"Wtf use would offroad experience offer in terms of descending on the contact patch akin to the edge of a 50p piece at 50mph?"

Depends where you are on the hill, but your get a surprising amount of grip as the tyres get very grippy from heating up under braking.

I only start hanging on above 55mph on a road bike, its not that scary, but I guess it just depends how much you like speed.

I was impressed by the other guys in the group bunny hopping that roundabout kerb doing 40mph+.

Don't forget they'd being going downhill for a while and he'd just cycled 100+ miles that day (plus 2000 other miles), so the guys gonna be knackered, tired arms/hands.

Hope he gets better anyway.

FunkyDunc off road experience is **** all help on fast alpine descents, but then as you "only start hanging on above 55mph" you would know that right? 55mph is offically **** fast in my book and I have done a fair amount of road riding.

I read something about "head trauma" for jens today, i wonder if thats linked to that idea that was mentioned in a thread the other day, about the helmets that have two shells allowing the inner one to slide around?

'55mph' hahaha, whateva treva!
i find the bike handling skills i practice off road are useful on a road ride-pushing the bike through the corners and head up observations are all useful tools.
but watching the riders descend yesterday, i was pretty amazed by the fluidity of their control-it made me want to ride more

Some of those guys are so incompetent at descending – almost as bad as Cav is at climbing 😉