Yesterday I had to ride home for about 8 miles into a 20 mph headwind. Today, its supposed to get to 60 F here but with sustained wind speeds of 30 mph and gusts in excess of 50 mph. I think that I may skip riding and miss the warm weather today.

How do you cope with heavy wind while touring? Do you take a day off and stay in camp/lodging? What's your headwind limit to keep going? BTW, according to an article I read, wind is a hindrance for 200 out of 360 degrees (or 5/9) of the compass directions.

I like to get in some riding every day. Often even with days of 50mph gusts there may be periods that are not as windy so I'll ride those - but end up with a shorter day. Conversely, on a day with good tailwinds, I might ride a bit more/longer just to take advantage of it.

On my ride across Canada, in Saskatchewan, I had a day of 135 miles followed by a day of 41 miles. Guess which way the winds were going...

Similarly crossing the Nullarbor in Australia, I had days of 208km, 195km followed by days of 101km and 84km. Same idea with shifting winds.

As described in the Book 'Bicycling the Pacific Coast' https://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Paci.../dp/0898869544.
the prevailing summer North Pacific High, that gives the drier weather, rotates Clockwise so the winds are from the north west .
The cycle tourists are wise and go from the Canadian/ US border (Juan De Fuca Straights ) and south down the Coast.

On my way towards Zwolle in the Northern Netherlands I Had a very Strong headwind , I just did not go very far that day.

its what happens on the seashore .. and flat countryside doesn't offer shelter behind Hills ..

Since I currently do not have the luxury of taking open-ended tours, I ride. If things got really bad I might try to tweek my schedule by cutting out mileage, but I prefer not to do that.

My fondest wind experience occurred while crossing the country. I sustained 32.5 mph for several miles while riding on the High Line to Malta, MT. I eventually went into the red zone after crossing a bridge over a rail line and had to dial it back to 28 mph.

Even in flat places like Kansas and Wyoming plains, the wind usually doesn't kick up until late morning or early afternoon. So if you get up and start riding at the crack of dawn, you can often get 6-8 hours of riding in before the wind kicks up. Then you head for the town library or swimming pool.

If I were on the Pacific coast and a storm came in, I'd hole up in a motel for 2-3 days and wait it out.

You can never beat the wind - the wind will always beat you.

Thus, you need to adjust - maybe less so on a day ride, but certainly on a tour.
Usually, but not always, there wind is least in the early morning - start early and quit by noon.
If the wind is blowing all day, take the day off. Why kill yourself to ride 20 miles in 5 hours?
The wind - especially a side wind - can be dangerous, pushing you into traffic or off the roadway.
The wind also batters you psychologically and makes it more likely you will have an accident thru inattention.

Adjust, don't fight it.

(Bear with me)

My nephew likes cucumbers but hates pickles, he says pickles are cucumbers dipped in evil.

Therefore, headwinds are like hills dipped in evil.

I tried to do an out and back tour last June, 100km each way, fully loaded. It took me 7hrs on Saturday (elapsed time, but there weren't many breaks) because I was going into headwinds. I was happy to return on Sunday with tailwinds but when I woke up, the winds had turned and it took me 2hrs of actual riding time to travel 25km, therefore, an estimated 6 more hours of riding to get home (estimated because I stopped and called my son for a ride). I guess I would have just pushed through it if I didn't have the choice but my concerns were a couple of uphills (into the headwinds) and 6km on the busy 2-lane highway (with little to no paved shoulder) that were upcoming: had I not had those or been past them before the winds hit, I would have been comfortable (but tired) continuing.

Yeah, I was cycling east on US 30, coming back from my LBS, with the winds coming from E, ESE, and occasionally gusting from SE. The latter kept trying to push me from the narrow shoulder onto the highway. Pretty nerve racking, really, especially on occasion as I slowed down drastically going up hills against the wind.

That makes a lot of sense. I wasn't considering that as I just started riding this winter, and I normally wait to ride till late morning, after it has warmed up a bit.

When I'm touring with others and there are strong headwinds, we generally take turns up front breaking the wind. Mind you this only works if you have people willing to do the work and others that are skilled enough to follow closely on another's wheel in a paceline formation. (This is when you learn to hate a fellow rider pulling a trailer

Otherwise, shorten the miles and take more frequent breaks.

This is the best strategy I have found.

As a Clydedale I have learned to accept that people will accept my slower pace at the front because I punch such a big hole in the headwind : )

I do not have a limit for headwinds. Use lower gears. One day when I did the Katy Trail, the wind was so strong that I had to use my granny gear for most of the time, and that was flat ground. It was on the western end of the trail where there were not many trees. I think it was almost comparable to climbing about a 4 to 4.5 percent grade.

That is one reason why my touring bikes have drop bars, they help to get down out of the wind a little.

Side winds, I hate those more. The gusts can almost throw you off a bike. And one strong gust blew down a tree right in front of me, crashing into it resulted in two shoulder surgeries and three years of intermittent physical therapy.

Aidoneus, Here on the coastal plains, I have plenty of wind. Just turn a headwind into a positive experience, training for an example. If one fears or hates a headwind they'll always end up doing more poorly than facing it with a good, or as good as possible attitude.

Brad

30 MPH Cross Winds

Charcoal biscuits.

If you'e in an open area the wind could be blowing from any direction at virtually any speed. It all depends on the moment in time that you're at that specific spot. You may believe that statistics can help you, and they might, but it's really about karma. For headwinds you can hunker-down and wait OR gear-down and ride. It's just the wind, part of nature, part of touring, don't let it get in your head.

The wind will always be there; the same for hills. My wife and I will trade leads frequently, and allow the other a little respite.

We usually just gear down and accept the fact that our average mileage will be pretty low. We have averaged 7-8 mph on a 63 mile stretch of relatively flat road in southern Idaho. It was a long day. However, there are times when it is dangerous to ride. While doing the coast route, we encountered some serious winds when riding just south of Astoria, Oregon. After the wind literally blew my wife over twice, we decided to call it a day. The fact that it was pouring rain, made the decision a lot easier.

After being blown over, the rain, traveling in a horizontal direction, kicked in. This made making a motel stop pretty appealing.


Each situation is different, and the action taken is dependent on many factors: fatigue, topography, schedule wind speed and direction, distance, and other weather factors namely rain and temperature. I believe that whoever said attitude was an important factor when dealing with the wind is absolutely correct. A good attitude also helps a lot when dealing with hills, rain, and extreme temperatures.

I agree with the above when stressing a positive attitude. Living in the Midwestern plains, if you want to ride on a regular basis, you have deal with the wind. I didn't say we like it but we have no hills to break the wind and now that every farmer from here to Kansas has torn out their hedge rows in order to plant every square inch that they own. When the crops are in, most every day is ugly but as my friend says, if it doesn't kill us, it makes us stronger.

Unless it is a hurricane or tropical storm or there are tornado warnings about ... I just ride.

There is always wind.

After cycling in Manitoba for 13 years, I have a little guideline to help me feel better about the wind ...

But since there is always wind, I also plan my tours with something of a relaxed schedule ... no more than about 60 km/day and 3 days on/1 day off. I might ride more than that some days, and other days I might ride less.

A+++++++++

I was heading north this past summer through KS, NE, SD, ND and MN. I knew long before getting into KS that the heat had moved far enough north that I shouldn't run into the winds until I got into SD/ND/MN. Boy was I ever correct. Nothing in KS, nothing in NE/far western IA. As I got into SD they started up and by the time I was riding up into Mitchell they were a fairly consistent 15-20mph. Definitely didn't make town as soon as I figured I would, not by a long shot. As I left Mitchell several days later the winds didn't start until I was about 20 miles north out of town. Now they were up to 15-25 mph out of the south and I was about to turn east and enjoy fairly light traffic with the wind on my upwind side...coming across the farm fields and hitting me before hitting anything else. I watched my speed tank like a rock until I turned back north and then just went sailing.

The next day heading east out of Watertown, SD going into MN and then up US75 to make the cross back over into ND things started smooth and then the winds increased mid to late morning out of the west. I got heading north on US75 and immediately hit a 90 degree cross wind that was blowing 25-45mph and now I was on the downwind side of the road. US75 has plenty of traffic and plenty of semi traffic going both directions. The bigger problem with US75 and most roads in MN is they don't have any rideable shoulders. Sure a 2-3 foot wide shoulder is present with a rumble strip right on the shoulder so you can't ride the shoulder but have to ride the marked lane. Talk about a fun 50 mile stretch along US75. I pretty much b!tched the whole way up. I would have to mark that as the most dangerous road I've ever ridden on thus far. At one point about half way up to the turn back into ND I stopped at a gas station and put my bike up against the building and walked inside and filled up the water bottle and came out and grabbed a snack and then watched a ghost hop on my bike and try to ride it away. The bike started moving on its own with no one on it. The wind was blowing strong enough to move the bike even though it was leaning up against the building. That's when you know the wind is strong.

I did as Machka suggests, I kept riding. I knew I wasn't going to make town as soon as planned but I still made town before nightfall. I wasn't a happy camper when I got to town thanks to having to put up with the darn rumble strips all afternoon and ended up breaking a spoke as a result.

The only thing you can do when you have to ride with the wind is to change your plans and plan to either not make it as far as you originally planned or to not make it there as soon as you had planned to. Watching the weather forecast helps out quite a bit. Knowing of the reason for the wind in a given area also helps out quite a bit. The midwest gets the high winds thanks to the Mexico/Texas warm pool of ground that just bakes once the warmth start to build down that way after winter departs, generally it will start building right now. As the air gets warmer than the ground the ground starts releasing the heat, study thermals, and this causes the winds that you will feel that 'pulses' and helps to form cummie clouds up in the sky. As the ground continues to bake it wants to push that warmer air to places where the ground isn't as warm, aka further north. You'll quite often hear the RAAM racers talk about getting hit with the winds in KS that can be 40-50 mph, hopefully cross or tail winds but not always. I was going through KS, not in mid June when the RAAM racers go through there but rather mid July(16-17th time frame). I knew from having been down south and watching the weather that the temps had the ground in KS baking and I shouldn't have to worry about the wind until I got further north where the ground hadn't had the chance yet to bake. I called it right on the money. It happened as I figured it would. I wasn't really expecting to see that strong/consistently strong of winds so it did catch me a bit off guard. Like I said get to know the reason for the winds in a given area and that will give the idea of how you might be able to ride 'around' them and avoid the problem. Take to night riding when the normal fair weather wind generally will die off around sunset to only start again the next morning generally by around 10AM it will start to pick up. If you are dealing with storm front wind that can much harder to avoid. Again you need to both watch the weather forecast and you need to get know what to expect from the general winds in a particular area. Quite often you can avoid the worst of the winds with proper planning. When you can't just ride through it and plan to not make town as soon as you had hoped to.

I'm more of a planner than most on this forum, so if it's windy I just have to deal with it and ride. I tend to have things booked on certain dates. I get plenty of headwind practice here in Nevada.

That said, there are a few ways to plan your route for a better chance of avoiding headwinds. Obviously, even the best plans are no match for mother nature when she decides to be a *****. Starting early is a good one. Knowing seasonal wind patterns in places like the Pacific Coast is another good one. Try to stay in forested areas when possible (easier said than done). Change directions more often. Consider doing a loop instead of a straight line. Hire a motor pacer. Ride a recumbent. OK, maybe not the last two.

However, I'm willing to bet that you have a route idea in your head and you wouldn't want to change it out of fear of the wind, especially knowing that your plans may backfire and you'll be out there riding into a headwind even though you did all you could to try to avoid it. You just have to get out there and accept what comes. Bike touring isn't just about getting out there and seeing new things. Part of the fun is that battle against mother nature. Ultimately we'll all die and lose the proverbial war, but it's satisfying to feel like you won a battle every now and then.

I rode home today in that Indiana wind - 35 miles west and 35 north. Pulling a bob, a crosswind gust blew me into a ditch. Had we been going SW rather than NW, I suppose I'd have still ridden, but mileage would have been less!

When riding into strong headwinds, there is no getting around it: you will not get far; and you will be more tired than usual!

Having ultra low gears on my bikes makes it easier (not easy!) to ride up long steep hills. Similarly, ultra low gears make it easier (not easy!) to deal with headwinds.

My touring bikes have drop bars and aerobars. Riding in the aero position reduces aerodynamic drag when riding in headwinds. But it's a balance. I don't have as much steering control, or direct access to the brakes in the aero position. If it's not safe to ride because of wind, I get to a destination ASAP, and stop for the day. Fortunately, after decades of touring, I can only remember one occasion that I curtailed riding due to heavy winds.

I usually get up super early and am on the road quickly so I tend to ride a lot in the least windy portion of the day. That said typically I just ride making what mileage I can in the conditions. Sometimes that is hard. If riding with others riding pace line and taking turns on the front, the drafting can be a huge help even on tour.

that explains it, I thought it was Alberta.

and yes, all in all, wind is like hills, there will always be another hill, and there will always be crummy days with headwinds.
and I certainly second the comment about planning a trip with realistic, doable mileage per day, so if a crummy wind day comes up either you have sufficient hours in the day to get to where you need to go, and or you have some extra days in the bank in case situations really do screw up your planning, and have an impact on final destination time, re a flight or whatever.