# How windy is too windy?



## AlanE (Jan 22, 2002)

It's a beautiful day today, sunny and 60 degF. But It's very windy. NWS reports 15 mph winds with gusts up to 25. So I wimped out.

What's your threashold when it comes to wind, all other factors being favorable for a ride?


----------



## spade2you (May 12, 2009)

35mph in an individual time trial with a full disc at 50 degrees after a 48 mile RR with roughly the same wind, but a lot colder.


----------



## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

For routes from my house, direction matters more than anything. From the north or south I get to battle it head-on or have it give me a ride so 25mph gusts would be OK (though perhaps slightly demoralizing), from west I wouldn't venture out with those gusts because they'd broadside me on some busier roads causing me to weave too much for comfort considering the vehicle traffic, from the east I'd have to really want to ride (north/south roads have fairly good protection on east sides except for a few places).


----------



## AlanE (Jan 22, 2002)

spade2you said:


> 35mph in an individual time trial with a full disc at 50 degrees after a 48 mile RR with roughly the same wind, but a lot colder.


Must have been a tail wind

Let me clarify my question - you going to ride a loop, so figure 25% head wind, 25% tail wind. 50% side wind


----------



## spade2you (May 12, 2009)

AlanE said:


> Must have been a tail wind
> 
> Let me clarify my question - you going to ride a loop, so figure 25% head wind, 25% tail wind. 50% side wind


It was a roughly circular loop, so your numbers are probably correct. 

The tailwind was really fun and my ego felt good spinning out in a 53x11, although not so much in the headwind. 

The crosswinds were a little freaky at first and a team mate noted that I looked like I was really leaning into the wind, but I didn't feel like I was in trouble. Had it been wet or icy, I could have lost traction, but I probably would have ditched the disc. The only strange thing was how the crosswinds were twisting my TT helmet.


----------



## mimason (Oct 7, 2006)

Pretty much anything over 25 mph sucks but I embrace the wind. It is your friend.If it does not push you into traffic, another rider or cause you to get knocked off your bike it makes your stronger.


----------



## heathb (Nov 1, 2008)

AlanE said:


> It's a beautiful day today, sunny and 60 degF. But It's very windy. NWS reports 15 mph winds with gusts up to 25. So I wimped out.
> 
> What's your threashold when it comes to wind, all other factors being favorable for a ride?


That's nothing here in Kansas. Honestly I've ridden in tornadoes and had a blast...tailwind that is. 

I rarely get to go out without the trees blowing all over the place. We might get 10 calm days a year.


----------



## Phish (Mar 31, 2006)

Here in Kansas, especially in the spring, it's rare that the winds are below 15mph sustained, virtually always from due south. I've been out on days where it was gusting to 45mph+. Let me tell you, riding into that is demoralizing and exhausting. Especially on rollers. Crest a hill, where your heart rate is already running high, and then get hit by a 45mph gust and you feel like someone just attached a parachute to your saddle. Instant HR redline and extremely difficult struggle to the top of the hill. What's also great about this area is that the terrain is nothing BUT rollers, so you get to repeat this struggle over and over and over and over.


----------



## BostonG (Apr 13, 2010)

Depends how far ithe ride is.


----------



## heathb (Nov 1, 2008)

Phish said:


> What's also great about this area is that the terrain is nothing BUT rollers, so you get to repeat this struggle over and over and over and over.


In my area there are rollers as well as trees, but the worst for wind is where my parents live smack in the middle of kansas. They don't have any trees to break up the wind coming off the farmers fields and it's board flat, so the headwinds suck every drop of energy out of your whole body making 25 miles feel like an eternity.


----------



## Cableguy (Jun 6, 2010)

Unless there's a tornado and danger of flying cows, always suck it up and ride!


----------



## lumber825 (Jun 28, 2009)

I often tell my sister and parents who are sailors that God don't care about them he just hates bikers for some reason. It has been a windy freakin year here in Md.


----------



## Sisophous (Jun 7, 2010)

The wind gusts are the killer. You must reside near me because the conditions you mention are what it is here today. I hate even a 6 mph wind, the gusts ruin a ride. Gusts over 20 mph kill the ride.

Ideally, I like an overcast day, dry roads, no sun, 70-73 degrees and no wind, that is heaven cycling weather for me. I’ll see this in late May- June.


----------



## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

I remember doing a race in Kansas years ago with a fairly steep downhill that you had to really peddle hard on or you didn't go anywhere. Strange, very very strange. But kinda fun to talk about afterwards.


----------



## GetReal (Jul 26, 2010)

AlanE said:


> Must have been a tail wind
> 
> Let me clarify my question - you going to ride a loop, so figure 25% head wind, 25% tail wind. 50% side wind


Why not post the length of the ride as well? Wimping over a 15 wind for a ride of any length would be humiliating. :cryin:


----------



## Charlie2Ba (May 28, 2009)

*Aunti Em, Aunti Em!*

I rode one day last spring and I swear I saw the Wicked Witch of the West fly over me on her cruiser! When I got home I watched the weather news and the winds I was riding in were 30mph sustained with 45mph gusts. I rode 25 miles straight into that wind and 25 miles back...the return trip was waaay funner:yesnod: .

To answer your question, it's NEVER too windy to ride. I live near the windy city of Chicago and it's flat as a pancake here...yuh gotta appreciate wind for the resistance that it provides.

What creeps me is mountain biking in a dense forest on a real windy day, there's always limbs snapping off'a trees and I fear I'll get clobbered!


----------



## Peanya (Jun 12, 2008)

Here in Texas, 15mph is a normal day. Over 25, it gets hard to ride into the headwind, so I'll rarely ride in that.


----------



## fastfed (Jan 13, 2011)

EVERY SINGLE DAY, and I ride everyday, its 15mph+ with 20-25mph gusts.. EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY!!!

I live in S.Florida.. Its normal here.. I hate it and curse all the time when riding into it.. But.. What can I do??


----------



## edwin headwind (Aug 23, 2004)

AlanE said:


> It's a beautiful day today, sunny and 60 degF. But It's very windy. NWS reports 15 mph winds with gusts up to 25. So I wimped out.
> 
> What's your threashold when it comes to wind, all other factors being favorable for a ride?



Last week I rode & out & back, out into 35 mph sustained headwind from the south averaging 8-10 mph on the bike. Turning around, I _averaged 31 mph for 15 miles. It was like riding in a vacume!_


----------



## Shaba (Mar 16, 2011)

There are no real hills here in my corner of the world, so I've discovered that riding in the wind makes riding fun, especially this time of the year. I do prefer the headwind on the ride out though, but it never seems to work that way.


----------



## twinkles (Apr 23, 2007)

It depends on how long it's been since you've ridden, sometimes you need to ride. A few years ago, I got caught in some gusts that made me hunker down for a few minutes, the visor on my helmet was flapping and the wind was trying to pull my sunglasses off. I live on the front range of CO, and it turns out that day there were gusts of 90 mph around, yikes. As long as the wind isn't a safety issue, which it was that day I had to hunker down, go out for a ride.


----------



## Charlie2Ba (May 28, 2009)

Shaba said:


> There are no real hills here in my corner of the world, so I've discovered that riding in the wind makes riding fun, especially this time of the year. I do prefer the headwind on the ride out though, but it never seems to work that way.


Like you I prefer the head wind on the way out and tail wind on the return leg. I remember one time in particular when I rode the head wind on the way out and the wind drastically switched around so I had the head wind on the return loop:mad2: .


----------



## robdamanii (Feb 13, 2006)

We had 48mph gusts today, 26mph sustained. I shelved any and all hopes of riding today in that.


----------



## pushpull (Jun 27, 2010)

Too windy:


----------



## Vee (Jun 17, 2010)

I think my absolute limit at which I will still ride is 26-30mph sustained. As a matter of fact, just this week I put a solid 2 hours in 23 mph sustained winds. It isn't easy, but it's a good workout.


----------



## exracer (Jun 6, 2005)

> How windy is too windy?
> It's a beautiful day today, sunny and 60 degF. But It's very windy. NWS reports 15 mph winds with gusts up to 25. So I wimped out.


Out here in Las Vegas, if you don't ride when it's windy; then you don't ride at all. While I don't like riding riding in the wind as much as anyone else, it's not like I have much of a choice. Here is how they rate the winds around here.
0-10mph - calm day
10-20mph - gently breeze
20-30mph - light winds
30-40mph - slightly windy
40-50mph - breezy
50-60mph - moderate winds
60mph+ - windy


----------



## El Literato Loco (Apr 14, 2010)

Where I ride we have force 5 headwinds out of every quadrant, every day. We get a lot of hail and sleet, even in August, and everything is uphill.

And people are constantly parking in our bike lanes.


----------



## hdbiker (Aug 2, 2010)

I have a hunch that riders from every area of the country thinks that their location has more wind than most. I guess I'm like everyone else. Here in northern Ohio, 15 mph winds with gusts in the 20's is pretty standard. A member who wrote on this topic in another thread said it best. Wind doesn't make you ride harder, just slower. It's just mind over matter. Think of it as a good workout. When you get a calm day, enjoy.


----------



## batman1425 (Nov 29, 2005)

4 of my last 6 races were in sustained winds over 20mph. One road race had sustained 30mph with gusts to 50. No breaks that day. It sucks, but if you want to race in it, which some day you will have to, then you better train in it too.


----------



## fastfed (Jan 13, 2011)

exracer said:


> Out here in Las Vegas, if you don't ride when it's windy; then you don't ride at all. While I don't like riding riding in the wind as much as anyone else, it's not like I have much of a choice. Here is how they rate the winds around here.
> 0-10mph - calm day
> 10-20mph - gently breeze
> 20-30mph - light winds
> ...



lol 60mph winds is not Moderate dude... lol I get your point, but 60mph is a hurricane!! LOL


----------



## den bakker (Nov 13, 2004)

exracer said:


> Out here in Las Vegas, if you don't ride when it's windy; then you don't ride at all. While I don't like riding riding in the wind as much as anyone else, it's not like I have much of a choice. Here is how they rate the winds around here.
> 0-10mph - calm day
> 10-20mph - gently breeze
> 20-30mph - light winds
> ...


funny to see that scale. 
After seeing the average and peak winds on weather.gov


----------



## nOOky (Mar 20, 2009)

I'll ride in winds that usually average 5 mph more than whatever the highest posted here so far has been, with gusts 10 mph higher than whatever you've ridden in.
These rides are also at an average gradient that is so steep, I usually end up where I started from before I even leave to get there. I also ride along a river that is so crooked, when I cross over it I end up on the same side I started on!

I forgo to add, my average speed for these rides is right around 31.5 mph, and this is while I'm smoking a cig and passing guys wearing business suits on singlespeeds.


----------



## mimason (Oct 7, 2006)

nOOky said:


> I forgo to add, my average speed for these rides is right around 31.5 mph, and this is while I'm smoking a cig and passing guys wearing business suits on singlespeeds.



Ha, you'll burn your eye out, kid.


----------



## drwsport (Sep 7, 2010)

I asked the same question the other day. http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=245924


----------



## Terex (Jan 3, 2005)

Hey Alan! Went on a ride out of Taos north to Arroyo Seco today. Winds pretty much 20 mph sustained with 35+ gusts. And that's in the morning before it gets windy. If you ride much after noon, gusts get above 40 easily. Driving up that way later in the afternoon we could see some fairly massive dust devils out to the plains to the west.

I rode up one of the local mountains the other day and wind was fine on the way up. On the way down (about noon) it started to get hairy. Got pushed out about 10 ft. into the traffic lane at one point, and fortunately no traffic at the time. Am going to try to find some easy mtn. bike trails up in the woods to stay out of the wind when necessary.

It's not like being able to duck into the Sourlands on a windy day in NJ.


----------



## fa63 (Aug 16, 2007)

This is too windy:






_Edit: It looks like this video was posted in the previously referenced thread also, but oh well..._


----------



## Kuma601 (Jan 22, 2004)

CRAZY!!!
Why not find a road that is into or a tail wind. 

20 MPH+ I rear RBR instead.


----------



## Eric_H (Feb 5, 2004)

Here in the greater Vancouver area we get winter storms that often have winds 40 km/h gusting 60 km/h (25 mph gusting 37ish). I do not think twice about riding these winds, even up to higher gusts of 70 km/h (43 mph).

What I do take of is route selection, as some of my regular training roads have large trees and there can be branches snapping off. This is especially common in November when the trees are still heavy with leaves and the storms start up. I have been hit in the forearm by a branch once and it hurt like heck, and the branch was not even that large. So in reality my threshold for wind is probably around 40 mph gusts, as once it gets up to 50 in my area the risk of falling debris is a serious hazard. Plus these winds are usually accompanied with rain, so there is a "misery point" that is some combination of wind speed, rainfall rate, and temperature....and this is the point where I say I am not riding. The month of November in an El Nino season can be especially bad for high wind and heavy rain, even though the temp might be warm.


----------

