Troul 

Recently I've encountered a few areas along different riding routes that contain Disgruntled Feathered Creatures. Those areas descend, making 30+ MPH easily achievable. Just as I am breaking 30MPH, a DFC goes for the rear of the neck/upper shoulder. The things try for a chomp midflight every time!
It has not had any impact regarding stability/safety as the surface conditions are fairly decent & it's a secluded route, but for someone "new" in the area, it might have some impact so ymmv. If anything, it increases the adrenaline a hair & helps!

I'd like to say they are Robins, but any DFC flying in the surrounding area are black black/grey & slightly anorexic looking.
Never had that experience along those routes of the many times riding thru the area. Been wanting to ask others that use the routes if they've encountered a DFC. Maybe they like the smell of my shampoo? I think it contains some sorta herbal floral in it, idk, it was on sale.
I've been looking into who of the State to contact to address the matter. So far it's been a continuous round-a-bout.

Troul 

That might be hard to find help with as the greater population tends to be against such goal. So many more freds, karens, & darrens that I tend to wonder how bubble wrapped khaki's don't exist yet.

terrymorse 

Nesting birds will attack you until you’re safely away from their nest.

I got buzzed by a mother eagle once from behind, just missed my helmet with talons deployed.

genejockey 

I agree with finding a descent you can get familiar with and doing it repeatedly. There's one here that I do whenever I climb, it's about 3 miles with 6% gradient. The lanes are wide, the surface is mostly good, most of the turns are sweepers, with only one or two well-marked hairpins. Because it's a TERRIBLE road to climb - too much uphill traffic - almost nobody ever climbs it, which means the cars on the opposite side all STAY on the opposite side, and you don't have to worry about taking up the entire lane. and because it's pretty twisty for a car, you're mostly going about the same speed as cars go, so you don't get them lining up behind you.

Checking my most recent descent, I averaged 27 mph down it, with a max of 32. That's even with my wussy descending, where I actually yell at myself to let off the brakes. One thing I've noticed is that the bike feel unsteady in a turn is almost invariably my own failure to commit, not really putting my weight onto the outside pedal and the inside handlebar, and if I do, the bike stabilizes and I carve the corner. So, descents for me turn out to be a battle with myself.

rosefarts

You didn’t say whether this is on a mountain bike, road, or gravel. Each has different kinds of strategies to go fast.

You mentioned your career. You’ve likely seen some nasty stuff, probably had to clean someone’s brains off your shoes and a myriad of other terrible things. Having seen those things, you’ll never be able to push it as hard as those who don’t regularly see the fragility of humans at speed.

You probably aren’t racing. Finishing a ride a couple minutes later and safer seems pretty worth it. Get really good at climbing.

afm199

The best tip I could mention is to look where you are going, not where the scenery is, and not immediately in front of you.

If you are coming up to a left hand turn, get your head and eyes UP, and look at the entire turn, and through it. That gives you time to adjust, anticipate and act, that is, time to be proactive rather than reactive.

If you look twenty feet in front of yourself, you have just that much space to act. If you look 300 feet in front of yourself, you have that much more space, and time, to act.

genejockey 

The other thing this helps with is not focusing on that patch of broken pavement you don't want to go through - and because you're focused on it you go right through it. Instead you look ahead and plan your line avoiding, thinking where you want to go instead of where you DON'T want to go.

afm199

Absolutely. You look where you want to go. If you want to hit that tree, look at it. If you want to hit that pothole, look at it.

genejockey 

Though, to be honest, almost every pothole I've ever hit was one I did NOT see.

livedarklions

This.

Whatever target fixation is, I appear to be immune to it. Two times I've wiped out on hills, one was in SF where the street repairs didn't bother to raise the manhole cover back up to the surface of the repaved road. Turns out that it's actually hard to discern the level of a black manhole cover in a blacktop road from higher in the slope going 30+ mph. I flew over the handlebars and somehow actually landed on grass in a crowded city. The other time was when I discovered that whatever it was the state of Massachusetts was using to patch blacktop can cause your wheel to go out sideways from under you at speed. I got some road rash from that. Those patches are actually hard to discern at anything other than a short distance, so I'm not agreeing entirely with this don't watch the road immediately ahead of you. I actually scan between close and distant to be sure I haven't missed anything when I decided my line.

CliffordK

I think I was far more daring 40 years ago.

However, I have several "rules" for my riding.

Straight shots with good visibility... I generally just "let it fly".
Switch backs, and I'm creeping.
If I can't see around a corner, I like to really slow down.

Even if one is going down a hill that one is familiar with, conditions change.

And, keep in mind, if it isn't a closed race circuit, you can use one full lane, but you can't cross over into oncoming traffic.

Iride01 

While I agree mostly with genejockey , I've had friends that were just the opposite. When I was a teen, one if one of my friends saw some type of hazard in the road, pot hole, bottle, muffler, etc and tried to miss it, then it was pretty much a certainty that he would hit it. This was no matter bike, car or any vehicle he was in control of.

Wonder what ever happened to him.... last I heard he was working for NASA.

Pratt

Here, in Northern New England, the downhills are a chance for me to recover. I like to prolong them. When riding my bike with the dynamo hub, longer, above its max charging speed, means more juice back in the battery pack.
Your point about the consequences of a crash answers your question. People also get used to speed and build up a tolerance, especially on a well known descent with good pavement.

Troul 

tried to not hit it & always ended up hitting it? Impaired depth perception?

zilauk

I've heard that there are some e-bikes that can break when you descent. I do not know how they are called, but it may help you

bruce19

I can't say what will work for you but these are some things that I consider when descending. Do I have a good line of sight? Do I know the road? What is the racer's line (if there are corners)? And, of course, who is around me? Having said all that, I am still not that interesting in riding "balls to the wall." My fastest descending speed was 53 mph. That was many years ago. I'm not all that hot to repeat it.

bruce19

Target fixation. Look where you want to go.

DaveSSS 

I have numerous descents where I can hit 50 mph. My fastest is 56 mph. Always know your road conditions. Learn how to steer your bike.

genejockey 

THAT'S the term I was trying to remember!!! Don't stare at what you don't want to hit. Look at the path around it.

chaadster

My tip to the OP is to have good quality equipment in good repair; it is confidence inspiring.

That came into sharp focus for me after undertaking a harrowing descent on a low-quality, rental bike. The tires didn’t feel good or grippy, and the brakes required a lot of effort and still did not stop well. Looking at the Strava after the ride, I was surprised at how slow it was, because it felt like I was pushing it to edge. I probably was, and it was just that the bicycle’s capabilities were so low.

Having confidence in your equipment will give you confidence to descend quickly.