Reducing Wind Batter!

[N4CR]

Hey Richard! Get fairings

Well... I still get pushed around by wind blasts but still I dont get the big chest thump because of the plastic and metal thats in the way... you get used to it after a while I suppose too.. as everyone else said - move around the lane, drop back and go low on the bike (pretend you are 'checking the gear lever is still there').

[Will]

Just one thing that no one else has mentioned yet.

Look where you want to be.

To combat target fixing. You may be focusing too much on the trucks.

You know, when you say to yourself, yuck (or something like that) I don't want to end up over there, and you look there, so that is where you go.
So even though you notice the truck coming at you, don't look at it, but look at where you want to be on the road. Funny enough, you might do a wiggle but chances are you will end up where you want to be.

And I will reiterate what others have mentioned, relax.

And enjoy. Then the wind is not a real issue.

[Wolf]

Anyone know a reliable way of determining how much of a hammering you're about to get from an on-coming truck?

When I was commuting Cambridge Te Awamutu every day I used to frequently encounter trucks and I'm buggered if I could work out which was going to hit me hard and which was not.

I saw everything from fairly stream-lined beasties to basically a large ugly block with a fucking-great engine propelling it. Sometimes the thing that looked as though it was probably pushing a wall of air in front of it would thunder past with barely a zephyr washing over me while something that looked as though it was designed by Lockheed would often slam me with enough wind to blow an Aspencade off the road. Other times, the ones that looked like they were pushing a ridge of high pressure actually were...

Couldn't for the life of me work it out so I'd prepare for the worst and then, having psyched my self to ride out a momentary gale, I'd get a little whisper of a breeze and feel I'd wasted my time (then the next truck would thump the crap out of me.)

[Zapf]

on a naked I will put my head down and foward. e.g act as if I need to get my head as close to the gauges as possible, that will help keep buffering down and less pressure on the chest....

arms and shoulders relax but grip well on the bars.

with big trucks I just tuck my head down every time I go past one...

[loosebruce]

Searching through broken bits of the TL in the re build me n death found this screen thingee off the original bike, those who've seen it will know, not the eh prettiest thing, but neither is the bike so it all adds up, surprised the diff it makes, well worth it. Something to look into for sure, Givi etc even beull fronts, are reasonably cheap, a shy over $100, a few rivets here and there and you're away laughing, just like me, what, what do you mean every one is laughing at me not with me, dang.

you could always pull mile long mingers that'll keep the wind off ya for a while.

[jazbug5]

This is all great advice (thanks peeps!).

I suffer from wind (hur hur) as well, being on the midget side and on a nekkid, not-too-powerful bike. It's pretty scary at times being pushed around; I've got used to the 'normal' amount of buffeting, often I tuck down to cut it down and maintain speed.
Sometimes, though, you have to deal with quite powerful crosswinds; riding back from Taupo last time I got the sh*ts quite badly (having been blown onto the wrong side of the road once in the past), and Mrs. Hitcher have me this advice: drop a gear and up the revs for more stability. It worked; didn't lose any speed, and it felt more stable.
Another bit of advice I was given by another vertically challenged female was to stick one knee out into the direction the wind is coming from.
So: if you ever pass a dwarf on a GN250 crouched across the tank with one leg sticking out a curious angle, you'll know why....

[dangerous]

Anyone know a reliable way of determining how much of a hammering you're about to get from an on-coming truck?

Note: that differant trucks have a differant wake come from them a long nose may not be as bad as a cab over and a cab over with wind spoilers on the corner of the trucks above indercator but below window corner post will give off bugger all wind.

While this is only a indication of what to expect, it does give you an idea... of course weather on the day changes things too.
As a general rule the newer the rig the less wind shear, europen trucks are well sorted with their wind spoilers but yanky trucks more the older type can be shockers.

Mrs. Hitcher have me this advice: drop a gear and up the revs for more stability. It worked; didn't lose any speed, and it felt more stable.

Very good advice, most bikes nowdays are geared too high so a lower gear is often needed at 100kph but cos we have 6 gears (on avarage) we tend to use them.
So in windy suitions put it down a couple of gears this streses the bike more which gives it more ridgity.... thus more stability.
The other advantage is power on demand.... and engine braking aswell, just the slightest throttle change makes a differance, where as if in a high gear and low revs the throtle response is very little.

With a V2 keep it above 4-5rpm and a muilty 5-6rpm (older mid sized) not sure about a 250 mulity they rev their nuts of anyway and the newer mulitys rev high too so add on a 1000rpm or so IMHO

[XP@]

Some darn fine advise so far!

One little one to add, if you do get extended fairing or screen it may not help.
when i bought my f650, i was given a givi screen to go with it. one day i got board and decided to fit it...

what happened is it moved the air impact zone from my chest to face. Not good! It is apparently easier to take it on the chest than on the chin. I swapped back to the standard tiny screen, and left it there.

Aparently you can modify the airflow by heating and bending the screen. Before you muck up the screen with lots of failed bending attempts it is aparently a good idea to test the new angle with card and ductape.

[Wolf]

The effect of wind gusts on small bikes and the natural reaction to same (tensing up and trying to fight it) is another argument for allowing newbies to ride decent-sized bikes, IMO.

Seriously, when I took a light bike over the Deviation to Raglan, wind gusts were a major mission to deal with and I had to focus the whole way on keeping the bike from either slamming into the side of the hill or crossing the centreline into on-coming traffic. I was trading on all my riding experience for what was a highly dangerous journey - the bike might as well have been made of paper, totally at the whim of the wind (which was non-existant in the cuttings and full-on outside of the cuttings).

It's all well and good saying relax, anticipate, ride it through, set yourself so that you can ride out the gust, but that stuff comes with practice and experience. A newbie will not instinctively do this. A newbie would be more likely to do something instinctive but wrong and exacerbate the situation.

Answers: proper training under controlled situations and a bike that takes a fair bit to shift.

My Zundapp scooter was heavy enough to deal with drifts of gravel but its mass was countered by the large front sheild when it came to wind - riding down the motorway from Auckland with gusting winds was a nasty prospect, even for such a heavy bike.

[Ixion]

One thought on this and similar situations.


Provided you have some room to work with (ie no idiot cage trying to crowd your lane space), there is **VERY* little risk of actually coming off no matter how great the wind (USA type tornados and such excepted).

I've never actually heard of anyone being blown off a bike. Ever.

It can be scary until you get used to it. And that makes people do the 'hold on like grim death and try not to be blown at all" thing, which is the worst thing you can do.

But it actually SEEMS more dangerous than it is . Usually you're going to be upright or fairly near so, a bit of a swerve isn't a big deal

Relax, try to anticipate where you can (oncoming truck, be redy etc), and let the bike have a little wander room. You've got (should have) the whole lane to play with , doesn't matter if you don't keep an arrow stright path.

If you're being crowded by a jerk, then either try to get him to back off with the Glare of Death, or stop and let him go by. Most cagers are actually quite good, hang well back if they see you being blown about a bit.

All the advice here is good, just relax and remmber it's one of those things that (usually) is more scary than actually dangerous

[XP@]

One thought on this and similar situations.


Provided you have some room to work with (ie no idiot cage trying to crowd your lane space), there is **VERY* little risk of actually coming off no matter how great the wind (USA type tornados and such excepted).

I've never actually heard of anyone being blown off a bike. Ever.

It can be scary until you get used to it. And that makes people do the 'hold on like grim death and try not to be blown at all" thing, which is the worst thing you can do.

But it actually SEEMS more dangerous than it is . Usually you're going to be upright or fairly near so, a bit of a swerve isn't a big deal

Relax, try to anticipate where you can (oncoming truck, be redy etc), and let the bike have a little wander room. You've got (should have) the whole lane to play with , doesn't matter if you don't keep an arrow stright path.

If you're being crowded by a jerk, then either try to get him to back off with the Glare of Death, or stop and let him go by. Most cagers are actually quite good, hang well back if they see you being blown about a bit.

All the advice here is good, just relax and remmber it's one of those things that (usually) is more scary than actually dangerous

Dunno about that, I've been hit by some hefty gusts and been blown across the road... you could run out or room

[dangerous]

I've never actually heard of anyone being blown off a bike. Ever.

Ohh I have and seen the result... the old famous Canterbury NorWester, last bike I saw on its side was a FXR150 n ot good in the wind cos of the lightness and fairing acting more like a sail, but either way it could have been avoided.... by relaxing and going with the flow.

I know that we have woundered from the truck topic now but hell, this is all important shit....... When I'm in a bad wind situation I let the bike swing beneith me like a pendulin and I stay fairly much upright.
The bike like a boat will lean into the wind "let it" its just a matter of getting used to the odd feeling.

[Ixion]

Dunno about that, I've been hit by some hefty gusts and been blown across the road... you could run out or room

Always possible, I guess, depending on the room versus gust equation.

But worst I've ever had was years ago on the Harbour Bridge , when the old HBA were ferrying bikes across because the thought it to risky to ride.

They couldn't cope with lifting the Velo and I preferred to thrust my arm. So I rode over.

The gusts were bad alright, but overall I think they affected van's and such like as much as bikes. I was blown once into the next lane, but after that I was able to keep it in one lane. I saw one van being blown across two lanes all the way up the arch.

I think so long as you're anticpiating wind trouble you can always keep it within a lane, which should be OK. Never had to do any serious cornering under such conditions, mainly I guess because somewhere exposed enough for such gusts isn't going to have much in the way of corners (eg bridge, viaduct or such like )

I find the gusts themselves are not so bad it's when the gust suddenly TOPS that it's hairy - you're countering the gust and suddenly what you're countering isn't there ! I think maybe they can stop more suddenly than they can start.


But yeah, gotta have a bit of room.

[Wolf]

Dunno about that, I've been hit by some hefty gusts and been blown across the road... you could run out or room

I was at reduced speed to give myself more time to respond to changes and I was still nearly running out of room on the Deviation - several times I came dangerously close to crossing the centreline (leaning into the cross-wind then having it suddenly cut off as I entered the cutting) and a couple of times I got hit harder than I anticipated and got too close to the hill for comfort. What made it harder is that it's not a straight road so you're trying to position yourself for cornering as well and the changes in direction meant that the wind would hit fom various angles and it was hard to judge if the approaching terrain was going to block the wind or channel it.

It was sodding hard going but I was concerned less with being blown off the bike than being blown into (or riding into) something. A heavier bike would probably have helped.

[dangerous]

I think so long as you're anticpiating wind trouble you can always keep it within a lane, which should be OK.

What I find is if a big gust gets a hold of ya.... let the bike lean into the wind then like a sail on a boat, the wind will fall off the bike/sail.
At that point the bike will drop quick and straighten up but aslong as you are ready for it shouldent be a problem.
Its all pratice, so far 22 odd yrs and still learning... newbes dont rush into it ya have ages to learn tha tricks of the trade.