How Fast do You Descend?

[Ming the Merciless]

I was always pitiful. No long long downhills here, thank goodness because I think i tense up, several times I had severe shimmy, one I'd only just started a short(1/4 mile perhaps) but steep hill near Morborne and almost immediately got a violent wobble, so bad I had to kinda emergency brake into the verge.
I guess it could have been specifically two of my bikes, but realistically...me

On a road bike you can stop a shimmy with a knee against top tube.

 

[DRM]

Scariest bit of pro descending that springs to my mind was someone, I've forgotten who, in Milan - St Remo about 5 years ago. No, not Mohoric, before that (although that was pretty scary). There was one bend in which he was almost horizontal.

I can't remember if it was Alberto Contador or Peter Sagan, my gut feeling it was Sagan descending the Cippressa, and bunny hopping water run off just before a sharp left switch back, going round the bend at warp factor 9, absolutely terrifying viewing, but immense skill to pull it off

 

[Tigerbiten]

I've done enough descents to roughly know what speed I'll reach down it.
Starting at 2% down and 20 mph, if I double the slope I'll add 10 mph to my speed.
So something around 16% down on good tarmac I'll reach around 50 mph.
But around Northampton I max out at just over 40 mph due to the hills not beings steep/long enough to go much faster.

 

[fossyant]

My mate Lennie once went down some of the straighter bits of Mont Ventoux at 60mph because he had been told not to brake too much or the heat of his wheel rims might cause a blow out. He was never entirely certain whether that could actually happen until it did happen to a club mate of mine some years later. (Burned his fingers too when changing the tyre, just for good measure). Forever afterwards I named that clubmate "Shotgun Rob" as all of us who witnessed it thought initially that some idiot had discharged a gun on the other side of a hedge we were resting by at the time. Personally, I once got just over 43mph on one single occasion and chickened out. Being really tall, I have a very high centre of balance and it was starting to feel extremely unsafe. I rarely exceed 30mph by much on a descent these days.

Mate of mine melted his tub glue doing a descent in France. Had to stop to let the wheel cool.

 

[cyberknight]

Mid 40 mph in the past but since i twatted my collar bone i dont push it as fast these days .Sean Kelly did 124km/h in the 84 tour as Cancellara has hit over 130 km/h in the Tour de Suisse in 2009

 

[lazybloke]

On a road bike you can stop a shimmy with a knee against top tube.

Yeah, that works. I wish I'd known it in circa 1991 when I was having a hair-raising descent into Otley on a bike that resembled both a slinky and a wet noodle in equal measure. Awful!
Managed about 81.7kmh/50.8mph on my gravel bike recently - Riverhill near Sevenoaks, which I think is my fastest ever.

I'd quite like to see what my road bike could do, but I'm well into my 50s now, and those kind of speeds are starting to feel like Russian Roulette! The gravel bike feels far more stable at high speed than any of my lighter/faster bikes.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I’ve touched 80km/h at times coming down Mount Teide. Got held up my traffic on the lower slopes 😂

 

[Donger]

Almost forgot .... @Dark46 once passed me at over 50mph with his chain hanging off.

 

[Jameshow]

I can't remember if it was Alberto Contador or Peter Sagan, my gut feeling it was Sagan descending the Cippressa, and bunny hopping water run off just before a sharp left switch back, going round the bend at warp factor 9, absolutely terrifying viewing, but immense skill to pull it off

Sounds like Sagan tbh!

 

[Jameshow]

Doing 40mph on wheels you built yourself concentrates the mind!!! 🤣🤕🤣

 

[Accy cyclist]

I only posted about my top speed on CC a few months ago, but I can't find it and can't be bothered to look through over 25 years of recorded in diaries rides and their top speeds etc, but it was around 53/54/55mph, about 20 years ago. It was a local, very steep, short descent lasting about 25 seconds, with me reaching that speed for a few seconds before reaching the bottom of the hill where it then levels out. After me going over the roof of a car suddenly turning right in front of me 10 years ago, I never went over 35mph, constantly covering my brakes on descents.

 

[Mo1959]

I’m a nervous descender these days. I think of all the “what ifs”. What if my fork suddenly snapped, a front tire blew out, a deer suddenly jumped out in front of me, etc. Having hit a sheep that suddenly decided it wanted to be on the other side of the road on a fast descent from our local reservoir 9 years ago and smashing my collar bone into 3 pieces, I have no desire to repeat the experience.