Commuting - Thinkin' about cheatin'...

I've read about this technique in a book about bicycle commuting a year or two ago, but never actually tried it.

I think it's called 'hitching' or something like that.

Anyway, it is a technique where you are waiting at a stoplight (on your bike) behind or beside an automobile. As it takes off, you grab onto the automobile and ride along.

Do you do this? Have you tried it?

Is it REeeealy as wicked as it sounds?

:eek:

I be too dang skeerd.

:)

Uhhh...no...:eek: Don't do that! Geez. Impress 'em with your own speed.

Geez Mike, what would you do if they slammed on the brakes suddenly? Heck I'm with Velo, impress them with your own speed. If you're gonna bludge of someone else, you might as well become a motoring primate :eek:

Originally posted by mike
I've read about this technique...I think it's called 'hitching' or something like that.

Anyway, it is a technique where you are waiting at a stoplight (on your bike) behind or beside an automobile. As it takes off, you grab onto the automobile and ride along.
EUREKA!

This is the answer to the cost of gasoline! :)

(And the high cost of energy foods...) ;)

:D

I did something like that once. I was matching speed with a truck sitting just behind and to the left of it just at the bottom of a slight incline. There was a part of the truck that looked just too inviting for grabbing onto, so I did it. There was a bit of a wobble as he accelerated, but I've never 'ridden' over the Story Bridge so quickly. I only held on for a few hunder metres.

I don't intend to ever do it again - it's a pretty risky enterprise - but man it was fun that one time. I wouldn't try it with a vehicle accelerating away from traffic lights. Just the slight acceleration from this already moving truck was almost enough to rip my arm out/upset my steering. Once the truck stopped accelerating it was better, but I don't advise riding at 60km/h+ with one hand.

Originally posted by Allister
I did something like that once... Just the slight acceleration from this already moving truck was almost enough to rip my arm out/upset my steering.
Fair dinkum?

:eek:

(For you Yanks, fair dinkum = "rilly? :eek: ")

Mike, I think you've been taking too many sharp Telemark turns on those skis of yours! Come back to reality, please! ;)

I've heard that messengers will use this trick as well. Of course, most of the messengers I know have a few more lose screws than the rest of us, so maybe that's why they do it. Or is that how the screws got loose in the first place? It's kind of a chicken and the egg sort of thing, I guess.

I've never tried it myself, though I've been tempted many times. I've wanted to hitch a ride on a car ever since I saw Marty McFly do it on his skateboard when I was six. At the time I remember thinking it was really cool. I now realize that it is dangerous and insane, but I still think that it's really cool. I appear to have the mentality of a six year old. Cool.

Originally posted by Pete Clark

Fair dinkum?


Fair Dinkum. (Not that I've heard any Aussies actually use that phrase lately)

Doesn't sound very wicked, but then, what do I know? ;)

Have done it when younger, by hanging onto trucks, but like Allister can still remember the wobble as truck pulled away. Very scary!

Might have been something to do with the fact that I was on a Raleigh Chopper at the time(the only way to get that heavy beast to accelerate was to hang on to a truck or drop it off a cliff):)

This thread is getting too scary for me, but before I close my eyes do we have a picture of Chewa on a Chopper? It deserves to be seen if there is one :D

Richard

Thankfully, Richard, evidence of that is long gone, though I wish we'd kept the "Chopper" (my brother's) as they are now v collectable.

Also it would enable me to replicate a part of "Pulp Fiction". On being asked why I ride a bicycle, I could answer "It's not a bicycle, its a Choppa".

I have nothing but unpleasant memories of that bike, very heavy, with the rolling resistance of a Crusader tank, knobbly back tyre (with a red stripe if memory serves), prone to wheely, because of the tiny front wheel and that gearstick operated 3 speed Sturmey Archer gear.

On two occassions,while standing on the pedals (I said it was slow didn't I?) the gears slipped and that T bar shaped gear lever made intimate contact with my crotch. :eek: I'm not sure, but that may be the reason we don't have kids.:rolleyes:

You may want to avoid doing that in front of your local law enforcement. My guess is that is illegal in your state, too.

PH
:D

I've been tempted, but fortunately never been next to anything with anywhere to hold onto at the time! I think it's all Marty McFly's fault. The bit where he does it on a skateboard.

As for heavy bikes, a friend of mine from uni had a bike we affectionately nicknamed the tank. It was a cheap three speed (originally - the shifter had exploded by the time we met it) made to look like a mountain bike. Heaviest thing I have ever ridden, including my brother's Raleigh Grifter. And now she commutes to work on it. She did get a £3 bike from a police auction at one point, but that got stolen. Not the tank though! Not even when she left it unlocked.

Ellie

Originally posted by Ellie
She did get a £3 bike from a police auction at one point, but that got stolen. Not the tank though! Not even when she left it unlocked.


One of my friends relies on that particular tactic with his shopping bike. It's probably the oldest and cheapest of his nine bikes.

Speaking of hitching, I saw something outrageous in China a couple of months ago.

A motorcycle was pushing a bicycle at automobile traffic speed! It was one of the most dangerous and hilarious things I've seen in a long time.

The motorcyclist had his right foot on the rear carrier of the bicycle in order to propel it. This went on for miles. Naturally, the scene was witnessed by the two children riding on the motorcycle along with the driver!

In China, they know how to squeeze the mileage out of a tank of gas. They also seem to be getting creative at thinning out the population.

We did have strings of rollerbladers holding onto London double decker busses (they have an open paseneger entrance at the read, with a handrail). The problem happens when they turn corners, the bladers accelerate and the end ones cannot hold on. They go flying off on a tangent at 30mph, into the pavement.

Holding on is dangerous, stupid and illegal. Drafting on the other hand, is FUN.

Originally posted by Ellie
.

She did get a £3 bike from a police auction at one point, but that got stolen. Not the tank though! Not even when she left it unlocked.

Ellie

I read somewhere that the weight of a bike plus lock always totals the same. If you've got a heavyweight bike you only need a lightweight lock and vice versa.

Originally posted by mike
I've read about this technique in a book about bicycle commuting a year or two ago, but never actually tried it.

I think it's called 'hitching' or something like that.

Anyway, it is a technique where you are waiting at a stoplight (on your bike) behind or beside an automobile. As it takes off, you grab onto the automobile and ride along.
Mike, if you decide to attempt this, it might be a great opportunity
to re-test those Kevlar arm bands of Raymond's. And we will need pictures, too!

:D

Heeyyy! I heard that, Pete Clark! Actually, I could have used my kevlar arm protectors last week. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I went "uptown" and got a couple of pair of real DeFeet arm warmers from longscycle when they had them on sale for about $8. I was wearing the pretty blue pair when I hit the bricks. Luckily no damage to arm warmers and only minor abrasion to the arm. Technogirl was right a year ago when she said even the kevlar wouldn't do much good in such cases. Anyway I didn't buy them because they were kevlar but because they were $4 compared to $15. I will still wear them when I have on a yellow outfit on my new bike.

Originally posted by RainmanP
...I hit the bricks. Luckily no damage to arm warmers and only minor abrasion to the arm. Technogirl was right a year ago when she said even the kevlar wouldn't do much good in such cases.
There you have it! And that's the way it was...

Mike, you'd better just forget about the whole thing...

(A suit of armor, perhaps?)

[...distant sound like crashing tin cans...]

;)

Originally posted by mike
I've read about this technique in a book about bicycle commuting a year or two ago, but never actually tried it.

I think it's called 'hitching' or something like that.

Anyway, it is a technique where you are waiting at a stoplight (on your bike) behind or beside an automobile. As it takes off, you grab onto the automobile and ride along.

Do you do this? Have you tried it?

Is it REeeealy as wicked as it sounds?

Eh . . . deathwish? It's illegal in California, I know that. I think I've spent a little too long looking at the CVC. Besides, I can't imagine a driver being really happy with you if they catch you doing that, and as we've discussed here before, an unhappy driver is a dangerous driver.

andy

I have heard of people doing that. Kinda like "Back to the Future" when he is on the skateboard. I don't think I would try that one, but I would like to hear how it goes if you do.

(Incidentally, on snowy days we used to tie a water-ski rope to the back of our cars and pull each other around on skis, snowboards, etc. Yippee!.. Don't do that anymore, that was my younger years. Luckily, no one got hurt that I know of)

:beer:

Manderax
I ride. I fall down. I get up.
Meanwhile, I keep dancing.

Originally posted by Ellie
I think it's all Marty McFly's fault. The bit where he does it on a skateboard.

Originally posted by manderax
Kinda like "Back to the Future" when he is on the skateboard.

See! I'm not the only one that thinks like this! There are others! Ha!


Originally posted by MichaelW
The problem happens when they turn corners, the bladers accelerate and the end ones cannot hold on. They go flying off on a tangent at 30mph, into the pavement.

We used to do this on the ice when I played hockey. We did it to 'break in' freshmen. I've heard it called 'Crack the Whip,' but our version was the Freshman Flinger. It was great fun, as long as it wasn't your melon bashing into the boards at high speeds.

Choppas were great for giving 'backies' though. :)

Everyone else has made the pertinent points: This practice is illegal, dangerous and stupid. All this newbie can add is that it is usually called "skitching."

Originally posted by mike
I've read about this technique in a book about bicycle commuting a year or two ago, but never actually tried it.
Mike,

Given the amount of contradictory advice I've seen published on bicycling, I think it's high-time this bicycle commuter (you) writes his own bicycle commuting book.

Seems a shame to waste all that hard-earned experience...12 thou a year must account for something!

:beer:

(not kidding)

(You might have a place in the Guiness Book of World Records...)