No Wind!

a-dam · #1 (**permalink**) 03-28-2009, 04:48 AM

I marked the calendar Thursday. It was in the 50s, partly sunny. I thought it would be just decent riding weather, nothing exceptional. But lo and behold, there was no wind. That happens about three times a year here. It felt like there was a wind at my back in every direction I traveled.

My trips to town and back are mostly all east/west. I feel lucky if the wind is blowing straight from the north or south about 10mph. That's usually as good as it gets. But these rare, truly calm days let me know how much a cross-wind ruins your slipstream. It was even nice riding without the motor (a little).

Moral of the story: wind sucks.

deacon · #2 (**permalink**) 03-28-2009, 11:04 AM

Strong head winds really eat into a bikes performance. A cross wind gust can be almost deadly. A tail wind is nice unless it is thirty five degrees or less. In which case a five mile wind is miserable.

a-dam · #3 (**permalink**) 03-28-2009, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Moral of the story: wind sucks.

I should have said "wind blows".

Yeah, tailwind is almost always nice. Helps counteract the wind you feel from moving forward. But tailwind when your leaving home usually means fighting the wind coming back home. Not always, though. I travel mostly east/west. I often leave before noon and head back home about 6pm. Sometimes the wind flips during that time, making me ride against the wind both ways. Most often, it is windier when I go, and the wind is calmer in the evening as I come back.

deacon · #4 (**permalink**) 03-28-2009, 05:39 PM

Sounds like one of those variables to plan for or if you can't to struggle with. I have terrain like that. I live in a town called High Point. What they did with the streets depends on when they were first built.

For instance we have two streets that run parallel. One has a wicked hill on it almost three blocks long. The other one is less than a 100 yards away and is perfectly flat. The flat one was there before the town. It was built on the bed of a plank wagon road. A wagon road could be only as steep as a team of horses could maneuver with a filled wagon, hence the hill was cut down by hand or else the low spots were filled in.

When the second street was built, the town was a town with cars or maybe just buckboards. Even a horse could climb the incline with just a larda** or two in the back. Today the cars whiz up it but Ebikes, and regular bikes struggle with it. My ole china 2 stroke climbed it many times with just a minor objection. So I guess every rider has indigenous things he has to plan for.