Back in the late 1950s, when I was around 9 years-old, I had an air speed type speedometer mounted on my handle bars and went down a steep hill on my typical 1950s style bicycle. I got up to almost 50 mph according to the speedometer and finally slowed down at the bottom of the hill. Amazing that I survived as the brakes barely worked.
I had one of those! Mine was about 6” in diameter as I recall, and was made of transparent red plastic. Very cool.
When I was about 11 in 1952, I had a redSchwinn 26 inch with the tank on the frame and coaster brakes. Mom & Dad got me a mechanical speedometer for Christmas (BIG mistake!). I installed it and put it to the test when it started warming up the following spring. I remember it reading 45 down the hill in front of our house...the next thing I knew I was waking up about 8 AM the next day. Knocked out cold for about 12 or 14 hours. Mom and Dad called the doc after they hauled me inside. He said “Is that him screaming.” Dad replied “Yeah.” Doc said “He’ll be ok.” Never did visit the ER! I was told I hit a pothole and went headfirst over the bars. How I made it to adulthood I’ll never know!
I was about 11 or 12 when I pegged my bike’s speedometer at 50 down a steep hill. The coaster brake was really hot when I finally got stopped.
My old Schwinn Typhoon (one-speed, coaster brake) had a speedometer that went to 50. I pegged it down a steep hill when I was about 11, and the brake was practically smoking when I finally got stopped. A few years later, I might have gone faster than that on several occasions on my Peugeot 10-speed (which I still have after 46 years), but it didn’t have a speedometer. Nobody wore helmets back then, either.