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I hate wind

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

I hate wind

Old 09-19-18, 09:01 PM
  #1  
spelger
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I hate wind

it is the worst. today i was kicking my old self's butt according to my bike computer and then came the dreaded wind. wind to me is worse than a hill. hills are predictable but wind is so much worse. there is nothing worse than peddling hard downhill with a head wind and doing no more than 8mph. reno gets pretty windy at times.

and what is it about the kind of wind that no matter how many turns you take there is always a head wind component? why not a tail wind component?
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Old 09-19-18, 09:13 PM
  #2  
OldTryGuy
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Originally Posted by spelger
....................and what is it about the kind of wind that no matter how many turns you take there is always a head wind component? why not a tail wind component?
Lots of complaining about that 360° wind here in SW FL.

Wind is the invisible hill that often times makes one feel that the TOP might never be crested.
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Old 09-19-18, 09:48 PM
  #3  
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I hate wind too. It never lets up. At least with a hill you know when you're coming to an end.

What REALLY annoys me is when I do my ride in to the wind, then when I turn to come back the wind has changed directions too. So I'm cycling in to the wind in both directions...
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Old 09-19-18, 09:49 PM
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ive never had a tailwind in my life
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Old 09-19-18, 10:02 PM
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There's a secret to riding in wind. Consider it a meditation. Get on the bike, get comfortably areo, find the right gear, get your cadence and breathing down and just settle in to doing that. Don't think about the end, the destination or (as best you can) anything else but just being on the bike and riding in good form.

Thursday, the rest day at Cycle Oregon, the optional ride was to the west, lunch at at a town at the far point, then back on a different road. Going out was a real headwind. 15 miles was straight upwind, flat and no trees or buildings. Instead of getting into a stew about the wind, I just settled in as I suggested above, did the distance and arrived at lunch tired (it was hard) but in a good place,

Ben
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Old 09-19-18, 10:34 PM
  #6  
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The problem with wind is that its resistance increases with the square of its speed. A hill, OTOH, is a constant force that doesn't change with speed.

Last edited by Robert A; 09-19-18 at 10:35 PM. Reason: grammar
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Old 09-20-18, 05:56 AM
  #7  
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When riding out in to a headwind, I've learned not to look forward to a tailwind at the turn-around point.
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Old 09-20-18, 06:21 AM
  #8  
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Wind is something that bothers you a lot more when you're out of shape. Like uneven pavement, it's one more excuse for not riding as well as a person thinks they would be capable of, if not for that blasted wind. I find when I'm in better shape, things like wind, cars, bumpy roads, and unfairly steep hills, just don't bother me as much, I take 'em in stride.
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Old 09-20-18, 06:24 AM
  #9  
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Originally Posted by Colnago Mixte
Wind is something that bothers you a lot more when you're out of shape. Like uneven pavement, it's one more excuse for not riding as well as a person thinks they would be capable of, if not for that blasted wind. I find when I'm in better shape, things like wind, cars, bumpy roads, and unfairly steep hills, just don't bother me as much, I take 'em in stride.
I'd agree with this in general, but there is still a wind threshold where's it's just a ***** to deal with, no matter what. Well, at least for the range of cycling shape that I've been in.
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Old 09-20-18, 06:24 AM
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If you really want to hate wind, try out MyWindsock.com - it will show you how almost invariably you had a tailwind at least 45% of the time and the wind speed was way below what you were estimating...
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Old 09-20-18, 06:28 AM
  #11  
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Riding into a stiff wind is definitely a mental exercise. On a positive note you are going slower so your ride is longer
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Old 09-20-18, 06:30 AM
  #12  
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A strong tailwind on a fully loaded bike is magical. Can you say 32.5 mph sustained for several miles? Finally had to dial it back to 28.5 after I went into the red.
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Old 09-20-18, 06:31 AM
  #13  
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wind. get used to it

embrace it and deal with it
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Old 09-20-18, 06:38 AM
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Take a pain pill to ease the effort. I have heard it said that the pioneers who came to the American west during the 1840's, who traveled for weeks in primitive bumpy wagons thousands of miles over ungraded roads, often used opium-based patent medicines to help them get through the long journey. Probably helped, but I don't think they had stool softeners back them, and their diet was terrible, so there were probably some major drawbacks to that approach.

Last edited by Colnago Mixte; 09-20-18 at 06:41 AM.
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Old 09-20-18, 06:39 AM
  #15  
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Wind builds strong bodies, 12 ways.
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Old 09-20-18, 07:02 AM
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Wind may suck but if you're more aero than your competition it sucks less. If you race wind is thy frenemy.
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Old 09-20-18, 07:06 AM
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No matter what the weatherman says about wind direction IF you are on your bike it's a headwind.
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Old 09-20-18, 07:41 AM
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The best ride I have ever done was taking the train 120 km due west from Calgary to Banff and riding back. The wind was 30 to 50 kph from the west. Coming across a flat section my average speed was over 55 kph for 20 minutes, the downhills were over 70. Did not unclip from the train station to my front door and done in 2:50. That was a fun day. The wind gods have not forgotten and punished me ever since.
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Old 09-20-18, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by puma1552
ive never had a tailwind in my life

I had a tailwind one time. It was amazing.
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Old 09-20-18, 08:20 AM
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Headwinds I can deal with.

Strong bursts of crosswinds and Dust Devils truly Suck!
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Old 09-20-18, 08:30 AM
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Wind is a headwind with no soul.

Where I live it's a fact of life, generally most people base their route choice on which way the wind is blowing so they'll have a tailwind on the way home. Wind direction usually doesn't change rapidly -- but everyone has a few experiences of a sudden shift in wind direction right when they turn around, or having the wind shift and be a headwind from all four directions.

In my part of eastern Kansas the yearly average wind speed is probably 10-12 mph (based on about 5 seconds on google) but that's an average so it depends on time of year; typically it's worse in the winter and spring, and during the spring thunderstorm season 20 mph average speeds with even higher gusts are not uncommon.

But at least we have *some* trees and hills that we can occasionally find some respite. Out in the High Plains of western Kansas they've got nothing to hide from -- Dodge City average wind is around 14 mph -- which means sustained wind speeds approaching 30 mph are not at all unusual. (I lived there briefly and didn't ride my bike much when I was there.)

I'd like to be all macho and make some sort of claim that wind toughens you up for climbing -- but based on my limited experience with cycling in actual mountains in Colorado, the mountains kick my ass. So basically we get to deal with the wind but it doesn't seem to be much of a training aid.
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Old 09-20-18, 08:39 AM
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The one advantage to being of greater mass.

Y'all stick-figure cyclists get thrown around, slowed down, have to pedal down hills — ha.

Join us up in the 210-pound range and enjoy hammering that wind right out of your way.

...but be prepared to pay for this devil's deal with pieces of your soul, claimed by the twin evils of gravity and upslope.
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Old 09-20-18, 08:56 AM
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Originally Posted by ksryder
Wind is a headwind with no soul.

Where I live it's a fact of life, generally most people base their route choice on which way the wind is blowing so they'll have a tailwind on the way home. Wind direction usually doesn't change rapidly -- but everyone has a few experiences of a sudden shift in wind direction right when they turn around, or having the wind shift and be a headwind from all four directions.

In my part of eastern Kansas the yearly average wind speed is probably 10-12 mph (based on about 5 seconds on google) but that's an average so it depends on time of year; typically it's worse in the winter and spring, and during the spring thunderstorm season 20 mph average speeds with even higher gusts are not uncommon.

But at least we have *some* trees and hills that we can occasionally find some respite. Out in the High Plains of western Kansas they've got nothing to hide from -- Dodge City average wind is around 14 mph -- which means sustained wind speeds approaching 30 mph are not at all unusual. (I lived there briefly and didn't ride my bike much when I was there.)

I'd like to be all macho and make some sort of claim that wind toughens you up for climbing -- but based on my limited experience with cycling in actual mountains in Colorado, the mountains kick my ass. So basically we get to deal with the wind but it doesn't seem to be much of a training aid.
PS - that's why a lot of gravel riders around here use aero bars, and what all the people from the coasts and mountains don't get when they criticize it. It's because when you're battling a 20 mph headwind for a 100 miles, you need all the help you can get.
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Old 09-20-18, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by ksryder
PS - that's why a lot of gravel riders around here use aero bars, and what all the people from the coasts and mountains don't get when they criticize it. It's because when you're battling a 20 mph headwind for a 100 miles, you need all the help you can get.
ksryder, I lived in Pratt, KS for 10 years and Sterling for several months. Wind country. I didn't consult the Weather Service, but our rule of thumb was that the wind always blows 15 mph in central Kansas. Always -- so 15 mph is not a windy day in Kansas. It's baseline. A windy day is 30 mph plus -- and it's not an unusual day. And because of that, in central Kansas, buildings easily survive 50 to 60 mph straight winds without any damage at all. The days that frightened us were the days with no wind. In central Kansas, a "calm" wind means the tornado is just about to strike.

My two most memorable wind days were in Kansas. Long, torturous, endless, 30+ mile straight pulls into 32+ mph winds. Not dangerous. But unrelenting. Evil.
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Old 09-20-18, 09:27 AM
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I did a 140 mile charity ride last June. For the first 80 miles we had a marvelous tailwind. I was with a fast group and we were taking turns pulling. When it was my turn to pull, the wind turned and was now a 20 mph headwind. We went from 28 down to 15 and I got dropped like I was hot. Last 60 miles was into a rough headwind. That was a long day in the saddle.
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