carpediemracing 

I come away from 40-45 mph descents full of curves and swoops and stuff with huge grins, laughs, and I'm all giggly. After 50-55 mph descents I think I probably look a bit more severe, i.e. less than bubbling happy. 60-65 mph I look desperate because I'm so far behind (Fitchburg RR, where I basically got lapped). I rarely hit 55 mph now, I don't know why. Over 55 mph I get into "roller coaster" mode, i.e. I'm not very comfortable anymore.

I voted 40 mph since I love going 40-45 mph.

I've crashed at approx 50 mph before I understood about head injuries and that helmets were necessary and all that.
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...rash-ever.html

I've sustained 60 mph in Hurricane George (going out was a pain, coming back it was much easier, 50 mph winds with 80 mph gusts). This was on a flat road after some causeway bridge and I kept pedaling until I exploded. Dual Specialized Trispokes (HED3), 54x11, spinning my brains out.

cdr

Nachoman

Downhill on a nice smooth road, no wind, no obstacles, good conditions, I hover around 40 mph. Otherwise 35 is always very doable.

zac

Well it kinda goes like this: "Damn what happened...hmmm....nothings happening...hmmm...Im still in the air...hmmm...oh $hit this is gonna fn hurt...hmmm...(starting to tense up now, which isn't good)...damn, Im head down, I wonder what Im gonna hit...hmmm....this is gonna fn hurt alot...(impact)(lights out, crash, tumble, slide for about 100 yards, finally come to a stop), still conscious, I feel okay, nothing seems to be broken, face is still full of snow, oh, blood on the snow...You okay? Yeah, I think so...

That was the end of that season; xrays were negative, but ribs took a solid season and a half to get back to normal. Huge egg on the side of my face, and a real bloody nose...spectacular crash from what I was told, somehow lost my outside ski coming out of the final S turn. My wife was pissed, my two boys thought it was awesome...they had never seen the old man crash so hard on skis.

zac

waterrockets 

I was thinking about this thread on my lunch ride today. The thing is that the comfortable speed really changes with the arc you're in. I'm fine well over 55mph on a straight section. In a curvy descent today, I was banked over pretty hard at 48mph, hitting some washboard, and thinking: "yeah, this is my limit on this curve."

waterrockets 

17 years of this nonsense, and not even one problem. At least one stranger vehicle draft per week.

Snow_canuck

60 KM/h. Convert that!!

Snow_canuck

waterrockets can go 90 KM/h in his sleep.

humboldt'sroads

Picked 40. I enjoy breaking 50 (done this only 2-3 times), but its the same kind of sick satisfaction that comes with hucking off a 30+ foot cliff with a blind landing on a snowboard...not so much "whee this is fun..." but more, "holy $h!t, this is about to go down, can't puss out now!" Picked 40 though since it's within the comfort zone.

collegeskier

Couple of years ago I hit a lip skiing at about 50mph, that freaked me out as my left ski/leg decided to fly more then the rest. I got my right down and tried (successfully) to get my left down. And just kept thinking how much this was going to hurt. Thankfully it did not. But I really was glad I could scrub off speed and stop right after that.

Although somehow crashing on snow seems so much more appealing to me. (Maybe appealing is the wrong word, it freaks me out less.)

collegeskier

Supposedly crashing at higher speed is not comparatively worse. You fall at 15 mph you have a tendency to come to stop suddenly (bad). At high speed you take off a lot more skin but you do that as you slide along that means you don't break stuff as much. Also falling on hills is good for you because the hill falls with you. That said wheels down is the way to go, and I will just take peoples word on these things.