Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Wind and a Clyde body.

Wait til you are on a tour bike with panniers on front and rear and you catch a crosswind that's real hard! It's positively scary!
!Beware of riding on bridge with Dual Panniers!
Tuesday I was riding from my old work location to my new work location fully loaded as we were not allowed to pack personal stuff. I have noticed lately during the day down in the HOT AND HUMID (Dry heat my !!!!) state of Texas that the wind picks up quite a bit. So there I am fighting uphill on a bridge in the right wheel of the right lane when I get hit by a decent crosswind pushing me to the right. I tried to countersteer and leaned hard left and ended up about 2 ft from the edge. :eek: I then notice just how short the side of the bridge is since looking down from my upright. There is about a 4' shoulder and then maybe a 3' high 12" wide wall before I'd tumble into a 6 lane 65mph highway from above.
Today I only had my rear panniers and a front bag with overall a much lighter load. Not alot of wind out there at 5am but since I am alone on the road at that time I was towards the left of the right hand lane all the way accross. Actually made a pretty good time today. 21 miles in 1:20 riding/1:30 overall.

The MS150 i just completed in St. Augustine/Daytona had wind and rain on both days. Day 2 was horrible. The wind was blowing at 30mph in all directions. On day one there was a tall bridge that i was able to maintain 18mph up and 37mph down. On the next day going in the opposite direction I could only muster 9mph uphill and 16mph downhill on that same bridge.

There was a recumbent with a wind guard that made him look like a banana on wheels getting blown all over the place.

Even though the wind was tough on everyone, my riding partners (both smaller..around 180 ea...and one is a cat 4 racer) and I averaged around 21 mph for the first century the first day and 19.3 for the full 188 on both days. I am happy to say that this 253lb clyde was passing riders left and right on day two and dropping the little guys.

That's because they are in your wind shadow. It happens to me too ;)


Yup, my best shrimpy buddy says I'm a great windblocker to draft behind.

I had my first ride in Kansas today. The wind was between 20-30 mph. It was my first time on Kansas gravel roads. These are not like the gravel roads in MN. The gravel here is soft and deep. Even with my floaty big apple tires, there were times when I would just skid from side to side randomly. I often had to ride in the middle of the road, or the wrong side... wherever the gravel was most hard packed.

The first leg was on a mostly dirt, semi-packed gravel road with the wind on my side. Did 10 mph as a warm up, and the turned right onto deep gravel and into the wind head on. Found the only hill in Kansas, with gravel about an inch thick and loose, and I was down to 5 mph going up that hill. Turned right again, with the wind to my side and the gravel a bit harder, and was able to just enjoy the ride.

Took another right, with the wind at my back, not working as hard as I had been the whole previous ride, and was going 24 mph on the flats. I have never* gone 24 mph on a flat road before.

I only went 8 miles. It was getting dark. The workout was GREAT! It felt like I had done 16 miles.

Lesson learned: always start out sideways to the wind to warm up, and make your last leg with the wind!

By the way, it was beautiful. I have had heat and electric problems since I've been down here, and I've had a series of jobs which have had me locked in my office. I was ready to go back home, where if I had to be stuck at a computer at least my workstation would be more ergonomic. But riding through the wheat and soy fields with that huge sky above me reminded me of how beautiful the country is.

Tell me about it! I'm 24 inches across the shoulders - I push a lot of wind. My triathlete neighbor keeps wanting to ride with me.....says something about drafting a bus.

Everyone gets behind me when the wind blows, same reasoning. You can hear groans when I get off the hoods and in the drops.:D At least when it's blowing the fast riders don't feel the need to make the whole ride a sprint and blow me off the back.