I'm gonna try it one more time, on a borrowed bike, with higher gearing, just to finally put this nonsense to rest! Watch as I set up the new bike to try to hit a new top speed down Mounds Park Rd. in Southern Wisconsin.
Hi BikeFarmer! Long time listener, first time commenter. Curious: How does your wife feel about these death-defying experiments in pursuit of irrelevant datapoints?
My top speed was on a 1983 nashbar back in the early 90s with some Iron Maiden on the trusty Walkman. I hit 48 indicated on my Speedo whilst going down Farm to Market road 1960 in Houston. I cheated, however, by drafting an 18 wheeler. I REALLY miss that bike. Steel frame….shimano parts and some very comfy cork handle bar tape on it. I think I put about 5,000 miles on it over the years I had it.
I see references to "when dad is home with the kids and mom isn't home" memes in years past. I bet andy has some more cool and or unconventional bike experiments that will inspire other dads' imaginations out there :)
I hit 53mph going down route 111 in New Hampshire. I climbed 5 miles to the top of the hill (where they has a ski resort) and headed down towards Milford NH. The trick was to pedal and get as fast as I could then to tuck in and make myself as aero as possible. If you continue to pedal, you disturb the aerodynamics. I was in my mid 40's at the time. Back in the 1970's in Puerto Rico, when I was a racer, I would hit those speeds fairly regularly.
60 MPH attempts?! That's faster than I'm comfortable with for sure. I'm perfectly content with 30 mph, and I'm an Ebike fan. I will happily watch your attempts from the safety of my desk. 😂
Seeing you break the 50 into 51 was satisfying. 35yr old born in West Allis but have lived in NYC for the past 8 years, and your channel gives me an awesome taste of home--thank you. I just picked up cycling last month to get back in shape, and definitely need to come back home to check out all of these great roads. New favorite channel for sure.
Few years older and just returned with my wife and kids from a beautiful decade in NYC. No place like the five boroughs but great to be back with family in Madison (and cycling the driftless). All the best.
There's an old guy I know who told everyone he rode at 75mph down a certain hill in Dumfries in the 1950s. Someone asked him how he knew he was doing that speed. He advised as he was overtaking a car he looked at it's speedometer as he passed it. Black and white memories 😀
Awesome video! So much fun to tuck and go fast down some nice hills on the road bike;-) I noticed that I seem to get nice big speed when grade exceeds 9%. I reached 60mph just tucking outside Winona MN on cty 9 and I hit the brakes at 60 as I was still picking up speed;-) Fun!!! I used an old Seven Ti bike and 23mm tires and was thinking, better not flat going at that speed.
Now ya got me missing my old mid 90s purple Cannondale R800. I built it from frame up with DuraAce. Built the wheels myself. Remember the old spline drive aluminum spoke nipples? I'll have to see if I still have that spoke wrench in the tool box. That is a very nice Synapse you have on the stand. Not real keen on the bonded seat post, but........
Hello Bikefarmer. Once, I went downhill up to 68.8 kph on a Specialized and it was equaly frightening and exhilarating, It was on Puerto Herrera in SPAIN. Fortunately I realized it after donwloading the garmin to the laptop, otherwise I think I had braked. Never told wife about it ;-) You had a good time running downhill but as mentioned by others, these experiments are risky so better not abuse...
If I were to attempt that, I would use a classic lugged steel road bike from the early 1970's with relaxed frame angles and a steel fork with an investment cast crown and lots of trail. But, I wouldn't attempt it.
I was really glad to see you change out those tires after that old innertube ruptured. Can't imagine you wanting to go downhill at 15mph on "rubber" and cotton side walls tires that are at least 10 years old hahaha. Those Ultegra components are NICE!
During the summer of 2015 I hit 59 mph on my Cervelo bike going down the road from the Santa Fe ski area parking lot. The decent was from 10,300 feet to 7,500 feet. One of the reasons I was able to go so fast was my weight -- i am heavy, tipping the scales at 230 pounds. I tucked as low as I could go and let gravity do its thing. I'm glad I got to have that experience, but never again haha!
When I was a teenager we would ride up to Siskiyou Summit above Ashland, Oregon where you could legally ride down to town on the I-5 freeway drafting semi trucks. It was the only place I could use my 54 tooth chainring. You and I are much too old for that kind of stunt now. (But clearly you need an aero road bike with all the cables routed through the head tube.) 😀
Touring New England with my Dad in the mid 90s, I remember barreling down the Kancamangus Highway for miles and miles... hitting 50 mph was scary and super fun for 15 year old me...
Back when I was in college, I had ridden my old Schwinn Sports Tourer bike 8 mi. to a nearby town during a break between classes. It was mostly flat with a raging ~50 MPH headwind all the way. On the way back, I crested the only small hill along that stretch of road and was maxed out on the cadence as I started down. This was back during the 55MPH speed limit days and a car slowly inched up beside be and the driver gave me a five-five sign with one hand as he went by me. I had no speedometer on the bike and this was way before GPS, but I think I was doing that speed. I recall how quiet it got when I matched the tailwind speed. If there had been Strava back then, I would have had the KOM for that ride!
Great effort, have you now started the Bike Farmer Downhill Challenge? Would be interesting for subscribers to lend you bikes they think might help you beat that? Could you tell me what glasses you had on also?? 💪🏼💪🏼
Hub overhauls, new bearings, thoroughly cleaned & mildly polished cups (if loose ball bearings), grade 25 balls (if loose), best lube for speed (thinner oil), "rolling resistance" of type of tubes i.e. TPU or tubeless/tires setup..., I don't know, you tell me! 🤷♂️😉🤦♂️ I'm just sayin..., I was truly surprised you didn't do hub overhauls, really. 💯 I'm not "hatin'" here at all, or anything like that, just speakin' my mechanical understanding & what somewhat limited knowledge I've learned over the last maybe year or so & bringing up what I know could help! 👍🤝
about the quote at the start: actually flying is the closest you can get to flying. i went 60.8 mph once but it's gps measurement so it could be an error. steep descent, very hot and calm air, up at ~700 m above sea level when at sea level it was over 100 ˚F, and i was aero tucking most of the way down a triathlon clothes without a helmet. seems very dumb when i write it out like this, but it was pretty mellow and i wasn't going for records just training normally. didn't feel faster than at any other time under 60 mph. my usual top speed is around 50 mph, maybe 55 when there's a peloton on the descent. the bike is very similar to this, no aero stuff. i don't think it's about pedaling, it's more in the clothes and body position and you won't go that fast in winter!
Well done! I got 142 km/h approx 80mph before but kind of cheated; that was with a 160 - 180 km/h tail wind during a storm and downhill. It took me 4.5 hours to get to my starting point, and less than 15 minutes to get home.
I hit 42 mph on a tandem near Killington on a beautiful decentin Vermont. Words to live by “ You can gain allot of fitness going up hill, you can loose allot of fitness going down hill.”
Fellow driftless rider here :) hit 54mph last month heading north on 92 (just off 92) towards Mt Vernon. Mile or so decent going full gas on my emonda with a 15mph tailwind. Fastest for me yet in Wisconsin.
Good effort my man. Back in my youth I hit 62mph on my 26" wheeled mountain bike, but it was in the Pyrenees mountains on super smooth tarmac with slick tires, I didn't so much as roll, more plummet... Be safe ✊
I hit 62.5 mph on a hill back in 2001. My friend was in a support van filming with a compact video recorder and he was calling out the speed and showing his speedo on the dash. You can see me just rocket ahead when we broke 50 and my friend says, "Gotta put the camera down before I die", and I am literally out of sight. I really think I could have gone faster, but I came up on a car and had to apply my brakes because I couldn't see around the next curve in order to pass safely. I hit 54 on another bike, but nowadays I am happy to just break 45 mph. Unless you ride a bike, you don't realize how scary and exhilarating it is to even tap 50 on a skinny tire, rim brakes, and just a helmet and lycra to protect yourself.
Love the epic downhill music. Did you bomb down a few times or did you have multiple cameras along the hill? Also, have you shown us your local bike co-op yet? If not, it would be cool to see what it's all about and what kind of services they offer to members and/or the community. edit: It's official, I'm subbed to this shenanigans. Thanks for all of your great work. Your videos and the comments under them have brought on a ton of smiles.
Nice try. I'm no physicists, but I do know that hot air is thinner than cold air. Is it enough for a 7 mph difference down that hill? I also know that aerodynamic drag increases exponentially with speed. More aerodynamic frame on a hot day? Who knows... Anyway, cool video.
Once upon a time in the 1990's I hit 55mph on a stretch of public road in La Jolla, Ca...Shore Drive...it was in the middle of the Saturday morning "training" ride...the "computer was an Avocet 2 button cyclocomputer...very basic. The SCARIEST thing I have EVER done on a bike.
Hit my fastest speed on the racetrack Nürburgring during a 24h-Race down "Fuchsröhre". I went 98,7km/h (=61,3mph). Back then I had about 95kg, pedaled up to 70km/h (=43,5mph) and then did the supertuck.
My 2004 Giant ocr-2 is nearly identical to that cannondale except I upgraded to a 52/36 10 speed hollowtech 2 crank & Cosmic aero wheels. It’s incredibly stable at speed. My best going downhill according to my Garmin edge is 38.8mph. Tons of fun! Kudos in breaking 50! 👍🏻
I hit 39.9 mph earlier this year. All the while I’m thinking of my wheel bearings which I had just repacked. I agree with the quote by Robin Williams at the beginning. I felt like I was flying.
I hit 37 on my 3 speed beach bike on the decent in Saluda NC and punched OUT as the coaster brake concerned me 😮 it’s a 1700 foot decent with tight turns
That's amazing! And you put on the perfect soundtrack! Consider that the aerodynamic resistance grows not linear but by the square power. If you double your speed the resistance is 4- fold. 3x speed = 9x resistance. That's why it is so hard to get another 5 or 10 mph top speed.
Force increases by the square, but power increases by the cube (of speed). So the increase from 50 to 60 would be 72.8%. Maybe if he loaded the bike down with a couple weight plates...
Looks like a 53-tooth crank and probably a 10-tooth lowest cassette. (But it could be an 11-tooth because it isn't shown well enough to count the cassette teeth.) Anyhow, assuming 700c tires with a 10 tooth on the cassette, to go 60 mph you would need a pedalling cadence of 2.35 rotations/second or 141/minute. Plus a good heart and lungs!! If the lowest cassette sprocket were an 11-tooth, you'd need a pedal cadence of 155/minute.
I have zero desire to bomb down a mtb trail, but hitting 60 on pavement, sign me up! Fast I hit was 60 mph, fully loaded, on my trek 520, in the Ozark mountains on a quarter mile drop. 520 loaded right handled that speed no problem. Even the 30 mile passes in wyoming didn't get me to 60 mph. In the Ozarks if you see the truck going down a hill sign, you know its gonna be a very steep grade. Like 20 percent or more.
I hit abound 54 or 55mph was about the fastest I went, back in the 80's early 90's in Scotland on a dual carriageway with steady grade downhill. Back when we were running 42-52 chainrings, and 12 to 24 cassettes ISH (who know how we ever even got up the hills in the first place) Lol. I crashed after pothole double pinch flat last year at just under 40mph, so don't feel the need for that much downhill Max speed anymore. Just trying to get faster going upwards. Drew.
I hit 60mph once in the on rt27 mountains of maine on a Lemond Zurich with those horrible Rolf wheels. As soon as I saw 60 on my Cat eye the bike began to violently shake due to the extra long valve stem. Never tried to go that fast again after that.
This is awesome. Funny, I’m very familiar with that road going uphill (it’s climbed twice in the Horribly Hilly Hundreds event), but I had never considered going downhill. The thought terrifies me.
Do it again with some good quality glasses that will get the wind out of your eyes... We won't tell you you look like one of those cycling store customers. We know you are the true bike shop guy and a pair of glasses ain't going to change you except for make your eyes not tear up so much.
Ive been up to 60 a few times on mountain roads. 45 was a regular affair on a lake loop I lived near. Really each time i hit 60 i told myself i never needed to do that again.
I hit 60 mph in 1980 with a group of riders during an MS150 charity ride when we went through Wisconsin. At one point we were keeping pace with cars on the highway. Scary, but exhilarating as hell. Similar looking countryside. I guess it could have been the same area you're in.
At 6’5” and 215lbs, and living in hilly Vermont, I have the downhill mass and steep road opportunities to regularly hit 50+mph on my rides! I know I’ve hit close to 60mph on the upper section of Middlebury Gap (but that was in a strung out line of riders during a race, so I wasn’t looking at my speedometer, but it felt WAY faster than the 50mph I normally hit!)
In my 20s I consistly reached 45 mph on a 9% downgrade on a 1960s British Danault bike. As I've aged my greatest concerns are tires and wheel bearings.
I crawled out from your dumpster to get you your coffee from YumYum donuts as you open up the shop doors..... you know you need me to get your lunch and I need some used gatorskins for my fixie .. c'mon champ, let me mop and sweep your shop .. it's cold. BTW, did you drain your compressor?
I would never go for speed w/o checking the bike for speed wobble first. That said, my fastest descents were on my Cannondale tandem. Well in excess of 60.
Hill not steep enough, it's all about gravity. There are plenty hills near me I can hit 50mph on without trying, that bike could handle 60mph easy you got it nicely sorted.
Would you recommend an older road bike frame like that for building up a short commute bike? I need something for doing errands around town and putting flat bars, a 1x8, cargo rack and wider road tires on an older frame is what I’m leaning towards. However on the budget end right alongside older mtb frames are tons of older road bikes like this, so I’m looking at both options.
Yea, 54 mph is about as fast as I’ve every descended off any grade in any of the 44 states I’ve ridden, but there this one short grade north- east Wisconsin that I hit 52 mph, it’s only about 1/3 of a mile. Correction ridden in all 50 states, Florida being the flattish had a blowout at 49 mph bike a long frame 26’’ wheels rear, when from side to opposite side of roadway three times before coming to a stop. Rode that hill on my trike this year hit 62 mph. It has a full fairing less wind resistance, still scary though! How come you don’t give your camera guy credit?
Fastest I've gone is 112kmh sent it down a mountain and tried to be aerodynamic as I could 1300m vertical 7 switchbacks lots of time to go fast was on a mountain bike alot more stable at high-speeds
Not enthusiastic about going fast downhill. Was in a park when a talkative older guy hobbled up. He described his many injuries after running off the road speeding downhill from a nearby mountain.
