Riding in badass wind conditions

[Lone Rider]

I'm not sure what section this belongs in, butttt....

What are the worst wind conditions you've ever been in?

For me it was in MX with gusts so hard I didn't even feel safe staying in my lane doing 20mph at one time. Went from 80, 60, 40, 20 and was still scary. And 20 is so f'kg slow it's unreal....like a puppet. One blast when doing 60, took me...slam... all the way across the road so fast I couldn't even react properly. Boom... some vehicle had been there and I was gone. I found part of a knoll to hide behind and could see the pig moving on it's kickstand. I was pretty close to laying her down and tucking in beside her.

After it let up some, I went on a ways and the road changed direction. It felt weird for a brief period and I pulled up the helmet face doing about 45...there was zero wind in my face.

What's your worst exp?

[jschnitz]

I hate the wind.

I block out all those memories!!


Jason

[Mully]

Said Lone Rider:
I'm not sure what section this belongs in, butttt....

What are the worst wind conditions you've ever been in?

For me it was in MX with gusts so hard I didn't even feel safe staying in my lane doing 20mph at one time. Went from 80, 60, 40, 20 and was still scary. And 20 is so f'kg slow it's unreal....like a puppet. One blast when doing 60, took me...slam... all the way across the road so fast I couldn't even react properly. Boom... some vehicle had been there and I was gone. I found part of a knoll to hide behind and could see the pig moving on it's kickstand. I was pretty close to laying her down and tucking in beside her.

After it let up some, I went on a ways and the road changed direction. It felt weird for a brief period and I pulled up the helmet face doing about 45...there was zero wind in my face.

What's your worst exp?

Most any time the Santa Anas are blowing and I have to ride over Cajon Pass.......... on the way to DVD8, it was blowing me a full lane at a time (I was literally timing my passes of cars so I'd have a gap to go into in case the wind got me....), and took 10 mph off my speed in like 3 seconds.

A close second would be almost any day crossing Wyoming east/west. :)

mully

[Marc]

Said Lone Rider:
...What are the worst wind conditions you've ever been in?...What's your worst exp?

I-14 in WA State - the hwy that parallels the Columbia River Gorge. Felt I was on a sail boat and had to tack into the wind just to steer a straight course. Of course, the wind was gusting, so when it stopped I had to re-correct fast! The high winds combined with heavy traffic took the fun right out of the ride.

M

[Arbey Canuck]

Just experienced my worst conditions a couple of weeks ago in Nevada leaving Vegas and heading back to the Lake Mead area. Therefore ... STILL very fresh in my mind.

We were riding in sustained winds blowing around 60 to 70 mph with incredible and frequent gusts above and beyond that !!!

However ... we dealt with things in the exact opposite fashion as you did ... by increasing speed. Both Gyro and me have maintained the theory that increasing speed ... thereby generating more momentum in which to fight the battle of being pushed around and off your line ... is the best way to address this type of situation.

Well we really got to put that theory to test ... and while it takes lots of balls ... it does work. The more I increased speed ... the more capable I was to fend off the winds and stay more on track.

I actually went from 70 to 80 to 90 to 100 and then back down to 90 because I had a tankbag problem that had to be managed while riding. It was magnetic and wanted to leave my tank for other destinations.

At 70 ... the major gusts would push me about 3/4's of a lane ... no matter how much I countered with lean and weight transfer. At 100 ... the push was less than 1/2 of a lane.

My tank bag actually blew off the bike when I was doing over 100 ... and was dangling off to the side just by the handle bar strap. It kinda surprised me a tad when it happened and I got off the gas immediately ... no braking or anything ... and just chilled out a bit until I was comfortable enough to take a hand off the handlebars and get the tank bag back in place. Actually I never got comfortable enough ... but just had to do it anyways.

And what was making me most uncomfortable was the wind and the fact that I had given up my greatest asset in dealing with it ... MOMENTUM. The wind was literally having its way with me as I was off the throttle and had decreased my speed from 100 to now about 60.

The most comforting moment for me ... came when I had the tankbag back in place and was able to get on the throttle again !!!! Once back with POWER ON ... and back up to 90 ... I was WAY more comfortable ... fighting the wind and capable of staying within my lane no matter how fierce the gusts.

[Grover]

Crossing highway 138 across the Palmdale side of the Angeles Forest foothills during bad weather. The wind was extremely strong and severely gusty across the desert at a perfect 90 degree angle to the highway. The highway itself is a virtually endless series of rollers with traffic the next lane over going the opposite way and large convoys of cars tailgating each other going 70-80ish for miles and miles.

When the gusts hit hard, I wasn't really in control of my ride and I couldn't really slow down anymore because I had a stack of cars lining up behind me every time I would. It would have taken very little to lose it off into the desert rocks and bushes, or end up embedded in an 18-wheeler's radiator. I just forced myself to keep going because I refused to surrender to the elements. My pride was definitely at stake to me.

In hindsight, it was one of the stupidest things I'd ever done. It damn well could have been fatal had just one gust at the wrong time been a couple notches worse. Hopefully next time I find myself at the limits of my abilities, I'll have the presence of mind to say "enough".

[arethustra]

Road up to Laramie, WY. weekend before last and the winds were gusting up around 90 mph...the scariest things was going into a sweeping right hander leaning to the left due to the wind conditions...Watching my buddy on his LT was just freaking wild...the damed thing spent most of ride looking like he was trying to carve into a turn hard left turn...this was of course on the straights...Definitely, not the most pleasent segment of the ride!

[Rubber Cow]

I remember cruising up HWY 101 in Central California just South of King City near Soledad. This area is a long North/South valley where the winds come in from or to the Monterey Bay. I was going the speed limit because this is a big CHP speed trap when I was passed buy several heads of what appeared to be cabbage!
This is a big agricultural area and most of the trucks lose a bit of their load in transit.
Tomato season is a real hoot!
Anyway, the wind was howling at least to 70 mph and these heads of cabbage go tumbling by me very slowly. They were delaminating as they rolled along and within several seconds they had disintegrated into a long line of leaves.
It was very surreal.
Another time I crossed the SF Bay Bridge at the height of an El Nino storm, pouring rain and a 10 degree lean angle. I was happy in the knowledge that there was a several hundred foot drop to a cold death in the bay just over the guard rail.
Wind sucks on a GS.
I borrowed a K12 for a while and it seemed to have a lot less trouble in high crosswinds due to its superb aerodynamics. Too bad it crushed my nuts.
Cheers,
Jorge

[billcat]

I tell you RC, I have been doing some serious thinking about a move to RT/KLR...

[Rubber Cow]

Said BillCat:
I tell you RC, I have been doing some serious thinking about a move to RT/KLR...

Do it ya pussy.....I double-dog dare ya.

Try and rent an RT for a week in the summer.

You'll last about three days.

I'm not sure how the RT is in crosswinds but I know that you're too young to have aspirations for that kind of (Fishlike) lifestyle.
Oh and I doubt that you're getting laid enough....
Cheers,
Jorge
Besides, KLR s are for chumps.

[billcat]

Said Rubber Cow:
Do it ya pussy.....I double-dog dare ya.

Try and rent an RT for a week in the summer.

You'll last about three days.

I'm not sure how the RT is in crosswinds but I know that you're too young to have aspirations for that kind of (Fishlike) lifestyle. Oh and I doubt that you're getting laid enough....
Cheers,
Jorge
Besides, KLR s are for chumps.

Shit bro, just 5 finger speed typing with Mary Jane and her sisters...

[Steverino]

Riding at Thornton Gap between Pep and Freak, the collective gusts generated by these two windbags yapping damn near sucked me off the bike.

Had I not been on the KRS I would have gone down like Mark did

:):

[ROGUE]

Said K12RSSteve:
Riding at Thornton Gap between Pep and Freak, the collective gusts generated by these two windbags yapping damn near sucked me off the bike.

Had I not been on the KRS I would have gone down like Mark did

:):

At least ya'll weren't wearing chatterboxes, you may have lost your hearing as well!!!

[Stephen]

Seems most of it was on the old RS, which deals with it very well.

North wind from my right all the way to LA once. Almost twenty years ago and my shoulder still hurts. The RS really showed it's stuff at the pass with all the wind generators near Palm Springs. Trucks were pulling over and VW vans were stopped dead, but the RS just ate it all up.

Freakiest wind trip was crossing the Columbia at Astoria. Bike leaned halfway over, going straight, with me sitting on the corner of the saddle, two up and glad to have the ballast. I was looking down right through the metal grating road surface at huge combers blowing up the river, with the bike rolling up and down as I drove in and out of the wind shadows of the truss supports. Like I said, freaky.

I agree with Arbey, velocity is your friend in the wind. Think about the physics of billiard balls and angle vs velocity vs time for the explanation. Oh yeah, mass is your friend, too, when it's windy. KLR is big fun in the gusties.

[ROGUE]

The worst wind conditions I've ever been in was the first day I got my license. I remember that day like it was just last September... oh yeah, it was last September

Well, Tropical Storm Izzie was finishing up with some thunderstorms in our area when we decided to take off for Deal's gap.... Never been on the "highway" before that day and took off down a straight flat stretch of road with exremely high winds ripping by me back and forth, side to side. The pucker factor was a 10 and I had to peel my ass off the seat when we stopped for gas. I was so tense at first, my arms were sore. It was a great effort to force myself to relax, lean, and use subtle inputs to keep the bike stable when the gusts would hit. Spent about 3 hours in heavy winds and rain that first day and ever since then I've had no problems in the wind at all, and a great learning experience to have right off the bat. The crosswinds from a truck are nothing compared to that day and I'm glad I put myself through that trial by fire.