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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.