How much wind do you ride in?

[DownTick]

I have not been riding much at all for the last couple of weeks due to the unusually high winds.

Where I ride, it is mostly hills and climbs. That make the ride challenging enough; there are no flats. Add high winds to mix and it just pisses me off. We have had sustained winds of 15-22mph with pretty constant gusts of around 30mph and many as high as 40mph. It isn't so much the extra effort required to ride in these conditions as much as it just makes mad that I can not go faster and farther. It is very irritating.

My questions are:

1. What is the average wind speed during most of your rides?
2. Would you ride 40+ miles 4-5 times a week in the conditions I mentioned above?
3. What kind of winds would be necessary to keep you off of you bike for a week?
4. Am I just being weak for taking the week off?

 

[Orange Fish]

Don't be a Nancy. Go ride in the wind and ride in those hills! Force yourself to do your training there...do it the right way, and you have a recipe for success!

 

[friedmikey]

I find the most frustrating thing about riding in wind (a head or crosswind that is – a tailwind is fabulous!) is that it screws up my cadence. The effort is like riding uphill, but at least riding up a hill is predictable. Gusts of wind just kill my rhythm and make for a very frustrating experience. Still, I push on. If I were you, I’d just accept the wind as another part of the challenge, another aspect of your training.

It has been incredibly windy all season around the SF Bay Area. There’s a strange phenomenon that I’ve coped with here all my life – despite the fact that I mostly ride loops, I always seem to be riding into a headwind. I hate it. But I love riding.

 

[jhuskey]

I have not been riding much at all for the last couple of weeks due to the unusually high winds.

Where I ride, it is mostly hills and climbs. That make the ride challenging enough; there are no flats. Add high winds to mix and it just pisses me off. We have had sustained winds of 15-22mph with pretty constant gusts of around 30mph and many as high as 40mph. It isn't so much the extra effort required to ride in these conditions as much as it just makes mad that I can not go faster and farther. It is very irritating.

My questions are:

1. What is the average wind speed during most of your rides?
2. Would you ride 40+ miles 4-5 times a week in the conditions I mentioned above?
3. What kind of winds would be necessary to keep you off of you bike for a week?
4. Am I just being weak for taking the week off?

It doesn't matter to me as long as it is not coupled with rain and cold.
40 mph rain is a ***** and I'll hit the trainer at that point!

 

[billybob1992002]

hey man i am from waco and i know the feeling but we have about 25-30 mph sustained and 40 mph gust. i went today and it really just sucked about 20 mph head wind of course

 

[velomanct]

average wind here in CT is 10-15mph, some days it gets in the 20s, occasionaly gust in the 30s+.
i would ride in it, try to plan your route so you have a tailwind home. tailwinds are great. im quite serious about my training so i wouldn't let wind stop me.

 

[mitosis]

I have not been riding much at all for the last couple of weeks due to the unusually high winds.

Where I ride, it is mostly hills and climbs. That make the ride challenging enough; there are no flats. Add high winds to mix and it just pisses me off. We have had sustained winds of 15-22mph with pretty constant gusts of around 30mph and many as high as 40mph. It isn't so much the extra effort required to ride in these conditions as much as it just makes mad that I can not go faster and farther. It is very irritating.

My questions are:

1. What is the average wind speed during most of your rides?
2. Would you ride 40+ miles 4-5 times a week in the conditions I mentioned above?
3. What kind of winds would be necessary to keep you off of you bike for a week?
4. Am I just being weak for taking the week off?

Depends what I've been eating and the time of day.

 

[AmpedCycle]

I don't like the wind, either. It isn't that it's hard, but as frustrating as hell, isn't it!?? Yeah, for the last month it's been windy where I live, too (sacramento/davis california), and I try to wait for the right time of day to catch the wind off guard. Isn't Austin one of the windiest cities in America?
And, if I were you, I wouldn't be mad at myself for not wanting to ride in that ****... who really does? I know I don't.
What I've been doing is going into the wind anyways, so I can mentally train myself to not get ****** off so much, and it seems to work. I'll admit that it's not fun and causes a lot of foul mouthed mumbling and pissing/moaning, but I do it anyways!
Rock n roll, coochie coo

Oh, and about your questions...
Average wind speed (at leat lately)= 10 good day, 10+ shitty day, even more than that is the kind where your riding speed plummets to around 14 or 15 mph.
I don't know if I'd ride 40-50 miles in those conditions. Right now I'm riding 30-40 5 times per week in that god awful wind, but maybe the wind where you are is worse than the wind we have out this way. Funny thing is that it reminds me how much this damned wind is bugging me, before I read your post. I was asking people out here if this wind is just a recent phenomenon, and I think it seems to be a western-US epidemic
To keep me off the bike for a week... well, that's a personal choice, and it all depends on how you feel. Remember that you start losing muscle after 10 days.
Don't think of it as being weak, think that wind sucks and you don't like it... and try to work with that

 

[leegregory]

I don't like the wind, either. It isn't that it's hard, but as frustrating as hell, isn't it!?? Yeah, for the last month it's been windy where I live, too (sacramento/davis california), and I try to wait for the right time of day to catch the wind off guard. Isn't Austin one of the windiest cities in America?
And, if I were you, I wouldn't be mad at myself for not wanting to ride in that ****... who really does? I know I don't.
What I've been doing is going into the wind anyways, so I can mentally train myself to not get ****** off so much, and it seems to work. I'll admit that it's not fun and causes a lot of foul mouthed mumbling and pissing/moaning, but I do it anyways!
Rock n roll, coochie coo

Oh, and about your questions...
Average wind speed (at leat lately)= 10 good day, 10+ shitty day, even more than that is the kind where your riding speed plummets to around 14 or 15 mph.
I don't know if I'd ride 40-50 miles in those conditions. Right now I'm riding 30-40 5 times per week in that god awful wind, but maybe the wind where you are is worse than the wind we have out this way. Funny thing is that it reminds me how much this damned wind is bugging me, before I read your post. I was asking people out here if this wind is just a recent phenomenon, and I think it seems to be a western-US epidemic
To keep me off the bike for a week... well, that's a personal choice, and it all depends on how you feel. Remember that you start losing muscle after 10 days.
Don't think of it as being weak, think that wind sucks and you don't like it... and try to work with that

England is Great, I travel West to East going to work and East to West going home, I have a 2mile (9-12%) climb on the way home, every day this week i have had a 15-20mph head wind going to and from work, along with rain and the delight that is hail stones and it makes for an interesting journey.

If the weather repoart are correct then today's journey home should also have snow thrown in as well.

Joy of Joys.....

 

[rule62]

When it is strong enough to blow me off the bike, I start to think about riding in instead. Otherwise I go. So far, I have been blown over in a track stand, but otherwise have gotten a ton of rides in. I definitely have gotten a lot better at cutting the wind. The best part about this approach though is that on the days with no wind, I feel like a god.

 

[jhuskey]

When it is strong enough to blow me off the bike, I start to think about riding in instead. Otherwise I go. So far, I have been blown over in a track stand, but otherwise have gotten a ton of rides in. I definitely have gotten a lot better at cutting the wind. The best part about this approach though is that on the days with no wind, I feel like a god.

So do I!
Unfortunately it's Buddah.

 

[DownTick]

Yes, after further consideration and reading these replies, I am being a "Nancy"... LOL

Although Austin does get its fair share of wind, I believe that Boston the windiest city in the US.

I think that I would not get so frustrated if the wind were not always IN MY FACE! You would think that the wind would be at my back at some point during my rides... But no, always a damn head-wind. I think the lack of flats and excess of hills and climbs redirects the wind from its prevalent direction, and right in to MY FACE!

Anyway, I will do 50 miles today as a point of principal. It is currently 67 degrees with a sustained wind of 12-15mph and gusts of 25mph. So, this is a little slower than the last week or so. But, by the time I hit the road, who knows... probably 80 degrees and 90mph winds with hail... and twisters...

We shall see.

 

[Lonnie Utah]

Sounds like you need to find a couple of riding partners to share the work....

The wind blows, but what can we do about it.

L

 

[AmpedCycle]

Sounds like you need to find a couple of riding partners to share the work....

The wind blows, but what can we do about it.

L

When we ran out of food to eat, we ate sand. When we ran out of sand, we thought about eating sand. Hahahaha

 

[soonerbiker]

I have not been riding much at all for the last couple of weeks due to the unusually high winds.

Where I ride, it is mostly hills and climbs. That make the ride challenging enough; there are no flats. Add high winds to mix and it just pisses me off. We have had sustained winds of 15-22mph with pretty constant gusts of around 30mph and many as high as 40mph. It isn't so much the extra effort required to ride in these conditions as much as it just makes mad that I can not go faster and farther. It is very irritating.

My questions are:

1. What is the average wind speed during most of your rides?
2. Would you ride 40+ miles 4-5 times a week in the conditions I mentioned above?
3. What kind of winds would be necessary to keep you off of you bike for a week?
4. Am I just being weak for taking the week off?

I live in Oklahoma and generally ride around a lake during the week. The lake has no tree cover around it and there's a big dam to ride across that takes the brunt of the wind. Average wind speed is probably around 15-20 on a normal day, though this week has been especially windy. The past four days have seen average winds of 25-35 with gusts well over 40 (and likely 50) mph. I rode a few days in these conditions (only for around 25 miles), but the crosswinds on the dam nearly knocked me off my bike a few times, so I'll be planning a different route if I decide to bike again in these conditions. But more likely, I'll stay inside and ride the trainer instead.

And to answer your questions, I worry about my safety when the winds kick up over 40 mph, so I don't know how much I'd ride in those conditions. It definitely makes for a good challenge, but I don't think anyone can really give you a hard time about not riding in extreme winds. Safety first.

 

[DownTick]

Well... I just finished my 50 mile windy ride from hell. The wind was a steady 15mph with 35mph gusts when I started.

But I swear, with about 20 miles left, I was riding head-on in to the wind in an open area and it must have been sustained at 30mph or more, or so it seemed! The wind LITERALY blow one of my contacts right out of my eye! I had to finish this "fun" ride with only one good eye! Fotunately my vision isn't THAT bad so I could still see, barely...

I then kept getting nailed with cross-winds that almost blew me on to the highway.

I saw only three other cyclists while I was out: 2 coming towards me with the wind (why can't I EVER have the wind at MY back), and the other was ahead of me, but I smoked him on the next climb...

I averaged only 16.7mph. Without wind I average 21 to 23mph on this route. My average heart rate was a staggering 161bpm; I am usually in the high 140's for this ride. There is a descent that I go down on this ride at about 45mph without pushing it to the max and with low to no winds, today I pushed about as hard as I could and I could not even break 28mph!!! It was right after that when my contact flew outta my eye and stuck to my sunglasses!!! THAT was fun...

Hopefully this awful wind will die down soon... I am tired of being a Nancy! LMAO

 

[howierart]

Where I live we have an endless and frequent gail force wind coming off the Irish Sea. So most of my cycliing involves high winds. Ive just had a 25mile ride this evening and was blown half way then realy had to fight back home. Though thats the fun of it, its all part of the challenge and I have no problem with it. At times its utter hell, though its nature and sometihng we cant hide from. Oneof the main things I enjoy about cycling is the whole fighting and being within the elements. In the modern world of indoor trainers and spaceage fabrics / bikes etc people can quite simply go a bit soft.

 

[CampagnoloBora]

Where I live in Winnipeg, Canada there is ALWAYS some kind of wind when the temperature warms up. Every ride I've done outside this year has been at least a 40kmh with gusts into the 50+ kmh area. The park I am riding in now is a about a 7 mile loop so at least you get somewhat of a break from the wind. The other bad thing is even though the temperature is warming alot, there is still snow on the ground so the wind blowing across the snow is making the air temp feel alot colder than it actually is. Yesterday there was a wind warning and at one point it was 57 gusting to 77 kmh.

Where do I draw the line... well unfortuneatley in the summer south winds 40 gusting 60kmh are the norm, a 30kmh wind is considered a good day...

Put it this way, I have't been able to ride my new Mavic Cosmic SLs here yet for fear of getting airborne sideways in the crosswinds, so I am sticking on my Camapagnolo Nucleons and still getting drifted sideways!!

 

[Catrike #116]

El Paso has a windy season beginning in March and ending sometime in May. Winds gusty up to 50mph.

I ride a Catrike Road, a recumbent trike. It sets low on the ground so I am not a large wind target.

I will usually ride in wind that is less than 30mph. Now, if the wind is picking up and blowing dirt with it, then I do not ride.

I always ride with eye protection, normally just sunglasses. But when it is windy, I ride with sealed goggles that fit around my eyes.

I view the wind as additional challenge to riding. It can only help my endurance.



Catrike Road #116

Cats just don't feel safe on a moving bicycle, no matter how much duct tape you use.

 

[Little_Piggy]

Hi there everyone, I'm new here!

Just got back from a 40km ride, and agree the wind is such a pain when its at its strongest, which it was. However, it was a round trip so what goes around, comes around!

The outbound journey for 20k was frustrating, even downhill I couldn't get any speed up. Took me 45 minutes.

Coming back, well... It was fun.