goatmeal

Starts off I wake up early, around 5:40.

I get on my bike 15 min earlier than usual, and arrive to work 20 min earlier than usual.
Hit all the lights, fast the entire time.

Worked till 6:00 not a problem at work, which isn't normal.

Get back on the bike around 6:15, see some skinny tall guy riding his uber-expensive carbon/dura-sti bike about 100 yards in front of me. Spandex, and gears, I hear his bike shifting as he notices my approach. I pass that poor sap like he was standing still, probably doing 30 (I tend to kick it up when I have something/one to ride against). End up riding the rest of the way without him catching up, yeah that was good.

Get on a busy road, part of my daily commute and not the good part.
Passing by probably the busiest liquor store in Minneapolis (Chi-Lake to those in the know) a cadillac tries to cut me off, honking as to presume I shouldn't be there in the first place. To clarify, the Caddy was parked, and started to merge into traffic, hip-hop blaring, before they noticed a cyclist who happened to be in thier way. Instead of yield to this simpleton, I just kicked it into overdrive, probably going over 35, leaving that cadillac in the dust, shouting obsenities the entire time. Two block later, at a stop light, the caddy which still hadn't caught up to me, has to stop, where I didn't. I would like to say the car never caught up to me, but they did about 1.5 miles down the road, which didn't really make me feel too bad, my point still was made.

Make every light on the way back, and finish my commute 7 min earlier than normal.

Just one of those days that makes me feel good to be a rider instead of a driver. In the same vein, days like today make me never want to get my license (26yo so far). There is no way you could get make the 6.5 mile commute of mine in the 22 min it took me today, that is if you were in a car...

ultra-g

Damn, you can get up 35mph?

Makes me feel like a snail. How much do you weigh?

jfmckenna

35? thats what I was thinkin?

The secret to making all the lights is really having nothing to do, you know what I mean.

goatmeal

I weigh 185, I am in decently good shape, and have a mid gear ratio 44/16. My cadence is really high, I usually spin around 90 just cruising around and 150 or so when I am punching it REALLY hard, granted I cannot keep this up to long, but I do have some sprint in me. I wouldn't be surprised if you could hit similarly though, 35 really isn't THAT fast for a top end... Of course I don't have a computer anymore, but when I did I could hit 35 without a problem, that is if someone was trying to cut me off, or there was heavy traffic.

Anyone else ride faster in heavy traffic situations, I think it is the adrenaline kicking in.

Phil

goatmeal

I should add that this was slightly downhill which did help (doesn't it always?)

Phil

bbaker22

I've managed 33mph downhill on my fixie w/ a 44x16 combo. That works out to ~153rpm and
I feel right on the verge of being outta control. Crazy crazy spinning at that speed.

For calculating rpm's w/ a known gearing combo and speed, I use this cool GearCalc Pro program:

https://www.xsystems.co.uk/machinehead/gearpro.html

baker