Fastest Speeds

[Tim Hall]

75kmh^-1 on the tandem somewhere in the Cotswolds.

The same tandem achieved a slightly lower speed coming off the shallow side of Coombe Bottom, near Gomshall.

Then the coefficient of friction between the tyre and the road was overcome by the reactive force needed to take the left hand bend and I slid down the road on my arse.

There's a knob jockey on urc at the moment who claims "The majority of cyclists have no trouble regularly exceeding 60mph on a long downhill.  I have no fear of exceeding 65mph."

The words "yeah" and "right" spring to mind.

[Really Ancien]

There are very few hills where I can test my nerve, usually it's a case of having to limit acceleration so you can get round a corner or stop at a junction or because the surface is poor. The only time I went down a hill where the only limiting factor was my fear I hit 54 mph before I braked and that was on the road coming down from the Cairgorm Chairlift.

Damon.

[Bledlow]

82 km/h last September, on Britwell Hill

[valkyrie]

90kmh, on the descent South from Glenshee.

[Zipperhead]

41.57 mph on the hill down to the golf course in Wimbledon Park. The road had just been resurfaced so was one of the few good roads in my area.

Which road, Home Park Road or Church Road? I might just be tempted to take the tandem out for a little play.

[PaulF]

41.57 mph on the hill down to the golf course in Wimbledon Park. The road had just been resurfaced so was one of the few good roads in my area.

Which road, Home Park Road or Church Road? I might just be tempted to take the tandem out for a little play.

Home Park Road. Church Road's more suitable for a MTB Just be careful for the motorcycle instruction class that always seems to practice U-turns there.

[Wendy]

Knowing how fast 'bents are on good downhills, and knowing my own speeds relative to others on the forum here, I'm convinced there are "inflated" figures here.  Excuse my scepticism.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Cracked 100 km coming down to Landsborough from Maleny on the tandem.  It would have been faster but the speed limit is 80 kph and uphill traffic limited the amount of overtaking.  I've found it difficult to get much over 90 kph on the single.

[IanDG]

87kph descending to Aird Ashaig, Isle of Lewis

[Fixedwheelnut]

  I reckon you could get that on the flat with that Lewis wind behind you 

[Jaded]

You can. I know. 



 

[inc]

Knowing how fast 'bents are on good downhills,

And there is the problem, getting those mechanical marvels up the hills first, I don't recall seeing any on my numerous trips to the Alps 

[Wendy]

Ah, but is that really relevant to downhill speed or to my point that there's a lot of bollocks being posted in this topic?

[Greenbank]

Ah, but is that really relevant to downhill speed or to my point that there's a lot of bollocks being posted in this topic?

I can't see any difference to any other topic on this forum.

[Wendy]

Ah, but is that really relevant to downhill speed or to my point that there's a lot of bollocks being posted in this topic?

I can't see any difference to any other topic on this forum.

   Quality!

[inc]

Ah, but is that really relevant to downhill speed or to my point that there's a lot of bollocks being posted in this topic?

Of course it is relevant, if you can't get up big hill mountains how can you come down them insanely fast. 

If you don't believe what people post fair enough but why do you feel the need to point this out in this thread there are plenty of bollocks in other threads, some even with photos 

[rogerzilla]

Knowing how fast 'bents are on good downhills, and knowing my own speeds relative to others on the forum here, I'm convinced there are "inflated" figures here.  Excuse my scepticism.

Properly calibrated computer  (gave 10.00 miles over the entire club "10" course, so accurate to within 0.1%).  There is a huge difference in people's descending abilities, and amateurs are often better than pro cyclists in this respect - the pros rarely bother going for it down the mountains, because that's not where the race is usually won and it's a risk they're not prepared to take.

An upright rider in full tuck gives little or nothing away to a 'bent, except a faired one.  You don't have to pedal, so you can put your hands right next to the stem and rest your chin on them, grip the top tube with your knees and have the cranks horizontal.  Snap Hill actually suffers from having a couple of bends in it, so you have to hang onto the drops and cover the brakes.

[Gus]

20 kilos extra weight on the body does give an advantage on the down hill too. 

[Biggsy]

55 mph behind a lorry on the North Circular Road.  Never again!

[Mr Larrington]

Knowing how fast 'bents are on good downhills,

And there is the problem, getting those mechanical marvels up the hills first, I don't recall seeing any on my numerous trips to the Alps 

[ChrisO]

That sign is so obviously photoshopped.

 

And how do we know they aren't 1950's style racing cars, hmmm ?

Seriously I don't see what is so unbelievable - most of the speeds are in the 90s in km/h. And the mountain I got up to 87 km/h was not of Alpine proportions so another 5-10km/h is perfectly possible.

[Mr Larrington]

That sign is so obviously photoshopped.

 

And how do we know they aren't 1950's style racing cars, hmmm ?

Page 25

[TimO]

The fastest I've done is around 45mph, going down the Cirencester Road into Cheltenham.  At that time, maximum reading cycle computers weren't common, so I only got the speed by looking at the reading whilst doing it, which is not recommended!  That was also on a tourer, so the limit on speed was largely due to the fact that I couldn't put any more force into the pedals, as I was turning them as fast as I could on something like 48x12 (28/38/48 triple, and 12-24 6-speed block iirc).

That hill was relatively long, straight, and has no turnings or junctions for a while, so you can (more or less) safely get quite a speed up.  Mostly I don't dare do these sort of speeds, since some idiot at a junction, who doesn't believe cyclists go faster than 15mph, may try and pull out in front of you.

I managed 28.6 mph on the flat, with straight handlebars last week, going along Queenstown Road, but that doesn't have quite as many contour lines as Cirencester Road (it's damned near flat).

[Adam]

To put things in perspective a bit, this morning on my commute I was doing 27 mph on the flat, without really pushing hard. 

Coming home tonight, heading into the wind, on the same exposed stretch, I managed 7.7 mph. 

[mark]

57 mph leaving Death Valley via Towne Pass. What made it extra scary was the length of time spent over 50 mph, approaching the first hairpin.