Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Cycling on windy days

Have you ever noticed how when you cycle on a windy day, whatever direction you're heading in, you always feel as if you're cycling into the wind?

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

Add new comment

54 comments

Avatar
Fish_n_Chips | 12 years ago
0 likes

Really windy now in Cambridgeshire+no hills.

Aero position is the only way I get through it and think of all the great training you will get!

Best thing to do: accept the British weather is rubbish, no more moaning and get on enjoying the riding and no malaria.

 4

Avatar
James Warrener replied to Fish_n_Chips | 12 years ago
0 likes

Any excuse to roll out this video won't be missed  4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kNkV2a-bs8

Agree with Fish_n_Chips

Avatar
mr-andrew | 12 years ago
0 likes

I've noticed that it always seems to blow harder when it's my turn to take the front in a group. Several mates have confirmed this suspicion. Some sort of conspiracy?

Avatar
Municipal Waste | 12 years ago
0 likes

I'm sure it's been a windy year in general  39

I actually got blown off my bike for the first time ever this year! Cycling home from work on a particularly exposed stretch of road between Eastbourne and Seaford I decided it might be safer to cycle on the grass verge rather than the road as I have hybrid tyres on.
I tried to get up onto the verge at a point where there was a drop down to get onto the grass and at the exact moment I made the jump.. GUST! FACK!

Avatar
TchmilFan | 12 years ago
0 likes

 14
I truly hate Zeno's paradox. IT'S NOT A PARADOX. WTF MAKES IT PARADOXICAL?
Oh look, you never arrive.

0f course you never arrive (Imagine I'm John Cleese at this point), you've set the conditions of the whole thing such that you'll never arrive.

Nnnnnnnnnn-waaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Ooooh, look at me - motion is impossible.

and relax

I'm sorry, there's supposed to be some cycling content? Er, don't forget to take the lockring out of the Tracon hub if you're truing your R-SYS wheel. There you go.

Avatar
paulfg42 | 12 years ago
0 likes

The older you get the stronger the wind gets... and it's always in your face.
- Jack Nicklaus

Avatar
arrieredupeleton | 12 years ago
0 likes

Lose the spacers and invert your stem if its pointing up. Stick it in the big ring and once you pass 30mph, you'll be more concerned with air resistance and drag so the wind is irrelevant.***wakes up***

I always think a strong wind is like an extra 2% on a gradient.

Avatar
PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

So what if you had two cyclists cycling in opposite directions along the same road. Do they both have headwinds?

That's, like, Zeno's paradox. Wow. Heavy stuff.

Avatar
Cuba replied to PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

Anyone remember earlier in the year, in the three months after Easter when it was tres windy for no seasonally apparent reason? I witnessed a cyclist travelling in the opposite direction (along Kennington Lane) experiencing the same head wind as me.

I thought it was odd at the time but now I realise I was part of a ZENO? experiment.

Avatar
paulfg42 | 12 years ago
0 likes

Is it getting more windy in this country. Cycling in NE england, it seems to be windy every day.

Avatar
londonplayer | 12 years ago
0 likes

Couldn't we build a large windshield around the whole of the island of Britain? Thus preventing any strong winds from the Atlantic from ruining cycle commutes and leisure rides.

Avatar
zanf replied to londonplayer | 12 years ago
0 likes
londonplayer wrote:

Couldn't we build a large windshield around the whole of the island of Britain? Thus preventing any strong winds from the Atlantic from ruining cycle commutes and leisure rides.

Nature did that for us: its called "Ireland"

Avatar
nick_rearden | 12 years ago
0 likes

Surely it's related to the famous Greg Lemond quote along the lines of cycling "never getting any easier; you just get faster."

Put another way, if you're always going as fast as you can you are quite literally riding into an ever-increasing headwind as air resistance increases on that logarithmic scale thingie.

The trick is to slow down. I will try to convince myself of this as I'm struggling in this morning.

Avatar
road slapper | 12 years ago
0 likes

I was asking myself the same question only the other day 'Why is it, i do a circular route but am always riding into wind...?'  39

Avatar
dave atkinson | 12 years ago
0 likes

Wind comes directly down from above and blows in all directions at once. I thought everyone knew that.

Avatar
viveLaPants replied to dave atkinson | 12 years ago
0 likes
dave_atkinson wrote:

Wind comes directly down from above

My wind comes from the bottom.  4

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
0 likes

ah but when the wind is behind you you get to the lights too soon and you have to stop… obviously not everyone actually does. Not sure what happens to them

Avatar
londonplayer | 12 years ago
0 likes

surely you should be able to go much faster when the wind is behind you? but I have never actually experienced this. anybody?

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to londonplayer | 11 years ago
0 likes
londonplayer wrote:

surely you should be able to go much faster when the wind is behind you? but I have never actually experienced this. anybody?

Hell yeah. Took a ride out to Moreton last year, got there in super quick time. When it took twice as long to get home straight into a headwind, I realised why  20

Avatar
dave atkinson replied to Simon_MacMichael | 11 years ago
0 likes
Simon_MacMichael wrote:
londonplayer wrote:

surely you should be able to go much faster when the wind is behind you? but I have never actually experienced this. anybody?

Hell yeah. Took a ride out to Moreton last year, got there in super quick time. When it took twice as long to get home straight into a headwind, I realised why  20

went out round the north of Bath yesterday in 'mixed' conditions. got hit by a big shower and associated wind as we were heading east on an exposed flat stretch, got blown along at 50km/h+ for about four miles. it was *ace*

it was quite a lot less ace when we turned for home though  39

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
1 like

It would also need to take into account the related phenomenon that when you are cycling with a tailwind the lights are always red, but when you've got a headwind they are always green… just, if you sprint for 'em and you always do.

Avatar
londonplayer | 12 years ago
1 like

I think this is worthy of a PhD theses.

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
0 likes

Funnily enough I noticed that only today. Again

Avatar
PhilRuss replied to Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
0 likes

No, actually I'm so extremely very fast that the wind never catches me and so I create a headwind even if I'm in a 100mph tailwind. Honest.
P.R.

Pages

Latest Comments