How windy is windy?
 

We had some 40 mph sustained winds yesterday, with gusts over 50.

I went UP a 4-5% grade faster than I went DOWN it, and I was definitely going harder downhill. Spots I usually hit 32-33 mph without much effort I was hard-pressed to hit 17 or 18.

What do you consider windy in your area?

I rode 4 hours today. Most of it in a sustained 20-25 mph head wind. I was going 12 mph on a flat road pushing around 200 watts at times. Gust were over 40 I'd say. Coming home sure was fun though. I'd say thats windy. But, unless its a hurricane, I grew up in florida, there's not too much I wouldn't ride in. I will ride in just about any weather to avoid my trainer. Its easier to ride in the rain, cold, windy, etc. then it is to skip my ride and try to explain myself to my coach.

I'd say windy is 20+ mph sustained winds. At that point the way you ride definitely is changed.

I'd say that's windy. I'm from OKlahoma and 20mph winds were very common in the spring...lots of 30 and 40mph too. In Wisconsin if the wind 10 or 15 everyone calls it windy. to me that's just breezy.

20 mph+ usually does it in for me.

+1.

It was 15mph yesterday in OKC and I was thankful for the break. A week ago, there were gusts to 60mph! Anything under 25mph is pretty rideable, over that it starts to really hurt. I've nearly been blown over by gusting cross winds.

Nebraska and Iowa = very windy!
It's been 20-30+ for the past few days. Races coming up this weekend and they are forecasting even more wind. Yippee...

As far as crosswinds go: when you even loosen your tight grip on both drops for fear of having your front wheel blown so hard you'll crash :thumb:

I think it really depends on the person. For me I hate when there is a strong crosswind because i get pushed into the cars passing me. I also hate when I leave i have an indirect headwind, and then right when im on my way back the wind switches direction and i have a headwind the whole way home. When you live near chicago, wind is pretty much a given, you get used to it.

My Sunday ride was nasty, on downhills where I would normally be around 30, I was at 14. Uphills - I'm not made for hills, but usually on these hills I'm at least in double figures, Sunday - 6. And as 531 Aussie says, the crosswinds were just nasty, it was a very nervous ride.

It was so windy here I drafted a truck going 10mph on the MUP.

It's almost always windy in Austin. A typical day is 5-8mph from the SE.

But we've been getting crazy winds lately like 30-40mph with gusts up to 50 or 15-20 with gust to 30. Direction has been all over the place too, so some days it's struggle going out and fly home and other days it's opposite.

I don't mind riding against a strong wind, but I hate the gusting. If it's really blasting I'll put the box rims on the TT bike and ride that. Getting low seems to help on the headwind part and box rims reduce the being blown off the road effect to some degree.

The National Weather Service issues wind advisories when sustained winds are expected in the 20-25mph range, or gusts are expected in the 30-39mph range, like this afternoon.

If the National Weather Service puts out an advisory, it is officially windy.

From my limited experience so far, I think a lot of it depends on the rider's size....er, frontal area, I mean.

For Clydes like me just starting out, headwinds suck big time. Conversely the tail wind helps, but the wind always seems to shift just as you reach your turnaround point, doggone it. Crosswinds can be nasty but if you've got any forward speed you have that much more inertia to push over as well so it doesnt seem to be that bad.

Alas, I live in Southwestern Missouri, which is like most of the Plains - wind never stops except in broliing high summer. Then you pray for wind, any wind!

Tom

just found this apparent wind calculator on the HED website. Don't know how it translates to extra workload, though...

http://www.hedcycling.com/aerodynami...calculator.asp

As a Clyde, Wind is your friend, at least when it comes to keeping up with smaller riders.

As your weight increases, your frontal area increases but not proportionately to your weight. (It's the result of surface to volume ratio.)

Thus bigger riders typically have a better frontal are to power ratio, than smaller riders. This is why most exceptional time trialists are comparitively large.

Hence, if you take two equally strong riders, the bigger rider is going to suffer less in the wind than the smaller rider.

The wind usually goes to the north in Texas, where I live it's constant.
But it usually goes at a speed measured in negative amounts because we all realized it was Oklahoma sucking so bad.

for me having lived in southwest florida for 22 years 25+ mph sustained winds are the cutoff. after that it is no fun.

20+

I found 100 mph (162 km/h) to be a bit on the breezy side.

Look for big wind turbines. That's a sign you're in for some work. Plenty of them out here.

Hi,

I was climbing Mt. Lemmon near Tucson yesterday. It was stupidly windy -- OK, I was stupid. I came around one corner going uphill (6%?) and I was hit by a sustained gust that brought me to a complete stop. It was all I could do to keep upright after I got my foot out of the pedal.

Of course I decided to keep going to the summit. :twitchy:

Downhill was not fun because you never knew when a side gust would come along and blow you off the mountain. :eek: I kept my downhill speed down even when I had a tailwind.

Not if you intend to maintain the same speed for any extended period of time.

Yup im in omaha and it has been pretty windy got out today for a little bit but i would of liked to go a little further but the wind takes it out of me. I would say i wouldent want to ride in anything over 20mph

i hate wind.

i enjoy cycling SO much more when the air's still... feels like i'm flying

edit: will admit tailwinds are a blast

As far as tailwinds go, if you can sit on 35mph+ for extended periods, without too much trouble, I call that a strong wind :thumb:

Has anybody else ridden this years Cape Argus? That was what I'd call windy...:eek:

There were guys literaly blown off their bikes. There were thousands that did not even pitch on the day, and many turned around very early. One area there's a long descend after the final climb (Suikerbossie, for those in the know) where people were getting off and pushing their bikes downhill! I worked harder on that downhill than preceding the uphill. Bunch riding was non-existant. We were in bunches, but because the wind was so unpredictable, you simply couldn't get close to another...

Exact figures are out of my mind by now, but the winds was seriously ridiculous! I think the sustained wind was measured at 60+ kph. Think the gusts measures at over 100... All scaffolding, etc were taken down before they got blown down and doing damage. Cycling was an extreme sport on the day! ;) Plenty of war stories the next day, felt like a survivor...