Originally Posted by
tigat
On my commute home from work tonight, I hit a pretty steady 15 mph westerly cross wind for the 15 miles of river trail. The trail meanders some, but never gets more than 30 degrees off of due south. From my sailing days, I know even the steadiest of winds meander some too.
But statistically speaking, the amount of time spent at dead across, slight help, slight hurt, was a pretty even balance.
All in, it felt like much more of an into the wind, rather than with the wind or no wind experience.
I could probably research it on my own, find the science, and get one of my engineer sons to explain it to me, but that would be ignoring the resident wisdom here.
So my question is: does a dead across wind hurt or is it neutral?
If you're a former sailor, then you recall that as your boat speed picks up, your apparant wind moves forward? The wind is on your beam, you improve sail trim, boat speed increases, and you look at your windvane to see the wind is now more towards your bow. Same thing on a bike.
I assume it's the reason why as a cyclist my perception is that I have a headwind more frequently than I have a tailwind.