Darn wind is driving me crazy !!

[Lord Derosso]

I haven't been on the 600 for several weeks now so was going to go for a ride no matter what! STIR CRAZY !! So yesterday, I went over the hill to Kilbirnie, no bikes around, strange?, filled up with gas and then headed for the Bays road around to Oriental Parade and the main city centre of Wellington. Nice little stroll to give the bike a blast and oil her insides. Whilst going around the bays the wind was gushing so much I swear the bike and I was picked up and dropped at one stage and worse was to come. I was heading towards the second to last corner before the Parade and the wind got so bad that when I went to change down the wind almost stopped me dead in my tracks like the engine braking of a big Mack ! Never experienced anything like it and thats saying something because we have had some terribly windy NW's down here the last few weeks. Funny....didnt see any other bikers around??!! I headed home in disgust.

Moral of the story... You might be going crazy but you are crazy if you ride some days in Wellington.

[Str8 Jacket]

I can definately sympathise with you! Damn wind....

[Wasp]

Give me a bike, I'll ride

[Korea]

Yep, it's a shocker. Used to commute daily from Whitby to Wellington (60kms return)- wind, rain, hail or shine but it was usually the wind that was the scariest.
Have been blown across lanes and found myself going straight at 45-degree lean (slight exaggeration).
You never get 'used' to it but I guess you learn to deal with it...

Oh yeah, stay away from cabbage...

[Kinje]

Ditto

Wind driving me crazy too. Some of my trips over the takas have taken some serious buffeting from winds, tho I'm getting to know which corners are the worst.

And none of those trips were as bad as the day at Castlepoint where I was riding a quad bike for work and the gusts were hitting 160km/hr. I could barely stay on the track.

Please weather gods???

[Bend-it]

yeah... felt it heaps on the bandit, but I rode into town on the rf900 on Saturday and barely felt the wind on the bike at all! I knew it was there 'coz it was buffeting my head whenever I stuck it up, out of the fairing, but the bike was rock solid...

Buy some ballast and weld it to the bike! Larger engine sure counts as ballast!

[Str8 Jacket]

Buy some ballast and weld it to the bike! Larger engine sure counts as ballast!

Arrgh, I wish someone would buy my KR so I could find out! Im really hoping that I dont get blown around as much on the 400!

[Lord Derosso]

Glad to see its not just me. I have been riding many years but this year has been the worse for wind ever and thats no cabbage assisted. I am seriously thinking about shedding the full fairing because that must be picking up the side wind big time. I want to do a two week tour in a few months and not have this hassle. What do members think? Will taking the side fairing off make the bike more comfortable in these high winds.? I have to admit that I was actually riding dead into that gusty wind yesterday which nearly stopped me in my tracks. It was so bad I very nearly turned around and was going to head back to Kilbirnie at 400kmph,wind assisted, but decided I wasn't going to let it beat me . Still scary stuff alright.

[lukelin250]

full fairings are like a god damn sail,i feel like im sailing a boat sometimes, tacking into and out of the wind

[Lord Derosso]

Does anyone esle have a say? Does the full fairing really make a difference or can it be taken off until resale? This is my first full fairing bike and some days its unpleasant riding on the motorway because of the way the wind comes across the motorway a lot around the harbour. I have also been blown across lanes though not on this bike. I find I am forced to slow down more rather than speed up as with my other bikes which were naked styles. I am tempted to take the fairing off and see but is this a big job?

[Drum]

I ride naked and havnt had too many wind issues (ahem). The hutt motorway runs almost directly into the southerly and northerly, depending on my direction of travel, and while it frequently gets pretty rough - Ive never been blown across lanes or anything.

Ive never ridden it on a faired bike, so cannot make a comparison.

[Bend-it]

My bandit was naked, and always got blown around heaps! The monster ray is fully faired but maybe the weight keeps it real planted... I guess you really need 2 similarly weighted bikes, 1 faired, 1 not to compare.

[Forest]

I don't mind riding in the wind. The only think I don't like is when a heavy wind is buffeting.

I've had a few hairy trips over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and I once read about some poor guy on a light-weight Scooter who got blown into the bridge railings.

[Mom]

The wind is a real challenge sometimes.......it is the time of year though that makes it worse.....Oct/Nov are the worst months for it.......I dont carry much weight and gave up commuting for a while after being blown across lanes on the Pakuranga bridge.....

I live rurally now and have got to know the places where it is really bad......have helped a bloke drag his bike back up on to road after being blown right off the road in front of my eyes.......roll on summer

[Stormer]

On my daily commute to the big city of Carterton, the wind`s been a real pain lately...real sketchy at times.
That coupled with the blast of those bloody trucks going the other way, and things can get interesting.