snorkel

I know that commuting tends to be a solitary activity, but I have a question about those odd times where you end up commuting with company. There are two people I work with who occasionally commute to work and our commutes take us much the same way. I like these guys and I enjoy their company. However they ride quite a bit slower then I do to the point of being a bit annoying. Looks like they just ride at a considerably lower gear and at a higher cadence then I do or am comfortable with. So I tend to just ride with them for a bit but then shift to where I'm comfortable and ride on.

We also have gone on some recreational rides together and with those I tend to ride out ahead of them by a good distance and then slow down or stop to let them catch back up. Rinse & Repeat.

They don't say anything about it, but I feel like a bit of a jerk. I'm just riding where I'm most comfortable, but it feels like I'm somehow showing off or something.

Any thoughts?

CACycling

My wife is a slower cyclist than I am. When we ride together, she leads (it keeps me from being a mile ahead of her before I realize she isn't right behind me). I run into a coworker occasionally on my commute. She is slow so I just say Hi! as I pass her. I guess my point is either ride with them or don't ride with them but don't try to do both simultaneously.

snorkel

Yeah, I normally start behind them so that I don't mindlessly leave 'em behind, but eventually I just get impatient and go. I also find that it starts to get a bit uncomfortable riding that slow

snorkel

Yeah, I normally start behind them so that I don't mindlessly leave 'em behind, but eventually I just get impatient and go. I also find that it starts to get a bit uncomfortable for me riding that slow

mtalinm

I'm discovering this problem as well. I'm overweight & so people assume I'm slow, but at least on the flats I can take people pretty well (legs are strong from pushing my bulk).

One has been a buddy who is a distance rider and likes to commute with me on Fridays. He has trouble maintaining speed though and I find myself really frustrated following him. That said, he seems more than willing to take the lead on the bike lanes with door zones, so I hang back then (am I evil??).

Then there's a friend who's 100 lbs lighter than me and fancies himself fast, but on our last ride I pretty much left him in the dust (overtaking, then stopping/waiting, or looping back). I could tell he was pissed, but the funniest part was hearing him rationalize how I could be so much faster. SPDs? better bike? hahaha

it does make me a bit gunshy about riding with other people. I know I can't keep up with the zero-body-fat guys who shave their legs and ride carbon-frame road bikes, but outside of those guys it's hard to find riding buddies who are fast....

MNBikeguy

Big difference between a recreational ride and a commute. When you meet them on the commute I'd say hello and ask them if they'd like to take a rec ride sometime after work and ride together, then broom them and get to work. (This acknowledges the difference to them without being a jerk)


I'm sorry to say, riding forward, stopping, waiting, riding forward, repeat, repeat, repeat is bad behavior on your part. If you really want to ride with these guys and enjoy their company, you will have to suck it up and spin.

mtalinm

further to mnbikeguy's point, when you sit and wait for them, you get a nice rest while they are chugging nad panting. then you take off in a burst of energy while they are struggling to keep up. so yes it's true, suck it up and spin is the answer.

snorkel

That part is not the case. I do not take off as soon as they catch up. I wait until they are ready to continue and am very cognizant of the fact that I have been resting while they have been working.

InTheRain

Just say to them, "Hey guys, I feel like I want to 'kick it in' for a bit, do you mind if I go ahead?" At least then they know that you are considering them. I can't imagine that they would hold you back... who knows, maybe you'll get a response like, "yeah, let's do it!"

frpax

I see other commuters and sometimes I ride with them, and sometimes I ride past them and once in a while one rides past me.
It doesn't bother me one way or the other if I am faster or slower than someone else.
Usually, they've got their iPod on and are in their own world anyway...

When I'm riding to work, I don't usually slow my pace for other riders/commuters... I've got to get to work!
On the way home, I've got options. Sometimes I make a good workout out of it, other times I take it a bit more leisurely. The other day, I rode a few miles with a guy and chit chatted until he peeled off. Sometimes I stop for errands on my way home. So it really depends.

atmdad

Been there done that. Weekend rec rides with the wife I spin alot and try not to do the wait and take off dealio. Weekday commute is typically a solo ride for me along coastal North San Diego County, I think of it as either I'm chasing someone down or i'm being reeled in from behind. There are some serious riders that will blow my doors off and then i'm doing the same to someone else. There is always someone faster.

fuzz2050

if you're doing a recreation ride, go at the pace of your slowest rider. That's the only solution. Same thing with walks, hikes, and back country ski expeditions. If you really are the fastest rider, and they aren't just being lazy, then ride in the back, so you can keep pace better. For a commute, it doesn't matter as much

sm1960

One guy on a bike is an easy ride. Two guys on a bike is a race.

snorkel

Yeah, I guess my question stems from what is expected on the rides.. Does getting together and saying hey let's ride 50 miles on Saturday mean that we're going to ride side by side / wheel to wheel for 50 miles or that we're going to ride loosely as a group that starts together and ends together but what happens in between tends to change.

And no I don't expect anyone here to be able to answer that.. I need to clarify the ride style with the gang and see how they feel about it.

The thing that got me thinking about this is last night we went on a small (20 miles) ride on some hilly back roads with ridiculously strong wind. My pals were really struggling to move forward to the point that when I tried to hang back with them I was actually having to work to keep the bike balanced because our forward progress was so slow and my balance is admittedly poor. I went ahead of them for a while and when we re-grouped they called me "hardcore". This is super laughable as I'm in no way hard core and really consider myself to be rather slow. The comment seemed to be one part humor and one part complimentary, but it made me wonder if I was making them feel bad.

If they do feel bad I suspect they'll get their revenge this weekend. We're going mountain biking on (I'm told) a very technical course. They're both much more into mountain biking than road biking and I've never actually gone mountain biking before. I'm prepared for some serious humbling.

snorkel

Y'know I tend not be a competitive person, but for some reason this is exactly how I tend to react on longer rides. Not so much with my buddies but when I see other riders on the trail I have this urge to pass them. It is really odd because it just does not seem to jive with my personality at all.

CliftonGK1

Unless there's some pre-ride "no drop" agreement I don't think it's inconsiderate to leave someone behind on a commute. Heck, I pass plenty of people on my commute and don't feel in the least bit obligated to slow down and ride with them.
Even on a group ride, unless the ride leader states "no drop" or "periodic regrouping", I don't expect that the faster riders will wait for me; and I don't expect that the slower riders will gripe about me not waiting for them.

damnable

It would be polite to ask before you do it, especially if it's a planned ride together rather than a chance meeting along the way.

I'm one of the slow ones and I'm starting to ride more regularly with a friend who's much faster and more nimble than I am. It's mostly good for me because I get encouragement and he often searches out good routes and then returns or waits at the corner. But this is something we work out before the ride. I thought about getting him chocolate as a thankyou and as a sly way to get him to slow down, however he doesn't eat chocolate or candy.