Need for Speed

I went for a short bike ride this evening, over the hill on Cannon, to Santiago Oaks Regional Park, biked some of the trails and found a new (to me) path that takes you out the side door of the park, so to speak.

On the way down the hill on Cannon, my speedometer hit 51.7mph. I knew I was going faster than I had gone the last couple times...but I also had a feeling that I wasn't really going 51.7mph.

Just before heading out, I tried to reset the tripmeter, max speed, etc on my speedometer. Unfortunately, I don't know the button commands well enough, and completely reset the whole thing -- it prompted me to input a wheel factor.

I couldn't remember what I'd used before, and the garage door had shut already, so I wasn't going to waste time going back through the house. I took a stab at the number, and headed out on my ride.

I'd guessed too high. So I ran the numbers, fought the math, and came up with a new top speed of 46.4mph. Not too shabby! I think I can probably get at least a couple mph faster on that hill. Can I top 50mph? I'm not sure, but I want to find out. I may have to qualify my previous top speeds as "unofficial".

I'm also going to carve the wheel factor digits into the back of the speedometer, so next time I inadvertently reset the thing, I can know what to set it back to.