Wind
 

Today (on the way home) we had a 20+mph headwind no matter which way you turned. What is the highest headwind you ever rode into?

A couple of times a year, usually in March/April, we'll have 30+mph days. A 10-15mph wind from the SW is pretty typical for summer afternoons too. If you can't ride in the wind, you can't ride in Sacramento.

100 mph - just kidding. I don't know but there was one ride when it felt like that. The wind literally would stop you. A miserable day of riding but the wind surfers along the St. Albans Bay really loved it.

What's really "fun" is to ride on the Ueda bike tail on those days. You're the highest thing around so there's nothing to stop the wind. The headwinds are bad enough, but when the crosswinds come in 50+ mph bursts it's hard to keep upright.

I remember being on the Ueda one fine spring day and looking at my PM: I was having to put out 300w to do 12mph!

It was bit blustery that day...
http://www.brucew.com/images/prr/200...-blow-ride.png

The winds today, their nature but not their temperature, were strongly reminiscent of winter winds. Just something about the character of the winds. Even tonight, long after sunset, the way it blows through the trees and rattles the windows, well, it could be January out there.

There have definitely been a few blustery days, but one stands way out in my mind....

This was about 3 years ago. I was riding to a client's place that was called away suddenly and their house was left unsecured and pets needed tending to on top of that. It was dangerous winter near blizzard outside, but fido and kitty needed food & water & medication. So, i set out, and i kept getting buffeted from the side with 19 degree snowy air at around 20 mph with gusts. Then i had to turn and the turn had me facing directly into the icy wind, snow and all, and i was going about 18 mph. I thought the small bits of exposed skin on my face (couldn't be helped) were frozen and about to fall off.

Just thinking about that ride makes me shiver.

- Andy

Ridden against may be stretching the definition of "riding", but I've fought headwinds over 40mph with some gusts above that. Actually, IME strong crosswinds, especially gusty ones are much more of a problem then steady headwinds (if you don't mind feeling like you're climbing the Alps).

in '96 i was touring in northern Montana, heading west near the Canada border. from Cutbank to Saint Mary Lake i encountered some of the worst winds ever. all day. they tumble over the pass at Glacier National Park and spill over the plains. it was all sugar and spice and everything nice on the windward side of Logan Pass.

Gotta love CO, it was dead calm for me on the north side today.

There is nothing more depressing than riding down a hill where you normally hit 25 mph just coasting, and having to pedal to maintain 12mph. On the flipside, I will always remember one windy spring day when I was around 10 years old. Our school had a sports field big enough for 6 soccer fields, plus a paved access road and parking lot. I had a Schwinn Sting-Ray (just like Kevin Arnold on the Wonder Years TV Show) with high-rise handle bars and a banana seat. My buddy had a Murray bike similarly equipped. We held the corners of our windbreakers in our hands on the handlebars, and with the wind at our backs rode "full-sail" over the field at what seemed to be highway speeds. We'd have to walk our bikes back to the start, but it was worth it to get a mighty push from the "hand of G-d".

In South Dakota, a 20 mph wind is pretty typical (although this summer has been remarkably calm, usually in the 10 mph range.) I don't remember what the absolute worst I've ever ridden in was, but there are a handful of days every year where I'll ride in 30-40 mph straight winds with 50+ mph gusts. Can't say I enjoy it.

And as Mr. Murphy usually dictates I'll fight it on the way to work, then the wind will shift during the day and I'll fight it again on the way home. :)

I used to live in Saint Mary and it is beautiful country. However, I feel your pain, 65 miles one way of pain. I had forgotten about the 70 mph wind chilling gust from the Canadian Plains. No matter which way you ride up there, it is always a headwind. LOL

My signature line here in BF was something like, "Wind is like traffic to a bicycle commuter. There's no point in getting worked up. Just downshift and keep spinning."

I clearly didn't have bike commuting in mind when I bought my house years ago -- it's a rare day when I'm not fighting some amount of prevailing wind. It's okay, though, it definitely makes me stronger. :)

Worst might have been when we were on a road ride late in the fall on what started as a beautiful morning and came out of the valley just as a freak ice storm hit... we heard that the winds were measured at 70 mph and we looked like popsicles in minutes.

We were fortunate that we were heading west and the storm was coming out of the north and that we had a shelter belt of trees...

'07 winter storm, here on the coast, a Cyclone was swept up, with the typical winter storm track, they usually dont go this far north

Headland gusts to 100mph sustained winds about 3/4 of that .. I lived on the windward west slope then.

had to go into that to get back to My Apartment ,

fortunately I was on the leeward side of the hill, where the oldest part of town is.. for most of the route ,

had a few blocks tackling the around 70mph headwind .. that wind rattled the double pane picture window for a few days..

Fortunately the windowless, blank end of the apartment building, was what faced the storm directly..

I also live in South Dakota and the winds and gusts can be quite a hand full...lol
A few years ago I was on the bike trail around the airport going south with a headwind over 20mph and had some gusts over 50mph+ which almost blew me off the trail.
several times...
I went 5 miles on that stretch and it took me over an hour and it was quite a workout, especially on my Peugeot heavy single speed mtb.
When I turned around with the wind gusts at my back I was flying fast, I felt like a Pro Cyclist for a few minutes..lol

The strongest headwind I've ridden into was about 25mph, but the worst wind I've ridden in was 50mph crosswind gusts. Nothing like riding straight and then being pushed a few feet into traffic. :twitchy:

We had the same experience riding eastward the first day out from the Grand Canyon. Also on that West-to East cross country trip, we hardly needed to pedal with a tailwind on a freeway near San Bernardino, CA.

I live in Las Vegas and we get Spring wind that would make national news in a coastal city, but since it's the desert...

There have been a few times that I've dismounted and walked because I just couldn't pedal at all into the wind or the risk of being blown over into traffic was too high.

I often move to the sidewalk when we get crosswinds like that. (Yielding RoW to pedestians of course). It's not worth dying for.

I prefer climbing a steep, long hill to having stiff headwinds or crosswinds. Oh well, I moved to NYC anyway. Man, I had forgotten how windy it is here!

Long ago, I took a tour of the St Lawrence River in Québec, going from Gaspé to Montréal. It was upwind for almost the whole way. We had to pedal downhill. We didn't need our brakes. To stop our bikes, we just stopped pedaling.

Summer in San Francisco means I typically have a 15-25 MPH headwind on part of my way home. On parts of the ride, like over the Golden Gate Bridge, this wind is often a sidewind, which I almost hate more.

The WORST I have cycled in was earlier this year when it was blowing a pretty steady 25 with gusts up to 40. I rode with a coworker so we could take turns as wind blocker, but it was still a tough ride. A gust completely stopped me once while around the towers of the golden gate bridge.

25mph and it was tough. I couldn't get above single digits in my lowest gears. I was late for work that day.

I have occasionally ridden in what were probably 30+ MPH winds, a few times I've encountered gusts that actually stopped me, I just put on my brakes to keep from being pushed backwards and waited for a bit. Once I was about 400 feet from a corner where I would change directions and I just walked there.

I was out on a gravel century last June (Westside Dirty Benjamin) with winds over 40 mph and gusts near 60 mph. Since it was a figure-8 route, we got to ride into the wind, with the wind, and fight with the crosswinds. It was very challenging, I recall fighting the cross-winds and looking up the line of riders in front of me and it looked like everyone was leaning 15* into this wind. It was so gusty and unpredictable, causing a lot of left-right movement to keep balanced. I recall making a turn and getting that wind at my back, thinking this will be so much better... not really, it was too strong to really 'enjoy' the push.

I've been struggling the crosswinds this week. I just converted from my winter bikes (26" MTB and fatbike) to my summer commuter bike (Kona Dew Drop). The crosswinds are making me feel unstable. Anybody have pointers for keeping balance in a crosswind?

Practice and good reflexes. There's no easy answer except to find equilibrium by leaning into it. Unfortunately this will make the steering pull, giving the bike a "weather helm" meaning it may want to turn into the wind, though a deep front rim will have the opposite effect (if you're lucky they cancel).

Also watch your speed. With greater speed you'll cover more horizontal distance with steering changes. I once caught a rogue gust on a high speed descent. It took me the entire width of a wide 4 lane road to recover, (fortunately it was there, and no oncoming traffic) and reestablish full control of the bike.

The only special thing I can suggest is to be very conscious of vehicles passing on the upwind side (why I hate crosswinds from my left). These will suddenly cancel the wind and have you turning into them and doing a wiggle as you recover. Truck trailers are especially problematic in this regard because the wind stop is complete and prolonged, and if you swerve into them behind the cab rear axle, you're at risk from the trailer's rear wheels.

BTW- stay away from other riders in high gusty winds because everyone is affected or reacts differently and you'll have too many variables to contend with.

Kinda what I thought, it'll just take some miles this spring to get accustom to the 'light' summer bikes versus the winter 'tanks'! Talking about riding in the wind reminded me of this video from a couple years ago:

Two years ago, on a century charity ride. I'd gotten a few miles off-course and didn't realize that they'd closed the ride due to tornado sightings and were sending out vans out to collect riders. I don't know what the wind speed was, but in a matter of seconds it changed from gusts to where there were pieces of trees flying across the road - big limbs with branches, not just sticks - and the crops to my right were flat against the ground from the wind. There didn't seem to be a safe place to stop so I just kept going, finally realized that I'd missed a turn, turned around and went back through it. On the return leg to get back on course it had thankfully toned down to reasonable storm level winds, but a torrential downpour.