your average cyclist can sprint to over 30 mph without much trouble.
I don’t believe that. That’s 50kph!! Your average cyclist will be pedaling 12 to 15 mph (20 to 25 kph) and at that point you’ll be sweating, it’s not “leisure” speed. That would be up to 9mph/15kph.
You are not reaching 30mph unless you are fully sprinting on a descent with a gravel bike (maybe a mountain bike if it’s a long, long, stretch) or have a road bicycle on a flat/slight slope and you are full sending it (even on a flat road I’m assuming, I’ve never ridden one). Not to mention these people will be using protective gear.
I have a gravel bicycle and on a flat road I can get up to 23mph (37 kph) with me going full beans (occasionally fighting the wind). For reference, I’ve only reached 30mph a couple times in 1,100km and it’s been only on a 3km long downward stretch of road. Also because there’s no point to waste that energy when you are transversing double digits distances, and it gets really scary to be at those speeds anyways.
You certainly cannot get those speeds on a city bike or mountain bike on flat asphalt since they are not as aerodynamic, and often more heavier.
Yeah, I don’t doubt it, I was just trying to be (overly) conservative to show how pedaling up to and keeping 50kph is far from being reachable by the average cyclist.
Not only because of the bike, but you also need a well maintained strech of asphalt to reach and maintain that speed.
In my head I thought I can easily get to 60kph with the sprint output I do with my gravel bike if I had a carbon road bike, but I didn’t want to say something silly. Especially because I’d still be dealig with the same terrible infrastructure and wind around here.
The other point was that once you get in the 40kphs it starts to get scary, but that’s down to where you are and the conditions. So it’s not like the average bro with flipflops and front basket does it on the daily.