The Wind, tires and the Curves

[usmctpdog]

With just turning 4000 miles on my 05 yesterday headed south on the 95 to Lewiston Idaho had to battle vicious winds that made my front end feel like jello and my rear end like an iron anchor. Last time something like this happend it was worse on the Goldwing...*High anxiety on 2 wheels!

Forced myself mentally to release grip on the bars and just down shift and slow * w a y d o w n * to less than 50 mile an hour.. *Bad feeling.
Ended up leaving the highway and taking sideroad to continue the ride.

Ended up 270 mile day thru Step Toe and Moscow Idaho on curvy Idaho State Road 3 thru Potlach - St. Maries following Lake Coeur D'lene lake shore back to 90 Westbound. Gotta take the beautiful curvy road again!

Tires @ 42 F and 48 R. Thought I was about ready to replace my F with only 2.2 16ths left on tire until I found out on Bridestone only comes with 5/32s of Tread from their home website. So I am still good to go -

[mjordans2000]

I know the feeling. My first ride on my LT was from New York to Los Angeles to bring her home. I hit the worst winds I have ever ridden in as soon as I crossed into New Jersey and it stayed that way until I reached Arizona. I was seriously doubting the wisdom of my purchase and was thinking about trading the LT in for an RT as soon as I got home. In fact I found this site while looking for information on riding LT's in heavy winds. After finding assurance that an LT could safely handle some pretty windy conditions I gave her another shot and wouldn't think of trading for an RT now. If you search this site you will find many posts on wind (search the old site archive as well). My favorite techniques include lowering the shield, turning the adjustable wind wing toward the bike on the windy side (the flow of air along side the bike helps deflect the effect of the cross wind), focusing my visual attention down the road well ahead of me (maximizes the look where you want to be effect), and in some cases ride at a faster pace (this I'm flexible on and adjust to what feels best for the wind conditions I am facing). Sounds like it ended up being a great ride.

[usmctpdog]

I did automatically lower the shield to the lowest possible position but had not thought about the wind wings on the side....*Thanks for that tip !
Speeding up? Not something I would have thought of.... I could barely keep myself in check @ the slow speed.... *Later Running the curvy road and passing other MC's & vehicles Got my MO-JO back!!!

I was wondering if having the preload on the shock half way to full Hard was enough or too much or would have made any difference at all?

[dshealey]

With just turning 4000 miles on my 05 yesterday headed south on the 95 to Lewiston Idaho had to battle vicious winds that made my front end feel like jello and my rear end like an iron anchor. Last time something like this happend it was worse on the Goldwing...*High anxiety on 2 wheels!

Forced myself mentally to release grip on the bars and just down shift and slow * w a y d o w n * to less than 50 mile an hour.. *Bad feeling.
Ended up leaving the highway and taking sideroad to continue the ride.

Ended up 270 mile day thru Step Toe and Moscow Idaho on curvy Idaho State Road 3 thru Potlach - St. Maries following Lake Coeur D'lene lake shore back to 90 Westbound. Gotta take the beautiful curvy road again!

Tires @ 42 F and 48 R. Thought I was about ready to replace my F with only 2.2 16ths left on tire until I found out on Bridestone only comes with 5/32s of Tread from their home website. So I am still good to go -

First time I hit really heavy gusty wind on a motorcycle was on my son in law's Harley Soft Tail. REALLY scary! Later, when I decided to get an LT, we found a great deal on a new one in Riverside, 150 miles away. On the Saturday we were going to get it they were calling for high, gusty winds on I-15. Was tempted to delay pickup and go some other time, but you know how it is. :D :D We drove up, I got the bike, and on the way back we hit the winds. Puckered up a bit, then after a few minutes realized the LT was MUCH better than the Harley was! The Harley reacted WITH the gusts, the LT AGAINST them! I rode many hours in high winds over the years I had the LTs, never worried about them any longer. I also found it was BETTER at 70-80 MPH than it was at 50-60! Just learned quickly to keep a LIGHT touch, let the bike do most of the correction and you only have to "fine tune" them. I just kept my palms against the grips, with the fingers loose.

At first I could not understand how the LT, with it's massive "sail" area would be better than the Harley, with all that openness. Read an article about it. Seems if the center of "pressure" due to wind is higher than the center of mass, the bike will try to lean in the direction the wind is pushing it, and go with it. If the center of pressure is lower than the center of mass, the bike will try to lean INTO the wind, thus automatically turning into it. We often decry the high center of mass of the LT due to the low speed handling, but that works FOR us in high winds! I will take that, thank you.

There have been many times I had to ride for many miles with the bike leaning into the wind, but the great thing was it took no effort to keep it leaned, the bike did most of the work.

[usmctpdog]

Dave I don't doubt you but this wind was coming from my 2 O'clock and felt like it was slapping me silly....This area I was in was in a high open plain.

I have 30+ years of daily riding behind me and the only other time I was feeling like this was down in southern Califonia high desert on Freeway 10 during a Santa Ana occurance on my first GL1000.

I hope to get as comfortable (as possible) as you have been in the wind but that takes alot more experience on this LT than I currently have in the bank..
I know it will come but I am not looking forward to it! The wind that is!!

Thanks for tip about speeding up... I will definitely try that next time !!

[hschisler]

Thanks for tip about speeding up... I will definitely try that next time !!That is good advice and now I know why my LT seems to lean into the wind rather than get blown around by it. Interesting.

"Honest, officer, David Shealey of bmwlt.com said I should increase speed to compensate for the wind. That's why I was doing 80 in this 55 zone. It's actually safer. If you have to write a ticket, can you make it out in his name?" :D

[usmctpdog]

Good Idea... I remember my " speeding all the time" riding buddy would theorize that "Less time on 2 wheels on the road >> Safer = Go faster !! :^)

While I listened to music and plugged into my GPS he was only Plugged into his Radar Detector!!!