Bike snobbery

LotteBum Wrote:
I get seriously p!ssed off when people do this - not because it hurts my
ego, but because I think it's rude when people draft me, then overtake
me and take off when I've towed them for a distance.

Lotte

You're missed the point - not *everyone* comes from a roadie background
& most of us common grunts do love to take the ****.


--
cfsmtb

cfsmtb Wrote:
You're missed the point - not *everyone* comes from a roadie background
& most of us common grunts do love to take the ****.
It's not about what sort of background you're from - it's about common
courtesy.


--
LotteBum

LotteBum wrote:

cfsmtb Wrote:
You're missed the point - not *everyone* comes from a roadie background
& most of us common grunts do love to take the ****.
It's not about what sort of background you're from - it's about common
courtesy.

It's true.

If I have no intent of letting someone wheelsuck, I make sure I don't
draft them for long before overtaking - if the road/path is busy, I'll
sit back a good distance. Although if someone is polite enough to
introduce themselves, I'm happy to give them a tow as far as they want.

Like Abby.

hahahahahaha! :P

T

Tamyka Bell wrote:

If I have no intent of letting someone wheelsuck, I make sure I don't
draft them for long before overtaking - if the road/path is busy, I'll
sit back a good distance. Although if someone is polite enough to
introduce themselves, I'm happy to give them a tow as far as they
want.

Question. It obviously is less effort to draft some-one, but does it
actually increase the effort required by the leading person? Can you feel
you are "towing" some-one? If not, are you really towing them?

OK, more than one question.

Theo

I don't like uninvited wheelsuckers. I'm riding along in my own world,
changing pace as it suits me, dodging glass and holes, blasting out the
sinuses. Then a passenger jumps on and expects me to start
concentrating on his/her welfare. Not likely. If they come up and say
Gday there's more chance of a friendly reception.

Donga

On 2006-01-17, Theo Bekkers (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Tamyka Bell wrote:

If I have no intent of letting someone wheelsuck, I make sure I don't
draft them for long before overtaking - if the road/path is busy, I'll
sit back a good distance. Although if someone is polite enough to
introduce themselves, I'm happy to give them a tow as far as they
want.

Question. It obviously is less effort to draft some-one, but does it
actually increase the effort required by the leading person? Can you feel
you are "towing" some-one? If not, are you really towing them?

OK, more than one question.

An article in the last BV ride-on claimed that the turbulence behind
the first rider is changed in such a way as to increase air pressure,
hence pushing the first rider along, thereby decreasing drag. Dunno
about the physics, but makes intuitive sense -- two coupled riders
both sharing in the approximately the same frontal surface area and
approximate drag, but double the thrust.

--
TimC
It's funny, isn't it? All this antiterrorist legislation makes ordinary
law-abiding citizens want to blow up politicians. -- Mark South on ARK

dtmeister wrote:
Theo Bekkers wrote:

Question. It obviously is less effort to draft some-one, but does it
actually increase the effort required by the leading person? Can you
feel you are "towing" some-one? If not, are you really towing them?

If you do some googling, you'll see many references to a slight
benefit to the lead rider in a draft. Some tests in a wind tunnel
suggest 2-3% less effort than riding solo. So while you wouldn't
notice the benefit, it sure sounds like it doesn't slow you down.

That is what I would have expected.

Theo

On 2006-01-17, TimC (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
An article in the last BV ride-on claimed that the turbulence behind
the first rider is changed in such a way as to increase air pressure,
hence pushing the first rider along, thereby decreasing drag. Dunno
about the physics, but makes intuitive sense -- two coupled riders
both sharing in the approximately the same frontal surface area and
approximate drag, but double the thrust.

Perhaps another way of looking at it is that you have the same air
flow in front of you, but instead of the turbulence behind you sucking
energy from your forward motion, there is now relatively still air
between you and the rider behind, and it is only the last rider who
has the turbulence behind them (and they don't have any in front, so
of course they're still saving energy), so there is the same drag from
your front, but less drag behind you.


When racing, you try to avoid being at the front of the bunch unless
you have tactical reasons for being there (teams, multi day events,
etc). But if you are riding along side the bunch, but still by
yourself, you aren't expending as much energy as if you were directly
at the front, because the air is viscous, and there is a layer of air
being transported along with the peleton, that would still benefit
riders to the side.

Spectating at the TdF sure would be fun as the peleton whizzes by.

--
TimC
A new verb was accidently created during a discussion about KDE 3 and Debian.
It was said that KDE 3 will sid soon. -- Debian Weekly News Jan 14,2003

Theo Bekkers wrote:
Tamyka Bell wrote:

If I have no intent of letting someone wheelsuck, I make sure I don't
draft them for long before overtaking - if the road/path is busy, I'll
sit back a good distance. Although if someone is polite enough to
introduce themselves, I'm happy to give them a tow as far as they
want.

Question. It obviously is less effort to draft some-one, but does it
actually increase the effort required by the leading person? Can you feel
you are "towing" some-one? If not, are you really towing them?

I can tell when someone's there (you can hear them, etc), it's no
concern as long as they're not riding dangerously. As mentioned
elsewhere, there's a theoretical advantage in having some body smooth
the airflow behind you a little, but only if they're very close, and
it's not really noticable, IME. Tim's assertion about two pushing and
one lot of frontal area would be valid if he was on a tandem, but
otherwise, rider 2 is just getting an easy ride, they're not helping.

Bleve wrote:
Theo Bekkers wrote:

Question. It obviously is less effort to draft some-one, but does it
actually increase the effort required by the leading person? Can you
feel you are "towing" some-one? If not, are you really towing them?

I can tell when someone's there (you can hear them, etc), it's no
concern as long as they're not riding dangerously. As mentioned
elsewhere, there's a theoretical advantage in having some body smooth
the airflow behind you a little, but only if they're very close, and
it's not really noticable, IME. Tim's assertion about two pushing and
one lot of frontal area would be valid if he was on a tandem, but
otherwise, rider 2 is just getting an easy ride, they're not helping.

But not causing you any extra effort at all, maybe even helping you by an
imperceptible amount. You're certainly not towing them.

Theo