Catweazle

With winds gusting at well over 30 knots here this morning's ride was not particularly comfortable. I was riding my son's flat bar road bike rather than the heavier hybrid. Had the handlebar set about 1" lower than the saddle, and that's about as low as I can comfortably get. Those years in a sawmill have taken a toll on my back, unfortunately.

Even on the lighter and faster bike I was finding myself damn near blown backwards at times. Dodging all the twigs and branches that'd been blown onto the road was kinda hair-raising at times, too. For once, I was none too displeased when the ride came to an end.

I was planning to take the hybrid out for my second ride of the day a bit later, but rain has been blown in with the wind now, and I suspect that's not gonna end up happening. I feel kinda guilty about that, so I'd love to hear your stories about how much the wind sucks rather than blows! What kinda conditions pull YOU up?




Of course, if you relish riding in the wind it'd be fun to hear about that too, or if you have any tips for riding in windy conditions, or whatever.....

big john

I don't relish the wind, but I get dropped so often that I have come to terms with it, if that makes any sense. If conditions are bad, I do a little better as compared to others. In fact, I make new friends on organized rides as others seek shelter on my wheel. A benefit of being tall and wide on the bike.

knatchwa

you can look at it as a deterrent or see it as improvement on the standard workout. I ride in the wind, though sometimes my speed suffers at least I am stronger when I complete the ride. Wind is like the mountain, in the sense you need to take it head on to reach the top or in the case of the wind to get to your destination. It is certainly a matter of interpretation. The wonders of being human is we have a choice to make it or not.

Digital Gee

I don't mind wind unless it's broken wind.

Bill Kapaun

I detest headwind. Now if I had a constant tailwind, I'd ride a lot more!

Catweazle

I ended up getting in a ride this afternoon (albeit a shortish one) after the showers blew over. Down to the supermarket and then a few kilometres around town to make it a 10k ride, and I'm pleased enough with the progress I've made on the heavier hybrid bike. I'm certainly better equipped to maintain a bit more speed in adverse conditions, that's for sure, and if anything I got the impression that the stronger gusts didn't impact on me as much as they did on the lighter road bike. Perhaps the momentum is assisting? Without a doubt the strength of the gusts hadn't abated.

geofitz13

I have learned the first principal of cycling. When there is a wind, it is always a headwind. If you reverse direction, it will still be a headwind. I do not like this.
BTW, what is this thing called "tailwind?"

maddmaxx 

Hills you can see coming. Wind is always sort of a surprise...............as in why is it so hard to go this slow. You can feel a little better about it if you realize that its kicking everyone elses butt also.

RockyTopBiker

And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worried about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searchin
Searching for shelter again and again
Against the wind
A little something against the wind
I found myself seeking shelter against the wind
-Bob Segar

BlazingPedals

Most of the high wind conditions seem to happen about now -- in the spring. Unfortunately, that's when 'warm' is hardest to come by, and wind makes things COLD. Sure it slows me down some, but that's not the reason to hate it.

Jet Travis

I was in North Dakota, riding into a very stiff headwind. Someone said, "Well, it won't be a headwind when we get to the corner."

"How far is it to the corner?"

"Oh, about 40 miles."

I almost cried, but that's North Dakota for you.

Catweazle

Maybe it'd be an idea to let Bob Segar know that around these parts, today, a bloke just about had to bust his pooper to travel at eight miles an HOUR!


But I did it. Didn't complain. Just kept those pedals spinning and trundled about, with the pedestrians up ahead having plenty of time to hear me coming, singing loudly as I went:

"Who's peekin' out from under a stairway
Calling a name that's lighter than air
Who's bending down to give me a rainbow
Everyone knows it's Windy

Who's tripping down the streets of the city
Smilin' at everybody she sees
Who's reachin' out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it's Windy"





That's probably the thing which has caught me unawares the most since taking up this activity a few weeks ago. Just how slight that breeze can be and you still notice the difference. Not a big difference, necessarily, but a noticeable one.

maddmaxx 

I didn't build the TT bike because I'm going racing..........I built it because its windy where I like to ride....

When the winds 25mph in my face I'll take all the aero I can get.

Terrierman

Wind is a lot like rain. Try and stop it.

BSLeVan

I used to detest the wind, but lately don't seem to mind it as much. I've learned that proper clothing makes a big difference in how much discomfort the wind causes me. Yesterday it was very windy here in SE Pennsylvania, but with the windbreaker and leg warmers, it wasn't too bad. I guess I've reached the point where I don't try to fight it anymore. I just shift to an easier gear and keep spining. If my training plan calls for a time trial and it's windy, I change the training plan. As Terrierman says, "Try and stop it." BTW, we're headed into some of the best kite flying weather we'll see for the entire year. So, I try to take it in stride.

Artkansas 

If you complain about the wind, next you will be whining about hills and then rain and snow. After that just plain air resistance becomes intolerable, and then the gravity is too strong, rain too wet and snow too slick. Don't even go to hot and cold weather. It's a slippery slope you're treading on.

It is what it is. Bicycling should be an adventure.

If you want to avoid the wind, I suggest riding on the Moon.

Catweazle

I'm on a different cycle of seasons here in the Land of Oz. It's mid-autumn here, and winds of this strength are a tad unseasonal. My region, though has been undergoing some quite marked climate change in recent years.

By rights, the really windy season aropund here will come about September/October. They can be sustained winds for lengthier periods then. Conditions around here over the past couple of days have caught authorities unawares, and I heard on tonight's news that a contingent of SES volunteers (State Emergency Services) is on its way from interstate to assist with cleanup in the state capital here. My area, in the east of the state, was much less affected than there. Considerable portions of the state, I hear, are still without power.

But here, tonight, the wind has dissappeared, there's a cloudless sky, and the air is now dead still! If I had lights on the bike I'd jump on it and go cruisin'




I don't really 'hate' the wind by the way. I was being whimsical with the topic title.

jppe

Enjoying your posts.

Using the metric system keeps me my toes mentally converting over to the English system to help me equate to what I'm accustomed to. I just hope I don't have to dust off the old slide rule!

RockyMtnMerlin

I
hate,
detest,
abhor,
loathe,
can't stand,
execrate,
revile
the wind when I am riding my bike (and most other times). If you look here https://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westwind.final.html , you will see that Laramie WY is one of windiest places listed out of a couple hundred weather stations in the western U.S. This winter has been especially bad. I think we have had at least 16 weeks in a row where one day the wind was over 50 mph (gusts)

As I have posted before,



And this ain't no joke.

SO why stay here? Good question. At least in town, in what we call the tree area, its not too bad. Oh and no income tax and low cost of living for retired folks. And a University five blocks up the street. And very nice summer weather. House paid for and family in town.

Guess I'll stay and just complain about the wind. At least it is better than some of those places listed in Alaska. I can't even imagine an AVERAGE wind speed of over 19 mph.

dendawg

Depends on the direction
I often ride the Hudson River Greenway. Often when the weather calls for 5-10mph winds I know the gusts along the river can be quite higher. I don't mind at all when its at my back giving a push. It's riding back into it that sucks. And then there are the days when I ride out into it, figuring I'll have an easy ride home, only to find that it has switched directions in the afternoon.
Then there are those days when it just swirls around, constantly just changing directions. Those are probably the worst. FWIW, last year when I got my first road bike I took it out in 30mph winds and nearly got knocked over twice by the gusts.

DnvrFox

You said you don't have hills to train on, if I remember correctly.

Well, you have wind to train on.

Welcome it as a new adventure.

I have pretty much made my peace with the wind around here. I just gear down and go forward, unles it is actually blowing me off of the trail.

What IS most irritating, is when the wind changes direction at the end of your out, and you face a headwind coming back. That happens a lot around here, for as the temp heats up, the wind changes flow. I usually start out in the am facing a south wind, and by the time I am ready to head back, it has switched to a north wind.

Beverly

I don't mind the winds as long as they're not accompanied by cold. It's hard to avoid the wind on many of the rides in my area as we travel through flat farmland. In the summer the corn does act as a slight shield but in the winter there's often nothing to hide behind.

One place I avoid during high winds is the levee along the river trail. It's a long wet drop-off to the river below

DnvrFox

I have to verify that everytime I am in Blowyoming, there is a never-ending wind. I know thatI once asked a resident of Rock Springs if the wind ever stopped, and the answer was "nope!"

Cone Wrench

I actually sing that song to myself when I'm grinding it out into the wind.

The wind that I hate the most is the one that blows so strongly it requires you to pedal to go downhill.

bobbycorno

How much do I hate the wind? Not nearly as much as I did before I switched to a recumbent - riding a 'bent minimizes the effects of the wind, but maximizes the effects of the terrain. Headwinds always bothered me more than hills, so...

Scott P
Bent (oops... that's "Bend"), OR