This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Oh interesting.
Also that the person in front also benefits (aerodynamically, less so in crashy crashy hazards). Presumably the 3 bike lengths thing requires a certain speed to make sense?

Too slow for drafting, too slow for typing...

It doesn't work at rest, so I'd say yes.

#tongueincheek

I like to thank them up close and personally. And repeatedly.

If the bike in front appears to be further away but happens to be directly in front of you and small, what's the drafting benefit?

Thats @Ramsaye 's CX racing strategy encapsulated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS12p0Zqlt0

There's no one to draft you if you're already at the back.

13%

There's always someone behind you in London.

Oh no there isn't!

There is.

That wasn't a breeze on your neck just then...

Backed myself for a longer commute to the Wimbledon, 11 miles up from my normal 2.5. How do people do that every day? Could not deal with the constant traffic lights for that distance, completely tuckered out by the time I arrived.

I don't like drafters because I don't know if they are attentive and competent, or if they're going to crash into the back of me once I need to brake hard/manoeuvre.

They're free to get the aeros I don't mind :)

Would rep

Ditto.
I've told this story somewhere on here before but...

Not drafting per se, but a girl was cycling close behind me as I entered Burgess Park some time in the summer. I slowed down to let some peds get past safely, she plowed into the back of me at speed. I got flung off my bike and landed on my ribs. When I sat up, bike was gone. Turns out it ended up in the duckpond/lake thingy adjacent to the path. Now I get twitchy when someone is behind and close-ish.

Passenger in a Highways Agency white van wound down his window this morning and told me to get into the cycle lane as I rode along Jamaica Rd past the junction with St James Rd. The weird thing was, I was already in the cycle lane, and had been for ages. I passed the van again (obviously) about 30 seconds later and gave him a hard stare.

Some utter bell from Bank to Moorgate, and a Cinelli Gazette with double spok, beard & checker board jersey, zigzagging all over the road (nearly cross wheeling me), RLJ and not even at an appropriate moment. If I see you on the way home you'd better hold your line, or else you'll be going home with Aerospokes in a sling.

:(

Yeah you don't need a strip and a rebuild and sore ribs...

My views on drafting depend on what day of the week it is. If its Monday, I'm dead set against it and I'd never draft. If its Friday, I'm probably hanging and will take any help I can get so will happily sit on someones wheel.

What does piss me off regardless of the day of the week are shitped riders. Dozy walkers, motorcyclists and taxi drivers (including Addison Lee) I can tolerate, but hipster muppets on their plastic vespa ripoffs with no sense of space, observation or what anyone else is doing boils my piss. And the ones that buy those R125 yamaha's that look like they've shrunk in the wash that the acne ridden chav has fitted a loud exhaust on - they can fuck right off. The bloke next to me on the A2 yesterday had an exhaust that was so loud people were ducking as he rode past. Obviously I made my point by giving him a nasty stare and dropping back a bit - that'll learn him..

^ Top handle

I drafted someone on cudham road going downhill yesterday .. why? Because it's my constitutional right.

The somewhat foggy view this morning...

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Jumped every light (junctions excepted) this morning*. I felt ok about it.

*pre-sunrise, so there was no one around to witness my wrong-doing anyway.

Had cause to use the Wandle Trail again this morning at around 8:30. From Wimbledon Abbey Mills to Earlsfield I saw no other cyclists. Why does no one use this perfect commuter route? Always baffled by its emptiness.