How can I throw a general exception in Java?

You could use IllegalArgumentException:

public void speedDown(int decrement)
{
    if(speed - decrement < 0){
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Final speed can not be less than zero");
    }else{
        speed -= decrement;
    }
}

You could create your own Exception class:

public class InvalidSpeedException extends Exception {

  public InvalidSpeedException(String message){
     super(message);
  }

}

In your code:

throw new InvalidSpeedException("TOO HIGH");