Slipstreaming buses

Up Archway Road, if no-one wnats to get off / on at the stop halfway up it's the fastest you'll ever go on a bike up hill...

i do it as often as i can. up park lane is a good one.

i find the biggest issue isn't running into the back of the bus it's potholes and other nasties appearing from under it at high speed. fell foul of that phenomenon last week.

ambulance chasing can be wicked as well.

its a quick stretch, about the only one. the other big issue (aside pot holes) is the other road users and peds that see buses as the slower road vehicles and try to cut in front or nip around. when they do slow down you join the scrum to get around them. i'd rather just get round them screw the spray fumes and lack of visability!

Yeah. A bus can decelerate at a higher rate than a bicycle, in other words its maximum deceleration rate is higher, but how often is it that a bus decelerates at its maximum rate?

I can't fault your logic

Yeah. A bus can decelerate at a higher rate than a bicycle, in other words its maximum deceleration rate is higher, but how often is it that a bus decelerates at its maximum rate?

I am fully aware that a bus driver could one day need to perform an emergency stop while I am right behind it, but how likely is that?

I get the distinct impression some of the drivers only understand two states when driving, foot full on the accelerator or full on the brake. So i'd opt for 'quite' as the answer to your question.

I just witnesses the most beautiful dance I´ve ever seen in my life the moment I shouted "OI!!" when going down a busy Oxford Street today, this bloke can make Riverdance look like a brunch of people jumping up and down.

I'm considering making a book full of these forum entries. They crack me up

M mate used to be a bus driver, back in the old route master days. Him and his conductor had a code, whereby if they got drafted, or worse still, a roller skater clinging onto the pole, the conductor would ring the bell a certain way, altering the driver, who then performed an emergency stop pronto!

Be warned, these people need small amusements to while away the hours, and apparently this was very funny

I draft busses or anything else I can all of the time but I have brakes, anyone who does it brakeless must have knackers the size of oranges.

knackers the size of oranges.

Hitting them on the stem/top tube at speed would have that effect.
;)

Up Park Lane, you can pick them up at the lairy-gate exit from the Park and they get up to a good speed, with enough space to look round the side of them.

Personal fave is up Cedars Road. The 345 (possibly) turns up from Lavendar Hill and accelerates at the perfect pace to drag you up the hill.

What was that NY docu name? Not a clue, the older I get I lose the memories I had from an earlier age.. but I remember wooden rims! They were smooth.

What was that NY docu name? Not a clue, the older I get I lose the memories I had from an earlier age.. but I remember wooden rims! They were smooth.

"The Need 4 Speed"...?

I've had some good runs behind skip transport lorries... there are quite a few things to hold on to aswell if you want to hitch a ride

I've had some good runs behind skip transport lorries... there are quite a few things to hold on to aswell if you want to hitch a ride

that is one truck I would avoid...scaff trucks too.....too many lumps of metal and loose rubble etc that could fall off.

yes, please don't draft skip lorries or scaffolders trucks!

stuff falls off, and the drivers are not always the most polite or thoughtful type of person.

ok, so I'm generalizing, but that's my experience

"It ain't nicked, it fell off the back of a truck!"

it's always fun to catch a slow-ish truck, bus or van en-route. i have a habit of leaving a skid mark on bus' bumper. if you didn't touch it with your front wheel you haven't been there.

we used to ride behind our trainer's van. he had a roller attached to a rear bumper. 60 km/h, standard. once he sped us to 70kmh and turned on the side road, so we passed a police car with radar and their jaws on the ground.

so we passed a police car with radar and their jaws on the ground.

Classic! Is it illegal to break 70 on a cycle? what would they put 3 points on!

Riding home from Trix last night I was following a massive luxury coach over tower bridge. Was thinking to pass it on the approach, and noticed it had a French reg. so thought I'd be clever, and seeing as the driver was therefore on the left (and probably more used to checking his left mirror) I decided to pass on the inside (seeing as he wasn't going to turn left on the bridge). As soon as I move up the inside he closes in really quickly (like on purpose?) forcing me to lock the pedals and swing out, just missing the back of him as he went past. I then passed him on the outside and gave him a glare as I went past. He just stared back as if to say 'Bof!'.
Moral being, don't assume all drivers are idiots. Some of them are just malevolent.

I used to get pulled off at half-time at Crewe Alexandra though...

Did they charge extra?

so thought I'd be clever, and seeing as the driver was therefore on the left (and probably more used to checking his left mirror) I decided to pass on the inside (seeing as he wasn't going to turn left on the bridge).

This sort of thing is pretty crazy, not clever, you could very easily have come a cropper. Especially if you were at that part by the railings.
Never overtake anything like that on the left. Seriously!

I won't be trying it again! My reference to being 'clever' was definitely ironic - i.e. it seemed a good idea at that split-second, and I quickly realised I should have followed common sense. All the same, the driver was not helping the situation.

YouTube - Stupid cyclist, behind the truck

... skitch them?

I always thought skitching was a cross between skating and hitching, therefore the cycling equivilant could be biking and hitching, giving you bitching =D

I was expecting some awful to happen in that video, like a log sliding out and completely owning the cyclist. I'm not sure whether to feel relieved or cheated.

so i was riding behind this bus yeh and it was well mental like 30mph and then there was a red light and the bus started slowing down and i was like trying to break and slow down and this was in liverpool cos i was going to see my mates at the pier head yeh so that's why i was slipstreaming a bus and anyway the bus stopped really quickly and i skidded with my back wheel not my front wheel my back wheel and it didn't work so like i had the fear and my head went bang in to the back of thew bus and i was in a heap on the floor and these guys helped me up i thought i had broken my bike but i hadn't though the front wheel not the back wheel was bent to fuck and then the cops came they were the best cops ever and they put me in the riot van though there wasn't a riot it was just a riot van and they took me to the pier head and my head is sore and can i sue the bus for stopping?

this exact story happed to me in liverpool but with out the bus even getting a ride to the pier head in a riot van

wierd

Chap in a white van tried to slip stream behind me away from the lights the other day on Prince Albert rd. Left a tyre mark on his front bumber. Knob.

The slipstream behind a bus is huge - you get the effect from quite a good distance.. but at your own risk of course...