# Bay Area Downhills - Fastest Descent Times



## trainCatcher (Oct 19, 2005)

Since this forum already has discussions on fastest ascents and max descent speeds, it's natural to ask what are people's fastest times on descents. I don't want to encourage folks to go out and break bones in order to break records, I'm just curious about how quickly people descend the local climbs. The only time I seem to record is my descent on King's. My best time is 9 minutes flat from Sklyine to Greer.


----------



## kneejerk (Feb 2, 2007)

I have never timed the decents. I am a down hill junkie of sorts. I started riding road bikes just to go down the hills. I have taimed myself over the years (realizing the risks!) but, I am not afraid to let her fly when the feeling is right. Although I find the speeds relatively slow compared to some motorcycle road racing I have done, it is difficult to beat that satisfying feeling of cornering close to the limit on a road bicycle.


----------



## scottyperkins (Jun 18, 2007)

I have an 18% hill on my morning commute, and I've hit just a whisker under 60mph.

I rode King's for the first time a few weeks ago and I was really impressed by the descending skills of a group that was up ahead of me. I'll have to go back and pull out my descent times from two of the other rides in the South Bay (Rt. 9 from Skyline and Mt. Hamilton Road). While I'm sure there are *many* better descenders on those routes I haven't been passed by any of 'em yet.


----------



## scottyperkins (Jun 18, 2007)

trainCatcher said:


> Since this forum already has discussions on fastest ascents and max descent speeds, it's natural to ask what are people's fastest times on descents. I don't want to encourage folks to go out and break bones in order to break records, I'm just curious about how quickly people descend the local climbs. The only time I seem to record is my descent on King's. My best time is 9 minutes flat from Sklyine to Greer.


I did 9:42 yesterday, my second time ever down that stretch. Looks like I'll have to try harder.


----------



## trainCatcher (Oct 19, 2005)

scottyperkins said:


> I did 9:42 yesterday, my second time ever down that stretch. Looks like I'll have to try harder.


Don't try too hard!  There are a few hard corners on Kings that sneak up on you and I've heard of experienced bikers going off the road on those parts.

I love the technical downhills, but I usually forgot to stop timing myself at the bottom. I'm looking forward to going Page Mill now that it's repaved. Though PM is not as pure of a descent test, from a timing perspective, due to the rollers at the top. Though, I do enjoy going down 84 from Skyline (in any direction), even though it's more of a one dimensional descent.


----------



## kneejerk (Feb 2, 2007)

East Highway 9 in Saratoga/San Jose: did it today, clocked 12:20 from top to bottom (stop sign to town), I had use of a truck 2/3 the way for drafting which helped get my max speed up to 48.3mph (I usually don't see more than 45mph on this hill), it was cold and I had a loose wind breaker on, Cateye gave me an average speed of 32.9mph., 6.99 miles,

I timed myself on the way up too, but that was nothing special


----------

