Wind

[Drunkskunk]

Its 66 here today, a real warm spell. The sun's out, My bike is perfect running order. So i thought I'd take a ride.

There's just one thing that can stop a ride on a day like today. Wind. 35mph, gusting to 45. But like any crazy redneck, I had to try. See, every tuesday I take a ride to the best little BBQ place this side of the Red River. its gotten to be rutine. I'll ride around thunderstorms and brave the cold to get there. And as it happens, the BBQ place was straight west, directly into the wind

But 45mph wind is a lot. ride down a street were the houses are closely spaced, and it becomes a wind tunnel. Then add my 15mph speed into the wind and I had enough wind in my face to rip the snot right out of my nose. Ever seen pictures of people trying to open there mouth in a wind storm, or on a motor bike at high speeds were there cheeks puff out?Yeah, that was me. Its hard to breath at wind speeds like that.

So after 2 miles of riding like that, I decided it might be more fun to be at home, dreaming of riding, rather than out actually riding, So I turned around. And thats where I discovered a new alternate power source for Ebikes.
WIND!
I wish I'd had a sail. it was only good for about 10mph, but i didn't need the pedals or the throttle for the better part of the ride home. It may not be an E grin, But Damn, That was fun!

 

[fechter]

I guess it works pretty good:
http://www.vsv.cape.com/~harharb/windbike.html

 

[TylerDurden]

You could haul seerious ass in a widetrack velo with a sail.

Like an iceboat.

 

[Lowell]

One of the benefits of having an upper fairing is that you can duck the wind. There's a 6km stretch of open road on my commute where the wind almost always blows head on... very annoying without a windscreen. The plus side, as you noticed, is a tail wind going the other way.

More often than not, I seem to encounter headwinds going both ways though, perhaps related to the old story of 'uphill both ways'.

 

[Jay64]

All I could think about while reading the first part of your post was, "man, I bet that is going to be awesome on the ride home!" :lol:
The sail is an interesting concept in an area with a consistent supply of wind. Perhaps have the sail setup with a regen braking setup to keep the batteries charged up so that you can use the electric motor when you have to go head on into the wind, and you don't have room for tacking.

 

[vanilla ice]

Sail charging sounds good to me.

 

[lawsonuw]

well, a wind turbine geared into the rear tire could also be used. Similar to a sail it would only give power when the wind is blowing. But unlike a sail a wind turbine drive can use wind coming from any direction, including directly ahead. here's a link to a bunch of boat people sailing with wind turbines http://uk.geocities.com/fnsnclr@btinternet.com/yachts/auto/index.htm

Marty

 

[Mathurin]

You may recall Randy's 20mile video, in the go trip he's on an open road, on the return trip snakes through small streets. Works in quebec city also, going downtown I'll stay sheltered from the wind and coming back stay on the wide open road close to the water.

 

[Eric G]

The wind gusts got to 126km/h (78.7mph) around here the other day ,Didn't dare ride the bike.I had to go out and walking against it was a tad difficult

Eric

 

[lawsonuw]

heh, this thread got me looking at sail boats, and wing-sails. I ran into this http://home.swipnet.se/ansar/deve.html link on Wing-sails for Ice-skaters. holly @#$%$ those sails are fast! like 75mph fast.

Looks like mounting a self trimming wing-sail on a velomobile would be great for windy areas.

Marty