Originally Posted by Hit or Miss

Monday I stopped for a touring cyclist pushing his bike down the road here in the middle of Kansas. I thought maybe he was broke down and needed a hand. After telling me the wind pushed him into the ditch 3 times he begged a short ride. I got him to the next stretch of road so he could get a tailwind for a while and sent him on his way! I really feel for those guys running cross country and hitting weather like we've had this week.

Originally Posted by caloso

Yep. If you can't ride in the wind, you can't ride in Sacramento. Especially this time of year. Most riders I know plan their training rides so as to do the meat of the work into the wind, then enjoy the tailwind for the cool down on the way home.

Originally Posted by Paul Barnard

I hate the wind. It's so demoralizing to me. I much prefer mountains. With mountains you can see what you are fighting, then when you get to the top you can look back at what you conquered. There is no such satisfaction dealing with the wind. Mountains even have categories to make us feel better about our conquest. Screw the wind.

Originally Posted by BlazingPedals

My bike loves the headwinds. It doesn't like climbing so much; but part of that is because it has to carry 200+ lbs of me up every one of them.

Originally Posted by canklecat

Seems to be too true. I've noticed that drivers in my area are meaner when it's windy.

Hard to be certain since I'm expecting bad behavior, so perhaps I see it more, but I'm very careful riding in traffic in heavy wind that comes before storms. The past couple of days in particular I'm seeing more overtly aggressive driving, including a truck that nearly ran down one of my neighbors just an hour ago outside. I was walking home and saw the truck deliberately brush-by the neighbor as he crossed the street. Several times the past few days I've seen vehicles pass within a foot of me on unnecessarily dangerous turns -- drivers who are too lazy to make proper turns and cut diagonally into the opposing traffic lane or pedestrian crosswalk. In daylight you can clearly see the drivers looking at you and they look angry. It's a bizarre passive-aggressive behavior too many drivers exhibit, forcing unnecessary confrontations the dramatically increase risk, including cutting off fellow drivers who signal to change lanes, or swerving across three lanes of traffic to brush-by pass pedestrians and cyclists.

There's a theory dating back decades that heavy wind accompanies changes in ions and barometric pressure changes that influence human behavior.

One of the more interesting movies I've seen, The Mean Season (1985), is based around a serial killer's escalating violence during Florida's hurricane season. But the movie never really emphasizes any connection between the weather and human behavior, beyond a few casual remarks early in the film. I've watched it several times since first seeing it in the theater. Overall it's a good but pedestrian '80s movie, but Richard Jordan plays one of the all-time great movie villains, an underrated performance by a versatile actor who died too young. I'd rank his portrayal of a killer above the more infamous Zodiac killer played by Andy Robinson in Dirty Harry.

So while I don't avoid riding my bike in the wind, I'm much more alert.