Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique windy day suggestions?

Was out today for a bit....the cross winds along some secondary but 50 mph hour avg. roads were stronger than I can ever recall riding in ( weather going to be changing- storms coming in this evening).....long stretches of fields with no trees to break the wind...first time on My Pretty Bonnie in this kind of big breeziness and good big gusts...I could really feel her pull and drift...good upper body work out for sure...I found that what my anxiety wanted me to do was to SLOW DOWN, but I found less drift and more control if I countersteered just a bit and gave a bit more gas, steady on, etc......then there was a stretch of new and oily pavement and boy, I was really being pushed to the side of the road. Not fun, especially knowing the surface below me was so slick.

How do folks handle these kinds of conditions?

I know my America's got some good weight, but there were couple of seconds there that her wheels felt like she could go out from under me if the wind had been just a tad stronger. No fun!

Your bike's a lot more stable at speed, and she weighs a lot more than you do. The instinct is to stiffen up and "straight-arm" the bike under stress but that makes things worse. Fight the instinct and stay loose, be aware that there's cross winds, and you'll soon find yourself making the needed corrections automatically.

And unless you see a swirling, funnel-shaped mass of dirty air bearing down on you the wind aint gonna pick the bike up off her wheels.

I still get nervous when it really windy AND rainy. I keep waiting for the wind to just push the bike out from under me. The worst crash injuries I ever had were when I dumped a ten speed in the rain when I was 11 or 12. I hit a steel bridge joint in a turn and away I went.

One thing that helps is to point your knee in the direction of the crosswind.
If the wind is from your left, stick your left knee out (foot still on peg or board )
If from your right, stick out your right knee.

If from..never mind, we're out of knees

I know what you mean... I live in Chicago AKA "THE WINDY CITY". It gets very windy here pretty regular. I travel 61 miles one way to work at various times of day or night. Most of my trip is through farm land in the western burbs and there are times where I am leaning the whole bike into the cross wind. Just as the others said hold you speed and stay loose and you will naturally react to the winds. It is really freaky sometimes when you get large gusts and then they stop.. I lost my glasses the other day when I turned my head to check for cross traffic... I have straps on my peepers now..... BTW when it is raining just think of me because I am most likely on my bike somewhere.. I think my BA is part submarine sometimes....

Just relax, look ahead and enjoy the ride. Its windy when one of your mates says you went around a lefty leaning right. There were about 30 bikes behind me and we all made our destination.

Good support you guys, thanks!

The knee idea makes sense- thanks, Bill!

The looking ahead went fine....I was pretty tense on the handlbars after 30 minutes of the windiness....and that last bit....the oily pavement, where I was REALLY being pushed to the right, and didn't feel the grab of the road under my wheels, that was no fun.

I totally hear you... It is nerve racking. Just remember, the wheels are big gyroscopes keeping the bike upright. They only work if they are spinning, and the faster they spin, the better they hold, so slowing down inherently decreases stability.

With really strong crosswinds, you need to lean into the wind to maintain a straight course. It's sorta like pushing against it - you let up as it lets up. When I first got the bike I went over a bridge right before a thunderstorm hit with direct 90º crosswinds. There was no room to stop and I thought for sure I was going to be blown into the rail. I would move to the center and gusts would blow me across my lane. I've since gotten much better at "leaning" and can keep the bike staight in really strong gusts. We do have some windy days here in FL and I've gotten a lot of practice. I'll now go out on really windy days just for more practice when my fellow riders won't go.

Watch you fuel...normally, I switch to reserve around 160 on the odo, on my trip from Joliet, Ill, to Atlanta, encountered 45+ mph winds in Northern Illinois, bike quit at 119 indicated....gas mileage decreases dramatically....

Hi triumphgoddess! sounds like you did everything right in the wind, I lived in west texas,the wind blows hard and fast nothing to blocks it, as you think you got the hang of it then stops for a moment and here it comes again,thanks for some of the things you did on the ordeal you experiance I found that squeezing the tank helped me but I have real long legs, next time the wind blows in south texas I will try your suggestion.

Paula -
Whew - some of my first windy riding had me feeling like the bike was going to go rubber up!!!! But the relax, knees and toes into the wind DO work! Also, relax, give yourself room, if around other bikes/cars, use the entire lane - shoot for a little to the side of the center into the wind so you have room for it to push you to the other isde of the lane.....and they are right, slowing down too much does not help....much.

I rode this spring (May) to Tucson from Flagstaff with a group, it was windy and there was a particular section of road that ALWAYS has a cross wind, and when its windy, its even worse. We ALL did the lean into the wind and go.... leaving extra room between bikes so we had room to weave.

I rode this weekend in some wind too....not as bad as the May trip. But you just kinda have to let it buffet you some, recover and move on, keeping the throttle on!

It gets easier the more you do it - like all of cycling!
Becky

you beat me to it.....

On the ride home after the 2006 NY rally, Terry and I were on the back side of a storm front that was moving through. There were crosswinds that seemed to change direction instantly, which made for some interesting "adjustments"...

It was more like the Macarena than the Hokey Pokey... or maybe the Electric Slide...

Also in some really windy situations, transfering your weight more forward, as in leaning down over the tank, can help a bit. Also it makes your body less of a sail.

Still, do not like getting moved across 1/2 a lane or more, not a good feeling, usually, I slow down, relax and stay out of the way of other traffic.

Must admit I love riding in the wind, totaly wild. Just watch out when over taking large trucks, get hellish cross winds. In the rain try and keep far behind cars and trucks other wise you will get covered in spray, My bike don't like it, I don't like it. Do like riding in wind though.

We've had sixty mph winds the last few days and it is still blowing now, I just lean into the wind and relax, but be ready for the gusts and act quick.

One other point is to take into consideration possible increased gusts coming from any gaps in hedges and woodland, road junctions and bridges.

ignore the wind. laugh, push/pull, cuss yota and ride! a similar thing occurs when drafting a semi. not that i draft them but you do when you pass. they buffet you like jimmy. only way to not weave then is to be loose. let your body take the heat, err, be a shock absorber. when the wind really turns on then off then on, well that's when you maintain a lane position where your after gust position will be in a safe lane.

seriously paula, look where you want to go, and realize that although you are being beatup, your sickle can still roll straight. inertia and gyroscopic forces are wonderful things. don't let your wind blown body interfer with the forces above. yeah you'll have to countersteer like a bansee in those major on and off gust. dump the windscreen and it gets easier.

I've got to admit that I had to ride up to my dealer here a couple of weeks ago in some of the worst wind I've ever seen. We had sustained winds of about 30mph with gusts of around 50mph (but they were really intermitent). Couple of times while trying to keep up with traffic on the interstate (i.e. seriously picking it up and putting it down) a gust hit me and almost blew me over into the other lane. Scared the absolute crap out of me. After I got my new tires put on I rode little country back roads all the way home. It doubled the time it should have taken me to get home (which wasn't all that bad) but there was no way I was going to get back on the interstate with those cross winds.

Once a rider gets up to a svelte 220 or 230 lbs., all that wind nonsense goes away.

Time for a daily visit with Drs. Ben & Jerry

When we FINALLY decieded on the bike Kimmy wanted (it had to be mulberry red), We found 2 in the entire US..One was in Southern California, the other in the Chicago area, we decided Chicago was somewhat closer, so I flew up, bought the bike, and headed south. I left Chicago in mid March, and the temp was an unbelievable 74 degrees, a little windy. Coming out Gary, Indiana, the winds were now "strait line" at about 40 knots, strait across the interstate, wearing me out...Passing large 18 wheelers and going under bridges, would relax the pressure I was having to continuously exert on the handlebars to keep a strait line, and was wearing me out...I was like, Jeez, I can't do this for 10 hours...I knew the bike would go around 140 miles before stopping for gas, but started to sputter at 119 on the odo while cruising in the fast lane at 75 mph indicated. I quickly rotated the petcock, and she came back to life, which led me to a tour of a fine, small town, somewhere in southern Indiana, delaying my progress some 45 minutes. Learned alot about riding in the wind that trip, but really enjoyed riding, almost alone, down throught Northern Kentucky on that new bike....

I now weigh more than I ever did at 220. I am 5'10. I consider it an ideal weight. Now that I have given up booze,drugs and loose women food is all I have left. How cool it helps me deal with a cross wind.

Just the opposite of my method... I keep trying to drop more weight to up the ole horsepower to weight ratio! However, high wind riding comfort does seem to suffer...

I was more worried about trash, boxes, objects being blown across the road in front of me. I Do not like riding in wind events.

I thought of this thread this weekend.
I was up in Brattleboro VT on Saturday strolling around and people watching after lunch when we ran into a guy, local to VT, getting off of a T-100. We had ridden over Rte 9 from Bennington a few hours earlier and it had been a beautiful sunshiny ride up and over Hogback Mountain. Anyway, talking to T-100 guy, he tells us that he had just started to ride over Rte 9 to Bennington but had to turn back because of the wind that was blowing him all over the road. He kept motioning with his hand to indicate being gusted and hopped out of his lane.

"Eeeek", I thought..... I mean the guy was local, looked and sounded legitimate what with the broken in floppy brown leather saddlebags and the long pony tail tied at 4 spots down the tail and the talk of his history of Bonnevilles and of having his bike bored out, etc.

I could feel my eyes get big when I looked at my man; he said, "Don't worry, you'll be fine." "Eeeek", I thought..... And off we went.

As we moved out of Brattleboro,while trying to chase the visions of being blown off a mountain out of my head, I kept saying to myself, "windy day suggestions, windy day suggestions", scrolling through the thread in my head for all the tips on where to lean, how fast to go and what to do with my knees and thinking, "s**t, I didn't lose the windshield like Moe suggested".

For half the ride, I was expecting on the other side of each rise or curve a wind like in The Wizard of Oz.... Nope, only what at times could be described as a stiff breeze. But I was prepared!