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Pondering what would make the best bike specifically for hooning down tarmac?
I love scaring myself on the alternately fast, tight and twisty drops round here, but what would be the perfect bike?
Reckon a trike would be favourite, but not sure about two wheels, possibly some sort of recumbent?
Going trad, long and low seems to fit the bill.
Not too stiff, a bit of give whilst lent over would be nice, but not so much as to get noodly under braking.
Big double with a close ratio block, as little gear overlap between front rings as poss.
Big slicks on wide rims, surfaces are appalling round here and as much braking grip as possible appeals.
Big hydro discs.
More pies.
Ditch the luggage.
🙂
Just an idle thought.
Anymore ideas?
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myles rockwell won the red bull road rage on this.
A well set up road bike would be my weapon of choice... All my KOMs are heading downwards. 😕
What you're after is a [url=
Bike[/url].
On wee Brian Lopes bike? Must've looked like an Islabike under Myles? MOAR Aero though I s'pose 😉
Not being funny but any decent road race bike would be the one for fast road descents.
Skills of a pro sprinter trying to make the cut off time on an Alpine or Pyraneean stage and the road bike of choice
Road bike with dropper post for better aero and safer braking?
definitely this
😆
My mate built this
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A good endurance road / gravel bike (for stable geometry) running 28mm-32mm tyres and disc brakes. Down on the drops, knees and elbows in, slide to the back of the seat and brake as late as you dare 🙂
I love scaring myself
Raleigh Chopper, you will love it 🙂
this got me thinking. fastest descent round here is pork hill down from princetown to tavistock so I looked it up on strava.
my fastest time is a max of 53.5mph with an average of 42.9mph. that still only puts me in 166th!!!
KoM is an average speed of 53mph over 1.1miles and 500ft of descent.
It astonishes me how fast some people [i]seem[/i] to go downhill on Strava road segments.
*italics to signify possible recording glitches
My mate built this
I would LOVE a go on that!
Crowcombe is pretty fast jam bo, my best average is 47.9mph.
People using Strava on iPhones tend to get some very surprising descending times. You need a wheel magnet on a Garmin or similar to get accurate results.
I did TumbleUp4Life a few years ago which involved multiple ascents and descents of the Tumble. Only had a hybrid at the time, found the flat bars great control-wise but not aero at all, just maxed out no matter how much I tried to get down (and I have a descender's build, ahem). So I'd say it depends on the descent - twisty would want flat bars, a smoother course would favour aero. Have recorded 58mph on both the hybrid (a few runs at or near that pace on the Tumble) and on the racer - would love to take the racer to Abergavenny and see what she does down the Iron Mountain, little of it is tight enough to need discs/flat bars till you near the bottom.
[quote=Dibbs ]Crowcombe is pretty fast jam bo, my best average is 47.9mph.
never ridden down it. only once ridden up it.
I saw some guys on street luges and full leathers running it once and out into the sand trap.
Eat your heart out.
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i remember blowing up my first ever computer (a cat eye from 1988) by holding a high pressure water jet against my front tyre - it got to 80mph then the screen when blank... for ever.
that felt dangerous fast...
Trust me, you would not want to go downhill at 50 mph on my recumbent trike!
Giant Defy Advanced SL, 25c Vittorias, Dura Ace calipers and proper alloy rims for me every time when going downhill. Stable, stiff, stops!
Might try that Princeton descent, normally I turn left back to the coast via Ashburton when I am back home.
[quote=TiRed ]Trust me, you would not want to go downhill at 50 mph on my recumbent trike!
Giant Defy Advanced SL, 25c Vittorias, Dura Ace calipers and proper alloy rims for me every time when going downhill. Stable, stiff, stops!
Might try that Princeton descent, normally I turn left back to the coast via Ashburton when I am back home.
its great. full segment here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/2303779?filter=overall
1250ft of descent in 6 miles.
Going only on the bikes I own, my fastest bike was my Kaffenback when it had 28mm slicks on it. It was very stable, had good brakes and gripped well so I always felt I could go that little bit faster than my other bikes. I got to 50mph once and that was very, very scary, any higher than that and I'd want to be wearing leathers not Lycra.
Reckon a trike would be favourite
Have you ever ridden one?
They are bloody difficult to corner* at any kind of speed, on the flat, let alone on a descent!
This is Tony (of Thumbprint tuning) and his home brewed Gravity Bike built out of old 'Dale swingarms, a shortened Lefty, and assorted other spares. It is totally mental!
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*they don't lean, think about it...
1250ft of descent in 6 miles.
The descent off Haytor is always a bum-clencher, 1100ft in 3.3 miles, it's not massively steep on average but if you just let the brakes off, tuck properly and go with it you can get some serious speed up down it, it's good for 40-50+mph in places 😀
[url= https://www.strava.com/segments/3503970 ]https://www.strava.com/segments/3503970[/url]
its great. full segment here:
You'd better get out there, I'm the STW KoM 😯 - rode it on the last Tour of Britain, might head over there again soon. I think you can find 19 seconds. I am not a brave descender!
amedias - Member
Reckon a trike would be favourite
Have you ever ridden one?
TiRed - Member
Trust me, you would not want to go downhill at 50 mph on my recumbent trike!
No, just ill formed opinion.
Thanks for the clarification.
🙂
Those gravity bikes are mental, love to try one but not round here.
It's twisty, off camber, roller coaster, badly surfaced stuff.
Lots of arse over seat braking and mid corner sheep shit.
My Trek roadie was ace before I went compact, but it's a properly rigid, glued alloy frame and only takes 25's so I can't see anything on bad roads at decent speed.
MTB locked out with slicks is fun but a bit short, high and twitchy.
Upright position seems to limit top speed.
Have you considered getting a MTB that doesn't date from the '90s? 😉
You'd better get out there, I'm the STW KoM - rode it on the last Tour of Britain, might head over there again soon. I think you can find 19 seconds. I am not a brave descender!
It's the little climb in the middle that slows me down 😉
Trikes actually look great fun. You have to lean right into the corners moto Gp style to counterweight the upright position. From what I've seen anyway... It's a sight to behold, watching them descend at speed.
Don't tell my uncle Dennis this but I agree that a trike is a bad choice downhill especially when twisty, you need to steer more with the bars which makes the front tyre scrabble for grip (rather than leaning to improve the total contact patch)
a modern gnarmac* bike with wide slick tyres, wide deep drops and discs would be the thing to have
*lower bb than a traditional CX race bike