# The fastest you've traveled with pure human power **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 22, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fastest-youve-traveled-with-pure-human-power/749828 "2016-03-22T04:11:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fastest-youve-traveled-with-pure-human-power/749828/21 "2016-04-09T21:37:30Z")
> [@robby](#): > > According to my digital speedometer, I hit a maximum speed of **63 mph** going down a long, steep grade on a 12-speed road bicycle back when I was in college. > [@jtur88](#): > > Downhill speed is not human power. It’s gravity-assist. Unless you climbed to the height by your human power… That’s exactly what I did. I had to climb the hill first, increasing my gravitational potential energy. > [@jtur88](#): > > …and then released that stored energy in free fall. I did subsequently convert that gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy (adding to my speed), but fortunately I was never in [free fall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall). That would have involved riding off of the edge of a cliff. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fastest-youve-traveled-with-pure-human-power/749828/22 "2016-04-09T22:40:32Z")
Somewhere in the 60s MPH. Good downhill, paved highway, cranking as hard as my 10-speed would go. Guy next to me in a car shouting out the speed! Good times. No helmet, either. About 17 years old. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fastest-youve-traveled-with-pure-human-power/749828/23 "2016-04-09T23:31:47Z")
When I was a kid we built a bonfire one year. A bunch of us rode up to the rubbish tip, halfway up Black Mountain, to get tires to put on the bonfire for additional smoke. Don’t ask me why. We all had crappy 1960s bikes; no gears, back pedal brakes. We each hung tires on our handle bars and set off back down the mountain. None of us was a physicist and we had not contemplated the speeds at which we would travel downhill burdened with many pounds of dead weight over our front wheels with only braking inadequate for an unladen bike down a hill that steep. How fast did I go? Terrifying per hour I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fastest-youve-traveled-with-pure-human-power/749828.md?page=1)