I am DONE with going fast down hills!

[Allweathershorts]

I feel it's a younguns game!

Ahhh I wish it was so, I'm terrible at descending!
My dad refuses to go out with me on the bike as I leave him for dust up hill but actually slow down when going down hill......

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Ahhh I wish it was so, I'm terrible at descending!
My dad refuses to go out with me on the bike as I leave him for dust up hill but actually slow down when going down hill......

I went out on my SingleSpeed yesterday and it's about as stiff as a month old jelly at the best of times so I cheerfully coasted down hills rather than pedaling. I still reached 36mph. Idiot.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Sorry to hear about your descending phobia ( try closing your eyes, I find it helps!) but congratulations on having the best username on this site by far. Any arguments?

Ahhh I wish it was so, I'm terrible at descending!
My dad refuses to go out with me on the bike as I leave him for dust up hill but actually slow down when going down hill......

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Sorry to hear about your descending phobia ( try closing your eyes, I find it helps!) but congratulations on having the best username on this site by far. Any arguments?

Seconded.

 

[Fnaar]

50.6 top speed for me

 

[chernij]

Went 20mph on my trail bike once, felt brilliantly stable. Then hit 40mph on my road bike and felt weightless...

 

[Hip Priest]

50.6 top speed for me

I was expecting you to say 69mph.

 

[Fnaar]

I was expecting you to say 69mph.

I don't go down that fast

 

[Hip Priest]

I don't go down that fast

I don't blame you. You'd probably get blown off.

 

[middleagecyclist]

@Fnaar turns up and sexual innuendo starts. I wish I could do that!

 

[Jon George]

@Fnaar turns up and sexual innuendo starts. I wish I could do that!

It's a skill - but one that can learnt quite quickly with a willing partner.

 

[mark 1]

My recent fastest speed was 45mph, down Thorseway Hill in Lincolnshire. Have cycled down this hill several times, one day there will be a tractor or car coming up the hill in the opposite direction, which would add an extra element of challenge to the descent methinks.

 

[lay]

When I got my first road bike I got a real kick out of being able to go downhill at 30mph, then it crept up a bit and I could get to 42mph even on Suffolk roads, then I went up North and got nearly to 55mph. It was when I reached nearly 55mph that I realised the cheapo audax frame I ride isn't really cut out for speed. A realisation I soon forgot. Until today.

I was descending a hill in Richmond Park, just about to knock it into my highest gear and go into an aero tuck when an oncoming Merc pulled onto my side of the road to overtake a cyclist. I feathered the brakes, feathered some more and decided to try and squeeze through the gap that would be left between the car and the kerb. Not ideal, there was a fair amount of gravelly debris in that narrow margin. As I tried to relax my grip on the bike and continued to attempt an emergency deceleration the bike started leaping about under me like a bucking bronco. I really had to work hard to keep my calm but I was loosing control fast so had to go where the bike wanted to take me, which was off the road. I managed to stay upright somehow and came to a halt at the end of a deep furrow carved by my wheels in the grass.

That's it. I'm DONE with descending fast, at least until I get a bike fit for purpose

WOW thats talent - DH MTB'ing perhaps ???

Glad ya kept it upright.

 

[HLaB]

Saw some cr@p cycling on Saturday (Tour of Flanders Sportive) and quite a few folk down. Going down a hill to an open right hand bend which you can see cyclists ahead going round; I shouted out anyway. An idiot sped passed and skidded straight in to my mate who was at the apex of the bend 50yards or so in front of me. (I loose too much distance on bends/ dowhill and waste energy sprinting back but thats another story). I can uderstand my shout of 'Easy' was probably foreign to him but any cyclist should be alerted by a shout even if they couln't interpret it. Luckilly in a way the damage was only mechanical, he spent half an hour at the following mechanic station getting it fixed.
In the meantime I saw the exact same thing again at another open (obvious) bend at the bottom of a hill, but that time the cyclist who overshot quickly assessed the situation (why he go in it in the first place is beyond me) and decided to go for the Lance Armstrong field technique instead of using another cyclist for a brake.

 

[trj977]

Glad you manged to stay upright and undamaged. My fear in Richmond Park is that if you have to bail you could catch one of the small wooden posts after the verge. I particularly like the way they get hidden when the grass gets longer.