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I like a windy ride sometimes, it can be rather refreshing and challenging but I was thinking of a ride tomorrow and the BBC weather App is showing 40Mph+ wind speeds. Is this likely to be safe on the road where a sudden side wind can knock you about a fair bit?
I'm happy out in 20Mph winds and regularly ride in them but is this going to be a bit too much (or am I being soft)?
Well, if you're 6 stone wet through and ride a light bike, with deep section wheels, you'll die for certainsure.
Stay off road?
I'm also thinking twice once the speed is getting to around 20 on a road ride. Got myself into a bit of a scary speed wobble yesterday going downhill and being hit by a big side on gust, backed off big time after that!
My limit is 30mph gusts on road, 40mph off road.
I am 90kg with a low centre of gravity and skinny rims on my bikes
Surely depends entirely on the geography, layout and road topography, along with traffic volumes, rider ability and level of confidence.
my local road rides are mostly all fairly high elevation, starting at home at 600ft, mainly single track country stuff. The gaps in the walls can create fierce funnels. If wind is over 15mph/gusting 22mph I don’t bother as it just isn’t much fun.
Depends on...
Most other things.
40mph wind in the shelter of woodland, for example, probably not much to worry about - unless you're under THAT heavy Beech branch when it snaps off.
🤷♂️
40mph+ stay in and do some work/chores/admin/DIY and bank it for a better day
I went for a MTB ride it the woods after the big storm the other week.
We watched a massive pine tree smash into the trail we were going to be on 30 seconds ride down the hill from us.
There was a loud crack, and the tree was down in a second or two. There is no way it could have been dodged with the warning it gave. I am extremely glad not to have had that land on me.
It has very strongly made me reconsider riding in woods after storms. I normally would chose to ride off road in high winds, I probably will stop and stay in.
On the other hand a massive lump of tree fell with no warning and no bad weather within 2m of me last year. And a humungous tree crashed down 30m in front of me on the road 6 years ago- sit was not even a light breeze that day.
In 1994 me and a mate cycled from Cambridge to southern Spain and on the way back we did Ventoux. Basically got to about 500m below the summit, well into the 'shingle' zone and I got blown over whilst riding a full touring bike with panniers, tent etc. We turned round, cycled a km back down and took shelter behind a rock outcrop to discuss. A Dutch bloke came up on a Colnago and asked if it was windy on top....we were like er yes! He went for it anyway and was back in 20 minutes bleeding from a load of cuts where the gravel had literally cut through his skin from being blown by the wind.
All three of us retired and cycled back down the way we had come, all 22km of it! No idea how strong it was but the barman at our campsite reckoned it was at least 100kmh on the summit that day due to an unexpected mistral
In the past, I was more wary of 40mph+ gusts rather than constant, but I didn't have very deep rim wheels back then.
I don’t ride road bikes but when it’s windy I try to stay out of the woods, especially with ash dieback down here, and take the ebike rather than the singlespeed because it makes headwinds far less annoying and if it’s gusting sideways I can drop the saddle to reduce my side profile and still pedal ok-ish when crouched that low.
I’m sure winters are windier than they used to be.
Once, on a windy ride many years ago, I stopped for a break at the top of the Clwydian ridge. As I let go of the bike with one hand to put it flat on the floor, a gust of wind lifted it up and I was holding onto it with the bike flapping around horizontally about 4ft off the ground. That was probably too windy for riding 😃😃😃
As others have said, be VERY careful in woods in the wind...
I went for a MTB ride it the woods after the big storm the other week.
We watched a massive pine tree smash into the trail we were going to be on 30 seconds ride down the hill from us.
There was a loud crack, and the tree was down in a second or two. There is no way it could have been dodged with the warning it gave. I am extremely glad not to have had that land on me.
It has very strongly made me reconsider riding in woods after storms. I normally would chose to ride off road in high winds, I probably will stop and stay in.
On the other hand a massive lump of tree fell with no warning and no bad weather within 2m of me last year. And a humungous tree crashed down 30m in front of me on the road 6 years ago- sit was not even a light breeze that day.
Sounds like the Final Destination films!
a friend and I got a last minute deal to fuertavantura many years back
I took my hardtail, he hired one, we found some great trails but did no research and didn't get that it was a windsurfing hotspot.... because of all the wind, one day it started to get really windy, we did a very narrow ridge crossing in the morning but could find no other way back as the wind picked up, we had to crawl across dragging the bikes as the wind would gust and try and lift them off
these days Im a cub leader and in our risk assessments for camping 20mph is enough to call off a camp, thats more about falling trees and kids having disturbed nights sleep than the tents not handling it
I only road ride these days and 40mph winds is too much for me. I would just go for a run or turbo trainer or whatever.
If it's showing gusts of 30mph or more I don't go out on the road bike - I'm in the 80s KG-wise so it's still not too unsafe for me, but it's an experience I never enjoy, not even in the "type 2" sense! I tend to go for a run instead of an evening if it's that windy.
For MTB I tend to have a higher threshold for some reason, but I steer well clear of trees etc in high winds and do more open XC-style stuff.
25 mph for me on the road.
A it's no fun if stronger than that, and B a break in a hedge has almost caused me to be blown over a few times
That said I did once risk a tt race in 35 mph winds. It's was a one way course, and wind was going to be behind. Going out was hell, but I think I averaged 33 mph for race itself..
There was a stretch that had the wind directly from your right, only 500 yards or so, but trying to keep upright with a disk wheel, 80mm front, whilst on the tt bars was down right petrifying.
Definately don't seek to go out in high winds - especially demoralising on a road bike unless your route is one-way downwind as mine was once on the Normady Coast for 50 miles breaking numerous segment records :-> Probably not above 12-15 mph for road ride or 25 mph on mtb in our local wooded trails.
I didn't have a choice yesterday though as pre-booked at Antur Stiniog. Manageable on the morning with my limited jumping instincts reigned in on the most gusty sections. But after lunch it was really v windy on top and with cold rain added in quickly became type 2 fun and we called it a day by 2:45.
Well the couple of hours of 40Mph+ winds that they were forecasting yesterday, disappeared leaving 20Mph+ winds throughout. I gave it a go (keeping away from busy roads) & that was plenty blowy enough, quite a slog at times.
40Mph would have been way too much and, I suspect, potentially rather dangerous.
Commuting I'll generally ride - I don't look at forecasted speeds - I just look outside ! The commuter is a heavy 90's MTB with panniers so doesn't get blown about. If it's seriously windy then I won't go out on the roads at weekend - just not worth it.
I remember a sportive I did some years ago which went up and around Cat and Fiddle and Flash. I was OK as I was on standard alloy wheels with a relatively small aero profile. Those on carbon deep hoops literally had to cut the loop round Flash short and head back early.