at 58mph while in a sweeping turn and bearing down on the back of a pickup truck. That is not a situation I wish to re-live.

today I went out for a high speed run at lunch...the conditions were a bit windy. if the conditions permitted, I would make a run at it. I took my ems kestrel out, 53x11 should be enough. after the climb, I came down to the entrance of the park and saw another cyclist...I took my time as the wind was pretty strong, after passing the other cyclist I cranked the bike up to 42 and gravity took over. at 45 the handling was all over the place, grabbed the brakes and brought it down to 35...too windy...will try again tomorrow.