Wind?!

[leehop71]

Down here in SW Florida there are no hills but plenty of windy days!

I am pleasantly surprised that these e-bikes cut right through this wind!

I’m not suggesting it would cut right through Tropical Storm force winds, but I won’t be riding then anyway!

We had a couple of pretty windy days this week and the PAS cut right through!

On my acoustic 7 speed, headwinds were brutal even at the lowest gear!

 

[harryS]

Takes a boring engineer to drag the discussion down,. The Gribble power calculator says a 10 mph headwind requires an extra 70 watts when riding at 12 mph, but I think it's for a road bike so I added 40% more drag for an ebiker, and now it's like 140 watts. Whatever the actual , it's about double the force just for 10 mph.

I have been riding my 10 speed manual bike a lot more this summer. I like to take the tree lined route tru the woods, where there's less headwind, If I head out on the open route, it's a lot more work.

 

[mrgold35]

I live in the southwest and windy days of 10-15 mph in the spring and gust up to 20-25 mph at times. I love my Radrover ebike because I can up the PAS level and ride on a windy day when it would sideline most pedal bikes. Another HUGE plus I've found with my ebike is the cooling effect with my Radrover at my riding speeds of 15-20 mph when summer time temps are 95-105 degrees F. I would just get overheated at 6-12 mph on my old pedal bike in those conditions.

 

[dodgeman]

I think when the wind gets above 20 mph I tend to skip the ride.

 

[indianajo]

I think when the wind gets above 20 mph I tend to skip the ride.

Since my commutes are based on my schedule, and not on the weather, I bought a 1300 w geared hub motor and an 840 wh battery. A 25 mph headwind pre-electricity in 9/18 ran my 3.7 hour trip to 6 hours at 4.3 mph. With that much power, I can make it into 25 mph headwind at 8 mph as normal.
30-35 mph winds with gusts can knock me over, so I do try to avoid those days. In summer, that means sheltering as the storm passes through. In late fall winter & early spring, such winds can be sustained for hours.

 

[leehop71]

Since my commutes are based on my schedule, and not on the weather, I bought a 1300 w geared hub motor and an 840 wh battery. A 25 mph headwind pre-electricity in 9/18 ran my 3.7 hour trip to 6 hours at 4.3 mph. With that much power, I can make it into 25 mph headwind at 8 mph as normal.
30-35 mph winds with gusts can knock me over, so I do try to avoid those days. In summer, that means sheltering as the storm passes through. In late fall winter & early spring, such winds can be sustained for hours.

We normally only get those kind of winds via thunderstorms and/or tropical storms which I wouldn’t be out there then any way!

 

[Sparky731]

An ebiker’s credo: No wind is too strong, no hill is too high, and no road is too long.

 

[fooferdoggie]

An ebiker’s credo: No wind is too strong, no hill is too high, and no road is too long.

we had 60mph gusts and maybe 30mph steady that was a bit much since tree branches were falling and leaves and crap was flying.

 

[Sparky731]

we had 60mph gusts and maybe 30mph steady that was a bit much since tree branches were falling and leaves and crap was flying.

Happy ebikers get leaf stains on their teeth.

 

[6zfshdb]

Embrace the wind and use it to your advantage