Fastest you've been on your bike?

[roubaixtuesday]

That is the fastest speed on that segment, not the average

Cheers. I find that pretty surprising - I've clocked 57mph which I guess is 92 kph down there myself, and I wasn't trying to max out.

 

[ColinJ]

Cheers. I find that pretty surprising - I've clocked 57mph which I guess is 92 kph down there myself, and I wasn't trying to max out.

I find that a bit surprising too. Mind you, it is a pretty intimidating descent where it is wise to err on the side of caution. Descending towards Woodhead, I got caught by a sudden strong gust of crosswind which almost blew me off the road.

Agh! You've reminded me. On my first ever tour in 2005, I did unfortunately run over a rabbit. It jumped from the heavily overgrown verge, inbetween the front and rear wheel, so went under the latter. I heard it and felt it, but didn't see it. I looked round, saw something in the road, stopped, went back and discovered the rabbit. Dead, obvs. I was quite upset at the time. Getting a bit upset about it now actually.

Ugh - poor rabbit, and poor you!

From the rider's point of view I suppose it is better for it to be with the rear wheel; a front wheel collision could easily result in a very nasty crash.

I had a baby rabbit run alongside me on a steep descent once. It somehow managed to criss-cross between my wheels a couple of times without getting hit, and then ran off into long grass at the side of the road.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I didn't bother pointing it out, but Ian is right about the momentum question. If you look at the profile that I posted for the Long Causeway descent you will see that there are some slightly uphill sections. If you whizz down the descent then you can power straight over them. If you go down too slowly then you have to make more of an effort when the road goes back up. I would rather have the exhilaration of the descent and easy uphill bits than a boring slow descent and then have to make an effort when the road tilts back up.

The other thing is that I am not quick on climbs or flat roads so if I don't make up time downhill then my average speed ends up very low. I would only be getting round my longer rides in daylight in mid-summer!

Indeed and if you ride with riders in recumbents you'll see many use this technique on rolling terrain to avoid pedalling uphill. The superior aerodynamics means they are travelling much faster at the bottom and slow less as they ascend. For a master class you could watch a velo mobile but they will be out of your sight in an instant.

 

[nickyboy]

Cheers. I find that pretty surprising - I've clocked 57mph which I guess is 92 kph down there myself, and I wasn't trying to max out.

You would be about 20th place all time down Holme Moss out of more than 10,000 with that speed. I only managed 90.4km/hr and lie 37th. That was with no brakes, tucked down, strong tailwind

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You would be about 20th place all time down Holme Moss out of more than 10,000 with that speed. I only managed 90.4km/hr and lie 37th. That was with no brakes, tucked down, strong tailwind

You need a much more aerodynamic bike to go much faster. A road or tt bike won't cut it. Plus nerves of steel on bends so you do not brake.

 

[HLaB]

Cheers. I find that pretty surprising - I've clocked 57mph which I guess is 92 kph down there myself, and I wasn't trying to max out.

There's a lot of stupid short (usually called 'speed trap') segments on strava. According to them I've been doing speeds in excess of 100mph

 

[greenmark]

I’ve done 106kph, on snow.

The key is to get to the radio tower, then use the aero boost power up and sprint down. I was awarded the Speed Demon achievement.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

World hour record

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4amc-S88I

 

[Waterwheel]

I once got up to 40 miles an hour on a mountain bike 30 years ago. I saw my speed on a speedometer I had fitted to the bike.

 

[BianchiVirgin]

85km/hr today on a short but steep local descent.

 

[ChrisPAmbulance]

39.8mph down Weston Bank in Stafford according to my Garmin - I could have turned the pedals over a couple more times couldn't I!!

 

[ColinJ]

I checked the maximum speed on today's ride... It was a bit lower than usual because of a cross-headwind on the fastest part of the descent. I have to freewheel on it because I don't have a high enough gear/cadence to use pedal power.

... the descent - Blackstone Edge to Littleborough:

... 71.6 km/hr = 44.5 mi/hr.

I have freewheeled to 88 km/hr (55 mi/hr) on that descent in the past with more favourable wind conditions. I often catch cars down there but never overtake them - just too risky! Apart from slightly unpredictable drivers, there are often VERY unpredictable sheep at the roadside.

I got those favourable wind conditions today but they almost led to me 'doing a Froome'... (crashing on a high-speed descent).

There is a sweeping RH bend halfway down and you can carry a lot of speed into it. Normally there is a cross-headwind from the left which does 2 things - (1) It keeps the speed down a bit, and (2) It tends to blow you in the right direction to keep you on the road and take the bend. The wind today was in the opposite direction, which led to me going into the bend MUCH hotter than normal, and the wind was trying to blow me off the road!

That wouldn't have been a huge problem if I had been paying attention, but (ridiculously!) I was distracted by thoughts about some software I was working on before I took a break for my ride. When I finally got my mind back onto cycling I looked down at the GPS and saw that I was doing 76 kph (47 mph). Instead of that making me pay more attention to the road, it actually made me pay more attention to the GPS to see if I was going to hit 80 kph (50 mph)...

Until I finally looked up and saw that my time on this Earth was suddenly looking rather limited!

I did what braking I could and leaned the bike over as far as I dared and everything went into slo-mo as I watched my front wheel drift ever closer to the kerb on the outside of the bend. I got within a few cms of it before I regained control and managed to get away from it. After that, for some reason I kind of lost interest in going down the hill quickly...

I sat up, dabbed my brakes to scrub off some speed, and spent the rest of the descent giving myself a good tongue-lashing!


DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, FOLKS!!!

 

[cosmicbike]

40.5mph downhill into Henley-on-Thames, it's a decent surface with good visibility so just rolled down it. That was on a normal bike.
Recumbents tend to speed up quickly downhill, and my best on the Trice Q is 34.9mph down Prune Hill, not a good one to go down too quickly with blind corners etc.

 

[G3CWI]

47mph on a rather rough road. Unlikely to try to beat it. The thoughts of “what if?” became the limiting factor.

 

[Oldbloke]

134.5 kph into a headwind. Possible change of Cateye battery required?