Rodney Crater

Machka you continue to amaze me and I have this total respect/admiration thing about your bicycle efforts and experiences.

I was out yesterday in 45-50 mph winds. The first leg was a mile right into it. It was all I could do to keep my front wheel steady. The gusts shifted slightly the whole time. I could not get above 7th gear /12. Actually I was probably too high geared but I tend to be stubborn. ( although the winter biking got the best of me this year I admit ) When I finally turned, the wind was coming at me almost sideways but a little from the rear. I found that if I turned my body slightly like a sail the wind just let me cruise along although the bike was tipped top slightly toward off road to the right. It was cool! The only bad part was a semi-truck pulled out behind me and kept going slow because it was afraid to pass me with cars coming at us. As soon as the cars cleared, I reached up my left arm to wave him past me. As soon as I did this the wind caught my arm and threw me off balance and I ended up going into the ditch rolling out off my bike in a shoulder to ankle fall breaking roll. I can just imagine that I made that trucker's day. I could just imagine him laughing at my wavering decent into the ditch and rolling crash.

I learned a lot of lessons about wind yesterday, like: When stopping and heavy wind is hitting you on the unclipped side, give more lean toward the foot you took out of the clip or the wind will blow you over to the clipped in leg side at the stop; If you have a bucket on the back for carrying stuff and you stop unhook the bungies and take things out to add more to your clothing, hang on to the bucket or you will be chasing it down the road; If you stop for any reason don’t leave the bike alone positioned with the wind coming at it from the stand side or it will blow the bike over; and finally if you crash, remember to make sure the water bottles are still on the bike or you might get up the road a mile and have to turn around into the wind and go back and get them. Other than that it was a great workout The bike is fine.