SlinkyWizard

I've been riding for a year now, cruising along at around 22 - 24 km/h on my hybrid, by cruising, I mean putting some effort into it. Yesterday, I ran into a wicked head wind, that slowed me down to 11km/h. At this point, I pushed hard, but could not top 11km/h.

I wasn't in the most aero dynamical position, but man, I thought that perhaps the head wind might stop my forward progress. It was an amazing, yet a slightly scary sensation,

How strong a head wind or any kind wind have you encountered?

Rstyle

Yesterday rode 60 miles.
Most with the 12-15 mph wind behind my back i rode at 17-20 miles
Did 20 miles against the wind and could only do 10-13mph.
Sudden wind gusts at up to 20 would stop me and I could only do 10-11 mph. and
made me have some concerns about finishing my planned ride

Scarbo

I was born and raised in California, where we have tons of opportunities to do a lot of climbing, which I love and have always been good at. Strong winds, though, can be absolutely demoralizing to ride against. A few years ago, I did an 18-month work stint in north Texas, near Dallas. It was that experience that taught me how to ride against really strong wind. These were, typically, not only gusts but strong prevailing winds, usually out of the east. I can remember many times when it took all my strength just to stay upright while riding against them (exacerbated by the fact that I only weigh 135 pounds)! It is like anything else: perseverance wins the day; and it is a mental game.

FBinNY 

The toughest headwind I ever rode against was 25-30mph with higher gusts. I've encountered worse, but never rode against them for more than a short stretch. Once, facing a long stretch against a high wind, I simply changed my plans.

Machka 

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 just last year, 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, and knocks you around a lot, but we made it.

jorglueke

It's not just the wind it's the duration. I had to break off one of my rides down to Rochester (95 miles) in Red Wing because of a constant 20mph right out of the SSE and it was just too much.

italktocats

texaspandj

I'm not sure how strong of a headwind I've encountered. But I'm sure I dislike them immensely.
As mentioned previously they are demoralizing and can take the wind out of your sails. Hills? No problem. Wind? You can't win or defeat it.

12strings

I don't know wind speed, but I've been beaten into submission such that I was using my easiest climbing gear on a flat, and only going about 7-8mph...

bulldog1935

In south Texas summers we'll take any headwind - in the winter, we're like everybody else and can live without them.

Caymandiver1

"Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains"

when they wrote the song for the musical Oklahoma they knew what they were talking about.

Scarbo

I forgot to say, above, that what makes the agony of riding against strong winds all worth it, is that you get to ride the glorious tailwind back home. Then, you feel like a veritable god (Mercury?) on a bike!

DrIsotope

Got caught in the full-blast of the Santa Anas one morning. Simple river trail route I've done dozens of times, just a hair under 20 miles each way, usually get finished in around the 2 hour mark, give or take a little.

Got virtually no tailwind, it was almost windy for the 20 outbound miles. The wind started up shortly after I made my turnaround, and got progressively stronger as I got further north. By the worst of it, winds steady at 25mph, gusting to 50mph, and I was riding directly into the wind, and absolutely straight-on headwind. The return leg, which routinely takes 60-75 minutes, took two hours. My arms and back were sore for several days afterward. Just the absolute worst.

Wind doesn't have to be that strong to be bad, IMO. Monday this week it was quite windy, around 12-15mph, and Tuesday it was dead calm.

Monday: 27.5 miles, 1.45.41ET, 15.7mph, 239W avg. pwr, 135bpm avg. HR
Tuesday: 32.8 miles, 1.55.09ET, 17.1mph, 225W avg. pwr, 131bpm avg. HR

I got virtually no tailwind on Monday as well. The direction the wind was cutting from, the shortest leg of my route had the wind at my back-- less than 2 miles out of the 27.5 mile total. You win some, you lose some. We've got a full red flag warning today-- areas near the passes will have gusts 60-80mph. I'm taking the day off.

mrodgers

I was going downhill, as in where I normally am doing 22-25 mph on my hybrid kind of downhill. Had the wind holding me back at about 7-8 mph on that downhill one evening. That ride really sucked. Every time I turned west, I was practically stopped by the wind. Every time I was going east with the wind, it was uphill. I wasn't real fast at the time so 22 downhill was really fast and 3 mph uphill was really fast.

Scarbo

Yes, the Santa Ana winds in southern California are notorious.

With the winds in the San Francisco bay area you could usually count on a strong tailwind coming from the west, off the coast. However, in parts of the Central Valley, Sierra foothills, Sierra Nevadas, more often than not you have these devilish winds that swirl around capriciously and you can't ever quite catch a tailwind and that sucks bigtime!

SquidPuppet

I had one of these rides in August. It wasn't too bad on my way out, but it became consistent and STRONG after I reached my destination. On the ride home I was effortlessly maintaining 20 mph, which on my single speed bike was full song.

Wileyrat

I don't know how strong the strongest headwind I've ridden into was, but last spring I had to dodge a tumbleweed on a mup rolling right at me pretty quickly. I didn't enjoy my ride that day.


Living in Tucson, I've also encountered a dust devil while riding. I rode into it going about 15mph, slowed down to about 5 in a second, and got thrown out the backside at about 20.

GambadiLegno

I've been in a race this year in February, which was cancelled after less than 1 km racing...To my surprise, I was one of the few people that decided not to start the race when we saw how dangerous it would be. There are some videos of this particular race. The maximum was more than 100 kph (62-63 mph):


Just go straight to min 3:50 or 4.

gecho

In the spring and fall we often get wind in the 30 - 60 km/h range for weeks on end. Many times I've found myself yelling obscenities at the wind. These days I usually plan a ride inside the city when the wind get particularly strong. The MUP is largely unsheltered so I stay on the streets when going upwind for a little more protection. Narrow side streets provide much better protection from the wind than wide main streets.

Riding downwind with a really strong tailwind can be quite eerie. If you come close to matching the wind speed, the wind noise drops to zero and all you hear is your tires / drivetrain along with the rustling of grass and vibration noises from power lines.

ClydeTim

40 mile and hour winds with 60 mph gusts. I enjoy riding in the wind.

One time I did a ride up in the mountains with a few guys, 40 mph winds. One guy was caught by surprise and blown over, knocked out cold! Glad I am a Clyde

Cyril 

*singing* Hello headwind my old friend, I've come to ride i you again.

Srsly, a good headwind is a great training partner. It can turn a good workout into a great one.
The time I don't welcome a headwind is during an actual event.

bargeon

my experience has been similar to this. 12-15 mph slow me to a crawl. Gusts over 20 stop the show on hills.

At 130 lbs (not counting the bike) cross winds above 20 blow me sideways. OK on the country roads, not in traffic.

SlinkyWizard

Hilarious

fietsbob

Winter of 2007, gusts of 100 mph on the headlands , My apartment building on the south slope
was shaking like i was in Florida..

Now my house is on the north side, not quite as much summer sun , but on the leeward side of the hill
sheltered a bit from winter gales.

shipwreck

For my first loaded tour, I made the foolish choice of riding south west out of Chicago in mid March. It was the only time I had, and I don't regret it cause almost nothing since has ever compared to how horrible it was. Wind, rain, sleet and some snow. A few of the highlights are as follows.

There was one day where I was riding into a cross wind, and it ripped my map case off the bar bag. I laid the bike over and sloshed into a flooded field to get it, and when I got back to the bike the wind was spinning the front tire so fast that the bike computer was reading over 60 mph(not that the wind was that fast, but it felt like it). While I was there trying to save my soaking paper maps a state trooper stopped and suggested that it might not be safe to ride near traffic in those winds.

At one point somewhere in Illinois as I struggled along at about 9 mph a pickup truck passed me and pulled over. Bracing for the worst kind of redneck experience, I was surprised when the guy got out and told me that he was part of a group that had cancelled a ride because of the winds that were gusting to 45 mph that day. He wanted to know if I needed a ride.

Outside of Geneseo IL riding on a canal path, it started to sleet in about a 25 mph headwind. Had to stop and clean my glasses every few minutes as they kept freezing over. Holed up for two days at a campground cabin there till the storm stopped.

Had a couple of days respite from headwinds along the Katy trail, till almost to Clinton. On the Horizon was a line of black visibly moving toward me, and it was dead calm, almost dark. I was actually within sight of the overpass at the west end of the trail, about a mile and a half, and tried to beat the storm. Failed hard, a sudden wall of wind hit me, knocked me and the bike back onto the ground. Pushing the bike, I left the trail and crossed the road in a pitch black storm, aiming at a parking lot and building I could just see in all the lighting strikes. When I crossed into the lee of the building out of the wind I fell over again from leaning into the wind so far, just as the electricity in the area went out. Spent the next few hours huddled against the building in the dark, which happened to be a funeral home...

The next day from Clinton Mo to Boliver Mo was the worst. 35 to 40 mph winds on rolling hills. Reaching Boliver I got a motel room, and then rode back to a walmart for a gallon of water. The only tailwind on the entire trip, and the computer read 30 mph, still not going as fast as the wind.

That day was it, after two weeks averaging 40 miles a day, I bailed. It was only 150 miles to my home, but I had had enough.
The next year I drove up to Chicago at the same time of year, and it was beautiful, no winds, sunshine and early flowers.

Amazingly, I enjoyed the trip, and wish I could do it again, this time with the extra years experience touring, and the better gear I have now.