You defo get the fear going down big hills. I’ve had 2 rear tyres pop on me over my time as a mtb er and both times were on flat ground at about 10mph. I shudder to think it might happen when traversing dh at speed. It passes through my mind and I internally wince at the thought of it but then carry on anyway coz I love going fast, weeeeeeeee!

On the whole offroad is scary but that is just knowing that I lack the skill. Road bike is fine in the dry, I have done a touch under 60mph on the tribars which felt damn quick as it was only a small road. But as soon as it is wet I get the fear. The potholes are hard to see and there are plenty that would be fatal if you go in one. Also gravel gets washed onto the roads which on corners can be a bit sketchy, so unless it is a road I know well I take it very very easy as I seem to break something in about 50% of road tumbles, wheras I have fallen off the mtb lots and lots of times and have not broken anything yet.

A combination of age, big crash last year, and a sense of self preservation mean I’m unlikely to reach those speeds on either!!

-Geometry – the bike is designed to be efficient for chopping along on the flat and climbing, but even “relaxed” road bike geometry can feel twitchy pointed down at high speed.

A well designed road frame will be also be stable and predictable at speed going down hill as well as on the flat.

More you ride the more confident you feel.
Stockley Hill in Herefordshire is a 54mph hill on a road bike – it’s all about what your used to and how confident you are on a road bike and also being relaxed. I guess also having a well made and designed road bike plays a large part also.

road speed is scarier as you are just sat holding on, looking far ahead and there’s nothing in your mind but silence so plenty of opportunity for your brain to wander onto the topic of skin loss. on an MTB you’re picking a line, turning, pumping, hopping, all with the intro to Back in Black turned up to 11 blasting away in your mind.

I’ve done some silly descents on my Roadie, I’ve a mate who insists we race downhill, I can’t hack it I get scared and back off, he carries on and leaves me. I take him up the hills though so it’s equal. Nasty falls and some pretty butt clenching moments in the Doli’s has put me off going for it, so I back off and enjoy the view whilst digging out of hairpin bends and corners, the really steep stuff I just roll down.
Downhill scares me.
I have nothing but admiration for DH’ers on MTBs.. Brave, very brave.

hit 84kph on the south of the cairn o mount 2 weeks ago – every patch of water i was shitting my self it was ice. over took a hilux.

could have gone faster but was running out of road to make a corner – knew there was gravel on the outside so hit the brakes to avoid it

hit 70kph down the howes on my commute this morning – was running late.

scariest speeds ive hit have been down the cairnwell/glenshee – pre GPS days but the speed wobbles got me . gripping the top tube so tight with my legs.

I confess im a bit of an adrenaline roadie 🙂

Love attacking the DH’s hard, spin out and tuck, racing line, minimum braking, plenty of looking as far ahead as I can. I love it

No idea of max speed though, got pissed off with my computer and ditched it

(still doesn’t compare to hammering my Ibis through a rock garden and two wheel drifting some turns)

scariest descent I’ve had wasn’t especially fast – it was coming off the Chilterns on the way to Oxford the road was nice and smooth and I was happily doing about 45mph when the road surface changed on a corner and I got stuck in a rut on the outside of a bend. managed to bounce out of it onto the gravel on the edge of the corner and make it round. there was a cyclist being put in an ambulance at the bottom of the hill. I guess he’d not quite managed to get out of the rut. my mate who was behind me said my front wheel was tracking well but the back wheel was bouncing around all over the shop. momentum is your friend!

I rode the Kirkstone Pass the other week on my tourer and it was fun but I was not that fast. Those drystone walls look unyielding

My mate Dean can confirm that. he hit one at 35mph coming off Honister last august. one destroyed hip, and 4 months on crutches later he got back on the bike after Christmas.

I’ve had the dreaded speed wobble at about 45 mph. it was not a pleasant experience.

You descend even faster in Johannesburg at 5500 feet as the air is thinner. It even feels thinner.

Mister P : My road bike is a bit of an acquired taste being a mish mash of an old 1994 Indian Fire Trail frame, rigid forks and one disc brake on the front. I call it my fungrel (aka FUkin-Ugly-moNGREL). It’s ugly but it works 😉

The scirocco is no more due to being rear ended at a junction by an old fart who should’ve been taken off the roads years ago, twin webbers, 16v engine, absolutely mint with no rust anywhere and one careful owner before i got it – 35,000 miles. I was gutted but at least there is one less doddery old fart removed from the driving pool.

Surely it’s only scary if you think you might get hurt?

I don’t find 50mph + off road or on road an issue but that’s purely because I never really think of the consequences. I’d go a lot faster if it weren’t for aerodynamics holding me up.

Whilst I admit a crash would be bad, there’s no point worrying about something that probably won’t happen. Positive mental attitude and all that 🙂

I find steep & techy MTB descents way scarier than fast road descents, mostly as braking doesn’t really help on them. My main fear on road bike descents comes from imagining the tyre’s just going to randomly blow-off the rim after 50mph, it’s not done it yet but I’ve seen a few go in my time at slower speeds and I know it’s going to hurt if it ever does happen.
Mind you I had a front tyre puncture at around 30mph on the MTB (steep but smooth grassy descent), inner tube came out and wrapped around the disc but fortunately I’d slowed down enough not to go over the bars – it’s thinking of those random things beyond your control that give me the fear rather than thinking I’m going to wash out on a corner or something.

I’ve never been on a road bike, but hit 42mph on the MTB, that’s bending over the bars racer style but think the CamelBak probably slowed me down a bit.

That was on the road but it seems to be more scary to me on the road than off road, think it because I’d only just got back into biking when Wouther Weyland had that fatal accident at the Giro and it always sticks in my mind.

My mate once head butted a drystone wall up Rivington when he turned round to see what was behind, i wasn’t with him but how he made it through that was a miracle that was on the road as well and he was out of hospital the same day.

Hit 61.9mph on the road bike last year. Was gutted as a little bit faster and it would have been 100kmh+

I think riding a motorbike makes a difference to your attitude on the road. You get used to going fast and feeling vulnerable so anything under 100 feels tame 😀

I don’t have a road bike but we’d get up to 45mph plus on a local steep hill on bmxs. The end of the hill sweeps a bit left then a hard right. It was impossible to stop for, so we’d just fling ourselves into and through the hedge that bordered the road. We even tried it at night without lights. One of the dumbest things on my dumb things CV. So bloody terrifying.

Off road is worse for me as the surface is less predictable.

As for speed wobbles, try getting a tow at 30+ on a skateboard 😯

Still to top 50mph on the road, been getting close but then again I have only ridden round southampton which isn’t known for its big hills.

Road is definitely scarier. I had a massive brown trouser moment a couple of weeks ago bombing down a dual carriageway around 48mph with lights and hitting a massive pot hole which blew out my front tyre. Somehow manage to keep upright but it took what felt like a long time to stop. All the time I thought I had snapped the fork / the wheel was going to collapse.

Never had anything close on the mountain bike going DH, probably the closest was jumping and having quite some time to think about how much it was going to hurt when I landed. (KO, busted collar bone, ribs, 3 months off work…) Wasnt ‘scary’ though just a horrible realisation I’d got it very wrong as I started to rotate forwards….

30+ on a skateboard

At the weekend there were a couple of skateboarders doing DH down a local winding street, with loads of hairpins. Quite an impressive speed.

Then an ambulance came steaming up the hairpins.

At uni, we used to do skateboard “water skiing”, ie towed behind a Kawasaki with a rope. Stability was dire, and Toys-R-Us did replace the melted wheels under warranty later the same day 😀

zangolin
More you ride the more confident you feel.
it’s all about what your used to and how confident you are on a road bike and also being relaxed.

Painey
Surely it’s only scary if you think you might get hurt?

Rule 64 I believe!

The Rules

No thanks, i’m not the best when it comes to hopping on a mtb never mind a road bike with 23c tyres doing 40 odd mph.

on the plus side you only need to do the teenyist tinyist of hops and at 40mph you’ll clear a cattle grid easily.

Roads descending is scary, silly fast and bugger all contact patch for when you try to brake and I always seem to find descents that start with the smoothest of surfaces then when approaching a corner at speed the tarmac suddenly goes all manky, awesome. And of course there’s the risk of oncoming traffic. plus I’m always convinced my lightweight* bike is going to snap. Would love to try some tour style routes on closed roads with good quality tarmac.

*not for a road bike but compared to my mtbs is positively anorexic

I find road descents scarier mainly I think of the crazy top speed and the lack of traction from 23mm tyres pumped to 100psi.
I live near the Bathgate hills where there is some very fast descents with tight hairpins. The fastest for me is Kingscavil hill with its single lane bridge and farm at the bottom. Which you would never have enough time to slow down for if there was oncoming traffic, the local cycling club run an annual hill climb race up it and featured on the Adventure show.

I don’t tend to ride down roads on my MTB really fast but I would assume the same as road bikes, that cornering at speed would scare the shit out of me. I’ve done over 40 on the road bike down twisty mountains in France and have been crappying myself in corners. I’ve gone faster down wide straight roads and it’s felt fine. I’ve not found the limit of my road bike on corners yet but I’m not that enthusiastic to exceed the limit really.