KitN

The unusually strong wind guts today almost cost me my life. I was riding along, minding my own business this afternoon in NYC. I was riding with traffic along the right hand side of the street fighting the serious headwind when all of a sudden the wind wiped out on my right side and nearly knocked me into traffic. I literally had to fight to keep my front wheel straight as the distance between me and the moving cars on my left began to quickly lessen. I was literally being forced sideways into traffic!

Luckily, I reached a red light but as I came to a stop at the corner the wind literally pushed me so hard that my wheel turned and the wind started pushing at my back, literally forcing me across the street. At that point, I couldn't turn because turning back into the headwind on the bike was impossible. I hastily dismounted the bike and had to quickly job my bike back across the street and up on the sidewalk against the harsh headwind. It was brutal!

I walked my bike with the wind forcing me to the side. (I've dealt with strong winds before but never anything like this. Holy moley!) I barely made it to my destination in one piece. I'm staying in for the rest of the day and night. It's just too dangerous.

I hope you fellow brave bikers in the NYC/NJ area make it to your destinations safe. The wind has already claimed two lives in NJ. Be careful out there!

tdreyer1

Wow! Glad you're okay.

KitN

Thanks so much. I'm so happy to be safe and in one piece right now...

Fellow North East riders please be careful! This literally is some killer wind we're experiencing.

Stacy

Thats why there's a high wind advisory in effect till 11pm tonight. Winds have been gusting up to 40 - 50 mph from various directions. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to get a weather report before you go out.

Sikbug

Man that's nuts, I glad I didn't end up riding yesterday at all. You could feel it pushing you across the sidewalk just walking around at lunch.

Stacy

The 11 o'clock news reported that 60 mph winds in Union Square knocked some bricks off a building. Fortunately there was a sidewalk shed to catch them and nobody was hurt.

JCFlack

It was weird in the DC area yesterday. When I left home for work at about 7AM, the wind was light at about 5-10mph, but by the time I arrived, just before 8AM it was whipping at 30mph+. Glad you're okay KitN.

KitN

Exactly. When I took the bike out it was fine but on my way home, holy moly it was crazy. I've ridden in snow, freezing rain, ice and sub-freezing temperatures without incident. I didn't think no stinkin' wind gust would nearly kill me. I always thought I'd die under the wheels of a yellow school bus not pushed into traffic and hit by a 1987 Honda.

@ Stacey: I did check the weather conditions, as I do at the beginning of every day. I saw the wind advisory but unfortunately it didn't mention anything about not being allowed to ride a bike for commuting. Again, the wind wasn't bad when I left. It was the ride home that was the doozey.

noteon 

Yeah, it was bad. 99% of my commute is on the greenway, which is nearly deserted in bad wind, so I go out regardless. I figure the worst thing that happens is I fall down go boom. But if the wind advisory says 50mph gusts, I'm a little leery of traffic.

Glad you're OK.

KitN

Thanks Noteon. I'm going to do what you do and stick to the Greenways and parks if it gets this windy again. Riding with traffic during Tropical Storm force winds is too risky. Lesson learned.


I still have my eye out for that yellow school bus that will be my undoing.

noteon 

I know, and it's so easy to say, "I'll be fine, I'm a good rider." Then suddenly you're five feet to the left of where you thought you were, or you're stock still in a headwind.

I like the macho feeling of survival, but at a certain point it just starts getting stupid.

rekall

in philadelphia a few weeks ago the wind diverted me onto a sidewalk... thankfully it was a wide swath of driveway i.e. i was not blown into a curb and off of my bike, but gracefully swept onto an incline (curb cut) and the sidewalk that followed it... if it had been anything else, a curb, a trolley track, i would certainly have sustained some kind of injury.

be careful folks and watch those wind warnings on weather websites.

Stacy

The only problem with the Greenway is, if winds are high in the streets, they're probably even higher coming off the river. You have to be particularly careful not to hit joggers if you get caught by a gust.

MrCrassic 

Yeah, the winds were crazy as hell a few days ago. I was able to ride in them, but it wasn't fun at all. Great workout, though.

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