Wind? na just a breeze.

[cruisinTX]

Be thankful if you did not have to drive through the Texas Panhandle today. If you did, it probably sucked.

We live in Fritch, 4th on the list. The only good part of it was I used the wind to carry off leaves I normally have to bag up. Just shoved them around a little with a broom to get them into the flow and they were gone!

These were official straight line wind speeds for several cities around Amarillo.

Peak West Texas Mesonet wind gusts through 4 pm:
90 mph - Sunray 9NNE
84 mph - Stratford 4WNW
78 mph - Palo Duro Lake 1NW
77 mph - Fritch 1WNW
71 mph - Romero 11SSW
70 mph - Vega 4E
68 mph - Stinnett 1NNW
68 mph - Pantex 1ESE
67 mph - Borger 7E
67 mph - Pampa 2E
67 mph - Adrian 6WSW
66 mph - Miami 10E
65 mph - Boys Ranch 1WSW

[baxter]

Coming back from Oregon about a year ago with buddy who was on a goldwing. We got caught in the wind storm around Salt Lake City where semi trailers were being blown over. Got to a point that he could not keep the two wheeler up so pulled off road. Even with his bike on the kickstand, he struggled to keep it up. My concern was whether the windshield on Spyder was going to break off. After about 45 minutes on side of road, we took off between gusts and got down to a point where we stopped for the nite.

[Peter Aawen]

Cruisin TX, those winds speeds certainly look strong enough to make ryding anything a bit of a worry, maybe even driving anything with enough wind catching area too! Glad it helped you with the leaves.... but I bet there's some poor bugga a few counties away wondering where all those bloody leaves blew in from!

Coming back from Oregon about a year ago with buddy who was on a goldwing. We got caught in the wind storm around Salt Lake City where semi trailers were being blown over. Got to a point that he could not keep the two wheeler up so pulled off road. Even with his bike on the kickstand, he struggled to keep it up. My concern was whether the windshield on Spyder was going to break off. After about 45 minutes on side of road, we took off between gusts and got down to a point where we stopped for the nite.

I can attest that the windscreen on my 2013 RT Ltd Spyder has stood up admirably to 'strong & gusty winds' (both head on & cross winds) while travelling at speeds something in excess of 100 mph, more than once actually... Made for juuust a little stain on the seat a few times too!! . Still, as a result of those rydes, I more than just suspect that there's been a fairly large degree of 'safety margin' built in to the wind speeds the Spyder's windscreens can handle, so I really don't think you need to worry too much about the windscreen itself in gusty winds that aren't a whole lot stronger than 100 mph.

Now the brackets that lift the windscreen up & down tho... they might be a whole 'nuther issue! Well, unless you've upgraded at least the main lift bracket to something like Noboot's billet aluminium bracket, in which case, just ....

Ryde More, Worry Less! .

[Valkrocket]

Had a similar experience going about 70mph to Sturgis in 2004 on my Goldwing. Those Goldwing's were like riding on an upright sheet of plywood. Strong sustained cross winds from the South on Rt. 90. I'm leaning left into the wind to keep her upright, when suddenly from out of nowhere the wind shifted 180 degrees and just as strongly from the North. Yikes! Now I'm leaning with the wind. Somehow kept her upright and slowed the f--k down and found an area to pull over and change my shorts. I'd rate the pucker factor a "10".

[Saluda]

Seems our way we're seeing more wind more often, but not like those.

[Little Blue]

Well now I know where all the extra leaves came from......good ole Texas.
Thanks .............

[Pooch]

One afternoon coming back into Midland, TX (west Texas] we got caught in a 70mph cross wind on our Kawasaki Voyager 1200’s. We were on I-20 trying to get past 18-wheelers that were leaning into our lane. The wind kept pushing us toward the center median barditch. We had CB radios and my husband told me to drop down to 3rd gear and roll the throttle to get power to get around the trucks. Finally cleared them and got to our private hangar at the airport where we saw the wind had buckled in a door on the hangar….scarey stuff for sure. But.. we rode in so much high wind out there it doesn’t bother me at all…. I have to laugh at friends when they say they don’t want to ride in 20-25mph winds here in the Texas Hill Country… that was a mere breeze all day, every day in west Texas.

[RayBJ]

Those wind turbines must have cranked out an awful lot of electrons!
My 2 trips across Texas had steady crosswinds of 20-30 mph. I was in a constant lean going straight on my Trophy for a good 30 minutes. 2nd trip was on the Spyder which handled the wind fine. Hundreds of bird guillotines as far as the eye could see.