The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Hello I am having trouble in winds on my honda pcx 125, I nearly got hit by a car when I was blown across the road by wind is there anything I can do or buy to help prevent this happening. One other thing can I buy bigger wheels for my hond pcx and were from.

buy a screen! it will deflect the wind over your bike instead of right at you. on a naked motorcycle / scooter without a screen, your body will act as a giant wind brake causing all sort of aerodynamic issues.

a screen will not make it perfect but will help, the honda pcx is a light scooter to start with so its prone to being blown around abit at higher speed.

danieljw wrote:buy a screen! it will deflect the wind over your bike instead of right at you. on a naked motorcycle / scooter without a screen, your body will act as a giant wind brake causing all sort of aerodynamic issues.

a screen will not make it perfect but will help, the honda pcx is a light scooter to start with so its prone to being blown around abit at higher speed.

Thanks for the help.

I bought a bigger bike

Before the bigger bike, I use to tuck behind my bigger windscreen, relax, and try reacting as quickly as possible with the side gust by leaning into the wind.

I don't think tucking helps too much with reducing your side profile with side gust, I was mainly doing it to reduce my head movements. Since you tend to move in the direction you are looking, if you stop your head from blowing left and right, you tend to travel straighter.

Try not to reduce throttle when you get knocked by a side gust, as throttling keeps you upright with gyroscopic forces.

I've studied drag and gyroscopic effects years ago when I was doing my engineering degree, so have a fair understanding. There's a good thread if you search, on riding in the wind, a lot of the stuff is rubbish, but there are some gems

From many years of experience i have to agree witn the above suggestions. When we bought our scooters we first tried the mid height screen, which did very little. Then i added another piece to my wife's windscreen which helped to such an extent that we purchased tall windscreens for both of our scooters. We have not regretted out decision.

I felt that riding in windy conditions improved when I removed my tall wind screen and re-installed the original little screen. Strange. I also bought a bigger bike.

Are we talking head winds or side winds? A windshield will help a lot with head winds but will have little effect with side winds{some say it makes them worse}. Scooters suffer badly from side wind buffeting because of how much side surface there is and the light weight.

As for dealing with side winds, practice and stay calm. The worst thing you can do is grab the grips. A little downward force on the grip is all that is needed to correct for a side wind. Gusting winds make it a job because you constantly have to readjust.

Relax, don't grip tight, the tighter your grip and arms are, the further a crosswind will blow you off course.
Learn to anticipate wind shadow, passing gaps in hedges, bridges etc.
Contrary to what has been posted above, throttle control can help with strong cross winds.
If you are riding in a straight line and get blown across, shutting the throttle will reduce the distance you are blown and make it easier and quicker to get back on line.
If you are in a turn and blown to the outside of the turn, reduce throttle, if you are blown to the inside of the turn increase throttle.
With practice you should be able to ride a PCX in a 30-40mph crosswind without getting blown around too much.

Steph wrote:I felt that riding in windy conditions improved when I removed my tall wind screen and re-installed the original little screen. Strange. I also bought a bigger bike.

Very strange, why would you buy a bigger bike

I was talking about side winds itsa a stretch of road I have to go along that has no protection each side of me there are fields. You say about down throttling to 30 -40 but this is dangerous as this road is national speed limited what is 60 mph. Unless I pull over and let all cars go pass then maybe when there is no traffic cruise at 30 - 40 mph. I wounder how bad its going to be in the winter as I have to travel from Stowmarket to ipswich to get to work, what is a 40 mile trip their and back what I have to do 5 days a week.

gregsta wrote:I was talking about side winds itsa a stretch of road I have to go along that has no protection each side of me there are fields. You say about down throttling to 30 -40 but this is dangerous as this road is national speed limited what is 60 mph. Unless I pull over and let all cars go pass then maybe when there is no traffic cruise at 30 - 40 mph. I wounder how bad its going to be in the winter as I have to travel from Stowmarket to ipswich to get to work, what is a 40 mile trip their and back what I have to do 5 days a week.

A PCX simply isn't fast enough for all weather A-road use.
Flat out into a stiff headwind a PCX can't do 60.
Find a quieter route or get a faster scooter would be my advice.

Edit: I don't suggest travelling at 30-40, I meant you can learn to cope with riding in 30-40mph cross winds.(that's the wind speed, not the bike speed)

I ride mine 50mph up the Moors without issue, but then I just came from a Honda Vision, so I am just used too it

gn2 wrote:

gregsta wrote:I was talking about side winds itsa a stretch of road I have to go along that has no protection each side of me there are fields. You say about down throttling to 30 -40 but this is dangerous as this road is national speed limited what is 60 mph. Unless I pull over and let all cars go pass then maybe when there is no traffic cruise at 30 - 40 mph. I wounder how bad its going to be in the winter as I have to travel from Stowmarket to ipswich to get to work, what is a 40 mile trip their and back what I have to do 5 days a week.

A PCX simply isn't fast enough for all weather A-road use.
Flat out into a stiff headwind a PCX can't do 60.
Find a quieter route or get a faster scooter would be my advice.

Edit: I don't suggest travelling at 30-40, I meant you can learn to cope with riding in 30-40mph cross winds.(that's the wind speed, not the bike speed)

I have been using a honda psi recently and I have to say that they are a amazing little bike and I have had no issue with them in winds as they are so much heavier.But as most people will know on here they do not make them any more. My pcx is in for some insurance repairs as some idiot back into it when it was park up at work. Would a honda cbf or cbr 125 be better for what I want to use it for ? My mate has a honda cbr 125 and he says he does not have the issue I have.

DrewJW wrote:I ride mine 50mph up the Moors without issue, but then I just came from a Honda Vision, so I am just used too it

I have had my bike for nearly a year now but I was only traveling locally so I did not have any issue and I would get my partner to drop me off at work if it was a bad day,but I have change jobs since then and like I have already said I am now traveling 20 miles a day so I can not get her to drop me off anymore.

gn2 wrote:

gregsta wrote:I was talking about side winds itsa a stretch of road I have to go along that has no protection each side of me there are fields. You say about down throttling to 30 -40 but this is dangerous as this road is national speed limited what is 60 mph. Unless I pull over and let all cars go pass then maybe when there is no traffic cruise at 30 - 40 mph. I wounder how bad its going to be in the winter as I have to travel from Stowmarket to ipswich to get to work, what is a 40 mile trip their and back what I have to do 5 days a week.

A PCX simply isn't fast enough for all weather A-road use.
Flat out into a stiff headwind a PCX can't do 60.
Find a quieter route or get a faster scooter would be my advice.

Edit: I don't suggest travelling at 30-40, I meant you can learn to cope with riding in 30-40mph cross winds.(that's the wind speed, not the bike speed)

That is the quietest route if I take the other route its the a14 what is a dual carriage way what is even worst for side winds.

A good thread was here.
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http://www.hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3622
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wei2go wrote:

Steph wrote:I felt that riding in windy conditions improved when I removed my tall wind screen and re-installed the original little screen. Strange. I also bought a bigger bike.

Very strange, why would you buy a bigger bike

Got the bigger bike so I can ignore the wind for the most part.

I wrote more on the topic a couple years ago over on CBR250.
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http://www.cbr250.net/forum/cbr250-perf ... winds.html
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sendler2112 wrote:I wrote more on the topic a couple years ago over on CBR250.
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http://www.cbr250.net/forum/cbr250-perf ... winds.html
.

Lol read through some of the comments on that link

i gotta say i feel like a toolbag tucking in anywhere other than the track. i see squids tucked in on the highway doing all of 70 mph and i'm like "what are you doing???"

I need to tuck just to maintain 70. I used to tuck on my 49cc scooter as well just to squeeze an extra 2 or 3 mph when required.

I haven't tried tucking on my CBR yet to try to reduce the effects of crosswinds. I remember doing it on my scooter and found it didn't help, but it might be different on my "sport" bike.