Warm and windy today in the northeast so I decided to take a ride from NJ to Philly. I was crossing over the Walt Whitman Bridge, it's about 2 miles long, wide open and high. The cross wind was the worst I have ever experienced with my bagger. It was blowing so hard, left to right, I had to actually lean left to keep it straight. I was getting tense and worried, felt like I was gonna go down. I wasn't sure if I should give it more throttle or slow her down.
I'm sure some have had experience with similar situations, what is the best way to handle crosswinds?

 

think thats all you can do? Riding back from daytona noticed that alot. Fairly calm under cover from trees/low lands then got to a bridge and felt like mary popins.

 

Has anyone actually been down due to crosswinds?

 

I was blown into the oncoming lane by a horrifying gust while crossing the Columbia River between Washington and Astoria, Oregon. The wind was blowing hard from my right butI was handling it, and then,in about 1/10th of a second, I was blasted into the other laneby a 60 or 70mph gust. There wasn't a thing I could do. If there had been a car coming in that lane I'd have hit him head-on. Scared the crap out of me.

The best thing you can do is just maintain a steady speed that's fast enough to keep a good gyro effect from your wheels but not so fast that you don't have time to correct your riding line if you get blown off course. On my bridge episode I was doing about 40mph and managed to escape with my life.[sm=biker.gif]

 

The scarry part of that is that the Astoria bridge is a little over 4 miles long and the winds there are unpredictable at times. I've been pushed around on that bridge in a cage before. I cross the Glenn Jackson bridge between Vancouver and Portland and it's a couple miles accross and open too. We get winds out of the Columbia River Gorge that are pretty intense. All you can do is lean into it and maintain a steady speed that you are comfortable with and push on like what LowriserFXRS said.

 

Been bblown around pretty bad on the KLR, to the point of getting on slower secondary roads, that bike sits very high and is light. The RKC handles it pretty well, do the lean and be ready when you hit an open area such as a bridge or farm plot next to a highway.

 

Buy a Road Glide!!

No just messing around, I know what you mean, I was crossing the Kansas Prairie Grass National Preserve last Spring and it is of course nothing but flat and grass as far as you can see in any direction and we had about a 50mph cross wind for hours of riding and all I could do was lean into it and keep her at a steady speed.

When we finally got out of it I had to pull over and wait for the suction of my *** to release from the seat before I could get off the bike. LOL!!!!!!!

Glad you did alright with it, Ride Safe!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I was out yesterday here in Maryland, we took a ride to the eastern shore accross the Chesapeake Bay bridge. I was blowing pretty good on way over , but return was pretty bad. If my helmet stap was any loser it would have came off. I could feel it lift from the gust a number of times. I did have to lean a little in the gusts to stay in my lane, but no real problem.