Heavy crosswinds - what to do?

[JHP]

My wife and I went up to Marin County the other day. Suffice to say very heavy winds, especially around the Marin headlands. Heading home on Hwy 101 South just before reaching the Golden Gate bridge, there were major crosswinds. Got to say, the thing I like least on the bike especially two-up. It always feels worse than it really is (wind pressing the jacket to your chest), but nonetheless it definitely affected my driving line.

 

Is there anything one can do besides anticipate (approaching a local summit, tree on the right side of the road is bent about 90 degrees!), and hold firmly on the handlebars? Any techniques I'm missing?

[elkroeger]

My experience is pretty much just that - anticipate as best you can, hold on, and steer accordingly. Sometimes (like a 40 - 50 mph cross wind) you end up leeeeeeaned way over. Really heavy duty winds like that also dictate that you slow down. Or stop, as the case may be....

 

I dunno, maybe I've been doing it wrong?

[Keith S]

Depending on the direction of the wind, ie 90 degrees to the road or straight on. One thing I have done with a slight side wind is to move my body over to the side of the seat to off set the buffeting.....works for me.

Keith

[Jim Moore]

... and hold firmly on the handlebars? Any techniques I'm missing?

Do the opposite, actually. The wind will move your upper body around. The tighter you hold on, the more you transmit inputs from our upper body to the handlebars, the worse it gets. You should try to keep a loose grip on the handlebars in a heavy wind. Ride with your fingertips. It takes a leap of faith, but once you do it, you will see that it really works.

[Kathy R]

It sure can be unsettling.

 

If you go to the search function and put in the word wind you'll find additional information and discussion.

[JHP]

Will give it a try. Makes sense ... I usually have a light grip except in those x-winds, so I'll stick to technique (first I'll try it without #2 on board!!).

[4wheeldog]

Once you get more used to it, you can relax a bit, and let the bike lean with the gusts.

 

The only proactive technique I have had success with is to stick my knee out into the wind on the upwind side, close to 90 degrees if your hips allow it. Somehow, this acts like a rudder, and tends to balance against the force of the gusts. Works for me......give it a try.

[Boxtop]

Extremely relaxed grip is No. 1 tip.

 

Leaning over in a tuck with your chest against your tank bag also helps. Is this because you reduce your windage or because it forces you to bend your elbows and relax your white knuckle grip? I think it's much more of the latter.

[John844]

Another thing to do is make sure you are looking down the road, and not down at the road. Looking down will make it seem like the bike is leaning back and forth a lot. If you look well down the road, you won't notice it as much and will naturally correct to keep the bike headed where you want to end up going.

[sebjones906]

Using your legs out as rudders works in light wind.

 

Think this through ... you want to make yourself and your machine as much like a dart and as little like a barn door as possible. In heavy wind, lower windshield if it adjustable, (less like a barn door). Lay down on the tank, making yourself less of a sail, (same with passenger) tighten up with your knees and loosen up with your hands. If you sit erect holding tightly to the bars and the wind blows you, by extention the winid moves the bars. Turn youself into a jockey and ride it like a race horse. Tight knees and loose reigns.

[Dogwood]

Interesting topic. A couple buddies of mine just got back from a cross country trip last week. The one riding in the #2 position was blown off the road into a guard rail. After a visit to the ER and some rest he's ok. They both got hit by an unanticipated massive side wind that rocked all the vehicles in the area. The rider in front was lucky to regain control of his bike. Afterward they learned it was being called a mini twister. They both thought the reason the first guy was able to regain control of the bike was because he was in the left side of the lane and had a few more feet to compensate for the wind blast.......

[Quinn]

Allow yourself as much space as possible for your own peace of mind. I've had better luck with the windshield up than with it down. Guess it makes a more aerodynamic shape than I do. Grip with your knees and keep your hands loose. The wind will blow your torso around, but it won't get translated into the bike as badly. By looking further down the road, you won't over-compensate for each gust.

 

 

[lvnvbiker]

Relax, at least thats what I do. You have to keep in mind that the bike wants to remain upright and rolling as bad as you do. If you relax, and accept that the bike is going to move around under you, it makes it easier to keep it in your lane. I watch my wife tense up in the wind, and the deathgrip on the bars starts. As soon as that happens the bike is all over the place, partialy because of bar input from the winds hitting your body. I find that if you loosen up and relax the bike will move under you and most of the time only minor corrections will be nessasary, that is not to say that a really good wind wont push the bike over a lane though. I end up riding in high winds alot due to the nature of where I live, and you get kinda used to it after a while.

[LDHack]

If you relax, and accept that the bike is going to move around under you, it makes it easier to keep it in your lane.

This is SO MUCH the key to riding in heavy wind. Let the bike blow out from under you, and it will automatically adjust to the gusts and heavy wind. Let the wind lean the bike, not you. You should simply aim your balance straight down your lane, that's it. You must trust your tire traction, it won't blow so hard that you loose tire traction. The wind won't lean you over as much as a sharp corner will. Riding in gusty heavy cross wind is no big deal then.

[Francis]

I try and keep my bike (1150RT) in the power band and pulling power by dropping a gear from 5th to 4th for example. I also lower the windshield to reduce its "sail" affect on the bike.

[elkroeger]

Article on riding in wind from our friend David Hough:

 

http://www.soundrider.com/archive/safety-skills/dang_wind.htm

[doc47]

The best advice I ever had on cross-winds is to shift your butt just a scosh DOWNwind. Yep, it seems counterintuitive but what that does is to lean the bike a bit into the wind. Works like a champ and saves a lot of effort.

[mistercindy]

I just compensate a bit with a slight lean, throttle down to a lower but reasonable speed, lean down a bit over the tank to make myself more aerodynamic and a smaller target, and keep a light touch on the bars. If its simply a gusty crosswind of clean air then things are fine. What I find difficult is gusty dirty air from a combination of a cross winds and buffeting from heavy traffic at highway speeds. That requires more attention!

 

 

 

 

... and hold firmly on the handlebars? Any techniques I'm missing?

Do the opposite, actually. The wind will move your upper body around. The tighter you hold on, the more you transmit inputs from our upper body to the handlebars, the worse it gets. You should try to keep a loose grip on the handlebars in a heavy wind. Ride with your fingertips. It takes a leap of faith, but once you do it, you will see that it really works.

Very true. Relax your grip and let the bike bang around underneath you. A tight grip makes you part of the problem. You really learn that in dirt riding. It seems counterintuitive, but its true.

[rgraham]

The area he is referring to is notorious for heavy wind turbulence. The wind is usually being forced over a hillside ridge back that creates different effects at different wind speeds. The really hairy spot is just after crossing the bridge, and before entering the tunnel. In the middle of that stretch is an area where the hill has been cut into to allow the highway to pass through. In extreme wind conditions, the wind comes over the ridge at times straight down upon you. Through the cutout area, the wind will deflect off the cut portion of the hill, creating a vortex. The sensation is as if the wind is trying to blow you off the bike on the top side, while knocking the tires from out under you. Then as you exit the slot, the hillside on the right again goes straight down with the rest of the hill, allowing the wind full force against you. Throw in some low visibility fog into the mix, and it gets pretty exciting.

So what I do is similar to the above suggestions. Loose grip, and don't over compensate. The winds here can easily send you into the other lanes, or off the road altogether. I also try not to think about it before heading into it. That will tighten everything up. Hard to do, as there is an American flag blowing at the look out point just as you leave the bridge. At times, it can be seen to be blowing up at an angle. I slow down, stay in the right lane, and try to never have a car next to me on the left.

 

Of course, the other side of the tunnel (Waldo Grade)is no picnic, and demands equal caution and attention.

[Mister Tee]

I ride those aformentioned road sections regularly on both my RT and my gsxr. I actually consider the RT's handling characteristics in a strong wind to be positive trait, myself. I've never really had issues with the RT in strong winds - at least I've never been in a situation where I couldn't hold my line, even if I did have to lean the bike heavily in to the wind.

[crock]

The death gust is the one where you countersteer the bike into the wind, but the bike doesn't lean over because the wind is holding it up. For instance, the wind is blowing from your left, you push on the left bar (countersteer) to lean the bike left. BUT the bike does not lean, the wind is holding it up! Now what happens is that you have pushed the left handlebar, turning the wheel to the right. The bike is now heading to the right, right off the road! I call this the "death gust" and it happens with cross winds in the 60 mph zone. The only "save"possible is to countersteer even more and hope you can start making a left turn before you run out of road. There is an excellent chance this won't work because more countersteering just sends you to the right side of the road faster, the wind is still holding you upright. The moral of the story is simple, there DOES come a time when it is too windy to ride.

[Twisties]

Well for one thing, you can certainly lean the bike in any wind. I stay "light on the bars", and use my body weight and position more to lean the bike. Hands on bars just for a bit of stability against gusts. Often only one hand on the bars, opposite of the lean direction, just applying a slight counterbalance to the lean.

 

Probably there does come a time when it is too windy to ride, but I haven't seen it yet.

[Bullett]

I find that hanging off a butt cheek as described by doc47 works pretty well. A full day of riding like that, however, is a bit of a strain to a body used to riding in a different position. DAMHIK!

[Francois_Dumas]

Nina and I rode a pretty heavy Mistral on our way home last Friday. From Turin on we had it from our left most of the time, with severe gusts through the valley.

 

The 'problem' on that route is that the highway is pretty narrow, has NO safety lane on the right, and 7 feet high armco's on both sides. It is pretty much like riding through a tunnel.

 

Nina thought it was scary, especially when riding through the bow wave of the trucks when passing them. Each time we'd get a huge hit, buffeting the bike left and right.

 

Some of the high bridges with the wind howling underneath and over us had me slow down a bit..... but that doesn't really help much.

 

The thing to do is just to hang on, stay calm, counter steer and let the bike do most of the work. I can imagine it isn't much fun on the back though..... heck, it wasn't even fun at the front, but we were heading for home and trying to outrun some heavy weather !

[longjohn]

I was headed up Hwy 1 to my brother's place in P.G., and coming out of Big Sur I and the anonymous rider in front of me encountered some devil winds. I think they were coming out of the west but when they hit the cliffs they zoomed down and ended up blowing us from right to left, especially when making those right hand turns. I slowed down and tried to anticipate them, but at one point I took one rt. turn a little too wide and the wind blew me into the other lane. Scary to say the least.

 

It was the end of a long day and about 7pm. Maybe that is the wrong time to be riding that stretch of road.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Left Denver area this morning on the way to Wichita, on my Triumph Sprint loaded with 3 Givi bags and a 40# duffel on the pillion seat. Winds out of the NW, not to bad in Colorado but brutal once I hit Kansas. I normally just climb onto the leeward side of the seat and get my head and shoulders into the wind shadow of my screen. Worked great in the constant 40 mph quartering tail winds but got a bit hairy in the 50-60 mph gusts.

 

The bike wasn't moving all that much, maybe a foot or so in the heavier gusts but the lean angle was getting silly. I actually touched a peg feeler on one gust!

 

Said to myself, "Self, this is enough." Ran another 30 miles or so to Colby, KS and gave up for the day. About 300 miles short of my destination. I have until Sunday night to make it to Birmingham so no big deal, why deal with an unpleasant day just to put the miles in?

[dave_albany]

I left the Co, Springs to Kanas City Mo first week of June-09. The wind was the worst I ever delt with. I have no suggestions only empathy.

 

I always wondered how far it was jumpping over?

[pmdave]

Different machines respond differently to strong cross winds. Machines with big fairings ("sails") seem to be blown into a downwind lean. Others (a bare R1200R, for instance) seem to steer themselves into an upwind lean. I suspect this is a matter of how the wind blows on the front end. More sail behind the steering axis would theoretically steer the bike into a downwind lean. More sail ahead of the steering axis would steer the bike upwind.

 

Riders who are lazy about countersteering, or who think more in terms of "body steering" will have more dificulty with gusting winds, because the only effective response is to countersteer the bike into a lean upwind, or when the gust suddenly ceases, to immediately countersteer the bike the other way to keep from going out of the lane. So, yes, stay relaxed, but immediately press on the grips to get the bike leaned. If you don't get it leaned far enough, quickly enough, yes, you'll find yourself being blown downwind.

 

Let's note that countersteering may require far more muscle to counteract a strong crosswind, because the contact patches are way off center, but you're attempting to steer the bike straight ahead.

 

What I find most amazing about wind is how it reacts to obstructions such as big trucks, billboards, cuts, etc. One really insideous situation is when you're riding upwind around a series of headlands. Just as you round the end of a hill, you feel a tremendous gust pushing the bike sideways. For instance, you round a hill to the right, and just as you come abreast of the upwind side of the hill, the blast hits you from the right, pushing the bike across the centerline. This isn't just a random gust, it's the wind "reflecting" off the hill.

 

Likewise, you'll soon figure out how wind reflects off, or curls around trucks, buildings, cuts, etc.

 

The problem with wind is that we can't see what it's doing. With some study you can figure out what it's going to do based on the shape of the landscape, obstructions, vehicles, etc. and be prepared to countersteer in the right direction at the right time.

 

Having said that, I'll also second the motion that there are times when it's unwise to ride a two-wheeler. I know of bikes being blown sideways with the tires sliding. Once I did a quick (downwind) U-turn, rode back a few hundred feet to a pile of gravel I had passed, tossed the bike on it's side in the lee of the gravel, and huddled under it to avoid flying debris, ice shards, etc. Probably 90 - 100 mph gust for 5 minutes. True story.

 

pmdave

[AZKomet]

Oh my....one of nature's forces that I despise!!!! No advice for you my friend other than to stay out of it!!!!

[jfremder]

The best advice I ever had on cross-winds is to shift your butt just a scosh DOWNwind. Yep, it seems counterintuitive but what that does is to lean the bike a bit into the wind. Works like a champ and saves a lot of effort.

 

This has been my successful technique as well. I learned it from our own Shovel Stroke Ed