Desperately lost on a back road in Washington state with no cell reception to awaken my mapping app nor call my wife to figure out where she was and how we would ever connect, I hit a twisting, turning narrow descent fearing for my safety.
I found myself pushing my personal speed limits.
I swear I probably hit 40 mph, and with that the posted speed limit I was certain a maniac or two would still try to pass me and possibly kill me, most likely a big-ass pickup truck pulling a fifth-wheel with a bass boat on a trailer hooked up to complete the trifecta!
When the roadway leveled off and widened out, and my heart rate recovered, I realized it has been many, many years since I’ve come close to riding that fast.
It has been more than 30 years since I hit my max.
Coming down a long, steep, straight descent outside Goleta, California on a bike tour from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I hit 55.5 mph on my speedometer.
I was riding a straight bar mountain bike with slick 1.5-inch tires. Even then I wouldn’t have dared hit that speed on narrow road tires. I’ve always been a chicken.
I remember the wind resistance was so strong I could barely move my hand into braking position without my handlebars wobbling, and whoa! I needed that hand on the brake.
I retired that odometer fearing if I changed the battery, it would erase the 55.5, not that without a new battery it would ever awaken again.
This week’s question, what’s your all-time max speed?
50 mph, Copeland Hill Rd., southern Albany County, NY. Just as I hit 50, Rick comes past me at 52 mph singing a tune from “Oklahoma”.
I used to have a Cateye cyclo-computer and later a Garmin. I have a nice Wahoo that was given to me last year, but it’s still in the box. There is something about having stuff strapped to my bikes that irks me. I forgo bottles on my mountain bikes for a long time because of this. I still do not like having extra junk attached. We all have a computer in our pockets, at home, at work, everywhere. I do not wish to look at one while I’m riding. That said, fastest off-road (on a trail) 43 mph. Fastest on road 54mph. Maybe.
35ish on single track, somewhere in the mid 50s on the road when I was a lot younger and slightly dumber.
55 when I caught a FedEx van’s draft at the start of a not-too-steep downhill. It happened very quickly, when I looked at the computer I quickly stopped pedaling. I was in my 40’s. Seems quite dangerous in hindsight.
Fastest without a draft was 51 on Rte 9 coming into Wilmington, Vt. In my 30’s.
These days, I keep it under 45 (I’m 59), even though bikes and tires are definitely safer now.
Ha, I know that Rte 9 descent. I also went very fast there once.
My fastest ever was on a downhill a few miles south of there, 54mph, on Ed Clark Rd.
My brakes were soft.
67 mph on my Ritchey MTB in the late 80s coming down a local paved road in Ashland OR. Close to 60 on my custom Wolfhound road bike coming down from Paradise while riding the Chico Wildflower in the early 2000s. I got behind a tandem and decided I needed to pass them at some point. Scared the crap out of them and me when I did. I don’t do that kind of speed any more especially after getting hit by a car while I was going 35 on a county road and spent a week in the ICU(94 year old that should not have been behind the wheel)
I saw 50.8mph half way down the paved Frizzel Hill in Leyden, MA before my eyes watered too much to see. Also there is a 40mph downhill logging road in the woods of Gill, MA that I don’t think I have the gumption to do any more.
59.5 mph in the Death Ride, aka Tour of the California Alps near Alpine County, CA. I think it was about 2/3 of the way down the west side of Monitor pass. (It could have been on the east side of Carson Pass; this was before I had a GPS.) The road was closed to cars, there were very few riders still climbing up, so I had a clear run down through the canyon and just let it rip on my old Giant OCR with aluminum wheels and 23cm tires.
I spent a couple years gunning for 60 mph but never got there. Now if I hit 50 that feels really, really fast.