Wheel Suckers

You riding along... Just training or commuting to a training meet when he creeps onto your wheel quietly. This joker wont even pull up alongside when stopped at a traffic light to say hi but is quite happy to sit on your wheel for miles as you drag him along to his turn off.

Drives me MAD

Maybe you should be flattered. For him being on your wheel is like motorpacing. He ougtta say hi, though.

He sounds a bit of a lout really. He should say Hi, and then shout at you to go a bit faster. Other than that remember it's the wheel suckers that win most of the races. It's a fine line, and you spend most of the time in a race working out just how little work you can get away with without ending up in a punch-up.

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The media is a self perpetuating publicity stunt.

Wouldnt bother me that he stayed on my wheel if at traffic lights he would just come forward and say hi or something. But to just stay back as and skulk around my back tyre i downright rude... I suppose its motivation to train so next time i can just up the pace until his lungs pop

Sucketh not, lest ye be sucked.

just drop him.....

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A turn of the crank,
is all that it takes to start,
a revolution

just lookit all the bush accomplices and all their wins at our patriotic expense.
hmm, enron, exxon, cheney inc. who gets our tax cash for dropping bombs from depleted plutonium? weapon sales to friendly (human rights aside, should it suck wheel) regimes?

look at the wheel you are on. it wobbles.

and i do not see it taking a turn at the front. too much wind up there with the prison tortures, entire fruadulent premises, ignoring priorities here at home like eduction and eviroment, raping of a healthy clinton economy, putting the moms dads 'n sons in danger, blatant nepotism, increasing the wealth of the top .05% while the minions toil for less, the holy grail of putting social security in the hands of the same banks that cover the @sses of his criminal syndicate...
oops, this is the rant forum, and it is ok to go off on tangents isn't it?

try pulling your brakes on, or simply slowing down, then he will be forced to show himself

At very least that guy could be shy or deaf or have some excuse. I sometimes find that if someone just a bit faster than me passes, I end up on his wheel by default not by design. Either they slow after passing or the boost I get from having them in front makes it too easy for me to keep up. It can be a bit akward and I usually go for slowing to drop off if the passer seems unfriendly.
The ones that really drive me mad are the guys that come bombing around you, when you are doing a moderate pace and then keep looking back to see how badly they've dropped you. It's just bad form and a poseur habit. If you really raced (I do not, so I'm not such a good prize anyway) you wouldn't have to look to see if you've shown up the little girl - did I mention I'm female and 5' tall? Had some old fart in his baggies think he was showing me today. I've had a bit of a cough all week that I just can't seem to get rid of and I wasn't in the mood to play around, so mr old fart - you've won the gold today I hope you are very happy.

What's the typical etiquette when it comes to drafting on non-competitive training ride? What's the typical length of a pull? On a century today, I had a guy (that I didn't know) sucking my wheel for about five miles in a headwind. He didn't pass me until just before a monster climb, probably feeling quite fresh, I'm sure.

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..:: M t T a m B i k e s ::..

The etiquette is that you at least make some connection with the people you're riding with - be it one guy or the whole group. Doesn't have to be much, but "mind if I ride with you?" or an introduction goes a long way.

If someone sucks my wheel and I don't trust him, I ride real close to the edge and I barely miss the pot holes that makes them back off enough that at least they won't turn into me - I got all kinds of tricks.

Did you do Grizzly Peak? I was doing a charity 100-miler in Napa - no monster climbs but it was FAST!

I was on the AIDS/LifeCycle Day of the Ride century. The climb I was referring to is the Marshall Wall (Marshall-Petaluma Road). Thanks for the tips. I'm really used to riding on my own, but on a ride that large, I had a lot more people around me.

Was that the Tour de Cure you were on? A friend did that ride on Sunday. I may add that to the lineup next year.

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Yeah - Tour de Cure for Diabetes, Napa. I can't believe they found a 100 mile flat route. My last Napa century had way over 5,000 feet climbing. Easy route, hard ride... my legs are screaming today... my first ever sub 5 century. Organization was very good - ridership was very good (but lots of inexperienced riders the last 10 miles or so), excellent organization. I thought fund raising would be hard but people actually thanked me for taking their money! Wait... I gotta see if the photocrazy.com site has me in there yet....nope... maybe tomorrow.

I know Marshall-Petaluma very well, used to live in Santa Rosa.

You can add the "clearing the nose" to your tricks, I've only used that once. On a recent century ride in San Diego County, I was behind a guy that kept taking his water bottle and spraying his face, it kept getting me all wet (similar to people who have poorly adjusted windhield fluid sprayers". This was quite effective in getting me off his wheel, we started a good climb and I dropped him. It was one of those cases where I was not really trying to draft, we just ended up that way. If I passed him, we would pull up in front of me again, we didn't want to ride fast enough to drop me but couldn't stand it when I tried to pass. I have always been accomodating to wheel suckers on organized and century rides. I have always thought that everyone's there as one big group and if I can help them out, then no problem. I do think it's weird when I'm riding solo and someone hops on my wheel and never bothers to acknowledge me, that's when the "tricks" come in. Congrats on your Tour de Cure, I did my first one last fall on a Palomar Mountain Century, I was amazed at the support I got, I ended up raising $1200 and learned a lot about diabetes.