naisme

Did I mention the wind? yesterday my commute was into a 26mph head wind with gusts to 30. Zoiks! My average for the ride doubled to 8.35 miles per hour. rutro shaggy!! I was so disgusted with this wind, that all I could do to keep from bailing out and walking was to keep repeating what doesn't kill me makes me better. This is not what you want to say to someone pushing a 52x20 fixed gear.

I got off the bike at work feeling like I'd just ridden a century, double zoiks. The gentleman that does the spiritual advisement to the clients was puffing on his smoke had something to offer me between puffs about how he'd wished he could ride like that if only he didn't and getured with the smoke.

I mentioned the headwind and how there are only two redeming things about a headwind, if it didn't kill me it made me stronger, and tonight going home it would be tailwind. What a tail wind. Too bad I commute on a fixed gear cause I would have enjoyed being pushed last night. I was able to race a big old doe, that's head was as high as mine on the bike. It was scary, the two of us side by side and a fence between us that she could have vaulted in a heartbeat. Man what a ride!

Lastly, Where was everyone yesterday? The day before I passed bunches and bunches of folks out on their bikes with panniers, and hauling butt like they had to be at work, of course the day before was sunny and 46 degrees out. Fair weather commuters.

SamDaBikinMan

I hate wind. But you are doing great persevereing in it.

Why not put a derailleur up front and run a triple chainring with say a 30-42-52 and install a tensioner to keep the chain tight. Then you could run a 16 tooth cog on the back and have some high speed gears as well as wind fighting gears.

Of course you may have to have a freewheel hub also to make this work well.

streetdog

I rode home with one of my commuting buddies into 30 mph plus head winds with gusts into the 40's. There were some wicked side gusts when we came to intersections. We were both almost knocked over several times and found we had and easier time staying upright the faster we went. We took turns pulling and slogged thru. I envied him his geared bike yesterday, I'm on a 42x16 ss road bike. Seeing the precast concrete garbage containers lying on their sides be the road was a little disconcerting.

The reward was this morning when we had a strong tailwind heading into Chicago. So nice! There is nothing quite like cruising at 23 mph and feel like you are light on the pedals. The wind is supposed to drop in time for the return run.

pinerider

I have wimped out all week from bike commuting due to a bad cold and certainly don't miss it today. We're having gusts up to 50mph, steady wind of around 25 mph. I can't imagine riding a single speed in this crap! Riding a single speed on a windy day is a "Character builder" for sure!

streetdog

You know it isn't as bad as it seems. If you gear way down it just makes the suffering longer. Naisme and I are both geared at the middle of the range which works well. I can't believe the messengers on fixies with 52-16 or worse...

naisme

Me too.

I was riding home last night not believing that I was actually doing this ride.

In the summer months I ride a 52x16. I could only wonder what that would have been like with a strong headwind.

I did a century last winter on my fixed but ran a 52x18, I was done in by the time I got home.

Afraid it is more of the same today, not as gusty, and I'm riding my 48x17 should make things a lot nicer.

streetdog

Are all these ratios on different bikes or are you throwing the bike in the stand and switching the ring and cog?

Chris L

Earlier this year we had a couple of days of 70km/h winds on the coast during the cyclone season. Personally I love it. It gives me something to gloat about later.

LittleBigMan

My mom used to say two things to me--

"It won't kill you!"

--and--

"Are you bragging, or complaining?"

orange

Yeah, it's been windy in nyc too, gusts up to 45 mph. Last night I got a huge tailwind up the bridge... but then I paid for it with a crushing headwind a few blocks from home. At one point it just stood me up still, like a track stand.

naisme

I own a lot of different bikes. 18 to be exact. They are mostly salvaged from dumpsters or the side of the road (I leave the Huffies and the like) or given to me in luie of payment. I have 4 I ride a lot more than the rest, a Road FG, my MTB, a hybred FG, and a fully geared roadie, Oh and my favorite at the end of the nice weather was the Cannondale SS I built up. The Cannondale I bought at an LBS that is sort of run by inner city youth, they'd gotten from the PD, it had a nice price for a used big tubed al frame. I had to build it up frome the gound up with my BB HS, cranks. It started out as a FG, but didn't like the vertical drops, so it is now an SS.

What also helps is to have Surly's flip/flop hub with two gears on the hub, so you have a lot of different configurations to shoose from.

naisme

Just checked NOAA. My commute to work will be into a wind with "gusts to 30 mph..." WTF? I am really frustrated with this wind thing, and that's a wind that will bring the wind chill to 7F. Not to complain, but, man, I'm going to be one serious bike rider come summer. And I don't race, but am thinking with rides like the past couple days I might give it serious thought.

I have a new mantra though, thanks to Disney, and "Dory" in Finding Nemo. The character Dory swims along singing "Just keep swimming, swimming, just keep swimming...". Taking artistic license I've changed it to "Just keep spinning, spinning, just keep spinning..."

I wonder if LA thinks that when he is out of the saddle on a climb...

shokhead

I ride in it everyday.My goal is to not let it beat me down to single digit mph.

streetdog

We had several days with gusts over 45 mph in November, my friend and I took turns pulling on our commute home. In the mornings we were almost coasting at +30mph, in the evenings it was all we could do to grind out 11-12 mph. I still get tired thinking of the effort.

Get as aero as you can and just keep on spinning.

Zin

Come to the Front Range and you will see how fast the wind will do exactly that!

shokhead

It might but its still my goal,something to keep me going.

naisme

Single digit only happened once, I was going down hill to a lake, and the wind came whipping over the ice and stopped me cold. I had to stand to go down hill! But in some of this wind I'm getting knocked down to 10-11 mph. One of those real windy days my overall average was 8.9.