Ride Fast: Top Tips For Cycling At High Speed

One of the best things about riding on the road is going fast. Riding at high speed is a great skill to have but can sometimes be intimidating or scary. But have no fear, as Manon and Conor are here to give you their top tips on how to ride fast, safely and with confidence!
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#Cycling #GCN #RoadBike

0:00 Intro
0:39 What Are High Speeds?
1:18 Body Position
2:03 Control
2:40 Focus On The Job!
3:08 Cheat The Wind
3:48 Sit Back And Relax

Are you looking forward to taking on these tips and riding FAST?! And do you have any top tips of your own? Let us know in the comments below! 💬

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Leave us a comment below!

[gcn]

What are your top tips for riding FAST?!

[yifankach]

To add to these
01 Hugging the Saddle nose w inner thighs while floating slightly above it for added comfort and stability at high speeds
02 Looking quite down ahead of the road where I need to be instead of what is right in front of me, avoid target locking
03 For new routes I take quick glances at the upcoming turn on cycle comps to help better gauge weight and feet positions

[dylanmcgowan]

My best tips are ensure you’ve got a lot of life left in your brake pads and ensure your bolts are on tight. Doesn’t take 5 minutes to go around with a multi-tool and ensure everything is tight.

[robg]

65 kph downhill once was enough for me looking at the thin sliver of rubber protecting me from potentially a lot of pain! Wimp out now and feather my brakes a lot going downhill unless it’s a hill I’m very familiar with.

[deej]

Haha - Manon said "Tailwind" everyone knows they don't exist!

[odiesdad]

Fastest speed I ever achieved was 56.4 mph. What a blast. That was 20 years ago though. I'm 61 yrs old now and don't know if I have the stones to ride that fast now.

[lucafwn]

"No matter how experienced you are, things can happen" - case in point: Hinault, Dauphiné, 1977.

[escamunicha]

Do you people really reach 60 km/h on flats? wow. On flats with 50-34 crank, I can go only as high as 34 km/hr, and only 38-40 km/hr with tailwind and ive been riding for a year. On descent I can reach 50-60

[jaimeisreal]

Just a quick F.Y.I.. Front brake feathering in the U.K. is back brake feathering in North America, meaning, the brakes are reversed. If you're new to cycling, Manon (at 2:21) is feathering her front brake. But in North America, the right-side lever is the back brake (on almost all setups). Keep that in mind.

[cdcaterham]

I hate descending steep descents....terrifies me at speed... would rather climb! Plus I am not making my living from cycling so the risk of a serious work-or life threatening accident caused by descending too fast isn't worth it.

[esenel]

60-70 km/h... I tend to chicken out at around 40 🤣
As someone that's quite familiar with mechanical engineering, considering all the forces stressing the bike I can't help but have my mind drift to how far I'd fly before hitting the ground if something were to fail in a spectacular way around that speed.. 😅

[MrJwmurph]

You should assess the conditions, the same road may not always be safe to go fast on.
If the road is wet / slippy or there are gusting crosswinds. A gap in a hedge or a gateway can let a strong gust through that can destabilase you more if going fast.

[StuckOnAFireHydrant]

Don't forget to check road conditions and tires! I was coming down a mountain in February in my freshman year at the university and applied breaks for a turn and my rear tire skid because of salt they had down, so I let off, next thing I knew I was in the corner into the gravel in the shoulder sliding along the guardrail. Less than half a second later I was on my back tumbling down a slope over the guardrail. I climbed my way back up and some random lady in a Prius saw me climbing over the rail to the road and brought me down and got my bike too! I was more worried about bleeding all over her car and blanket she gave me (there was a deep gash in my hand and my entire right leg was skinned pretty much). From there we called an ambulance and I was stitched up. Lucky I was wearing my visibility vest that day it she may have never saw me

[jasongirvan]

Another good tip especially when you want to go extremely fast, 80+kmh is to balance your wheels. I’m surprised more pros don’t do this. Probably half or more speed wobbles are caused by unbalanced wheels. The wheels on your car are balanced so why wouldn’t you do your bike if you want to go that fast

[ghcheong]

Also, to add, look ahead, constantly. Some cyclists have a habit of looking ahead at an object: a tree, a lamp post and be so target fixated on it that they almost turn around to look at it after they pass it. Look at the line you want to take instead.

[ThisIsJoe]

“Focus!” - yes m’am! 😁 Another top video from the Connor and Manon show 👏

[kidShibuya]

I got to 89km down a mountain in Japan on my Grail CF when I had a fully loaded tailfin on the back with about 15kg in it plus a frame bag full of stuff. I chickened out at that point as my rear wheel started coming off the ground over the bumps in the road. That was a great trip. I didnt check my brakes before I left for it but when I got back I had my bike serviced. The front disk pad was gone, perfectly and totally warn away, but no further. I was so lucky lol

[strato]

1:30 Nice nails, Conor! (funny montage 🤣)

[evanmacdougall]

Once while doing 35mph on a long straight downhill I clipped a rock that made my front tire undecided on its direction. Fortunately I was able to stay upright, but that definitely had a high pucker factor. I've hit 45mph on the downhill in a local triathlon, but fortunately it's on a reasonably gentle bend in a wide highway. Generally I keep it under 30 on most downhills because I'm not racing and the thrill isn't worth the risk to my health and family and it takes a long time to stop at a red light when going downhill and using rim brakes.

[VictorElGreco]

I need a long descent *without* hairpins every 100 meters or so to reach speeds in the 60-80 kph range. The major challenge is cornering IMHO. 😌