I agree. I'm also a boater and very aware of actual wind speeds. With 60 mph winds, it's virtually impossible to cycle unless it's right at your back. 40 mph wind is very difficult and I wouldn't do it intentionally. Unless you are riding right beside a wind speed indicator it's just a guess.

The human body weight is an important factor.
(As jealousy is the norm, when a lighter, slimmer cyclist lives/cycles in an area where many of heavier weight live. Whoever has the nicer bike, can always be later matched. But matching one of slimmer/lighter weight, can be of much difficulty. If not impossibility to others.)
This is where another perspective of snobbiness in cycling be.

dim: Go to SoCal.
Cyclists like you are needed there.
They are so sissy there, you won't even find them in the fog. As the fog -- on the coastal area, will eventually go away as the morning goes later on.
In San Diego, cycling is -- at the extreme ratio -- a sun sport.

It has been a windy spring thus far in my neck of the woods. A couple of days with sustained winds of 40+, gusts is 60-80. It does happen, albeit not every day. I had to put guy reinforcements on my parents' spruce tree one of these days to keep it from uprooting (seriously). It is not fun to ride in, but it is possible. For those of us who commute every day, windy days like these are inevitable, and put the normal winds of 10-20 mph on my commute into perspective. You have to be prepared for side gusts, and stay on high alert. Also be prepared to get nowhere fast. Descents that are usually a 30 mph coast can quickly turn into a 10mph struggle if the wind is blowing hard enough. A calm day of riding has been rare this year thus far.
Keep it safe and have fun!

June 20, 1995 .... I was out riding when a "Dry Microburst" (sort of like a small tornado) struck Winnipeg with winds of 160 km/h (100 miles per hour). I got caught in it. Knocked me off my bicycle.

However, I have willingly gone out riding in 80 km/h (50 mph) winds.

And more recently, Rowan and I did a 100 km ride as a training ride for an "official" 100 km ride ... and we found ourselves in winds gusting to 95 km/h. That's tough to deal with, but we made it.

Probably in the 30-40 mph. its bad when its a cross wind and starts blowing me sideways.

35 on a few rides.

I cycled to work yesterday. It is just over 15 miles there, and 15 miles back

going there, the wind was approx 40km/hr and 1/2 of the journey the wind was from behind. It was a pleasure and I done the trip there in 58 min (lots of time is lost commuting through the centre of Cambridge city)

coming back was a totally different story .... it took me 1 hr 26 minutes in 35-40km winds. Hard work.

today, we have gusts blowing much higher than 50km/hr and up to 65km/hr and there is no way that I will attempt a long distance ride in these winds, especially if it's side-on

Not sure how fast the wind was blowing, but I had to pedal downhill.

Well, I was on Jupiter once and the headwind was 1000 mph. It was the toxic atmosphere that really got me.

You may need to re-calibrate your Improbability Meter, it seems faulty. I'm not saying some people won't lie about this kinda sh.t, but I'm just not *that* person. To help you re-calibrate, I'll put the data behind what I posted.

Here's the event page for the Westside Dirty Benjamin - see the posts about the 2014 ride, check the results page for Chris Nelson (Hypno Toad's alias for bike event). Here is a link to information about the windstorm on the June 14, 2014 and historical weather data for this date on Weather Underground (scroll to the chart at the bottom of the page). And for completeness, my Strava data from the ride.

This reminds me of the people who don't think it *possible* to bike with exposed skin in sub-zero weather cause you'll get frostbite and die (exaggeration). I had to go through this exact exercise to tell them, yes, some people can ride with exposed skin and be nice and warm in extreme cold.

These wind speeds are well beyond 60 mph, something is not being clearly reported in this story. Here's the weather data from that day. Riders are in a city with tall building right on the sea. It appears to be localized wind from the buildings (ever been to Chicago?).

Presented with facts and [MENTION=400231]DrIsotope[/MENTION] is like

Oh yes, reminds me of cycling in my hometown.

"Gradient compression" with breeze blowing roughly parallel to shore. And you're right about the frostbite, too.

Oh, and you people are nuts riding around in 40 kts.

Nuts? I'd say, "yes and no". For me, I was in the middle of nowhere when the storm front hit, so ride was the only 'option'. At mile 33, you could turn back and most riders did. I went with the feeling that the storm front had pushed through and things would calm down. Thankfully, I guess right. It was a long, brutal day on the bike and one I will remember for a long time.

Phhhht ... nothing. Why, when I were a boy me old man made me ride to school when it was -40F (without the windchill), and sustained winds of 80 mph with gusts to 120 mph. Barefoot. In Not Bibs. At age 6. I'll find the data -- somewhere -- to prove it.

I live on the plains. It's usually windy. Winds up to 20 mph won't affect my plans. They do affect my ride, though; it's obviously much slower going upwind than down. Over 25 mph and I will try to avoid headwinds as much as possible and while I have ridden with crosswinds of over 30 mph, I don't like it and will generally not ride at all if the weather app on my phone reports 30+.

I don't remember which year it was, but the Tornado warning sirens have gone off in Chicago while I was on my commute home. I tried to get home before the storm could reach me but I didn't make it. Suddenly I was blown off my bike and branches were crashing down next to me. Thankfully I was close to the public bathrooms at the Wolf Lake and I was able to hide inside until the storm was over.
Yeah, it was scary and my wife was pretty worried.

I think what virtually everyone in this thread-- and you quite specifically-- need to recognize is this:

gusts ≠ wind speed

The link you provided showed a day with average wind speeds of 14mph. It's blowing harder than that where I am as I type this. The max wind speed for any date should not be conflated with the recorded average wind speed. And no, you didn't ride in gusts of 60mph. That day had a single recorded gust, at the airport, of 59mph.

So I continue to stand by everything I said in my initial post. Average wind speed today, 12mph. Gusts to 25mph, max gust likely in the low-30s. Or in BF nomenclature, WINDS 30MPH GUSTS TO OVER 50MPH!

The most for me so far is a steady 25 MPH with 40 mph gusts, doubt I would ride in much more than that.

First of all: C'MON! Average wind speed is meaningless in the dialog. Nobody is claiming to ride all day in 60 mph winds.

I do know the difference, and included it in my post ^^^. Please take the time to read the post in detail before trying to burn me. I made it easy for you, circle the data too, please review the screenshot below for the details:



I accurately reported the wind conditions for the time and area of my ride. Were these the exact wind speeds I rode in, who knows, I'm reporting the best data I have available. The link reporting wind speeds across the region makes it clear that this was a widespread event. BTW - I didn't pick the weather station with the highest wind speeds. MSP Int'l had gust at 68 mph, much strong than the area I was in.

Oh well, what more can I say....

'Nother thing you gotta take into account is temperature: Cold air is denser and packs more force than warm air.

So chalk it up to my nature as a skeptic. Yes, you rode for nearly 20 minutes in winds of +40mph and gusts nearing 60mph. I've done the same. Nothing remarkable about the event. High wind for a few minutes is part of cycling. When people say, "I rode in XXmph winds," I think sustained. Last week I rode directly into a sustained 20mph headwind for over an hour-- out of a 4.5 hour ride. That hour was unequivocally miserable. The rest of the ride was pretty great.

But I would never claim to anyone, EVER, under any circumstances, that I did a whole ride in 20mph+ winds-- much less 40 or 60 or whatever else. It's simple absurdity.

Hyperbole is a tool best used for rhetoric. When it comes to regaling bystanders with tales of great deeds done, it just sounds like bragadoccio.

I didn't see the OP asking for rides over XX hours. So my answer addressed the question asked. It was the strongest winds I've biked in. You are clearly not saticified until you are 'right', so here you go.. You're right, my ride at the 2014 Westside Dirty Benjamin wasn't anything special, just a walk in the park. Cool? Cool. Bye