Wind and Bikes

Hello everyone

I was blowed off my CG today by a gust of wind that was windier than an
elephant in the morning after eating baked beans!

No real damage but I was wondering if going much faster on a larger more
powerful bike would help?

Mind you, it's better than being on a cycle I reckon.

 

Bad Vindaloo last night ?

 

Some larger bikes are worse in cross-winds than the CG. Especially those
with large fairings and where the aerodynamic centre-of-pressure is ahead of
the centre-of-gravity.

Quite.

 

Phew.

<Makes Sign of Holy Pushrods>

 

Help what? Stop you getting blown around or giving the elephant more
gas?

 

Pan, quite solid.

 

its all relative isn't it ? (well, isn't it???).
i was in fear of my life running back from welsh wales (northern bits)
when the crosswinds on a particular road scared the hell out of me.
i was riding a touring bike with a large fairing, but the power of that wind
was awesome. us against nature? nature wins *every* time.

if i had any advice gleaned from my own experience it would be:
forget larger bikes with more speed. if its getting dangerous get off
of reduce your speed to one that is safe. if you increase speeds and
machine weight/size the stakes are only bigger when you come off,
so my personal theory is: come off slow and into a safe location,
preferably 4mph into a thick bush that holds you just above the ground

when i reduced my speed all i had were car drivers appearing up
my ass about 6ft away from my rear end, and cars veering onto my
side of the road because of the gusts. my thoughts were
that if i went down i'd be severely injured by the following vehicles,
or even killed.

i pressed on regardless in my stupidity after seeing no "nice" places
to stop, but wont be making that mistake again...

cheers al
ps my lean angles were getting to be about 25 perhaps 30 degrees
just to keep a straight track, and my guess is the gusts were up to
50mph. yes i was scared, mainly of the vehicles behind.....

 

I can't remember if I've ever got scared in the wind. I recall crossing the
Severn Bridge once in a gale but it was OK.

 

Trick is to go faster, not slow down.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your shiter."

 

That works for me. I can remember a French run where we had a bit of
side wind and a lot of rain and the only ones who went into 'on tour'
mode were myself and Petrolcan. We stopped to repair his tankbag on
the way and still had time for a smoke and a natter before the next
rider turned up and that was Adie on her old Triumph.

 

But knowing you, you probably nipped the fag in half before you lit
it, just to try and rub it in. Don't think that Adie, and everyone
else you've ever tried it with, isn't fully aware of this trait.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

Ace says...

I used to do that in the old days of racing mates on their 250s when I
had a Beckett tuned RD400 with 250 sidepanel stickers. I could take it
relatively easy so I didn't risk crashing, and still beat them back to
the village phone box in time to light up half a fag and make it look
like I'd been there ages.

 

Would that be looked on in a similar way to the practice of cutting
roll ups in half and pointing out that you've had time to roll the
smoke as well?

The occasion mentioned previously we really did get that far ahead. I
suspect that some went a different route and the rest just did the
sheep bit and when one went slowly they all did.

 

Precisely what I was thinking of. ISTR you musing on that when Champ
and I, with you on t'back, had stopped to let Porl and Ginge catch up
in the Vosges one time. In the event we'd pretty much finished the
full ready-rolled ones anyway, IIRC.

Ahh, is that what happens? I've never quite worked it out, but I
suppose it makes sense. I've always tended to be either in the lead
group or doing my damnest to catch it back up again; the idea of
riding slower to stick with another group would never have occurred to
me.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

Petrolcan really could hustle that Beemer along, couldn't he?

I reckon that was probably the worst conditions I've ridden in for
years! I must have decided to go a different route to you...yes,
that's it exactly )

 

I did it once - never ever a-fucking-gain.

It was incredibly slow due to that terminally ****-witted twat,
Sniper.

In a similar situation now, my policy is to just **** off and leave
the twats to get on with it.

Note: this isn't me trying to claim to be in the "fast group", just
that there is "really fast", "fast", "taking it easy", "slow", "very
slow" and "being in the group with Sniper".

 

You'll not be riding with Sniper when we get off the ferry on the next
French trip then?

 

I was on me own. the weather was dreadful. I gave up trying to keep up
and went at my own pace. IIRC this was St Quentin.

--
Adie
(replace spam with nickname to reply)

UKRM FAQ: http://www.ukrm.net/faq/
keeper of the ukrm faq for my sins

YZF-R1 : ZX9R E1 : GPz 750 turbo

MRO#11 BOTAFOF#7 BOTAFOT#130 DIAABTCOD#17 MIB#24 YTC#16 BOB#15 ex-UKRMMA#22 BOMB#11

 

I remember following Andy and Petrolcan's wheel tracks through standing
water at about 95 mph. Couldn't see a thing at the time but i figured
if the tracks suddenly went the wrong way I'd have time to slow down.

Not my best piece of logic really, but the absense of death means it
must have been safe. Safer than crossing the road, too.

 

I think this is what I did.