slipstreaming ettiquete

[mill4six]

On my towpath commute, I bowl along at a happy 17 mph most of the time. Sometimes I get passed by someone going 19mph. With a little effort I can latch onto their back wheel and enjoy the tow all the way home, I'm good for 21mph like this. Is this freeloading? I can't maintain 19mph on my own so it's no good me taking a turn. Anyone passing me at great speed is safe, only those I can catch fall victim. I wouldn't expect any less from someone doing 15 mph that I passed although I might put my head down and try to lose him. I say all's fair but is there an ettiqute I'm not aware of?

[Si]

You must have good towpaths if you can do that kind of speed and have room to overtake! try that on my local excuses for a cycle path and you'd probably manage about 1/2 a mile before ending up in the drink

To me wheel sucking can be annoying - depends on how close the person behind is: if you are so close that you can't see what is ahead properly, or don't have time to react if the front rider needs to, for example, do an emergency stop then your actions could be putting both you and the rider that you are following in danger and should be frowned upon on a public highway (although it's a little different if the person in front has agreed to have you that close like in a chain gang).

If on the other hand, you are leaving sufficient gap to react should something happen then I wouldn't be annoyed by you being behind me, although I'm sure that there are plenty that would and would try to drop you. But there again, based on my average speed I don't think that you'd be interested in staying behind me.

[thirdcrank]

I'm amazed this has attracted so little interest.

Number 1: In some cases, sitting on somebody's wheel could appear threatening. Eg. The last couple of miles into Leeds on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a Sustrans route and also quite heavily used by students en route between a hall of residence at Kirkstall and the city centre. OTOH it can be a lonely place and an apparently attentive stranger could easily be misunderstood. Especially if you followed my other comments:

Apart from the above, I think if you are going to take a tow on somebody's wheel, you should acknowledge what you are doing, in a friendly way. A lifetime in cycling is a bit like Shakespeare's seven ages of man - you end up where you started off, a slow rider, but hopefully wiser, and having been faster in between.

I have a very clear recollection of my first experience of riding on a strong rider's wheel (two riders in fact.) I would have been about 13, and I got in behind two hard riders, riding two-abreast up the A1 towards Wetherby on a fine Sunday evening. (The etiquette for doing that has changed a bit in the last 50 years as well ) I didn't even think they knew I was there. We were briefly held up in Wetherby (the A1 used to go straight through the middle) and one turned and very genuinely asked if I was OK, remarking that I had done well hanging on. You could have toasted bread.

I've never been upset by somebody riding on my wheel, and I'd not hesitate to encourage somebody to do it, especially if they were having a bit of a hard time. A ride has sometimes passed a bit quicker, sharing the pace into the wind with a stranger.

A couple of times I've got on the back wheel of somebody who thought they would take the mickey. I was coming home off nights once at 6am out of Bradford an a heavy youth on a mountain bike with tractor tyres shot past. Except I hear him coming from the tyre noise. We were just reaching the top of the A 650 when he eased off and looked round, expecting to see me way back down the road. Ho, ho. And off I went - he'd have needed a motorbike to get on my wheel. More recently, on my shopper, I tucked in behind Mr Campag Record. We stopped at some lights and I remarked on the lines 'I can hold a wheel but I can't do a turn in front.' I suppose I was trying to identify myself as a "cyclist" (I know, I know) but he gave me a very withering look of contempt.

And the only other bit of etiquette is: think of the rider on your wheel and fit mudguards with decent flaps.

[Flinders]

Genuine question from the inexperienced-
if you slipstream, does that make it harder for the person in front?
(I'm a solitary cyclist by nature, and I've never slipstreamed another bike, but ended up doing it to a tractor and trailer a few weeks ago- I left plenty of space to brake, but found I was going faster uphill than I sometimes do down- I had no idea it would make so much difference! I'm sure the tractor didn't feel the strain, but does a cyclist being slipstreamed have to work harder?)

[Si]

if you slipstream, does that make it harder for the person in front?

Nope - you sit in the pocket of turbulence that would be dragging them back so in theory it actually helps them...although I'd imagine that the help it gives is so minimal that you'd not notice it.

[thirdcrank]

Flinders

Practically the whole of cycle racing - the only exceptions being individual time trials on the road or track - is based on the fact that the person following is in a much better position than the rider in front, and this effect increases with speed. A race bunch, especially of continental proportions almost sucks riders along. Top riders are paced and sheltered by their team mates, just to conserve their energy for the later parts of the race. That's also why hills are included because the benefit of being on a wheel becomes only psychological, rather than a physical advantage, so it allows strong riders to break up the race. In track sprinting, riders used to stand motionless for very long perios, trying to manoeuvre the other rider into taking the lead - it only stopped to meet the requirements of the telly for instant entertainment. I've no idea what the current motor-paced record is on a bike, but it is pretty academic because it is nothing to do with the strength of the rider - just the fact that there is a practical limit to the size of a chainwheel (sooner or later they scrape the floor) and there are only so many places in the world with a surface smooth enough to ride a bike behind a racing car.

For us ordinary mortals, I think a JCB digger is an ideal pace vehicle because they have a large front profile, go at a nice speed and few drivers are daft enough to full out in front of one.

[stewartpratt]

I think a JCB digger is an ideal pace vehicle because they have a large front profile, go at a nice speed and few drivers are daft enough to full out in front of one.

But not something you want to pile into the back of when they hit the brakes

(And yes, I have learned that the hard way, but thankfully only with a car.)

[Mick F]

I used to follow tractors as a kid. I especially liked being behind the pea trailers! Arms full of the things I used to get. Yum, fresh peas!

Also, my mate Paul and me got pulled over by the police because of riding behind a bus! 30 to 40mph on the flat!!

[thirdcrank]

http://www.canosoarus.com/08LSRbicycle/LSR%20Bike01.htm

I see he solved the gearing problem by using a second drivetrain.

[EdinburghFixed]

All the fast riders I see are commuting into Edinburgh - not out - but if I do get the chance to latch on, I do.

It doesn't bother me if someone sits on my wheel- although I will absolutely try to burn them off, it's just a matter of pride rather than irritation!

[Mick F]

I see he solved the gearing problem by using a second drivetrain.

I hope he doesn't slide off the back of the saddle!!

[Tonyf33]

Wind resistance is you pushing the air in front of you thus increasing its pressure, it becomes less behind you hence why you get dragged along into the lesser air pressure behind something. In normal riding the body creates approx. 75% of the resistance created. Air resistance increases proportionate to the square of the velocity.

[thirdcrank]

Reducing wind resistance - or more accurately pretty futile attempts to do so - was one of the fads that cropped up over the years. I say futile, because when you consider the frontal area of the cyclist, especially on an upright rather than a recumbent, taping the brake cables to the bars, streamlining the seatpin and even a bottle are not going to have much effect at all.

[gilesjuk]

The person behind probably won't like the possibility of being taken off the bike if they have to make sudden stop and you run into the back of them.

[eileithyia]

Generally it depends on who it is;

Some bloke started to do it regularly to me on my commute home from work, very irritating to have someone sit on your wheel and let you dothe work into a headwind, do it to me and you are likely to get to find I start switching my wheel around or suddenly braking

If you are riding together with people you know then you take turn about and share the work, unless one is particularly suffering then pals would do a bit a more of the work to allow you to recover and you repay the "debt" another time.

I confess I never thought of the intimadtion angle but as a female I guess I would not want some jerk sitting on my wheel on a towpath, I might just wonder what he is up to.