zacster

Don't we all.

My daughter and I had planned to do the Tour de Brooklyn today, a 50 mile grand loop around the Borough that I drew up last year. It never leaves Brooklyn and it doesn't weave through streets just to make the miles. Overnight I kept hearing a howling wind but when I checked the forecast in the morning they said 12mph winds all day. That's not so bad, especially when doing a loop since you'll get it from all directions at some point. Well it was no 12mph, more like a consistent 20, and down by the waterfront where most of the ride is it felt like 30. She's not really a cyclist and hasn't done much riding, unlike her twin sister. We started with the wind at our backs, but when we reached Coney Island we essentially reversed course and got blasted. Not so bad I thought since we are going to turn around. We did that but had to turn around again at the other end. (Coney Island is no longer an island with the middle section filled in.) We then had the wind at our backs again, but the shoreline curves towards the north and the wind was coming from the Northwest. I kept saying once we hit the streets away from the shore the wind would die down and we'd be fine, especially since it'll be slower riding in the streets anyway. Well I was wrong. The streets became wind tunnels. When we finally cut across along the Brooklyn/Queens line and hit the waterfront again it still felt like we had the wind in our face. It was only as we got close to our starting point that we had the wind at our backs again and we were both pretty exhausted. You could see the whitecaps on upper NY bay and the waves crashing the seawall, and that is usually pretty calm water.

I did the same ride with her sister a few weeks ago and we were fine at the end, barely tired.

nomadmax 

Riding in the wind is just like going faster when you're already riding fast. IE, it takes a lot of extra energy to do so. When caught in the wind, I adjust my speed expectations/effort and minimize my profile while still maintaining a level of comfort. Beating your head against the wall of "I intend to do this ride in X amount of time no matter what" really doesn't change much except feeling beat down when it's all over.

zacster

I hear what you're saying but this was a casual ride with my daughter. There was no expectation of going fast. While 50 miles is a long ride for a casual rider, this route is also an easy ride, hence when I did it with her twin sister we got done and thought we could do another. Even the street riding, where you're paying more attention to the traffic than with going fast, was difficult. The wind took all the enjoyment out of it.

nomadmax 

Make no mistake; the wind comes at a cost, no matter what the pace. Sometimes all you can do is try to mitigate it and do the best you can.

indyfabz

I sustained 32.5 mph for several miles while riding a fully loaded touring bike on the flatlands of Montana thanks to a killer tailwind. Finally had to dial it back to 28 mph. Incredibly fun 20 miles. Wind can be your friend.

zacster

That too! I did a 20 mile ride from Long Beach, NY back home to Brooklyn a few weeks ago, one way only, and had a 20-25mph tailwind the whole way. I made it in just over an hour even with the traffic lights. It was a blast. I guess the payback for that was yesterday's ride.

wthensler 

Howling is never a good thing. No 12 mph wind howls.

Down here, we call them 'invisible hills', and they can be brutal in the winter.

bruce19

She's not a cyclist and she did a windy 50 miles? I'd be damned proud of her.

Unca_Sam

I learned the hard way to avoid a starting tailwind this spring. I had to climb a mile long hill into the wind to get home, and I was in the drops in the 39 x 28 combo and exhausted. You'd think a loop can even things out, but in our cities with streets organized along the cardinal directions winds from ordinal directions can make a ride difficult no matter what. Sometimes you just don't get a tailwind.

zacster

I was proud that she did it, I just wish we had more fun doing it. I had a few places to stop and they were always just uncomfortable to sit there in the wind. It was a little warmer but no wind at all when I did it with her sister and she had a good time seeing places she hadn't been before.

A starting tailwind is great if you don't ever have to turn around!

volosong

Head or cross winds sap the emotional energy. I hate them too. When I lived in the high desert north of Los Angeles, I always checked the wind forecast before heading out. The strong, prevailing wind comes from the West/Southwest, which meant that I'd head out west, then have a nice tailwind for the homeward leg.

The best approach, (for a multi-hour ride), is to head out west in the morning when it is calm, then head home in the afternoon when the wind kicks up. Easy riding in the morning and an E-Ticket ride home in the afternoon.

Now that I've retired and moved to North Idaho, I am incredibly frustrated because the wind comes from a different direction every day. There is no 'rhyme or reason' to the weather pattern up here.

Miles2go

I plan big rides or important rides around the wind and weather forecast and find that the ten day wind forecast at weather underground to be quite accurate most times.

scott967

Problem is a tailwind really only helps around an arc of about 90 degrees, so most of the time the wind is hurting you. Getting in the drops makes a big difference for me. In Hawaii we normally have 10-15 winds and 20 isn't uncommon. Not quite the Great Plains but it's rare that winds aren't a factor on a ride. Due to terrain winds are often funneled between mountain side ridges.

scott s.
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Speedway2

Lately, my Go To bike has been my Single Speed. However, it stays home if it's windy and one of my geared bikes goes for a ride.....

DeadGrandpa

Since moving to the coast two years ago, I have come to think of headwinds as "character building".

rydabent

Im sure we all hate the wind. I try to plan my routes to have a cross wind if the wind is very high. Out here on the plains, especially in the spring, having the wind blowing at 40 or 50 mph is not unusual at all. When the wind is that high I always take my trike since it is not affected as much. It is safer since a cross wind from the right is trying to blow you into traffic, and the trike as I say isnt blown around as much.

MinnMan

Yeah....

Steady 15-18 mph winds today. I'm headed out to ride in a few hours. Strategy is to ride straight into it and then enjoy the ride home.

Not looking forward to it, but it will be better than skipping a Sunday ride and sitting on the couch.

reverborama

We did a very wiggly ride on mixed use paths today so it kept changing our direction with the wind. Sometimes it was hard, sometimes I was pretty sure I could ride in the pro peleton.

There are many reasons you are slow: a headwind, a false flat, brakes dragging, seat too low or high, low tire pressure are just a few examples. There is only ever one reason you are fast and it's a tailwind.

OldsCOOL

A headwind is the great demoralizer. It makes you question your conditioning. On the good side for training, when else can you cram a 30 mile ride into 20?

dagray

Out here it is either very hot (summer), Very cold (winter) or very windy. I'll take the wind any day over super hot or super cold.

Today I went and battled the wind for 5.5 miles and let it push me home. https://www.strava.com/activities/4183281862. Yesterday I didn't ride as the wind was in the 30mph range.

MinnMan

The wind in the Twin Cities area today was strong (18 mph) but variable in direction (at least in the late afternoon), fluctuating from more southerly to more easterly. There were some sections that I expected to be super-hard, but were mostly cross-winds, and some others where I expected to fly, and didn't. But there were also some, straight into the wind, where my steady effort produced 14 mph and others, with direct tail wind, where the same effort gave me 27 mph. All in all, it wasn't so bad. We don't have big hills here, so a day like today was sort of interesting.

zacster

It was breezy again this morning and rather than struggle yet again with the wind I just didn't ride. After the 45 miles on Thursday (we didn't actually end up at 50 because we short cut it due to the wind) and 15 yesterday, I figured it was OK to skip a day. There will be rain Monday and Tuesday so those will be indoor trainer days, but Wednesday is supposed to be nice, and Thurs too. I'll get my 100 miles in for the week.

Hondo Gravel

I had to call off a day of riding at Big Bend NP after a northern hit. Literally could blow you off the road down a ravine to your death. Normal windy days are ok because you get the tail wind on the trip back or vice versa...

tigat

36 miles Sunday in a shifting, 20+ mph wind. 10 or so directly into and 10 helping. The rest was blow you into the ditch type cross winds. Used a bunch of energy just staying upright.

16.4 overall average and I was exhausted.

I'm thinking of doing the same ride today, just to compare.

takenreasy

One thing I've noticed riding bikes most of my 61 years is that if there is wind, it is always a head wind.