Biking - How much wind is too much wind?

[wawa]

So how much wind does it take before you're like, "nah" on a bike ride that isn't an organized event.

Forecast for saturday is holding steady at 20+ mph winds with 40+ mph gusts. 
Sunday is looking better but we can't ride as long on sunday because we'll have to go get the kids and so forth.

[hurricanedrunk]

I don't have a specific cut off for wind but that sounds pretty horrible.

Things that would factor in for me - how far did you have planned Saturday vrs how much could you do on Sunday? Also could you plan the route to ride the first portion of Saturdays ride with a headwind and then turn for the tailwind? Get your hard work in first and then fly.

[mrshandy]

That would probably be a no for me. I'm a wimp on my bike. I would be afraid of getting blown over, crashing and getting injured. I have no idea if this is a possibility.

[wawa]

Mar 21, 2019 12:43:57 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

Considering I was blown off the bike in a 45mph crosswind during IMLOO and kept going, my advice is probably not the sanest. But sometimes you have to get out there and take what the day gives you, as long as you can do it safely. Are you not going to ride your Event rides because it's windy? I'd try to find someplace with little to no traffic to ride, and find a loop that you can give yourself an out if the conditions get to be too much, but you're not going to know how you'll feel unless you're out there.

I think our plan jives with this pretty well. We're doing 4 out and back loops and they're all mostly low/no traffic. So it's not as if this is a patently unsafe idea. That's what I needed to hear.

[sadlebred]

Since you are doing loops, I'd assess after the first loop. I'll road ride up to about 20 mph with gusts up to 30. Beyond that it's a safety issue. I did a charity ride 50 miler a few years ago. There were gusts up to 40+ mph with steady winds around 30. It became windier later in the morning (gusts up to 60+ mph). The sag cars were pulling people that were riding and were blown into ditches on the side of the road in several places. Luckily, the ditches were not deep and aside from some bumps & bruises to people and make a small patch of scraped paint on the bikes there were no injuries. They were lucky!

I'll ride mtb up to about 20 mph steady w/gusts up to 25ish, maybe a bit more. Beyond that it gets dangerous b/c of the possibility of falling trees.

[wawa]

Mar 21, 2019 20:37:22 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Since you are doing loops, I'd assess after the first loop. I'll road ride up to about 20 mph with gusts up to 30. Beyond that it's a safety issue. I did a charity ride 50 miler a few years ago. There were gusts up to 40+ mph with steady winds around 30. It became windier later in the morning (gusts up to 60+ mph). The sag cars were pulling people that were riding and were blown into ditches on the side of the road in several places. Luckily, the ditches were not deep and aside from some bumps & bruises to people and make a small patch of scraped paint on the bikes there were no injuries. They were lucky!

I'll ride mtb up to about 20 mph steady w/gusts up to 25ish, maybe a bit more. Beyond that it gets dangerous b/c of the possibility of falling trees.

I did briefly have a thought that maybe tomorrow could be the day I finally try riding my mountain bike on actual mountain bike trails (there's a good park near us with several miles of gentle trails) but good point on the trees.  I don't need a branch falling on me.

Gah.  this is so annoying.  I JUST WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE OUTSIDE.  I was anxiously watching the weather and was so excited to see it wasn't going to be rainy and it woudl be warm enough to not be miserable that I didn't even notice the wind forecast until MH pointed it out to me.  

The hourly is now showing winds hopping up to 28ish midday before dropping into the teens 5.  So it'll stop being obnoxiously windy around when we were planning to be done!  that's GREAT

Gusts still in the 40-45 range.  

I really don't know what I even want to do.  The obvious choice is ride sunday instead, but that will require reworking the timing/milage/route because we've got time restrictions on sunday vs. having alllllllll day on saturday free without the kids. Also it probably means not going out for a nice dinner with a bottle of wine on saturday like we planned.  

aaarrrggggh.  WHINE!!!!!!!!