How much wind can you endure?

[7rider]

Isn't that one of Murphy's Laws of Cycling: "You will always face a stiff headwind"??

I never really thought about at what mph I'd weenie out. If there's a wind advisory posted on weather.com, I'd probably look around the house and see what other tasks I could do instead of going for a ride.
That said, I have done a ride during the dying gasps of a tropical storm where winds were gusting up to 45 or 50 mph (72-80 kph). That was...um...a challenge.

[MomOnBike]

When you tour the Midwest in Spring if you don't ride in the wind, you don't ride. Therefore, I've ridden in winds I really shouldn't have.

I don't know how fast the wind was on that trip, but at one point I found myself heading down the road at 35 mph, not pedaling (why bother?). The tailwinds were my friend that day - the rain they contained weren't.

Another day (again, I have no idea how hard the wind was blowing - somethings I just want to remain in ignorance about), I discovered how much I hate crosswinds in combination with the windbreaks planted around farmhouses. The wind shadows behind tham are dandy, but there is a viscious wall of wind coming out of the shadow. Ick.

Now, I was riding a faired recumbent with panniers, so the effects of cross-and tailwinds were magnified greatly. Headwinds are nasty no matter what.

Here at home, on basic errands and commuting, about 35 mph is my limit. I don't claim to enjoy wind that strong, though - and sometimes I wimp out.

[aicabsolut]

I really hate gusts over 30mph, but I've ridden in something around 40mph winds. That was miserable.

I do enjoy a nice tailwind, though. It just seems like whenever the winds are pretty high, they seem to come from ALL directions.

[shootingstar]

hmm..I believe I've cycled into headwinds and front crosswinds blowing at 40 km/hr. It's not so horrible on a quiet, flat road but downright scary with cars, trucks...and rain. But all of this is not for long...that is if I have a choice. Sometimes no choice if you are cycle-touring.

In Vancouver, there are several major car road bridges each approx. 1 km. long. Some of them, are not cycling-friendly in design/feel unsafe to cycle over just under calm air, car-jammed conditions. I think twice, thrice about cycling a bridge in headwind/crosswinds over 25-30 km/hr. Most definitely it helps to understand trip planning alternatives, plus a public transit that allows you to throw on the bike and hitch a ride.

In windy weather, I prefer to have my bike weighed down with panniers. It feels as if I won't be blown over as easily ...even though it makes movin' along frickin' more difficult.

[Cheryl SF]

I feel like I've never had the good fortune to experience a tailwind- it's always headwinds and crosswinds. The crosswinds are the worst, IMO, and are my biggest fear. This is because I was going downhill fast on a roller on HWY 1 last spring, when a huge crosswind gust blew me across the double yellow line (luckily no oncoming traffic), and I almost lost control and crashed. I've been mentally scarred since then and go way too slowly descending in the wind now. I hope I eventually get over it!

[sundial]

So, "feeling better" I stupidly forgot (without the reminder of constant pain) about the MAJOR difference in mt biking, vs road riding.

Oh no! Do you have somewhere with packed dirt or quiet streets to ride your mtb? Maybe a park? Will that keep your back pain at bay?

[Dogmama]

10-20 is just a mild breeze in Flagstaff in the Spring. If you don't get 30-40 on some rides, you haven't ridden in Flagstaff in the Spring.

It's not fun, but if you want to ride, you have to do it.

When I did my ride across AZ, we had a 35 mile ride into Flagstaff. It was supposed to be our "easy" day. NOT! Fought a huge headwind - it took 5 hours!

But here's the deal with wind. Figure that it is your personal trainer. Remember "Spin, spin, spin in the wind."

Whenever my life gets really hard, I just tell myself to "put your head down & pedal." I learned that from headwinds.