What is a good top speed?

[thegravestoneman]

53 in my youth according to my mate who was on a CG125 at the time, more recently though about 10ish. My one day with a cycle computer showed 78 but I have serious doubts about that one, although it could have been possible when we left the road on my tandem before landing 5 foot up a tree again years ago.

 

[thegravestoneman]

There could be a difference between top speed and terminal speed though.

 

[tyred]

I was nudging 45mph on my old Peugeot touring bike when a car coming the other way decided to do a U-turn in front of me. It was raining, I had panniers full of tools (was on my way to do help and aunt with some DIY) so wet rims and heavy bike don't stop very quickly. Let's just say it's a good job I had ordered a brown Brooks saddle.

I have never had the same nerve on the descents after that. I don't particularly fancy a high speed accident.
I used to regularly go for down that particular stretch of road as it's perfectly straight, very wide and very well surfaced with no junctions. I hadn't considered the possibility of a sleepy Astra driver turning across my path.

 

[Bill-H]

47top speed on a old Carrera tdf thought it was overly fast and slowed down the wired speedo said 49 but strava downloaded section at 47 never again I stop pushing at about high 20 s as think that would hurt enough

 

[User16625]

OK, today I managed to get to 39.2 mph on my 2nd bike ride in 10 years. I'm thinking I'm going to take this up professionally and enter the tour de france later in the year...or... maybe my GPS didn't sync at the start of my ride:

http://app.strava.com/activities/46315392

But still, I have managed to reach 27.5 and 27.8 yesterday which I hope is near the speeds I'm getting while sprinting. I'd need a bike computer to know for sure. I'm just wondering, what kind of speed to people get on really good bikes with plenty of training? Obviously we aren't taking sustainable speeds, but I'd still be interested in people's real records.

With a tailwind going downhill I just about hit 41mph. So your 39mph is pretty dam good for a second bike ride in a decade. Its good anyway. On a particularly steep downhill (I think it was 18%) I got 49.4 mph which felt fantastic (smashing my previous record of about 44mph), but a bit unstable at 45mph or so. I was actually aiming for 50 but I was happy enough. I tend to push harder going down hills than I do going up them.

 

[Chris Norton]

On the subject of the app recording, I have found the Strava app to be quite poor in it's accuracy. IpBike seems to be much better on my Android phone (A ZTE Blade).

 

[Roadhump]

Is it odd to have no interest at all?

I do log my top speed but have wondered why I bother. It is a box to fill on the screen so I fill it.

I have though, wondered how bad it would be if you came off a bike at a fair whack - it's not like you're covered in motor cycling leathers!

The only figures I am interested in is my distance and my (very) slowly improving average speed - although I am not making any conscious effort re the latter either.

Maybe I am just getting old!

I have recently returned to regular cycling and keep telling myself to do as you do and just enjoy the cycling, but find it very hard not to compete with myself to get my average up sooner. A steady pace over distance on a regular basis must be better for you. Having said that I got up to 32.1 down a hill today, it would have been quicker but I had to slow down for a blind bend.

 

[SWSteve]

I have recently returned to regular cycling and keep telling myself to do as you do and just enjoy the cycling, but find it very hard not to compete with myself to get my average up sooner. A steady pace over distance on a regular basis must be better for you. Having said that I got up to 32.1 down a hill today, it would have been quicker but I had to slow down for a blind bend.

There's no point being in a box because you wanted to go faster down a road

 

[SWSteve]

I have recently returned to regular cycling and keep telling myself to do as you do and just enjoy the cycling, but find it very hard not to compete with myself to get my average up sooner. A steady pace over distance on a regular basis must be better for you. Having said that I got up to 32.1 down a hill today, it would have been quicker but I had to slow down for a blind bend.

There's no point being in a box because you wanted to go faster down a road

 

[tiswas-steve]

46.8 mph going down Westerham Hill, peddling through the bend, keeping a good line whilst doing so. I knew it was fast when I got a speed wobble on the straight downhill part, let me tell you this,I was crapping myself !! Decided not to touch the brakes when the wobble started, so just concentrated on letting the bike slow down naturally and safely. The buzz afterwards was amazing but looking at it now, you do wonder what would have happened if I came off at that speed.

Suppose this is what makes cycling so enjoyable, you can have just as much fun plodding along with mates taking the rise out of each other at 14 mph than bombing down a descent at 45+ mph.