Love the use of kph to sound faster 😉 and further
A friend was attempting to set off the traffic speed reader sign into red figures, not sure if it was set to turn red at 30mph or 40mph. He was doing it by manualling his BMX down the hill.
Love the use of kph to sound faster 😉 and further
Nha it's just the unit that cycling uses as oppose to little Britain.
51mph on 23m tyres at 115psi dropping down in to Blanchland, couldn't see a thing with the vibrations!
42mph according to the speedo on my Stumpie M2 on the fireroads in Thrunton woods. Again couldn't see much and the v-brakes made major fade trying to stop for the gate at the bottom.
I've matched that 51mph on the road a few times, so much nicer when you can see things
56mph coming down here...
https://www.strava.com/segments/1623320
Recorded on my old Cateye computer pre-Garmin days, Strava has it a bit slower at 52, either way not good when you start thinking about a squirrel/pheasant running out...
Same as lots of others, 50+ down a Welsh road in a sportive back in the early noughties as measured on a old wired cat-eye. I've no idea how accurate those things are/were. Felt pretty fast though, and felt every surface change on the road, and had to brake very gently to begin with as I was absolutely sure I was going to burst a tyre.
Saw 64mph on the same sort of old Cateye on a bloke having a beer in Bar Robbo in Morzine once, he'd come down from Avoriaz on one of those old root beer coloured Enduros, and was showing it to everyone
54mph when I was 15 or 16 in the 90's, descending from Ribblehead down to Hawes on a newly resurfaced road. I remember at one point riding one handed eating a Mars bar.. I get a bit twitchy at anything over 30 these days!
Somewhere over 50mph descending from morzine, was super paranoid about my carbon rims exploding or the odd massive pothole
Was being overtaken by nutters wearing bandannas. I presume locals who know the roads!
Coming down Holme moss to Woodhead many years ago as a daft teen overtaking a couple sight seeing. Speedo rear a midge over 50mph un be knowns to me the car behind was of the police type who has a few words to say to me when I got to the main A628 junction.
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GPS is clearly very bad at recording top speed accurately. If I sort my activities by max speed on Veloviewer I have 11 which have over 100km/h top speed which is clearly nonsense (one of them was a walk!).
All the activities which I have looked at that have top speeds in the 80's (there are loads) it seems to be just a momentary spike, so not a real top speed either.
I remember doing 50mph down the Coal Road (Dent to Garsdale) as recorded by my Cateye Cordless II back in about 1999 which felt pretty quick on a knobby tyred hardtail!
I hit 81kph descending the mountain road into Machynlleth last Saturday. Fastest ever was 90kph in the Black Forest.
Regularly hit 50mph + on our road tandem & surprise the shit out of people when we overtake them off-road on our other tandem.
The drop down Coldean Lane during the L2B when the road is closed is good for terminal velocity. And some other steep drops elsewhere on the downs do pretty well too.
Had a look on Veloviewer to see which bike is the fastest:
Salomon Speed Cross3 - 108.4 - living up to their name - with GPS
Brompton - 87.8 - an urban GPS anomaly surely
98 Rockhopper - 86 - dropping down from Balmer to the 27 on a concrete track - felt quick - but that quick? with GPS
Columbus tubed Spesh Allez - 85.3- speed sensor
Epic Evo - 79 - going down the steep bit of Devils Dyke - felt about right - w GPS - not a spike
Orro Parts Bin Special - 70.9 - down the beacon road for brief period - w GPS
Cannondale Hire bike - 77 - Lanzarote - w GPS
Spesh Epic05 - 67.7- that could be right - Coldean lane - Pre GPS
As a 15 year old in Thurrock on my Univega I got stopped by a cop with a radar gun (do they even do that anymore?) hidden at the bottom of a hill. He showed me 39 on the display. I expected a bollocking. He told me to do it again and hit 40... It was a 30 zone.
Rising London - Munich with a slicked up hardtail and Bob trailer I hit 85kmh somewhere in the Black Forest. Trailer got a bit of a wobble on at around 60,but it settled. Remember worrying about breaking at the bottom across a bridge into town thinking my tyres might explode with the heat in the rims....
Guiding in the alps I often rode a long fire road descent from Pfitscherjoch if the guests weren't that technically proficient to ride the singletrail down. Often hit 75-80kmh there on my old Dialled Alpine.
Whilst working as mtb guide on Gran Canaria we occasionally took a road bike each from the shop and shuttled up in the van with trailer to the top after work. Followed one of the roadie guides, Matthias, down a long descent somewhere... 16km with long clear views of oncoming traffic and relatively straight. I hit 113kmh. Some other lads 120.... Matthias' Bike Tacho read 138kmh....!
He used to ride that descent 4/5 times a week.
68 mph, coming down Fleet Moss (I have the KOM)
Mine was about 43mph (IIRC) coming down Greenhow Hill near Pately Bridge.
46mph off road with no chain on a MNPR on pendle hill. With my hand taped to the bar....
@binners can validate too
A33 about 18 years ago, speedo indicated 320kph...
Oh ... pedal bike... dunno... i bet it's no more than 40mph.
46mph, seems to be my terminal velocity on a push-bike. Avoriaz to Morzine road. It always suprises me how long it takes to slow down from that sort of speed, even with 4 pot DH brakes.
And for me it's a recorded 114kph on the roadie on a descent near Benidorm, 112 kph on Majorca and an unverified 120+ as i passed someone who didn't know the road, i've no idea why they were doing 120 AND looking at their speedo on a road they didn't know.
Probably got 50 or 60 incidences of 100+ through various races and training camps.
About 95kph on the MTB though on a trail near Greenhow. Though my teeth were being so vigorously rattled it could have been anywhere between 70 and 120 kph.
Mostly maintained for 20-30 seconds, so not spikes
A33 about 18 years ago, speedo indicated 320kph…
A data logged 300+kph in a pre prod prototype.
56 mph in New Zealand verified by 4WD I overtook that had uplifted me up fire roads. Scary speed wobbles made me slow down.
Sorting by Max Speed on VeloViewer the most believable is a 51.2mph (on the 2018 L2B)
There's also a 57.7mph that I reckon is a bit tenuous; there is a descent on the route that I could have absolutely sprinted down to hit that speed, but I don't reckon I would have, there's a couple of blind bends and typically loose some gravel, plus lots of driveways/junctions for cars to pull out into me if I was hauling like that.
I also have a 239mph on record that is clearly a GPS glitch (2014), and a 102.7mph on my fixed bike (2013) that I certainly don't remember. pretty sure those were recorded using a phone so early-ish Phone GPS numbers really can't be trusted (IMO)...
When snake pass was closed for 2 weeks a few years back, strava told me I hit 55mph on the descent to glossop. I remember was with another guy and wanted try and squeeze past him but didn’t feel safe to overtake, even using both sides of the road
48mph on a rough rubble access track in the Alps in 2004. 5 inch bombers up front, 6 inches of single pivot out back. Span out near the top and just tucked in. I was a bit more blase about my survival back then. Measured with a calibrated oldschool reed-relay based computer and a handlbar mounted GPS, both agreed within 0.2mph.
59mph tucked behind a transit van coming down a long hill. If he'd had to brake quickly I would have been toast; I could probably have reached out and opened the back doors I was that close at one point.
Pretty stupid now I look back on it!
50mph here basically - regularly touch it coming down Dundry Hill towards Chew, but had a long long long time to think about it coming down the Tourmalet. Pretty much every time I looked down GPS said 50, and since I'm paranoid about cooking rims/tyres and just brake hard for corners I always left it there.
Since most of us seem to be quoting 50 or so anything more than that must need extreme weight, gradient and/or power input I assume. Max I've seen on a mate's strava that I believe is 59.5 mph down Ventoux. He's big and strong and was pedalling down 9% average.
52mph down Kop Hill just outside Princes Risborough once. bit dodgy, took the corner quite wide.
57mph on a 90s touring bike laden with panniers, on a descent from Rockies on a silky smooth wide road. Got to 50 and just tucked in, tears streaming across face behind glasses. Really smooth ride as weight spread around front and rear panniers. Still got the bike as recorded max speed and longest day, 180 miles, not on same day.
I wouldn't try it again.
Amazed that anyone can take their eyes off the track/road to look at their GPS while doing high speeds. I'm too busy trying not to overcook the next corner😧
Regularly hit 50mph + on our road tandem & surprise the shit out of people when we overtake them off-road on our other tandem.
^ winner. 😆
55mph on an old Marin Eldrige, one of the grey and orange ones. On road, on knobblies. Silly business, and totally on called for.
Amazed that anyone can take their eyes off the track/road to look at their GPS while doing high speeds. I’m too busy trying not to overcook the next corner😧
Garmin and Strava tell you what your max speed was, along with all the other bumf. I'd prefer max climbing gradient, which is there but fiddly to get. 😀
Just over 50mph on tri bars down a long hill in the Tamar Valley. The hill wasn't finished, but my courage was, and the wobble as I moved back to the handlebars to brake really scared me.
I vowed never to go that speed on a bike again. I never have!
In fact, riding an emtb means I don't feel the need to pick up speed at the bottom of a hill to get as far as I can up the other side. I can be more relaxed coming down, safe in the knowledge the motor will help go back up.
Garmin and Strava tell you what your max speed was, along with all the other bumf. I’d prefer max climbing gradient, which is there but fiddly to get. 😀
Yep, I get that - but quite a few people talking about looking at the speed readout as they descend!
If you like the number crunching, the Elevate add-on to Chrome is good for Strava obsessing. I am interested in how long on a ride I have spent climbling, and that stat is availabe in elevate. And it'll tell you max gradient, but suspect that is as prone to GPS spikes as top speed - I'm pretty sure i didn't go up anything 50% yesterday, other than stairs to bed
Some entertaining and impressive replies.
My (generalised) takeaways are:
1. I have to up my game considerably to rub shoulders with some STWers.
2. Going recklessly fast is a young person’s pastime, which kind of rules me out.
3. Someone probably should write a book of the 100 best (including fastest) road descents in Britain.
4. Metaphorically speaking, tandem riders are the unrecognised well-hung warlords of descending. Who knew?
63mph on road bike, 57 mph on mountain bike. Much faster than that on skis though!
I broke the 100kph barrier on a tandem in Spain. I backed off after that ride as the thought occurred to me that crashing and damaging a medal contending paralympian who was stoking, 4 was out from the London games wouldn't go down well. I was captain sensible after that.
Oh boy do tandems roll well downhill!
54 mph down Maiden Law bank. Pre GPS days so probably not 100% accurate. But I did overtake a moving car.
Someone probably should write a book of the 100 best (including fastest) road descents in Britain.
They definitely shouldn’t.
Gonna Strava my commute tomorrow, see if I can’t crack 50mph. May even put my aero hat on…
My old Garmin recorded one of my rides at about Mach 1 going slightly uphill across a meadow
Only managed about 70kph downhill though
Ooh, that reminds me, I better get a backup to Strava to get an accurate speed…
54mph on Ventoux toward Mallaucene, long straights and immaculate roads.
Disc braked road bike.
I've seen a frankly unbelievable 67km/h on one of the reds at BPW, not sure how accurate the GPS is.
100kph on the descent of the Ventoux, (same as @jkomo). Was about 23 years old. Rim brakes. Wouldn't do it now.
Last time I had a bike computer was in the 90's at school where me and my mates used to do speed runs down Rocky Lane from Godolphin Hill. Fully rigid bikes, tyres hard because we would snakebite around 40mph otherwise, cantis and a blind exit on to a road. My 48-tooth chainring allowed me to take the title with 52mph.
Also used to stoke the shop tandem for pacing the road ride. No idea how fast we went but had no trouble overtaking cars in the 40 through Germoe on the way to Penzance, just a gentle slope. Descents on the same road past the Porthleven turn were equally fast but hard to overtake stuff in national limit on road with more corners.
I managed 57mph down Winnats pass. Same speed as my friend who recorded 60mph, back in the day of non GPS computers. Nearly came a cropper as I had to pass a car coming up the pass on the wrong side of their car! Reached above 50mph on other descents.
These days I'm happy to set the 30 radar smilies to a frowny-face, but there aren't many with a downhill approach 🙂
4. Metaphorically speaking, tandem riders are the unrecognised well-hung warlords of descending. Who knew?
Yeah, i toured a bit on a slicked up MTB tandem in the mid 90s, coming down a long, almost straight mountain pass on a heavily laden tour we were rolling along "at speed" i'm sat bolt upright doin the ol' windbrake thing, girlfriend is on the back taking photos of the view and nattering. Glanced down at the speedo as it ticks over from 59.9 to 60mph. Must have been around 200 kilos total weight (that particular girlfriend and i were both around 60 kilos then).
We're on 1.5" slicks and magura HS33 with no drag brake.
The deceleration to a more sensible pace was long and very careful.
The rims were still far too hot for my liking!
Urgh, left it too late to go for V1 this morning, traffic and self preservation kept me to a pedestrian 33mph, despite being Lycra’d up with added ballast (change of clothes).
Dawn raid tomorrow I feel.
Points for a photo of the speedo as it happens.
when i did the yorkshire cycleway a few years ago i record 47.9 mph on the road down into Hawes. Its a beautiful road with long wide corners and you can see for miles.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it now, particularly not on a laden touring bike.
Ok, looked again at Velo Viewer 54mph on road.
32mph off road.
The off road one being the scariest as it has jumps in it (part of the Mega Qualifying track).
Fairly certain it’s not gps error due to repeated times around 30mph.
There's an interesting mix of those using MPH & KPH and of course those using both. Is the use of MPH for the cough older generation or of a certain political persuasion?
Myself and my wife are Irish and in our mid 50s, I use KPH but she can't get her head around metric.
MPH for me as that’s the units all the road signs are in and the Speed limits are in MPH.
I could use KMH as it isn’t hard to convert but not sure it really matters.
At work I use a mixture of Metric and Imperial. metric is way easier.
There’s an interesting mix of those using MPH & KPH and of course those using both. Is the use of MPH for the cough older generation or of a certain political persuasion?
I guess i'm lucky as i was at school all the way through the change, so loads of my text books were in imperial, lessons were in a mix, and we had all the equipment in both set ups at various points.
So, TBH, you had to be able to switch from lbs and oz to grams in your head, quickly, and many times in a day.
Then i went to work in the aero industry, which is weird as uck in that you have entire sections of the industry (merica) that is imperial, and you have to be able to align, so you've got imperial bolts slotted into precision metric holes. And imperial fasteners completely dimensioned in metric...
then i emigrated, and it's all in metric
I'm 65 this year and primarily use km/h* The only time I think in imperial is when driving a motor vehicle or on longer road
bike tours in the UK. I pretty much swapped over when the OS moved to metric.
* Not kph, obviously!
Not sure but gaining on cars easily somewhere in mid Wales fully loaded but felt stable from previous experience I would say ~ 50 mph. Had the same bike up to ~45 mph unloaded but felt much better / stable / safer loaded, except for braking of course!
On the A470 in Snowdonia heading south between Cross Foxes Inn and Mallwyd there's a steep climb followed by a steep, long and straight descent. I was on a club ride when I used to ride road and the ride leader had a GPS speed (early one so don't know how accurate) of 92kph registered. As he was on the front and a few of us were catching him I probably hit a few kph more! One other guy had a Cateye computer (wheel magnet type) and it only went up to 99 and froze on that for a while.
Off-road I've hit 43 mph (GPS) three times in a row running down the fire road back to the Lindarets lift. Pretty sketchy when you're firing off rocks and despite only jumping a few inches up covering a huge distance before the wheels hit the ground again!
63kph/39mph MTB on road down into Semer Water. Decided not to jump the humpback bridge at the bottom, so slowed down.
56kph/35mph MTB off road, forest track after coming off Urra Moor.
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's cattle grid protocol on a road bike?
84.4kph, descending into Clonmel in Co Waterford on the tandem. With a trailer on the back
Would be cool to have a braked trailer for such situations.
TL;DR Lots of bad GPS data, can't verify max speed. Probably 86.8 km/h with reasonable certainty.
Difficult for me to tell but I was convinced my max speed was ~80 km/h as, BITD (before GPS) I lived on the side of a hill which had a long gradual descent which the transitioned into a short steep section of around 16% and, despite MANY attempts, I never quite cracked 80 km/h on that steep section (as verified by a properly set-up Cateye wired computer).
Up to that point in my life, that was definitely the fastest known speed I was confident I'd done. I'd possibly been a little faster on some of the Lakes, Dales, Welsh or Calderdale rides I'd done but without a speedo or GPS to verify. I also remember hitting a smidge under 80 km/h on my Marin Mount Vision freewheeling down some mountain on Rhodes (the Greek island)
But looking at Veloviewer, I've got tons of rides with a max speed over 80 (topping out at 171!) - now I KNOW I've never seen anything on my Garmin headunit higher than 77 km/h whilst riding (though I guess I wouldn't be looking at the headunit when descending at terminal velocity).
Anyway, that 171 is obviously bollox because (a) it's unrealistic and (b) it was on a commute home from work not down the side of a big hill - and my office is surrounded by tall office buildings so it's obviously bad GPS data.
So, after combining thru some rides which I KNOW had significant descents, and for which I was using a decent Garmin headunit, I'm reasonably confident my verifiable max is 86.8 km/h because it coincided with the steepest section of descent on that ride. That max was very brief though, so I wasn't sat at a high speed for a long time contemplating what road rash would feel like!
75 mph...I'd left the gps turned on when I put the bike on the car roof...
I spent a while chasing 80km/h, lots of 79km/h maximums in Scotland, never saw 80km/h ☹
Felt like I *might* have topped it in the Alps but my wireless Cateye had either just cooked or got too much sweat dripped on it, so I never got to verify it.
Nowadays I find it harder to even get close! Am sure I'm actually slightly more aero than I used to be (lower bars, more awareness, perhaps less aero rims right enough) am DEFINITELY heavier, probably less powerful.
So what's the defining factor, weight and gradient? Or are you spinning a 53x11 to crack 80km/h?
My current ambition is a Strava top ten descending into Dunning, it's a lovely descent, varied gradients, lots of entertaining corners, good surface. Requires a combination of cojones on the corners (of which I don't think I possess the necessary) and power to the pedals on the less steep bits (ditto 🙄)
Edit: top five fastest speeds on Veloviewer are glaring GPS inconsistencies from wilder gravel rides, high 80s and low 90s 😂. First credible max speed of 78.8 is on a steep wee plummet into Bridge of Earn from Glenfarg, on the singlespeed with mudguards and a tiny gear, so unlikely to pedal or aero assisted (and probably still a GPS error 🙄)
There's a hill on South Downs near me where you can touch 60mph/96kmh, which off road isn't too bad. It's straight and on loose dirt/chalk, plus you tend to take off a few times. Certainly gets the adrenaline going and especially if you do it at night.
77kph down Bannerdown in Bath yesterday.
One of the reasons I sacked off road riding was the fact I like to go flat out downhill, and I knew it was only a matter of time until I came unstuck.
54mph off down Newlands Pass, not exactly smooth tarmac 😬
I recall going up Holme Moss too see how fast I could descend. Regularly hitting 50mph and over. I really struggle now on 1 X drivetrains, I need a big tail wind to get high 40s due to the gearing of a 1X.
Or are you spinning a 53×11 to crack 80km/h?
I've 53:11
But I find the secret on glenshee and lecht is to accelerate hard get onto the steep bit stop pedaling and tuck knees into toptube/bring in the elbows.
Pedaling creates more turbulent air round you and you slow down as a result past a certain point.
Even when I've decided to start pedaling to try and break the 100 I've seen my speed slow down as a direct result of starting to pedal.
Went out with the fast-er* roadies last night and got a lesson in how much of a benefit 20years of development has made over shallow alloy rims and chunky round frame tubes. I was struggling to hold 38mph on the descents, all those deep section wheels and fancy frame tubes were coming past soft pedaling despite me having substantially more gravity on my side than some of them!
Is the use of MPH for the cough older generation or of a certain political persuasion?
Either that or they live in the UK were everything** is measured in mph. It's not even like you can argue kmh is an SI unit, it's 0.2777recuring m/s.
*weekend rides 16mph average is considered "steady", and tends to be accurate. Mid week is advertised as "social" (<15mph average) but is also self selecting for people who ride a lot more than just Sundays, so ends up being 17mph+.
**outside of STEM context, although I'm currently working in ft/s because my client is Fred Flintstone.
I can't see an efficient way to find my top speed on free Strava account, albeit I'm normally very cautious on all but wide and straight descents and my road bike is as aero as a brick.
Last year I apparently hit 42.9mph on two rides, including the fun descent I tried for the first time just down the road from Sportsman's Arms to Denbigh.
*weekend rides 16mph average is considered “steady”, and tends to be accurate. Mid week is advertised as “social” (<15mph average) but is also self selecting for people who ride a lot more than just Sundays, so ends up being 17mph+.
Thats your chosen club.
Others exist.
Observation is It tends to be testers clubs that migrate to mph since that's one of the few events that measures in miles
Above 50km/h its more about aero than pedalling. My "road bike" has 40:28 XT crankset on it, so top gear is only 40:11. I still managed to hit 82km/h on the Cairn O Mount south descent and averaged 67.6km/h and that was with a flappy windproof on because it was a cold day.
I topped 51mph on my rigid mtb with 25mm slicks on the road down to Brighton on the London-Brighton charity ride back in 1997
We used to call https://www.strava.com/segments/10130030 the 40mile-an-hour back in the mid 90's when I started riding mtb, because the challenge was to hit 40mph or 64km/h before you hit the brakes at the bottom. This was on fully rigid bikes with 1.8" tyres.
Thats your chosen club.
Others exist.
It was more a comment on how I'd brought a knife to a gun-fight 😂
IME every club I've ever joined has worked in miles though. Trying to be continental and work in km just seems pointless as you then have to do mental maths each time you see a road sign. Why Addaxes use km when you're expected (historically) to navigate from a road book and sign posts is a complete mystery.
Although since they moved to organizing via strava rather than yahoo groups it's irrelevant as if it's advertised by the leader at 30km/h it automatically translates to 18.75 (or vice versa if I organized that ride it would appear to them as 30.5km/h).
59.8mph on a road ride. I wanted to break 60mph, but having nearly done it i can't say i want to try again
I hit 46mph down Old Durham Road in Gateshead.
The speed didn't scare me at all, until I found out the pads were glazed, and there were a couple of sets of lights and a roundabout at the bottom to contend with. With the levers hard against the bars, I struggled to get it under 25mph until the road flattened out.
This was on my CAADX with cable discs. I converted it to flat bar and hydraulics soon after
I don't think I've cleared more than 33mph, but all my proper bikes are 1x and I don't do much road riding. Was pretty chuffed getting up to 23.4mph on the Brompton the other night tbh
Butser Hill South Downs,
54mph , going through the gate was terrifying, arse twitching like a rabbit’s nose.
Never again. 🤓
What’s cattle grid protocol on a road bike?
Hop? Even lifting the wheels 5-8cm will see you in the air for several metres at these sorts of speed.
So what’s the defining factor, weight and gradient? Or are you spinning a 53×11 to crack 80km/h?
Weight, gradient and aero. Power is almost an irrelevance at anything over about 60kph (you need about 700w@50kph and 1200@60kph then 1800@70kph, so pedaling like a loon might only gain you 10kph, if you've even got the legs to spin 53:11 from 60 (cadence of 95) to 70 (about 110) while developing 600W... and it'll add big chunks to your drag.
But going from drops to a full stupid, chin on the top cap tuck, at 60kph might gain you over 300W. For free.
The highest speeds i've ever done have been aero/wind assisted and sustained gradient (not necessarily steep, but long) and being very brave/stupid with the brakes.
I can’t spin past 40kmph on my bikes both mtb (1x11 32t), but still regularly crack 75-80 and made it to 98. Dropper definitely helps.
I can’t spin past 40kmph on my bikes
I can spin past 50 (almost 60) on 32:11, but while a cadence of 150 is doable, it's not hugely enjoyable, easier to tuck and roll...
The theoretical 90kph i can spin to on the road bike hasn't ever been realised.