Riding into the wind

[Patrick Moore]

Do you like it? How do you deal with it? -- body position, gear choice, pedaling style.

I just had very enjoyable short ride, <15 miles, on the 76" 18 lb Joe fixed custom, deliberately choosing upwind routes because they were upwind and not for the return downwind spinning.

It took me almost literally 10 years to adapt my fixed gear pedaling style and, above all, mental style, to adapt to riding fixed against headwinds -- about 1996 to mid '00s; very clear recollection about this. But I finally learned to "go with it" instead of "fighting it," and now I greatly enjoy it, just as I enjoy riding up hills fixed; at least, if the distances are shortish and I'm feeling good, the last bit very important. But the biggest factor is how you think of riding into the wind.

One reason I like drop bars all the time and only drop bars, besides my very sensitive left palm, is that they let me get down in the hooks with bent elbows and hands light on bar when riding into a strong wind.

Patrick Moore, who meant to stop and take a pic of the mudflats in the almost-dry Rio Grande where it passes under the Paseo del Norte and  Montano Boulevard bridges but who was going so fast that he couldn't stop.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.

[Mathias Steiner]

>> Do you like it? 

 I do not like it.

>> How do you deal with it?

On the equipment/technique side, by having drop bars and using them. A good time to reflect on belly fat.

We had more wind in recent years here in mid-Michigan, or at least it seems that way. So it's been on my mind.

Like you, I prefer to ride into the wind early; unlike you I do it to get it over with.

The mental game is important. Accept it, and then use the time-honored, secret technique of cycling:
Left pedal, right pedal, until you get there. No need to overthink it.

The most important step in getting serious again about cycling was to ride enough to be reasonably comfortable on long rides. No chafing, no undue pains, so that when I get tired and want to slow down, I can let my mind wander and not worry about how much longer it's going to be hurt.

Cycling is hard work, and a lot of it sucks, to put it bluntly.
Pushing through the discomfort to a place where you're OK for long rides is what makes the cyclist -- far more than speed or athletic ability, or equipment.

cheers -m

[Patrick Moore]

Yes, the benefit of drop bars; riding into a brisk headwind, dropping into the hooks is like gearing up a tooth in terms of pedaling effort and like gearing down a tooth in terms os speed.

OTOH: I was grinning after yesterday's ride but after less than a full night of sound sleep I felt the negative result of yesterday's hard-charging glee this morning. I did ride to church -- 6 1/2 miles of dirt each way -- but I felt like a dog and a sick one at that; so much so that I had to take the (ick) derailleur bike.

My mental adjustment was simply: don't fight it. To learn that took me 10 years. Pushing a 76" gear into a 30 mph headwind is horrible if you try to maintain 18 mph, it's fun if you are content with 10 mph.

But I do enjoy climbing and headwinds in a fixed gear with all appropriate limits and conditions penciled in.

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[aeroperf]

Whether I go east or west on the Comet, I have to go uphill from home.
So I go into the wind going out, when I’m not tired and I’m going slower uphill.
This seems to work.  I get my best average speeds going into about an 8 mph headwind going out, and letting it push me home.
And, yes, I’m lucky to have a choice.