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@clubman
As far as I know this was only ever done for medium gear events, and for those it was normal practice - but my 49 x 18 did pass.
There was a time when juniors were restricted to 86" for road racing, but I think that was checked just by looking at the sprockets (48 x 15 being usual).
Going back to 1950's TT results, which may be of some interest here because they were achieved on the sort of kit that people here desire to own, it is a bit of a puzzle why they were so slow. Or, to put it the other way round, why they had already got so much faster by 1991 when the new position (clip on bars) came into use. It would be very easy to imagine that the increased speed was the result of better kit, but I think most of the 'improvements' had a very marginal effect. If we accept that fixed (given a suitable day and course) in as fast as gears, the only thing I can see that really made a difference was lighter spoking. For all the fuss that was made about Alf's bike (the 48 minute one), was it really any faster than the one he was using in the '50's?
I believe that the main factor was that bigger gears became the norm. If you think that 81" is a good gear to race on, you'll probably always be impressed any sub hour 25.
Of course, competition is also a big factor - if you know you need to do a 56 to stand a chance of winning, you won't be aiming to do a 59. All the same, I wish I still had the power to go well enough to demonstrate the proof of my argument.