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Fastest you've ever gone on a BICYCLE
09-01-2009, 06:31 PM
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#1
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 12,880
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Fastest you've ever gone on a BICYCLE
In another thread Max Power mentioned that he's gone 61. I've maxed out at 39, and don't want to go any faster than that.
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Al
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09-01-2009, 06:45 PM
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#2
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Central Massachusetts
Posts: 57
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Thanks Al...actually I once hit 63 mph coming down Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado, but squeaking out that 61 was a real challenge here in New England. I doubt that I have another mph in me at this point. Between you and me, we won't tell my wife about these high speed adventures, lest she ends up selling all my toys!
I still like to stay in shape and hoping that it means a longer life. I've been a cyclist for nearly 40 years and have completed the Ironman triathlon 3 times since 2005. I do have to admit though that I sure don't bounce back from injuries like I did 30 years ago!
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09-01-2009, 06:47 PM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 6,115
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40 and i was scared to death
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09-01-2009, 07:04 PM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Boise
Posts: 7,865
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35ish on a downhill towards the end of the bike section of a triathlon. Scared also.
2Cor521
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"At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough, and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may in fact be the first steps of a journey." Violet Baudelaire.
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09-01-2009, 07:18 PM
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#5
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,056
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Between 35 and 40 on the long downhill stretch on my way home from work when I worked in Scotland. I realized that cars didn't pass me on that stretch and it scared me so I used to slow down after that day and felt a lot more in control
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Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
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09-01-2009, 07:23 PM
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#6
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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I once participated in a ride in San Francisco in the early '90s, and I think I was probably doing around 35-40 toward a bottom of a hill at one point.
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"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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09-01-2009, 07:23 PM
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#7
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oahu
Posts: 26,856
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SecondCor521
35ish on a downhill towards the end of the bike section of a triathlon. Scared also.
2Cor521
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During my working/commuting years, I used to get up into the high 30s on a downhill two-lane road onto a 75-year-old bridge that's 50 feet above the stream in Kipapa Gulch. The sort of speed run where you begin to overtake the traffic. On the cyclist's map, this bridge is marked in big bleeding red ink.
As I approached retirement, it was gradually beginning to dawn on me that I'd have a very impressive hang time if I hit a bridge pylon or got nudged by a car fender. I couldn't figure out if I'd die on impact or drown.
When I was commuting home from Ford Island I had to cross the causeway. It was typically a nine-minute haul straight into the teeth of the tradewinds. But once or twice a month, if I timed my speed exactly right, I could fall in behind the Ford Island visitor's trolley. I had to crank hard to get within a couple feet of its rear bumper but if I could accelerate my sorry butt up into that Bernoulli pocket then I could coast along at 25-30 MPH with hardly any effort. Of course I also had to hope really hard that the driver (who couldn't see me) wouldn't slam on the brakes. The visitors sitting at the end of the trolley seemed to think it was pretty amusing-- or stupid. But drafting the trolley would cut six minutes off the causeway crossing.
At the time it seemed challenging and a bit fun. From this perspective I don't miss those days a bit.
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09-01-2009, 07:26 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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Around 30. I didn't like it. In fact I had a motorcycle I didn't like it either.I don't like heights either. I must be a wimp or something. But apparently I like I's.
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09-01-2009, 07:37 PM
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#9
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 398
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My fastest official time was 54 mph coming down Oakville Grade into Napa Valley. I was on my mountain bike (with road tires).
I may have hit 55+ mph on my road bike. Unfortunately, the speedometer on that bike doesn't have a maximum speed mode and I thought it best to keep my eyes on the road. That was Vasco Road in eastern Alameda County (CA). It has a wide shoulder / bike lane. It's an odd feeling being "shoulder to shoulder" with cars at that speed.
Other 50+ mph descents were South Park Drive in Tilden Park (Berkeley, CA), Patterson Pass Road east in eastern Alameda County (twice visited by the Tour of California), and the eastern side of Monitor Pass during the Markleeville Death Ride. There may have been one or two more. Several 45+ descents. My fear factor kicks in around 35-40 mph.
Here I am going a little slower - probably about 7-8 mph ...
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09-01-2009, 07:39 PM
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#10
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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Small world been to Markleeville. Picked pine nuts in that area.
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09-01-2009, 07:52 PM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,321
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Its probably a good thing that my back problems forced me to give up bike riding about 15 years ago because I loved going fast! I could never resist cranking down the biggest hills I could find in my biggest gear. There was a long, straight, steep stretch on one of my regular rides where I hit 48 mph.
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09-01-2009, 08:50 PM
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#12
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gone traveling
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 3,864
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Around 45mph- when I was 15 years old, going down a steep hill, actually passed our neighbor in his car in a 35mph zone... sure caught hell when I got home..
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09-01-2009, 08:54 PM
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#13
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 86
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Wife and I on a tandem doing 59.5 mph. I wasn't scared at the time. Now thinking back on it, I should have been scared ... I doubt I'd ever do anything close to that again. First, there is no way she would let me. She wasn't very happy the first time around, now 15 years later I doubt she'd even get on the bike if she thought I was going to go over 25-30mph... Second, I don't think I'd feel comfortable enough to go that fast anymore... (35-40 feels okay to me these days, anything beyond that I start to feel nervous).
Age and kids tend to slow you down a bit.
Back in my late teenage days (18-19) I use to draft huge milk tanker trucks at 50+ mph. They were loaded heavy trucks and were slow starting.. so if you sprinted hard, and stayed in their draft you could cruise down the road doing 50+ mph about 5 feet behind a truck. Completely insane, but wildly fun.
Then there is the really steep hill here that has a 25mph speed limit. When I was 15-16 I would ride down it doing 40 or so. The fun part of it was they would almost always be a policeman radaring traffic. I so wanted to get some sort of ticket on the bike saying I was doing 40... they must have known it cause I never got pulled over... oh well.
Laters,
-d.
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09-01-2009, 11:20 PM
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#14
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Los Angeles area
Posts: 1,708
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50 mph west of Gunnison, CO on a long, straight, newly re-paved highway just after dawn (no traffic). I usually keep my descents to about 30-35.
Fastest I've crashed - 31 mph coming down off Slumgullion Pass in CO.
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09-01-2009, 11:38 PM
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#15
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 899
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50 mph coming down out of the Oakland hills.
I'm 52.
Riding my age in miles isn't a problem. I do that a half dozen to a dozen times a year.
(I would do it a lot more if I was ERed.)
Riding as fast as my age? Doubt I'll ever do that again!
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09-02-2009, 01:16 AM
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#16
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 10,125
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30 or so. I remember driving out of the Maroon Bells in Colorado with my friend Heidi. We were going 40 and I told her that there was a bicyclist behind us. She said, "So?" and I told her that it was going to pass us, and it did.
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Angels danced on the day that you were born.
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09-02-2009, 06:15 AM
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#17
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Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,299
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Perhaps 50 mph on a long straight downhill. I remember thinking that if I crashed it was going to hurt. A lot.
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When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
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09-02-2009, 06:24 AM
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#18
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,317
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Around 40 for me. Once I get over 30 I start thinking about the effect of a sudden bump. Maybe we need a thread about what is the highest speed you crashed on. I don't know the actual speed but I remember the crash well - balloon tired Schwinn going down a wooden toboggan ramp when I was about 12, ouch.
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Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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09-02-2009, 09:09 AM
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#19
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 6,499
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No idea.
When I was a kid, tearing down a mountain dirt road where we lived, on my father's rusty old bicycle, no speedometers then, about half way down, the front wheel exited the forks, which then dug in sending me what seemed like a few tens meters tumbling a$$ over tea kettle. All bloodied up, dragged the bike and wheel home a few kilometers to lick wounds. Was the start of the lessons on how to maintain bikes.
Have not measured speed on bike ever.
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There must be moderation in everything, including moderation.
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09-02-2009, 09:41 AM
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#20
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 12,880
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Quote:
But remember these, with the little metal doohickey that poked into the spokes down at the hub?
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Al
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