NunoF Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 (edited) I live in a very windy area, today went out for a ride in my KS-16X and at at times I had a steady 20 mph headwind, even though the wheel is speed limited to ca. 30 mph (ground speed), the headwind drag must demand a much higher load on the battery to keep up with the same ground speed compared to a no wind situation. Obviously there is no practical point about trying to ride at 30 mph ground speed into a 20 mph headwind, but I was curious if anyone knows any rule of thumb to adjust the max safe speed for a given headwind. Sorry if the question is silly, I'm a beginner on my first wheels, but since winds can really be strong here, I'd like to know, especially when on low battery charge. Thanks! Edited April 23, 2020 by NunoF improve clarity of title 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planemo Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 It's not a silly question at all, and is an issue you need to be really aware of. For wheels that have load sensing as one of their speed alarm parameters (the Gotway 80% alarm for example) it doesn't matter so much but for wheels that simply look for speed as their trigger point, you are correct in your assumption that this could quite easily lead to a big problem. I'm sorry that I don't know how the KS16X works re speed alarms though. Hopefully someone will chime in. If they work like the Gotways then you should be OK, and the alarm will automatically trigger at a much lower speed when riding into a strong headwind. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WI_Hedgehog Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Search: King Song Alarm Hope this helps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NunoF Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 On 4/23/2020 at 2:49 AM, WI_Hedgehog said: Search: King Song Alarm Hope this helps. It did! thnks! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Since it is impossible to estimate the wind speed, quickly calculate the remaining wheel power, and add a buffer for gusts etc, the way I ride in a headwind is that I won’t lean further than I would when accelerating without the wind. I’m quite familiar with the range of lean I tend to do, and the burden to the wheel should be somewhat similar that way. If I get slowed down, so be it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rywokast Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 it's not something I've ever though about I merely go by feel.. get the same here in a coastal city strong winds sometimes.. I'm not aware of any wheel that won't warn you if you're pushing too hard though.. I mean yea the tiltback is 50 kph but you can easily force tiltback at a much slower speed and that's due to hard acceleration.. either the wheel calculates at that trajectory you will overshoot the top speed so slows you down or you surpass whatever power level it has set and so slows you down.. with a strong headwind unless you're super light weight you probably couldn't go top speed if you wanted to, that being said the 16X in particular is a little iffy and many feel the speed limit on it is not practical for most.. you're just gonna have to figure it out yourself I mean don't go crazy and push as hard as you can into it but you have to feel it out yourself and learn your wheels behavior, don't be scared though it will definitely warn you and unless you're trying to it won't allow you to use more power than what's available with a buffer (the buffer on speed is low on the 16x, but it has plenty of power) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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