corrado33

That looks like it would have been awful... sandy conditions + heavy wind = terrible for all humans and bikes in it's path. May as well have been in a sandblaster.

Yendor72

That's a little too extreme for me, and I rode the MN Ironman this year, rain, snow and sleet!!

silvaeri

[delete]

akansaskid

To start, I live in Kansas, so there's that. If you don't ride when the wind's over 30, you miss a lot of days. Fortunately, trees and development abates the brunt of it. My worst wind experience was on the road right at the end of the longest Wichita airport runway. A gust blew me sideways into the curb. I had to aim downwind to get the bike going again. I checked the weather log for the airport and at the time of my incident, it reported 52 mph wind speed. I kept riding in the crosswind, bailing as soon as I could find a more sheltered road in the vicinity.

wipekitty

Yeah - we had that in La Crosse as well. I checked the weather history, and during the time of my ride there were sustained winds of around 25MPH and gusts in the high 30s. I started with an out-and-back going straight into the headwind - awful, but the return was sweeeet!

I probably would not intentionally ride in winds much more than that. Even gusts in the high 30s are enough to make me pause and ride very gingerly...so as to not get blown off the bike. Perhaps those with more mass would fare better (I suspect as much, but I am not a physicist).

Hardrock23

20-25+mph wind is too much for me now. I used to go out still if it was pretty windy but really, it just sucks, so I don't bother anymore lol. Iv been blown over by the wind. And the last time I tried riding on one of those windy days I was stopped mid hill by the wind...Having to duck your head and body down around the bike while the wind just beats into you is not fun. Those were just the usual 20-25mph winds, with gusts around 30mph or so.

fietsbob

I faced into a 100 knot cyclone, here, in 12/07.

italktocats

as long as riding is equal or faster than walking, ill ride.

italktocats

if you dont wear cleats and use a carbon bike you can ride it

at least those days the roads are empty

i mean, its even an offical race:

canklecat

I was thinking of Hypno Toad's video during yesterday's ride on my new-to-me skinny tire road racing bike, 700x23 ice skates masquerading as tires. I got lost on the trails looking for a new section, ended up on a segment of squirrely pea gravel/crushed limestone, and suddenly the wind kicked up to 20 mph with strong gusts. And I'm thinking "Why did I get this silly road bike when what I really need is fat bike?"

Kevindale

I've been riding the Mississippi River Trail in New Orleans, which is an asphalt path on top of the levee. The path is about 6 feet wide, with minimal shoulder, and slopes down off each side. In many places the slope is 20 degrees or more, and drops down 10-20 feet. There is virtually always a 10-15 MPH wind off the river, and up on that path not only is there nothing to break up the wind (no buildings, nearest trees well away), but the rise tends to intensify the cross winds on the path, the same way putting your thumb over the end of a hose intensifies the stream of water. On higher wind days, the 20 MPH cross winds are more like 25+, and I've been blown right off the path once, and blown down once. It takes a lot of concentration, and I spend a lot of energy just keeping a half-way straight line. It's a meandering path, since it follows the river, so sometimes you get a nice tail wind, but it's almost always mostly a head wind on the return leg.

The good part is it's made me a much stronger rider. If I only rode on low wind days, I'd barely ride at all. I can judge how bad the wind is by the differential between my speed going out, and coming back. On a good day it's 19 mph out, 16 back. On a bad day it's 21 out, 13 back. I had riding that slow while putting out that much effort, but it's also gotten me used to riding a couple of hours straight in the drops, or on the hoods with elbows at 90 degrees.

It's also got me thinking of getting a skin suit.

davidg1982

Windy, Overcast. I think I did 35mph on a bike trail out on the lakefront of Chicago.

Hypno Toad

Thank you to @italktocats!

Here's info on that "race": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_..._Championships and info about the winds speed at this event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale The 2016 event was held with Wind Force 9 (47–54 mph)

Kevindale

I finally took some photos of the levee path by New Orleans where I usually ride these days. There's usually a steady 10-15 mph wind, sometimes off the river, sometimes towards the river, and it's clear that being up on the levee tends to focus/intensify the crosswinds. You can see the amount of incline up and then down the levee in the first photo of a curved section. The river side is around 25-30 degrees incline most of the way, while the other side is usually a a gentler incline. Fortunately, if you get blown off the path, there's usually some grass, though it's concrete in many places.

The second photo shows a scary section where there's a 45 degree incline downwards, in asphalt, leading into a gentler concrete incline section of around 25-30 degrees, then (after some rains) muddy water. These photos are after several very heavy rains, so you're seeing water where there's usually dry land. The water's probably about 3 feet deep here. The perspective in the second photo minimizes how steep it is. If you look towards the road, your eyeline on a bike is level with the top of two story businesses. Most of the path has a couple of inches of angled asphalt at the edge, so if you try to correct your line if you're blown onto the edge, you just go right down. You can't do what's shown in the video of the gravel grinder race. And of course this open area a great place for people to bring their dogs to let them run off leash, so on a windy day you might be struggling to control your bike, and you get to dodge the dopes wearing headphones, and their dogs.

Fortunately the time I got blown right off the path, I wasn't in the dangerous section. The undulating nature of the path means that you end up with crosswinds most of the time, with variable sections of headwind or tailwind. Definitely toughens you up.

My point in showing these photos is to suggest that sometimes weather data isn't the whole story. When I'm riding surface streets to get to the levee path, the wind is often much less intense.

BigLdet

It was a good month of 15mph sustained with 20-30mph gusts here in michigan. That was kind of my limit, there were a few times i wanted to quit. Always a head wind it felt like, going to work and coming home. I felt like the weather was picking on me. Yet I have been saving up for my new bike, so no bus rides.

Elvo

30 mph gust, got a top 5 on a 6 mile strava segment when I was grossly out of shape. Had to small ring it on the way back.

Reynolds 

Last Sunday was windy. I did a 120km ride and later learned there were 75km/h gusts. No problems, but my main concern was being thrown into oncoming traffic by a right side gust.

Lazyass

I went out for a short ride during Hurricane Matthew last year just to say I did it. Gusts were @ 70mph at the time. It was a very short ride. Like, a few minutes.

Hypno Toad

I'll just leave this right here:

DomaneS5

10mph sustained winds in the winter.... 15mph sustained winds in the summer. That's my limit. I don't ride if the wind is any higher than that.

I hate the wind with a passion. I'll ride -20° F if there's little or no wind. I'm not a wimp when it comes to the cold. The wind... I despise.

BikeliciousBabe

Anything above 10 mph is uncomfortable for me. I'm tiny. 4'11" and not 100lbs. I can't ride in anything stronger. I once got knocked off my bike by a gust. Idk the wind speed. Ty has ridden in 30mph sustained winds and much higher gust.

eric044

i guess 15 mph is pushing it and 20mph is no good. depends where.