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I mean on a bike computer, even if momentarily.
Mine is 76 km/h on a road bike, brakes off, zipping down a hill in Monmouthshire where the cattle grids loom into focus pretty rapidly!
What you got?
I was thinking about this last night for some reason.
When I was about 15, back in the 90s, I clocked 45ish mph on my hardtail, cycling down from the stiperstones in Shropshire. Cutting corners, going on the wrong side of the road, you name it.
One of those things that as a teenager you just don't have any conception of how reckless and stupid you're being!
61mph/98kph.
I aiming for 100 and got close. Then had a bit of a wobble the next time and realised it was going to be whole world of pain if it went wrong at that speed. Pork hill coming off dartmoor into Tavistock.
Rarely go above 45mph now.
54 mph or 87 kph. Heading down slack hill on the road bike in the White Peak. Nice wide straight road with a corresponding up the other side, so fairly safe. That was 8 years ago when I did a 75 mile ride at an average speed of 15.4 mph. I'd struggle to ride 75 miles now, let alone at that pace.
84.4kph, descending into Clonmel in Co Waterford on the tandem. With a trailer on the back while touring around Ireland. I admire the Stoker's incredible nerve, for not screaming at me to slow down...
jeez some of these speeds are trouser stiffening! I thought 37mph was fast enough in my youth
there is no chance now i'm older, going super fast scares the bejeezus out of me!
Strava says 91.8kph coming off the south side of glenshee.
My deep section wheels on the propel prohibit me from more than 85koh. Anytime I do things get squirmy.
55mph on a road bike down the appropriately named 'Long hill' down into Shepton Mallet. Verified by Mrs Officer who was in a car behind me. Speed wobble at that pace is significantly puckering.
About 100 kmh in North Wales descending into Betsw y coed in the 90's when on a club run. Very little wind and we just flew down the descent. Tend not to do much more than 60 kph these days, I don't bounce as well.
60 ish MPH - speedo reading over 60. Tandem down a long hill
This sounds quite feeble after some of the speeds here but a few years ago I clipped 42 mph going through Hutton-le-Hole on my fully knobbly MTB and that was a tad scary..
62mph (99k)
Heavily loaded, 14% gradient, howling tailwind 30mph+
I quite noticeably slowed down, checked the cateye and i was still doing 55mph, which was quite surreal.
Fastest verified is 42mph.
Hit 52mph descending during the Tyne Vags mountain TT. Doing it on Tri-bars steering with your elbows adds a certain je ne sais quoi
<p>Over 60 mph down in to Otley</p>
Somewhere around 50mph on the hardtail, on the appropriately-named 50mph Road above Edale. I couldn't check the bar computer at the time, as my eyes were streaming. Either on a trailquest, or doing the Off Road Tour of The Peak around 1998. But I seem to recall the 'max' figure confirming it afterwards.
We hit similar on the road tandem coming down the Ironbridge bypass one time too; it didn't have a drag brake, so Mrs Lawman had little choice in the matter.
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This was on my road bike off a hill on the outskirts of Bath. This was scary enough not to want to go that fast again. Anywhere near 40mm and I’m done now - the consequences of sliding down the road in Lycra don’t bear thinking about.
Very slightly disappointed it wasn’t quite 50mph though.
53mph before I bottled it I think, long road descent in the peaks (forget where, but used for the Peak District Pioneer, mostly, off road sportive in 2017?) that had a really steep bit at the end.
Full sus MTB with XC race tyres. Aero tucked and everything.
Stopped recording not long after that.
No idea properly off road, but reckon nudging 40 on some French alpine/Canadian fire roads
82 kph on my 29er hardtail on an event in the Yorkshire dales. The same event where I lost the lining on one of my brake pads so was running on a spare! It did go through my mind as I slowed for the bottom of the hill!
I was actually thinking of posting something along these lines today. Not because of any particular feats of my own but we've just got back from a family trip to Hebden Bridge and we were on our way home down Halifax Road from the top of Cragg Vale when I spotted a roadie doing his damnedest to catch me so I eased off a little until he got in my draft and then gently increased to about 60 and possibly a little beyond... He stayed with me until the 40mph speed limit kicked in near the bottom at which point he shot past me.
When we got to the bottom in littleborough he was waiting for me at the junction with a massive grin on his face. We gave each other a thumbs up and went our separate ways 🙂
38.6 mph at Dyfi the other weekend. I was fully shitting myself.
Any Strava users interestedin findingout their top speed can use this tool:
https://github.com/fokkedekker/strava_max_speed
(there might be other ways but I'm learning python just now so liked the look of this)
Just waiting for my strava archive now.
As a roadie I’ve done quite a lot of fast alpine descents, have been over 100kph.
Also the road down towards Betwsy Coed, not the busy side. Pretty much straight road for 8 miles. Haven’t quite hit 60 on that one as the wind can be tricky. Many moons ago riding it I had no choice but to do 50mph, old fashioned carbon rims that were a lottery if they slowed down the bike or not.
South side of glenshee again here, 55.3 mph according to Strava. Not sure that’s my fastest ever, but felt up there. Had a wee vision of what would happen if I came off at that speed and backed off…I’ve come off going slower on a motorbike in leathers and that wasn’t fun, so in lycra it would be horrendous.
According to mrs_oab I was pulling away on my mountain bike as she followed in the car down Cairngorm ski road at 45mph....
47mph on my Raleigh Maverick in 1999 or so.
Measured on the speedometer of my mate's mum's Vauxhall Nova that we were using as a pacing/windbreak with the tailgate tied open with a bit of rope.
I could pretty much have read the car speedo from my bike if I hadn't been so scared.
#bestslipstreamevah
49.1 mph on my road bike somewhere on the Dartmoor Classic several years ago. I remember being a bit surprised as it didn't feel all that fast compared to other times that felt like warp speed.
Round where I live in the Midlands top speed on a ride these days is usually 40-ish though, combination of roads and being a bit older and wiser I suppose!
50 mph on a recumbent, coming down Beacon Hill towards Fleet in Hampshire. It was my temporary commute so did it a couple of times. Because of the MTB triple up front I couldn't pedal up to that speed, maxed out about 40 then tuck down into the seat. Overtook a car once. 👌
47mph on the A469 Thornhill road (south of Caerphilly mountain) from the Travellers Rest pub towards Cardiff on a Spesh Hardrock back in the day (so about 1991). Two of my mates (Spud and Dibs where are you both now?) were going faster and headed off into the distance after I started to consider my own mortality about halfway down the hill.
First time using a cateye cycle computer so I was either truly awesome/stupid when younger or, more likely, I didn't manage to do the wheel diameter setup properly. It did feel really rather flippin' fast though.
Best since then with a decent Garmin, my road bike and a strong desire to live is about 45mph.
50+ mph off Cairngorm (IIRC it was 86 km/h and I can't be arsed converting). The two problems are (a) the crosswind on that first, sweeping right-hander and (b) the various bumps and lumps on the section after the Sugar Bowl.
53.1 with the wind behind me down a steep hill, didn’t think much of it at the time but now shudder at the thought of hitting a chip sealed road wearing nothing but Lycra shorts, Oakleys and a t-shirt (no helmet of course)
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Around 70kph I think coming down Arthur's Pass in New Zealand. Panniers fell off when I hit a bump and I had to walk a long way back to find them.
The same day I set my mileage record in one day too which was 190km. Tailwind and 1000m drop in elevation helped somewhat!
I just had a look through VeloViewer (very handy for looking at these statistics). I have 85 km/h coming off the North side of the Lecht and the KOM for that segment is 90.4 km/h 🙂
I also have a recorded 81.7 km/h on Skye. That was during a Skye Sportive and as someone who was really a MTBer at the time, I remember thinking "why are all these roadies braking" 🙂
Can’t recall the exact figure but just shy of 50mph coming down from Avoriaz. I suspect on the straight open bit under the chairlift. The reward of dragging 90kgs up the Joux Verte.
45mph. Now I’m getting older, I bottle it anywhere near 35
When I was younger and at colleges I hit 50mph on a hill near Sidmouth. The following week I bailed off a longboard on the same hill at just under 30mph and knocked myself out for 5 minutes, broke the calcaneous (heel bone) and took off most of the skin on my back and arse. Pisspot helmet probably saved my life.
Obviously being about 21 we went to the pub (The Mermaid in Sidmouth) later that day to drink away the pain in my heel, skin and head (I wasn’t the smartest back then and we laughed in the face of things like head injuries - how naive). I think that was my 3rd concussion in what my wife and I believe is a total of about 12.
58mph at Ride London one year. That’s fast enough for me, particularly as I use deep section carbon rims and rim brakes…
The only high speeds I can find by traipsing back through Strava, that definitely aren’t gps error are a segment on the Mega Track near Huez (chasing cars). Repeated overall segment times of around 30mph with the highest being 32mph.
I’m sure years ago I remember seeing 50ish somewhere there.
Not sure I have the will power to find my best peak speed or trawl through road rides.
79.6kmh on my old Cotic BFe descending Divis just outside Belfast, the brakes were cooking at the bottom!
I just had a look through VeloViewer (very handy for looking at these statistics).
Does that only work if you have a paid for strava? I couldn’t work it out.
Two guys once pulled alongside to tell me I was hitting around 48mph, that was back in my twenties when I had XT v-brakes and Tioga factory tyres on.
49.something mph round the corner at the bottom of newlands corner heading towards clandon crossroads. also in the 90’s
i also overtook an allegro on my friend’s lowpro. that was both hilarious and dangerous. but mostly hilarious
I don't pay for Strava. I do pay for VeloViewer.
Same as, I’ll try to work it out
About 70kph dropping from ranmore towards Dorking. I say about because somehow my Garmin bounced off and down the road so I only have the memory of looking at the number in real time.
I stopped and turned as soon as I could and the raced back up the hill hoping it had survived and wasn't in £300 of bits under someone's wheels.
I probably averaged about 40kph on the climb..... unverified too because I didn't have the computer to record it! You'll just have take my word 😉