Ridin' the wind

[bajakirch]

I know most of the country's been getting a variety of nasty weather over the last few days, and we're no exception here. What's been presented to us is 2 days of pretty extreme wind conditions. Today we had wind gusts all day in the 40-60 mph range.

I went to the first night of my Basic MC Maintenance class tonight and the instructor asked if anyone in the class had ridden their bikes to the class. All being of apparently sound mind, none of us had. Then the instructor told us he had done so on his R1150. He went on to describe the work of riding in those kinds of conditions:  Being blown into a 30-degree lean, hitting headwinds that felt like the brakes were applied, using ALL the lane, etc.

It reminded me of when I first got my bike. The first day I rode the bike into work, I failed to check the weather conditions. By the time I was going home we were having 40-mph gusts. That was a long 23-mile ride, and when I pulled the bike into the garage, I had to nearly pry my death-grip fingers off the grips. But I made it, and it WAS exhilarating.

I was curious to know if anyone else has had the pleasure -- or terror -- of riding the wind.

[windrider]

You have never had the pleasure or the terror of taking a small airplane, rated for a 18 mph crosswind, not only off the ground in a 30 mph crosswind, but bringing it back down safely in the same crosswind.  Wind can be challenging, no matter what the mode of transportation, bike, plane, car, truck, or truck towing the "toy hauler" camper.  Got caught once on the interstate within 5 miles of a tornado.  Couldn't pull off because the cages were all under the bridges.  Just rode through it, winds at 60 plus in a down pour.  Thankfully all was safe.  Flying taught me to respect the wind, and to observe the conditions ahead, especially the trees, which way the wind is blowing, and how strong.  Just like with flying, it takes practice, and you have to make yourself do it.  You'll be a better rider for it.

[Bumblebee]

You have never had the pleasure or the terror of taking a small airplane, rated for a 18 mph crosswind, not only off the ground in a 30 mph crosswind, but bringing it back down safely in the same crosswind.

There's no rule saying you have to use the centerline. When it gets that breezy, land diagonal or even, um, kinda, um, up the runway exit after using as much of a 100ft wide runway as possible...

Got caught once on the interstate within 5 miles of a tornado.  Couldn't pull off because the cages were all under the bridges.  Just rode through it, winds at 60 plus in a down pour.

Never drive through a downpour wall cloud. Even the crews with onboard and downlink radar make a point to avoid doing that. Just beyond that is where tornado's tend to hide. You can easily pop out of low visibility right into one or get clobbered when the visibility drops to near zero. To heck with the bridges and ditches and cinderblock potties, those are the most dangerous places I can think of. The safest place to be when a tornado arrives is somewhere else - run. However run only if you know what you're doing. Even the deadly ditch is safer than boxing yourself in and getting hit while moving. (That's another discussion for another day though)

Dust devils aren't always benign either. Some are fun to stand in, others will send you halfway to Oz.


+1 on experience. Just get out there and ride in the wind and rain to get comfortable with it. You can't always have perfect riding conditions. Learn weather and do your own predictions.

[windrider]

100 foot wide runway????  This runway was 35 foot wide, and I had an instructor that insisted on center line, center line, center line.  His argument, if you can't hold the center line, then you can't hold the edge either.  Also works for motorcycles, and made me a lot better rider when riding in a group stagger, hole your lane, no matter what.  As for the tornado, I had a radio on me that day, and was listening to the reports.  Winds were fierce, but by the time the radio gave the exact location, I was already by it.   God smiled on me and I thanked him. 

[happycommuter]

Definitely ridden through 30mph gusts, maybe more.  Leaning to maintain a straight line takes some getting used to, and getting blown right to the edge of a lane in an instant is never fun.  It is very exhausting both physically and mentally, and constitutes the bulk of my 'shocked to arrive without incident' personal triumphs.

I've argued that wind is the nastiest hazard for motorcycles.  The fact that wind gusts so often coincide with wet pavement is particularly insidious.  I'll generally opt out of taking the bike if there are forecasts of 15mph gusts nowadays.

[SirSeanSean]

Wind blowing to your left, concrete medium to your left, 60MPH traffic on your six, this equals me nervous as #$%&.

[bajakirch]

You have never had the pleasure or the terror of taking a small airplane, rated for a 18 mph crosswind, not only off the ground in a 30 mph crosswind, but bringing it back down safely in the same crosswind. 

Funny you mention that. On my way to the class last night I drove by a small airport. Coming up to it, I saw a smallish 2-engine plane taking off. Having been in a commercial jet that couldn't land due to dangerous wind conditions, I thought to myself, "I'm sure glad I'm not riding in that." Then, a mile or 2 later, I saw a smaller single-engine coming in for a landing. I swear, from my position at least, the plane was flying sideways. I've got 'Get Pilot's License' on my bucket list, but seeing that had me thinking. "Er...maybe not."

[Bumblebee]

As for the tornado, I had a radio on me that day, and was listening to the reports.  Winds were fierce, but by the time the radio gave the exact location

Just be careful. In bad visibility, short of actual real time visual position reports by totally reliable people you're completely blind. (public/news reports are to be considered total bunk) And there can be more than one tornado in very close proximity.

I swear, from my position at least, the plane was flying sideways.

That's no big deal. An airplane doesn't care which way the ground is moving under it. There are other things that can get you though.

[cmyers]

Wind is the only thing in central Florida that will keep me off my bike. I have been in 30+ mph crosswinds and have sworn to never do it again. The scariest moment on my bike ever has nothing to with any cager, rather as I crossed a bridge on the interstate a gust of wind caught under ther bike (i was already deeply leaning) and moved through a full lane and into the emergency lane right next to the very short wall. The next exit I got off the interstate taking the back roads home and changed my shorts with a prayer of thanks that I made it home in one peice.

[OhCrap]

Funny how the weather is often so similar on different sides of the planet. I've noticed this before. We to have had a rough wind for the last week or so and it's still blowing.

My Nighthawk burns up a lot more fuel in strong headwinds btw, makes me switch to reserve 20 to 30, sometimes even 40 miles earlier. Top speed is also reduced to about 110 to 120mph it seems, and that's with my chin on the tank (saves the rider a lot of energy oppose to sitting upright as well).

[Burgi]

With the conditions here (mountains, high desert and ocean) high winds are pretty common. High profile vehicles can be shut out of certain areas at times because of it. I stay away from trucks, RVs and the like since the gusts are worse for them than me.
Riding motorcycles in wind doesn't effect me much, I believe since I have done it on my scooter. Even though the weight is the same the scooter's design (fairing) makes it absolutely suck in any wind except one coming from head on. That fairing catches the wind and it feels like you are going to picked up off the ground and tossed. By comparison I feel like the open design of the mc lets wind pass through.
So ride something that handles the conditions worse and you will find what you've got really easy to handle. 
Here are the Socal wind-gust measurements for Monday:

VAN NUYS............................. 39 mph

MALIBU HILLS.........................41

NEWHALL PASS........................39

SAUGUS...............................49

CAMP NINE............................63

PALMDALE.............................37
High but by no means unusual.

[bajakirch]

Wind is the only thing in central Florida that will keep me off my bike. I have been in 30+ mph crosswinds and have sworn to never do it again. The scariest moment on my bike ever has nothing to with any cager, rather as I crossed a bridge on the interstate a gust of wind caught under ther bike (i was already deeply leaning) and moved through a full lane and into the emergency lane right next to the very short wall. The next exit I got off the interstate taking the back roads home and changed my shorts with a prayer of thanks that I made it home in one peice.

During our discussion about wind riding last night, we talked a bit about this. According to the instructor, a bike is actually pretty stable even in severe wind conditions. You're basically riding on 2 gyros, and they're going to do a pretty good job of keeping your wheels on the ground and traveling in the right direction. Of course, it's the cross-winds that are scary, but the advice was to just make sure you have the full lane to use. And, if you normally cheat towards the centerline, it's probably a good idea to move more into the center of the lane to allow for a bit more side-to-side motion.

Winds were down today, for sure, but still gusting 20-30 in spots. I rode the bike and hardly felt it. It makes me wish I'd given it a try yesterday...for bragging rights if nothing else.

[tbante]

It was just 3 days ago that the huge storm system had just passed thru here and in its wake were all the strong winds. Of course that was the day I decided to ride 230 miles, mostly on the slab.
The wind was incredible and I truely learned a lot. I was trying to keep up with traffic and pass the 18 wheelers so I was getting a lot of turbulence. Overpasses also provided some weird action. I was pretty much sticking to 75mph and a couple times it got interesting. I hit one wall of wind that slowed me down by 10 mph almost instantly....an eye opener.
At the end of the day I was a whooped puppy dog.

[windrider]

It has been a while, but I had a Suzuki 100ds, and while riding the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mt. Mitchell one Easter, I remember a nice strong wind.  I was wide open in 4th gear climbing a long stretch, and finally saw the top of the hill.  Once I started down the other side i thought, finally give my little two stroke and shifted in to 5th gear.  That didn't work, had to go back to 4th to go down hill.  Wind was probably over 50 mph that day, I know it was gusting over 60 mph when we got up on Mt. Mitchell.  They have a weather station there.

[Brittles]

Wind is the only thing in central Florida that will keep me off my bike. I have been in 30+ mph crosswinds and have sworn to never do it again. The scariest moment on my bike ever has nothing to with any cager, rather as I crossed a bridge on the interstate a gust of wind caught under ther bike (i was already deeply leaning) and moved through a full lane and into the emergency lane right next to the very short wall.

A local guy lost his life when his bike went over the side of this bridge. Never heard the official cause but assume it was due to the high winds that day. I remember that day distinctly and remember not riding myself due to the high winds.

 

[cmyers]

the nighthawk handles wind really well for the most part, however there are times when it is just smarter to leave the bike home. I always ask myself when I am doubting taking the bike "Is the gas mileage for one day worht the risk of my life." But I also ride nearly every day, in the last 10 weeks of school and work I have only taken the truck ONCE.

[Cherry Bomber]

This may sound strange, but I find that if you ride on the upwind side of the lane when a gust catches you the bike adjusts automaticly by leaning, my head stays in the same spot while the bike leans underneath me. Living on the Texas gulf coast I have riden in tropical storm force winds and rain before and the sideways blowing rain was a lot worse than the wind gusts.
Peace
Spike

[green427]

I rode my V-Strom along the coastline while the wind gusts were 40MPH.

Never, never again. I was blown into the opposite lane, just so happens there were no vehicles coming in that direction.

I've ridden the NH in 30MPH gusts, it behaved better, but, still scary. If there are no other vehicles around, I probably can ride in windy weather, but with other vehicles around, my limit is 25MPH gusts.

[Hondo]

Going from one edge of a runway (regardless of width) to the other is called "cornering". I used to teach that technique to all of my students when I was an instructor in Oklahoma.

This can reduce some of the crosswind component as a last chance technique when there isn't another runway available at or near your destination.

And yeah, I've landed small singles, light twins, Lears, DC9s, and 757s in winds that keep the rookies in the hanger.

"We are just a leaf in the wind".

[Bumblebee]

"We are just a leaf in the wind".

Haha. So true. It's the butterfly in a tornado routine that bothers me.

[travelafar]

Learning how to ride the wind from a tractor trailer was fun the first time!  I've found that when your approaching their '6', you get sucked in.  Then as your along side the rig, you get shaken back and forth.  At their '11' the wind seems to push you away.

    This is just my experience with 115 extra pounds strapped to the back!

[Moedad]

"We are just a leaf in the wind".

http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/serenity/leaf.mp3

http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/serenity/mean.wav

[SirSeanSean]

I rode to school today with heavy winds while on the highway. I have never been so scared in my life. I'm one the 650 which is about 400lb. and I myself weigh 120lb. Never Never Never again.

Ride safe. 

[Ol School]

I got caught out on one of my last long rides in the fall ...40 to 45 mph cross winds on the interstate .
we were rideing 2 up with the wife ..which helped alot .
I could tell by her death grip on me ..she wasn`t haveing fun .
I got off at the next exit and took the back roads home ...lots of trees to block the winds ...no problem ....except for getting lost for an hour ....finally ran into some signs letting me know where we were at .
Had I stayed on the interstate running 55 or 60 to keep the bike stable ...it would have been a hairy experience for us both with all the cars and trucks passing us ....no problem with that speed on the back roads ...

[rwilli1228]

US25 south of Augusta, GA is notorious for high winds.  It's kind of a trip riding 30 miles in a straight line while leaning to the left. 

The Chesapeake Bay bridge is fun too, if you ever get the chance...