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Crosswind is a PITA


vikingGoalie

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So I'm crossing this bridge I'm in the right lane because I'm taking the exit at the end of the bridge.

Strong wind day, gusts 30mph+.  Note the hospital sign.   I was fighting the wind the whole length of this bridge (it's almost a mile)  leaned to the left to maintain lane position, but not consistent as it was gusts, not constant.    I will say it was a bit nerve wracking,  my solution, speed up and push through it 😉    While the bike just about auto corrects the lean you need to maintain course I don't recall previous bikes I've ridden ever getting pushed this hard by a crosswind, must be the plastics make a good sail.    I know now to plan accordingly if it's a gusty day, i'll avoid this bridge as it's  up high above the susqehenna river and the river just funnels the wind at 90 degrees to the bridge, so gusts are always higher there.  Was just caught a bit off guard the extent I was being pushed.

Screenshot from 2020-12-08 00-36-38.png

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I hear what you're saying Viking, at least it wasn't raining as well. Strong, gusting side winds can be a concern and agree that fully faired bikes are most likley more susceptible to it than naked bikes. As long as you have a good road surface and not wet, just fight through it.

Cheers.

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What Grum says.

 

You are aware, of course, that the faster you go, the less the wind will push you sideways!  :491:

 

I had a good laugh at the hospital sign - do you think it was put there by a biker? :laugh:

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1 hour ago, Skids said:

 

You are aware, of course, that the faster you go, the less the wind will push you sideways!  :491:

That's not how it works. The wind will move you the same amount to the side. You'll just be further downrange at the end.

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2 hours ago, JimMoore said:

That's not how it works. The wind will move you the same amount to the side. You'll just be further downrange at the end.

 

We're neither wrong, depends where you measure the sideways drift.....the Total Drift will be the same, but in the higher speed case, that could be way the other side of the bridge rather than over the side of the bridge if yr going slower.

 

I wasn't being overly serious.

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I think the VFR's fairings do act like sails.  On a windy day, however, the VFR's weight makes it a little harder to blow around, and helps with its stability.

 

I like JimMoore's advice about gripping the tank with your knees but keeping your upper body loose.  Just be ready to react very quickly to stabilize the bike and get it back on track.  If the wind was steady you could lean into it a little, but you obviously couldn't do that on the bridge.

 

I remember riding an interstate through Michigan - a pretty flat state in many areas - on a somewhat windy day, doing maybe 75 mph, and getting hit with a 90 degree wind blast in one direction, and almost immediately hit with another 90 degree blast in the other direction.  It was a little startling to say the least!  :ohmy:

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At least the vfr has a fixed fairing.  It adds alot of stability.  Have any of you ever had a bike with the fairing that's attached to the forks? The wind can really push you around on one of those.

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I think the most unnerving part was i was already all the way in the right lane, and as you can see that cement barrier is just the perfect height to catapult you over the side and drop ~100 feet into the river,  which is only a few feet deep in most spots.  

@JimMoore  I do make a conscious effort in general to not have to much weight on the hands as even turbulence off trucks can result in unintended steering input otherwise.   just like i said my previous motorcycles I never experienced anything quite that drastic, but they were naked bikes so...

 

unrelated but I also feel like the wind noise is much greater on my VFR then it was on a naked bike, but it's been a long while so hard to remember for sure,  just I never had issues riding on a KZ1000J  where the wind noise was even a consideration.   On my VFR i wear earplugs and will probably be looking at a more quiet helmet.

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yeah, I just go full-throttle when there's wind. Changes sum of vector-additions and crosswind affects bike less.

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Come over to WA....that's Western Australia to all you foreigners!🤣
You'll soon find out what it's like to ride in a "breeze"!
In this part of the world, WA = Windy Always! 
I read somewhere once that Perth is the 2nd windiest CAPITOL city in the world (where I live).

There's lots of argument as to which is the windiest....Chicago, Wellington NZ, etc. but it doesn't matter.

 

I've just turned 71 and I can still punt my '01 VFR around our windy traps! 😎

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On 12/8/2020 at 9:35 PM, Skids said:

 

You are aware, of course, that the faster you go, the less the wind will push you sideways!  :491:

You are definitely right Skids and it's called Gyroscopic Rigidity.

The faster you have your wheels spinning the greater the ability to maintain an axis pointing in a fixed direction.

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The Viffer certainly does move about in the wind, but it’s not as bad as some lighter bikes.
 

Some Aussie mates and I rode Harley Road Kings and Street Glides from Chicago to Sturgis in 2012. We got hit by very high winds in South Dakota, so high they were pulling parts of RVs and pushing them off the road. The 350kg plus Harleys were brilliant. They just lent into the wind and kept steaming forward. A bit of weight really helps.

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21 hours ago, vikingGoalie said:

I think the most unnerving part was i was already all the way in the right lane, and as you can see that cement barrier is just the perfect height to catapult you over the side and drop ~100 feet into the river,  which is only a few feet deep in most spots.

 

unrelated but I also feel like the wind noise is much greater on my VFR then it was on a naked bike, but it's been a long while so hard to remember for sure,  just I never had issues riding on a KZ1000J  where the wind noise was even a consideration.   On my VFR i wear earplugs and will probably be looking at a more quiet helmet.

 

Being that close to a modest concrete barrier on a bridge like that is pretty scary.  If it were me, I'd make sure to never ever be in an outside lane as I approached that bridge.  God forbid you have to make an evasive maneuver while you're already in an outside lane, like if someone cut you off or came into your lane without signaling.

 

In Cleveland on freeway I-480 there is a long bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley, appropriately called the Valley View Bridge.  It's almost a mile long and is 200 feet above the ground.  Thankfully, there is fencing above the concrete barriers along the length of the bridge, but it still makes me nervous being in an outside lane on that bridge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_View_Bridge

 

You're probably getting more wind noise on the VFR due to it's windshield.  It seems like many bikes with a windshield have unfortunate windshield heights, producing more wind noise just above the top of the windshield, and on the VFR that's right around our necks.  It's often worse than if you didn't have a windshield at all.  It never really bothered me, as I wear earplugs most of the time on the bike.

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52 minutes ago, TimC said:

 

Being that close to a modest concrete barrier on a bridge like that is pretty scary.  If it were me, I'd make sure to never ever be in an outside lane as I approached that bridge.  God forbid you have to make an evasive maneuver while you're already in an outside lane, like if someone cut you off or came into your lane without signaling.

 

In Cleveland on freeway I-480 there is a long bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley, appropriately called the Valley View Bridge.  It's almost a mile long and is 200 feet above the ground.  Thankfully, there is fencing above the concrete barriers along the length of the bridge, but it still makes me nervous being in an outside lane on that bridge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_View_Bridge

 

You're probably getting more wind noise on the VFR due to it's windshield.  It seems like many bikes with a windshield have unfortunate windshield heights, producing more wind noise just above the top of the windshield, and on the VFR that's right around our necks.  It's often worse than if you didn't have a windshield at all.  It never really bothered me, as I wear earplugs most of the time on the bike.

 

i didn't have a choice on the lane as there is a right lane exit at the end of the bridge i was taking and there's always a fair amount of traffic on this bridge.    From what I've read on people replacing their windshields it's a pretty mixed bag on whether anyone has good results.     It's just for a sports touring bike you'd think this would be a consideration from a design perspective.  Really it's my only real complaint with this bike, and that's a niggling one. 

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I replaced the standard VFR screen with a higher tinted double bubble. It looks great, but it’s noisier and has increased helmet buffeting.

 

Might be OK on a racetrack, but that’s all.

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I definitely have more issues with full faired bikes in heavy winds. I rode my Versys and VFR on the same day in the same windy conditions and the Interceptor was a handful on the interstate while the Versys hardly bothered. 

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16 hours ago, VFR78 said:

I replaced the standard VFR screen with a higher tinted double bubble. It looks great, but it’s noisier and has increased helmet buffeting.

 

Might be OK on a racetrack, but that’s all.

Windscreens are funny. They don't always work like you think they will. A bigger windscreen = more protection, right? Maybe, but maybe it will direct a blast of turbulent air at your forehead. Or maybe it works for a 5'8" guy, but not for a 6'2" guy.  I've come to prefer a smaller windscreen thet keeps air off my chest but leaves my head in non-turbulent free air.

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  • 1 month later...

I know just what you mean, some years ago, 2005 I think, my pal and myself were travelling back from Dyjon to his home hear Sarlat in France, pouring rain, horizontal in fact, both of us on gen 5 800's, when we crossed the Millau viaduct. It was foul, both bikes were well cranked over, at one point I thought it would have been less painful to simply straighten up and ride over the edge!!! great relief to get across, even better when the rain and wind stopped.

Keep safe and well 

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On 12/8/2020 at 11:09 AM, TimC said:

I think the VFR's fairings do act like sails.  On a windy day, however, the VFR's weight makes it a little harder to blow around, and helps with its stability.

 

I like JimMoore's advice about gripping the tank with your knees but keeping your upper body loose.  Just be ready to react very quickly to stabilize the bike and get it back on track.  If the wind was steady you could lean into it a little, but you obviously couldn't do that on the bridge.

 

I remember riding an interstate through Michigan - a pretty flat state in many areas - on a somewhat windy day, doing maybe 75 mph, and getting hit with a 90 degree wind blast in one direction, and almost immediately hit with another 90 degree blast in the other direction.  It was a little startling to say the least!  :ohmy:

Coming back from the Dragon last Sept thru the corridor by Wayland on 131 it was brutal. On day trips I'm going to have to pay attention to wind forecasts here out

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