speed/nearly bad accident

[Broughtonblue]

I go down a hill quite often locally at around 40mph, I know this isn't as fast as some on here go but every time I do it I have the thought 'im in the middle of nowhere on a deserted country road, if anything goes wrong im in the s**t here' goes through my mind.
well today as I went over the summit and started pedalling, according to strava I was doing 33mph, a border collie ran out from a gateway straight towards me, I just caught a glimpse of it out the corner of my eye and braked immediately. it seemed to take me about about 20 yards to stop my front wheel/forks to stop wobbling. my nipper was twitching for a good few minutes afterwards.
why is it that although you know its sensible to not do these speeds for whatever reason, the raw instinct inside of you eggs you on?
this could have been very nasty to me and for the rest of the ride I was saying to myself 'never again' but I have the feeling this will quickly be forgotten!

 

[MontyVeda]

well we need a bit of fun in our lives... hence going for the odd adrenalin rush. Going fast feels ace, I only wish so many of the good long descents round these parts didn't have a Give Way or too sharp/too blind bend at the bottom.

 

[snorri]

this could have been very nasty to me and for the rest of the ride I was saying to myself 'never again' but I have the feeling this will quickly be forgotten!

It's an age thing I think, most of us become increasingly conscious of our own mortality as we get older .

 

[Broughtonblue]

It's an age thing I think, most of us become increasingly conscious of our own mortality as we get older .

possibly true, when I was in my teens/early twenties nothing was dangerous. im now 46 with a family. life was so uncomplicated early on

 

[Hill Wimp]

Its you inner chimp according to Dr Steve Peters who is SKYs psycho man. His books quite good actually and a pretty easy read as to why we do things and why we equally talk ourselves out of doing things.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

its the same reason that has me descending on my fixed at 150+RPM, has me laying the bike into bends at silly speeds and has me treating the traffic calming on a certain road as a slalom course when I'm in the car and nobodies about, I'm 61 and definitely should know better

 

[Tyke]

Agree with the sense of mortality as we get older but at 57 and after getting knocked off by a woman pulling out on me when I was only doing about 10 mph a few weeks back I would say your never too old for a bit of fun on the down hill it all makes up for the struggle to the top.

 

[nickyboy]

I do wonder sometimes when hurtling down how much slower I would have to go to reduce my risk of injury. If I come off at 30mph rather than 50mph I wonder if it would have a significant effect?
I suppose at 30 you are also less likely to come off per se.

Loads of fast descents around here. To be honest, it would be hard to keep them down to 30. Could be done but zero fun of course. I just wonder what I would be doing to my risk profile in scrubbing speed from 50 to 30

 

[tyred]

Never been a very brave on the descents and one or two that I ride regularly still scare me as it would easily be possible to hit 40 or 50mph but the road is narrow and the blind corners, potholes and loose gravel/chippings which collect on the corners are very off-putting. I feather the brakes going down this hill so I am a wimp or a safe, sensible cyclist.

But I would rather be an un-injured wimp....

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

You will do the same speed next time guaranteed. The A515 into Ashbourne means 50mph+, if I put a fiver in a pot every time I've said 'slower next time'..........

 

[Breedon]

What other ways can you get a rush like that? legal of course, I got up to 46 mph on Saturday every thing went blurrey I was going so fast I thought the flux capacitor* was going to kick in , I knew if I hit a pot hole I'll be in a load of s*** but I liked the rush.

*Google it you don't know

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I go down a hill quite often locally at around 40mph, I know this isn't as fast as some on here go but every time I do it I have the thought 'im in the middle of nowhere on a deserted country road, if anything goes wrong im in the s**t here' goes through my mind.
well today as I went over the summit and started pedalling, according to strava I was doing 33mph, a border collie ran out from a gateway straight towards me, I just caught a glimpse of it out the corner of my eye and braked immediately. it seemed to take me about about 20 yards to stop my front wheel/forks to stop wobbling. my nipper was twitching for a good few minutes afterwards.
why is it that although you know its sensible to not do these speeds for whatever reason, the raw instinct inside of you eggs you on?
this could have been very nasty to me and for the rest of the ride I was saying to myself 'never again' but I have the feeling this will quickly be forgotten!

Not the case for me anymore.

The older (nearly 57) I get the less risk I take. I think it is one of those things in life. Bit like money really - when you have lots you can splash it a bit and when you don't you tend not to. Same with time, the less I have the more careful I am with it.

Years back I used to free climb (at a very modest standard) and winter climb (at a reasonable standard) and when I look back or see those routes these days I just wonder why the hell I did them. Nowadays I am more content just to hill walk or scramble (unroped low level climbing).

Could also be due to diminishing amounts of testosterone although I think there is some left in my body as I can still spot a short skirt hundreds of metres away.

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

getting knocked off by a woman pulling out on me when I was only doing about 10 mph

Implies you were giving a "backer" to a LadyBoy there Tyke

Surprised you missed tis one @Fnaar

 

[derrick]

Another 61 year old with no sense http://app.strava.com/activities/71694048#1403056334
3rd out of 430.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

I was going so fast I thought the flux capacitor* was going to kick in

*Google it you don't know

If you have to Google this you haven't lived !