27mph winds. Gusts to 41mph. Would you ride?

[cruisinTX]

possibly

It's such a nice day, except for those damn winds! Would you go out and fight those winds or save the riding for another day?

I live a little way north of Amarillo; according to the NWS, the windiest city in the country. We see winds like in the picture on a regular basis. My personal limit for riding for enjoyment is about 30mph although I have ridden in much higher winds out of necessity. Most of my riding has been on two wheelers. Having lived in this area all my life, riding in the wind is kind of a given if you want to ride more than four days a year when it's calm.

All that said, my bikes are much more stable in heavy cross winds than the Spyder provided you can keep the speed up to at least 70mph. The R1100RT (pictured) is especially good at handling cross winds due to the design of the full fairing. On it, above 70mph the aerodynamics of the fairing pretty much negate any wind until it reaches speeds over 60mph.

 

[murphybrown]

No worries....go ryde..

It's such a nice day, except for those damn winds! Would you go out and fight those winds or save the riding for another day?

Only weather that has stopped my ryding is when the roads are snow/ice covered... Been in some serious winds (above 45 mph).our Spyders are incredibly stable...those cross winds sure do "snap" my head and neck Tho!! :yikes:

 

[trucker1]

Just think of it as a challenge or maybe a new adventure. If your on a long trip and get caught out in a storm you still have to ride to get where your going. So just embrace the moment and ride it like you stole it. Have fun, be safe and enjoy the day.

 

[wmh9680]

Big difference if it is a head/tail wind vs 90-degree crosswind. I was riding two up and found we were, in essence, a huge "sail." With a 40+ mph crosswind that was a surprise after clearing a "protected from the wind" area, I was in the oncoming lane before I figured out my predicament. I opted for straight into the ditch rather than rolling it trying to correct in the side gravel.
I was extremely lucky that I was in an area without the fenced barbed wire found a few hundred feet down the road.

It took me awhile to get my confidence back to where I ride if wind is projected to be above 20 mph.

Up here in Chicago (the wnidy city) we have winds but not usually as bad as out in the plains although we are a flat state. The Spyder is sooooo much better than a 2 wheeler. It does get scary when you come out of a protected area into a flat unprotected area. I've had many a scary ride on 2 wheels in the wind. It takes alot to make us not ride but some days the wind was toooo much. Mike

 

[SpyderAnn01]

I live a little way north of Amarillo; according to the NWS, the windiest city in the country. We see winds like in the picture on a regular basis. My personal limit for riding for enjoyment is about 30mph although I have ridden in much higher winds out of necessity. Most of my riding has been on two wheelers. Having lived in this area all my life, riding in the wind is kind of a given if you want to ride more than four days a year when it's calm.

All that said, my bikes are much more stable in heavy cross winds than the Spyder provided you can keep the speed up to at least 70mph. The R1100RT (pictured) is especially good at handling cross winds due to the design of the full fairing. On it, above 70mph the aerodynamics of the fairing pretty much negate any wind until it reaches speeds over 60mph.

In 2013 we were returning to Las Vegas after attending Spyderfest and Amarillo was its usual windy self. So much so that a few weeks later we were making some mods to my new RT and I found someone’s City of Amarillo Water Bill from 2009 had blown onto the interstate and found its way between two belly panels on the bike.

 

[jmatera]

Windy ride

It's such a nice day, except for those damn winds! Would you go out and fight those winds or save the riding for another day?

It was like that here in NY yesterday and I went for a ride. Really had to hold on when those gusts hit especially on the interstate but it was fun

 

[HayRog]

Wind ?? Hell yeah :2thumbs: -- refreshing.
After many times at 45 degrees on 2 wheels, upright on 3 wheels is, well, a breeze

 

[Eviltwin]

We had about the same amount of gusting down in southern VA. Spyder is up on a jack in the garage while I'm working on the rear wheel, so I took out the Silverwing. A couple of times I caught some big gusts from the side, that was, em, interesting. Still all in all it was a nice ride. I try not to let a nice weekend morning go by without getting some 2/3 wheel time in. Doubt I would have noticed it nearly as much on the Spyder.

 

[dpetrick]

I ride in windy conditions a lot here in NW Iowa. Wind is why we have lots of turbines creating electricity. Average wind speed is 13mph here.

 

[HIspyder]

Drove through 50+mph cross winds in SD on my way back from the Homecoming event in June.

My left hand went numb a few times, winds from the left, and I had to point my head into the wind while looking out the right side of my visor due to neck strain. I got pounded for about 4 hours but the F3 was as stable as can be.

These events definitely build confidence in the machines capabilities.

 

[SpyderSkeets]

Took her out for a nice ride. My body was being pushed this way and that way, but the Spyder didn't even wince.

 

[jScotD]

I have driving in high winds on my two wheeler, found out later I had driven through a trough of tornadoes thru Texas. Quite the experience riding at a 45 degree angle with a ton of rain. The spyder I found did quite well when I was going through Atlanta with gust up to 50.

I would rather drive in nice dry and sunny with a temp of 70 degrees but does not happen that often

yes riding at 45 degrees is interesting..happened going through OK...and yes there was rain...cold rain...and by the time I got to Flagstaff , I was riding in snow ruts...only wind today was in my hair ....running up and down the road on the Spyder

 

[UCLA F3S]

Those wind speeds are the norm out here in Mojave/Tehachapi! :roflblack:

All joking aside, the Batpod is a good deal heavier than your standard 2-wheeler, PLUS adding my 225+ lbs. self helps the thing stay planted when the wind gets a howlin' :thumbup:

 

[Pirate looks at --]

On our trip home from Valcourt we experienced 45 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 60 mph in Southern Minnesota and South Dakota. So weird in SD as it was also 102 degrees. As someone else stated, the Spyder doesn't move, but your body wants to fly off the motorcycle. Headwinds and tail winds are not too bad, but these were cross winds and it was a great workout staying on the seat. We had the same winds in Wyoming a couple of days later the difference was that we started in a dust storm that ran into a rain storm and we literally were in a mud storm. When we saw the RVs blowing across the highway from lane to lane with almost no visibility we stopped at the "Little America" resort in the middle of nowhere and got a room and waited for calmer weather.