kbarch

I'd say the middle of Kansas is extraordinary in its way - one ordinarily thinks of more topographically interesting places for a bike race - though the Flint Hills are pretty cool (that's in Kansas, isn't it?).

ksryder

Was it the Matfield green race? Early season, always a good bet for strong winds in Kansas.

therhodeo

I only don't ride if something is blowing in with the wind. Just wind? I typically get out. We literally warn you about he wind in our state song here so I have no excuse.

FlashBazbo

No, but the route would have passed pretty close to Matfield Green, I think. The race was years ago and I don't even remember the name of the race. I don't think they do it anymore. (I couldn't find it on Google.) It was early season -- maybe late April or very early May? It started and finished in El Dorado, made a big loop with El Dorado Lake in the middle going out and coming in, and the course never went south of hwy. 54.


And yes, this is the southern edge of the Flint Hills. Serious gravel all around, but not on this race.

99Klein 

Never called a ride due to wind. Around here we get some stiff winds with plenty of gusts.... Just hang on and wait for the ride home....oh and hang on on the way home too :-)

ksryder

Gotcha. There's a longtime spring road race in Matfield Green, there's also one near Hutchinson but I think that's later in the year (and much further west), but obviously there have been lots of road races come and go throughout the years. Of course now everyone's into gravel but that's a recent thing.

Thanks for sharing the story, at any rate.

scott967

Never avoided a ride due to wind that I can think of, but I think most of my experience with bad wind is in conjunction with passing fronts or tropical storms that I don't ride in for the rain factor.

scott s.
.

Sy Reene

Don't see a lot of posts correlating wind with temperature. ie. I can tolerate 15-20mph winds in temps over 50.. You get to 30mph and no, just no. No wind and I can happily ride at lower temps.

On a side note... I can't tolerate any wind if it's occurring in an elevator.

Machka 

You've just described Tasmania.

I've been a bit surprised by the amount and strength of wind here. I knew I'd be dealing with hills, but didn't expect the wind.

Machka 

Regarding the Beaufort Scale, here it is in case anyone wondered ...
Bureau - Beaufort Wind Scale


And yes, I have ridden many times under the conditions described as, "Twigs break off trees; progress generally impeded. Moderately high waves of greater length; edges of crests begin to break into spindrift; foam is blown in well-marked streaks along the direction of the wind."

That's 63 - 75 km/h.

Fortunately I haven't encountered winds higher than that very often, and not for sustained periods of time. You get the occasional gust that just about takes the bicycle out from under you or sends you skittering across the road, but luckily that might only happen once or twice a year.

Shuffleman

Thankfully, I don't have any snow to contend with. Florida is just great about that, but if it did snow I would cry like a baby and stay inside.😁

joesch

Wind is good for help improving your aero riding ability and for flat landers a chance to experience more of a climbing like challenge. The wind chill requires clothing for a colder than current ride temperature. 20+ mph wind and less than 50 degrees can really cool you down if your not wearing good cold weather jersey. It is almost a question of how much grade can you tolerate, 15%+ ?

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by joesch

…The wind chill requires clothing for a colder than current ride temperature. 20+mph wind and less than 50 degrees can really cool you down if your not wearing good cold weather jersey…

Quote:

Originally Posted by _ForceD_

Well...20 mph is considerablefor cycling. But personally...I consider not only the wind speed, but the wind direction, air temperature, precipitation, and where/direction I can ride to/from. Last Saturday … the wind was steady at about 15mph, but lots of gusting to near 30mph. I usually don'tlet the elements keep me from going if I really want to. But, as bad as I wanted to ride...I didn't.

Hi joesch

ForceD from Rhode Island seemed to be the only other correspondent on this thread that considered wind chill. I note you post from DFW. The current temp in Dallas is 50°F (feels like 48) and here in Boston is 35° (feels like 27). Personally, I only consider ambient temperature when preparing for a ride, FWIW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

BTW, I have found a semi-quantitative scale of 1 to 6 a pretty suitable estimation for wind speed; I also use such a scale to evaluate my levels of dress by temperature increments. I picked it up on a whitewater rafting trip when I learned the difficulty of rivers is determined as 1 to 6.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

...The “formula” I have adopted for dressing to ride is that over the years I have established a set of six levels of dress according to temperature, ranging from 1 to 6, according to intervals of temperature of about 10⁰ F

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I use my chart to decide on dress by just checking the temperature. I decide just by ambient temperature, and ignore wind chill (unless severe) since there is always a wind chill on a bike…

FBinNY 

Given the fact that I've been here on BF for years, it must be an awful lot.

Abe_Froman

10-15mph wind is pretty much par for the course here. Just checked the weather and it’s an 18mph wind atm.

Until this thread, it has never occured to me that someone might not ride because of wind.

Abe_Froman

Hah good point. Wind is something I don’t always accou t for when commuting. A 10 degree temp change is no biggie on the ride home...but if I dress for morning, then the temp drops a bit, and I’m facing a 20mph wind when it’s 15 degrees and i’m dressed for calm and in the 20s....that sucks. Has happened a couple times this year

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sy Reene

Don't see a lot of posts correlating wind with temperature. ie. I can tolerate 15-20 mph winds intemps over 50.. You get to 30 mph and no, just no. No wind and I can happily ride at lower temps…

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abe_Froman

Hah good point. Wind is something I don’t always account for when commuting. A 10 degree temp change is no biggie on the ride home...but if I dress for morning, then the temp drops a bit, and I’m facing a 20mph wind when it’s 15 degrees and i’m dressed for calm and in the 20s....that sucks. Has happened a couple times this year

During the Winter I only commute with my aluminum beater Diverge Elite, with panniers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

On my beater bike, one pannier bag contains my ever-present rain pants, Gore-tex wrap around shoe covers, a long-sleeved, adequate cycling jacket, and a billed baseball cap, if the rain is heavy enough…

The other bag holds additional cold weather gear for temps into the single digits ◦F, with enough room to discard additional gear as needed. In the nice weather with my carbon fiber road bike I use a back pack for lightweight, but bulky items. I'm looking for a large seatbag for that purpose, especially one by Arkel.

Hypno Toad

Winning post!!!

PeregrineA1 

We canceled our road ride the past Sunday. It was 16-24, with gusts to 40+. Peak gust at our house was 47. A few of our group did an MTB ride. The challenge with the wind was two fold, the speed and how gusty it was. At the low end, a steady 16-20 is bearable (if you don't have deep rims ). But the gusty nature just takes the fun out of it. At the top end, well, forget it.

Hypno Toad

I've never cancelled a ride for weather. Like many have stated, I have rerouted rides for safety because of the weather. Frankly, I race in the wind, so I train in the wind. I enjoy when the wind is at my back, so I endure the pain of headwinds to get the joy of a tailwind (& repeating: KOMs!!!). How is this different than a long climb to enjoy the descent?

Last year, the wind took so much out of me I abandoned a race (first DNF). The winds were 20 to 30 mph all morning, with gusts up to 50 mph. These winds were either a headwind or a crosswind the first 50+ miles of the course (and I rode 20 miles into lighter winds to get to the race start).

Here's a short edit of the worst wind conditions of the day:


Here's the longer edit:

ksryder

I think I remember you posting about that -- wasn't there some arrogant jerk on here from a non-midwestern state that doesn't have wind trying to argue that the wind couldn't possibly blow as hard as it frequently and easily-varifiabley blows in the midwest?

Hypno Toad

Yep! There was another wind thread, a much older one.

To be fair, not all winds are created equal, canyons and downtown skyscrapers can take a 20 mph wind a create a focused much fast wind speed.

canklecat

15-20 mph steady and 30 mph gusts Thursday afternoon so I went hunting for personal bests. KOMs are way out of reach on those segments -- no way I can make up a full minute or more on a segment only a mile or two long. But cracking the top ten is nice.

With the tail wind I snagged 6 new personal bests, cracked the top ten on another segment... and set half a dozen personal worsts on the return trips into the wind!

Not even ashamed. I checked the weather for the dates of the KOMs and top tens. Every one of 'em was wind assisted.

Felt pretty good pretending to be faster than I really am.

The downside was the crosswind. Every time I reached down for my water bottle or to shift I was all over the road. Good thing I was riding alone. I just switched from 700x23 to 700x25 tires and while they don't look significantly bigger, I could feel a difference in the crosswind. On the plus side there's much less road chatter on chipseal.

bogydave

In the desert, wind usually means dust
When it get that bad I don't ride
20 - 25 mph. & up
Got caught out in some dusty conditions & coughed
for 2 days afterwards.

canklecat

Yep, the dust and pollen Thursday were pretty bad here. Even my usual antihistamine, nasal anti-inflammatory and decongestant barely helped the snottarrhea.