Seen an increase in this recently. Must be the summer and tour influence.

When out riding I seem to attract wheel suckers. Some are polite and at least make their presence known although I’ve yet to have somebody offer a wheel*.

I-ve been drafted when training for time trials, had a guy sprint past me, blow up then draft me and today a guy draft me despite a tail wind and me doing 15mph.

Is it ruder to turn round and tell them to fxck off, launch an attack or simply explain that its like tailgaiting and a bit dangerous if you don’t make your presence known.

* I realise that the number of people drafting is directly correlated to my awesomeness 🙂

You have three options:
Speed up slowly and make them go pop,
Gently decrease your speed and see how slow you need to be going before they overtake,
Start looking for potholes and bunny hop them at the last moment with no hand signals.

3/3 or snot rockets if they didn’t say “Hi”

When out riding I seem to attract wheel suckers.

Big arse, by any chance ?
😀

Boardman was suggesting that being drafted cleans up your rear air so it’s beneficial

Still a bit of a shock to look round and suddenly find someone sitting directly behind you though!

Is this a southern thing?

Up in the grim north, it’s part and parcel of being a cyclist, and involves a chat. A northern chat, of course;

Alright?
Aye.
Bin far?
Nay.
Goin’ far?
Ovvert tops.
Al sithee later then?
Aye.

and in English please crikey?

😀

The above conversation could get one a reputation for being a bit too chatty, and represents a conversation which took place over a couple of hours…

Ron does nea ken what yous blathering aboot

If someone makes their presence known and asks to sit in then that’s fine with me. If they just latch on then I take one of the 3 options listed by glupton.

As a rather broad chap 2 inches off my back wheel is very desirable real estate in a headwind, my personal record was on the Garmin rideout when I looked round to find a conga line consisting of twelve of the sneaky buggers grinning sheepishly at me from behind their radars.

Protocolwise it depends on how they arrive on your wheel, you’ve gone steaming past them I feel it’s well within their rights to hop on, if they’ve latched on and said hello then fair enough I’ve done it a few times on the homeward stretch when I’m knackered.

If they’ve crept up behind you and not announced their presence then that’s a touch off and frankly dangerous so Glupton’s options 1-3 come into play.

nobody ever drafts me, and im a big chap.
possibly because they dont have a low enough gear tho, i aint fast . . . .

Up in the grim north, it’s part and parcel of being a cyclist, and involves a chat. A northern chat, of course;

Newcastle so not the south unless you are one of them Scottish folk. Again the polite thing to do would be say hello. Most just silently sneak on and then crack at the first hill.

@jonba. As in: “Howay, du yey mind if aah sit on yer wheel for minute man/hinny?” Etc….

Ah, I meant the grim north, Manchesterish…

It’s never been an issue here, if they can keep up, they’re ok.

Although the above conversation is for comic effect, I have had a similar experience with a bloke I knew by sight; we did 120 miles together and the conversation went;
Hey up.
How do.
Where y’off?
Dunno, fancy t’Trough?
Ok.

We then rode from Manchester, over the Trough of Bowland, back through Preston to Manchester, and said ;
Bye then.
Good ride, youth.

Talked my ears off he did…

Only had it done twice both were on the mtb…there was a guy sat on my wheel on a local trail on Tuesday night, he did not speak or let me know he was there…so I locked the back wheel he screamed like a kid at me for slowing down for no reason. Made me smile. 😀 before the next climb I let him pass I said hello but he did not so I buzzed his back wheel a cpl of times I did say sorry with a grin on my face..

I was on my road bike the other evening climbing i over took a struggling man on a commuter, He sucked to my wheel for a bit before saying thanks and offI wet no harm no foul in my eyes.

From my friends its ok , from strangers out and about very rude
If I’m feeling good just wait for a hill or even a slight rise and go for it

You could always try swinging of and flicking an elbow to bring them through,

A drafting rider is literally pushing you along by taking your turbulent wake. There is no suck effect. The only concern is if you trust them riding so close. Is polite to announce and to take a turn in front though.

what about drafting on a strava segment , then popping out 200m from the end to get a kom ?

I like to slowly wind it up until you hear the audible boom of said drafter blowing a gasket.

Dunno about rude but unless it’s a race, training at pace or a club run, drafting unannounced for too long is for the weak. You lose as soon as you latch on and stay quiet imo, it’s like admitting that you want to go at a pace that you can’t hold. Either go past and keep going, or hang back and ride at your own pace. Or say hi and see if your pacing works.

On my commute home I get the cockrockets coming out of Richmond Park all Bradley’d up. The best commute home was coming into Putney and working together with a similarly commuting gent on a rather nice Hetchins and two-upping past a couple of carbon gods who, at one point before we properly dropped them tried to push me off my Hetchins mate’s wheel.

Lol @ crikey its so true

I went past someone recently who was going much slower than me and gave him my usual ” How Do! ” then about five minutes later realised he’d been sat on my wheel since i past him? soon lost him on a hill though

Had a wheel sucker the other day. Stopped to let a car out which had right of way. All I heard was frantic downchanging, braking and “Scheiss! F*** F***!!!” as he swerved past me and almost in to a tree. Didn’t realise he was that close. Was on the CX bike with extended braking distances – if I’d been on HT with disc brakes, he’d have spacked me for sure.

Occasionally get them drafting on a hill climb, which seems odd in a forest. I just let up on the pedals for a second and break their rythm.

As someone who is new to road cycling and not particularly quick, I occasionally find myself sitting on someones wheel a bit longer than is, perhaps, polite. The reason for this is that, I feel, if I overtake I’ll be starting a race ( I don’t race) – this has happened a couple of times – the twunt in front will deliberately speed up to prevent me overtaking – look, pal, the only reason I’m passing you is because you are going slower than me. There is no chance of me going any faster so either speed up or wind your neck in.

took the terrible-ribble for a blast this morning over Birker Fell (that is oop norf in t’lake district ya know). a mtb drafted me up the road without me realising it then overtook as i was looking at the hill view. I said ‘alright Mawra (friend)?’ as you do, but he totally blanked me.
how rude i thought. so i took off after him and as I blasted past i spotted he was plugged into his ipod. he did not catch me up after that mind.

In my Sheffield commute days I regularly attracted drafters along the Abbeydale/London/Queens roads and the first few times it gave me a fright as I did the look over the shoulder to find a face only 4 feet from mine! After that I looked behind more regularly and if I found a wheel sucker and I was in a less than charitable mood, I aimed for all the potholes (mtb with knobblies), braked heavily (discs) or tried to drop them on the short hills. It made the rides a bit more enjoyable! (for me).
Now I only ride the quiet roads and off roads of Aberdeenshire so I never see ANYBODY!

Last night I played leapfrog with another commuter, him passing me when I spun out, then me dragging back up to him. I hate drafting someone that I don’t know, so I went through each time, then slowed up to let him back on my wheel. Turns out after about 5 miles home, that he lives on the same street.

It would have been better to do all this NOT after 2 beers and a belly of BBQ…

2 beers = legal EPO.

I’m more than happy to draft or be drafted on my commute (same area as aP up there) but only those that look like they know what they’re doing. Anyone in hi-vis is to be avoided.

If I am on someone’s rear wheel I’ve caught up to them and am waiting for an appropriate time to overtake them.
If someone’s on my rear wheel I take it as a challenge to try and drop them.
I don’t see why either situation is rude. Its just riding.

My mate said to me “drafting you is like drafting a field mouse”,so I guess most folk don’t bother 😀

Very annoying – I try to drop folk, if I am catching someone I hangnail a little until I can make an overtake work and stick.

Nothing worse than being overtaken by some shaven scrawny fella at the bottom of a hill who the slows down – I feel so rude riding past him but always make sure to make a cheery comment and not breath too hard.

I don’t see why either situation is rude. Its just riding.

In a car it would be illegal. No idea they are there, probably cannot react to things quick enough and could cause an accident. Risk is accepted amongst racers and friends but no idea if the random has a clue about group riding.

Plus it’s a freebie. Why do they think it’s OK to ‘pinch’ pace from a stranger?

Don’t just let them sit there. Drop ’em (or be dropped).

some dick did it to me yesterday on the way to work doing between 24 and 28 on the flat every time I looked round he was literally 6 inches of my back wheel. I waved him to come round for a turn which he did not feel the need to do. I then stop at a red light and he goes straight through. Tw….t