<story><title>Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/649221471/woman-rides-bicycle-to-183-9-mph-a-new-world-record</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gnulinux</author><text>I was maybe 10 or younger and I was speedbombing downhill with my younger sister. We were fearless and very, &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; fast. Of course we weren&amp;#x27;t wearing any helmet or whatever. One time as we were racing, she was winning, she shifted her bike toward my direction and slowed down. I ran into her bike and flew out of my bike. Next thing I know I&amp;#x27;m in the air, falling down towards the hill. When I finally hit the ground, I uncontrollably rolled downhill another maybe 10 meters. All my face and body was covered in blood and soil. My mom, seeing this incident from far away, ran for help. She told me, when I grew up, that when she was close enough to see me she was sure I was dead because of all the blood on the asphalt and what not. But thanks to the gods of probability, I didn&amp;#x27;t even break a bone. I don&amp;#x27;t understand how can human body can be so resilient that a 10 year old kid can survive such an accident without any damage other than his skin (and it wasn&amp;#x27;t permenant, I forgot about this event until now). I was stupid and I probably did that again and again, possibly even the next day. Now 15 years later, I bike everyday, but I bike very cautiously. I was lucky once, I don&amp;#x27;t wanna try my luck again.</text></item><item><author>komali2</author><text>As I get older, every time I find myself cruising at 50mph in traffic on the freeway on my motorcycle, I ask myself how the fuck younger me thought this was an acceptable speed at which to start lanesplitting. Was I insane? Nowadays I&amp;#x27;ll start around 40, more like 30, and never more than 10 over.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shame so many motorcyclists die young, before they get a chance to &amp;quot;grow into&amp;quot; some safety sense. I distinctly remember talking with my friends age 12 about how (apologies) &amp;quot;gay&amp;quot; helmets were on our bicycles. We&amp;#x27;d speedbomb hills too, it was fun. I remember feeling no fear back then. I remember my parents telling me &amp;quot;you&amp;#x27;re an idiot for thinking you&amp;#x27;re invulnerable.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Why do we think that way when we&amp;#x27;re young, that we&amp;#x27;re immune to damage? What changes? We experience more death firsthand? If I hadn&amp;#x27;t had to clean up car accidents and watch a friend lose her intelligence to a helmetless bicycle accident, would I still feel invulnerable?&lt;p&gt;I wonder about this woman - did she do this because she lacked the fear? Or did she feel it, and all the positives of doing it overruled her fear? Maybe she was just confident enough in her safety measures to do it anyway?</text></item><item><author>toomanybeersies</author><text>The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve ever gone on a pushbike was around 80 km&amp;#x2F;h (50 mph), down a hill.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s pretty fun and a great adrenaline rush, but holy shit it&amp;#x27;s dangerous. It&amp;#x27;s not like I was wearing protective gear, my polystyrene helmet and lycra wasn&amp;#x27;t going to protect me at that speed. All it would&amp;#x27;ve taken for me to fuck myself up was a large stone or a nail in my tyre or even just speed wobbles.&lt;p&gt;I stopped hill bombing pretty quick. It&amp;#x27;s not really worth the risk.&lt;p&gt;The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve managed on a flat is around 60-70 km&amp;#x2F;h, drafting behind a random car. That&amp;#x27;s also not safe, if the driver tapped their brakes, I&amp;#x27;d go straight into them.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s something so cool about going at car speeds, but without a motor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fian</author><text>Cyclists tend to break bones at slower speeds.  Pro-cyclists racing down mountains will lose a lot of skin in a fall but unless they hit something hard (rock, pole, wall) they don&amp;#x27;t tend to break bones. At walking speeds, a sideways fall often results in broken collar bones and wrists.&lt;p&gt;It is all about the angular momentum of the cyclist wrt to the road.</text></comment>
<story><title>Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/649221471/woman-rides-bicycle-to-183-9-mph-a-new-world-record</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gnulinux</author><text>I was maybe 10 or younger and I was speedbombing downhill with my younger sister. We were fearless and very, &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; fast. Of course we weren&amp;#x27;t wearing any helmet or whatever. One time as we were racing, she was winning, she shifted her bike toward my direction and slowed down. I ran into her bike and flew out of my bike. Next thing I know I&amp;#x27;m in the air, falling down towards the hill. When I finally hit the ground, I uncontrollably rolled downhill another maybe 10 meters. All my face and body was covered in blood and soil. My mom, seeing this incident from far away, ran for help. She told me, when I grew up, that when she was close enough to see me she was sure I was dead because of all the blood on the asphalt and what not. But thanks to the gods of probability, I didn&amp;#x27;t even break a bone. I don&amp;#x27;t understand how can human body can be so resilient that a 10 year old kid can survive such an accident without any damage other than his skin (and it wasn&amp;#x27;t permenant, I forgot about this event until now). I was stupid and I probably did that again and again, possibly even the next day. Now 15 years later, I bike everyday, but I bike very cautiously. I was lucky once, I don&amp;#x27;t wanna try my luck again.</text></item><item><author>komali2</author><text>As I get older, every time I find myself cruising at 50mph in traffic on the freeway on my motorcycle, I ask myself how the fuck younger me thought this was an acceptable speed at which to start lanesplitting. Was I insane? Nowadays I&amp;#x27;ll start around 40, more like 30, and never more than 10 over.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shame so many motorcyclists die young, before they get a chance to &amp;quot;grow into&amp;quot; some safety sense. I distinctly remember talking with my friends age 12 about how (apologies) &amp;quot;gay&amp;quot; helmets were on our bicycles. We&amp;#x27;d speedbomb hills too, it was fun. I remember feeling no fear back then. I remember my parents telling me &amp;quot;you&amp;#x27;re an idiot for thinking you&amp;#x27;re invulnerable.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Why do we think that way when we&amp;#x27;re young, that we&amp;#x27;re immune to damage? What changes? We experience more death firsthand? If I hadn&amp;#x27;t had to clean up car accidents and watch a friend lose her intelligence to a helmetless bicycle accident, would I still feel invulnerable?&lt;p&gt;I wonder about this woman - did she do this because she lacked the fear? Or did she feel it, and all the positives of doing it overruled her fear? Maybe she was just confident enough in her safety measures to do it anyway?</text></item><item><author>toomanybeersies</author><text>The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve ever gone on a pushbike was around 80 km&amp;#x2F;h (50 mph), down a hill.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s pretty fun and a great adrenaline rush, but holy shit it&amp;#x27;s dangerous. It&amp;#x27;s not like I was wearing protective gear, my polystyrene helmet and lycra wasn&amp;#x27;t going to protect me at that speed. All it would&amp;#x27;ve taken for me to fuck myself up was a large stone or a nail in my tyre or even just speed wobbles.&lt;p&gt;I stopped hill bombing pretty quick. It&amp;#x27;s not really worth the risk.&lt;p&gt;The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve managed on a flat is around 60-70 km&amp;#x2F;h, drafting behind a random car. That&amp;#x27;s also not safe, if the driver tapped their brakes, I&amp;#x27;d go straight into them.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s something so cool about going at car speeds, but without a motor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jacquesm</author><text>The big factor is that you simply weigh less.</text></comment>