Speed!

[mat hudson]

30 on the flat, on a jump bike.

For some reason I doubt this. I can manage 25 on the flat on my downhill rig with the seat right up the crack of my arse. Suspension on super stiff aswell.

Fastest I've been is around 40 down a winding road down the side of a mountain. Good old wales.

i got around that (as stated tractor speed) would have been easier with my dmr motos, but the tyres wernt too nobly i guess and i used to ride em pumped up rock because i pinched alot.

[Monkey]

I went at 50mph, down a long hill in Nottingham called Arnold Lane. It was on a mountain bike with slicks. I remember it because it was only possible by pedalling as fast as I could to see what speed I could manage and because cars were still zooming past me even at that speed, so the sidewinds were very dodgy indeed.

[JT!]

Hi,

I used to have no trouble hitting 52mph on my road bike down long steep welsh hillsides. If there were two of us taking turns to slipstream with one of us in front already doing 52, you could sprint out of the slipstream and get up towards 62 for a short while.

62? Nah.

60 mph is soo possible.when i worked at halfords we set up some rollers an a speedo and just went for it.i managed 70mph.....to flat because the rolling road fell over !

Yeah, it's easy on rollers becuase u haven't got 50mph winds in your face slowing you down.

got 84 mph last night down 'big' hill!

[fruitbat]

some of these speeds are just utter bollox. Yeah a lot of the road bike ones i can beleive but people saying they get 50 and 60mph on flat on a downhill bike is bollox, i dont think some people realise how fast some of the speeds are

Best i managed will be around 40ish tops (thats pushing it) on a cannondale xc bike with semi slicks and that was when i used to ride after work with a guy that worked at Aire Valley, now i'd be lucky to manage 30 on flat. Going downhill isn't really that hard, just tuck yourself in, pedal like crazy and and let gravity do the hard part

Frooty

[Christophe']

52mph on my Bianci.

Down a very steep hill.

And yes my speedo was calibrated correctly, Tic.

And yes most people wont have the power to do over 40 on the flat on a Road bike.

Road bikes are fun.

[ramps]

Well, I don't actually know because I don't have a speedo but I'd take a wild guess at somewhere around the 35 mark on panneracer fire xc tires. My riding partner fecked right off though, on the roads near Backcoum quarry, I was left with two strips of tears flying out of my eyes!! It actually hurt.

[Tomm]

Anyone that reckons they can do over 40mph on a any bike, on the flat, not wind-assisted or being pulled, is doing very well. Or lying.

On my road bike, the faster I've managed is 29mph on the flat, and that was f**king hard work. To go 11mph faster is a bit stupid really, and I very much doubt that anyone here has done it without being on a slight downhill or with the wind etc. 40mph is very fast anyway, I've done (just under) that going down a big hill and there's no way I'd want to be pedalling hard, you wobble too much.

So in conclusion: Bollocks.

[Christophe']

Anyone that reckons they can do over 40mph on a any bike, on the flat, not wind-assisted or being pulled, is doing very well. Or lying.

On my road bike, the faster I've managed is 29mph on the flat, and that was f**king hard work. To go 11mph faster is a bit stupid really, and I very much doubt that anyone here has done it without being on a slight downhill or with the wind etc. 40mph is very fast anyway, I've done (just under) that going down a big hill and there's no way I'd want to be pedalling hard, you wobble too much.

So in conclusion: Bollocks.

Try watching any of the tours.

[duane]

62MPH is possible I am the guy that originally mentioned the figure, heres how and why its possible -

1) Gwent has some very big hills, there are at least half a dozen hills I can think of that are around a mile long and have sections with a sustained gradient of 1:6.

2) Roadbikes are massivley more efficient than all types of knobbly tyred bikes, all that road noise you hear is your bike over coming rolling resistance, on a road bike all you hear is wind and not mcuh of that becuase you would be wearing lycra which again has a massive effect on how fast you can go. If you can hear or feel your clothes flapping thats the sound of you slowing down.

3) Rotating weight - gravity which we know from 1) above is doing most of the work is a constant force of acceleration, the less rotating weight there is the easier it is to accelerate, again light road wheels are a massive gain in any acceleration or rolling contest.

4) The lead out man - ever watched a finish line sprint in a mass start road race, the speeds get up over 45 MPH and thats at the end of a 150 mile or more of racing - in the case of the tours its often at the end of three weeks of daily 150 mile races. How can it be possible to go that fast when in a controlled track racing environment with less wind noise the fastest sprint is slower ? Well its all down to the lead out man or men, these are the guys whose only job in an entire race is to be at the front about 400 meters from the finish and pull over with about 100 yards to go and eventually finish in about 80th place. What these guys are doing is a horrible job where they have to ride as hard as is physically possible to stop anyone jumping ahead of thier sprinter who will be sat in thier -make a note of this - 'slip stream' fresh and ready to sprint for glory in the final 100 meter sprint.

To hit 62mph you need all of the above so -

Get yourself a very big hill with a 1:6 gradient, a light wheeled road bike, ordinary roady gear of head to toe lycra and most importantly a mate with similar set up that you trust and is capable of riding down a hill at 50+ mph. Now if you have all of this gear you will propably have ridden in a few road races or with a club so you will know all about sprinting for spot prizes and sprinting for 30 mph signs on b-roads, these are all out roady ego bashes, you get good at exploiting slipstreams and punching out from behind other sprinters who already going flat out.

Now you and your mate are taking turns on the front as you build up speed down this 1:6 hill, when your mate is in front you will pick up speed because he is overcoming the wind resistance and gravity is constantly accelerating you, you will need to break if you don't want to pass your mate, but as your taking turns you coast pass and have to start pedalling as you pass out of his slip stream and into the lead position. Initialy your still a little faster than he was, but unless your stronger the wind will slow you back down quickly enough, you are now pedaling while he may be able to coast. Eventually your at the back again and you know that the hole in the wind behind your mate is about 3 bike lengths long, so you drop back a few bike lengths past this distance and start sprinting into the hole which is where you go mental at the same times as gravity is helping to pull you through that hole in the air you mate is making. Glance at your clock if your not doing 60+ find a bigger hill, a faster mate and train some more.

Its not easy, I was a competitive road racer riding with equally competitive racers all of us training in excess of 20 hours a week just to get faster on bikes, not to side hop, not to track stand, not to bunny hop, just to get faster, 20 hours every week for 3 years.

If you have never combined all of the above, you will never get near 62 mile an hour and it will seem as unreachable or - bollox - as the fairly ordinary amatuer road racing stats in the next paragraph.

Now if your still not convinced you might be suprised to know that the first goals for a competitive road racer are completeing a time trial against the clock with nothing to slip stream over 10 miles in under 24 minutes and then same again over 25 miles in under an hour. Thats right 25 miles an hour for an hour on ordinary roads like the ones with hills you ride every day with ordinary weather like the head wind you hate. Those considered a competitive entry level performance, the british record for 10 miles is 18 minutes 48 seconds thats around 32 MPH on the open road for 10 miles - now thats what I call bollox, great big hard arse road racing bollox.

See here - http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/news/2004...ngerfield.shtml

Duane.

[Waynio]

i can seriously say i did 40mph going down Alter lane, Fruitbat will know where that is, and i did 41mph going down Park road, which is the road from eldwick down to bingley

didnt and couldnt do the towing thing tonight, need a good driver that wont screw the B**LOX off my golf. and it was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY too wet ask Craig (trialsalot i think he is) it would have been death. il try it tomoz though. theres a road near morrisons in keighley i might be able to get it

Waynio...........................

[Wrayvon]

Best i managed will be around 40ish tops (thats pushing it)

Frooty

Yer, but you are a big un

And wayne, i'l drive you

wray

[JT!]

Try watching any of the tours.

Yeah, but tomm said 'you doing very well for yourslef, or lieing.'

The people in the tours are doing well for themselves.

[Tomm]

Yeah, but tomm said 'you doing very well for yourslef, or lieing.'

The people in the tours are doing well for themselves.

Yeah, precisely. I am a bit skeptical about doing 62mph whilst slipstreaming etc, but duane seems to know what he is talking about, and obviously has some road racing experience. Also let's not forget that a 1:6 hill is f**king steep.

It's claims like this that I really, really don't believe:

90km/h (56mph) on a flat road

[Mark W]

i can seriously say i did 40mph going down Alter lane, Fruitbat will know where that is, and i did 41mph going down Park road, which is the road from eldwick down to bingley

didnt and couldnt do the towing thing tonight, need a good driver that wont screw the B**LOX off my golf. and it was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY too wet ask Craig (trialsalot i think he is) it would have been death. il try it tomoz though. theres a road near morrisons in keighley i might be able to get it

Waynio...........................

Watch out if you're running FFW doing that, if you're still wanting to go mad fast on your trials bike. Horrific trouser-into-freewheel shit just waaaaaaaaaaiting to happen...

[JT!]

1:6, every 6 you go along you go up 1. That's not that steep is it?

[Si-man]

1:6, every 6 you go along you go up 1. That's not that steep is it?

other way round isnt it

[tomturd]

I did 41 on my trials bike down a hill before it started wobbling uncontrollably.

I'd like to try the 25% incline hill we have here, but it only lasts for about 100 metres and has a blind junction at the bottom.

Edit: posted that while tomm was posting, I guess thats a 1:4 hill. Ive seen many cars stall in first gear before getting to the top of it.

[JT!]

other way round isnt it

Well, then that's impossibly steep then isn't it. It's near enough verticle.

[the judge]

1:6, every 6 you go along you go up 1. That's not that steep is it?

It's quite steep really, there's a hill of that gradient that I climb quite a lot on my road bike and trust me it's a bugger (especially on a 39:23 lowest gear), any much steeper than that and you'd need a ladder

edit: so coming down it I imagine you could get quite some speed up

Edited May 21, 2006 by the judge

[Tomm]

Yeah it's up one, across six. Who remembers their tan=opp/adj? You could easily work out the angle but it's not really important. It's pretty steep. You start getting warning signs telling you you're going down a 1 in 10.

Comme ça

[Mark W]

I did 41 on my trials bike down a hill before it started wobbling uncontrollably.

I'd like to try the 25% incline hill we have here, but it only lasts for about 100 metres and has a blind junction at the bottom.

Edit: posted that while tomm was posting, I guess thats a 1:4 hill. Ive seen many cars stall in first gear before getting to the top of it.

Is that the road that goes past the back of Penglais school, and ends up not far from the lights by where you enter Aber from the A470? The super steep one?

[tomturd]

Is that the road that goes past the back of Penglais school, and ends up not far from the lights by where you enter Aber from the A470? The super steep one?

Yeah that'd be the one.

Got drunk one night actually and went for a spin on my bike (for one reason or another, mainly drunken pissed offness involving a female) and ended up riding down there. Massivly underestimated the steepness of it and ended up flying out of the junction at the bottom, thought my brakes would work fine as it wasnt raining, but didnt realise the mist had soaked the rim. Luckily no cars were about at that time.. silly idea.. sobered me up pretty quick.

[JT!]

Well, 1:6 isn't steep at all then. We have a 1:3 around here. And a shag load of 1:4's

[Tomm]

Well, 1:6 isn't steep at all then. We have a 1:3 around here. And a shag load of 1:4's

I'd be very surprised if most cars could get up a 1:3. Unless it's some farm track or something, I don't believe you

[Waynio]

just gotta find my vid cam, its a bit wet again today but it might dry out for 2nite

got a half mile stretch of road, a fast (ish) car, some tow rope a spare pair of bars, a car speedo and a trilas bike wi no seat all i need now is some speed

OH and a decent driver who will be able to get upto 60mph. haha

Waynio.....................