datlas 

On my usual club ride on Saturday there was one minor crash. One guy bumped wheels with the rider in front of him and went down. We were only doing maybe 15ish (mild climb), I saw the rider go down but I am not 100% sure what happened, I think he overlapped wheels and the rider in front of him either swerved or stood up in the climb. Nothing broken just road rash etc.

Anyway, it seems that 90% of the crashes I have seen on my rides involve touching/bumping wheels and the guy in back going down. I remember reading in a cycling book back in the 1980's (I think it was Eddie B.'s book) that one should "practice" bumping wheels so you know how it feels and how to react, and you can minimize the chance of going down.

The idea is to go to a soccer field or other soft, grassy, flat area, with a friend or two and pedal at a relatively slow rate of 5-10 MPH and PURPOSEFULLY bump wheels with the guy in front of you...so you learn what this does to the bike...and if you do go down, you are going slowly and on grass so you should not get seriously injured.

I have been lucky and not had a serious crash for many years...and would like to keep that streak going.

I am willing to and interested in trying the wheel bumping drills but although it seems like a good idea "on paper" I would like to hear from folks who have actually tried it and if it increases confidence in handling wheel bumps on the road and/or prevented you from going down.

Obviously the best tactic is to not overlap wheels but if you are in a paceline and someone suddenly brakes or stands up or makes a sudden move, there is still a chance to touch wheels.

Thoughts....?

edbikebabe

Yup - it's a good thing. Also good to practice riding side by side & leaning into each other with your shoulders.

It certainly made me more comfortable in a pack - which causes less bumping/rubbing by being calmer and less jerky with your handling.

chadwick

I did a CTS training camp a year ago and that was the 2nd skill we practiced after some basic handling drills. It was fun, and built a lot of confidence, and made the close-quarters pace-lining we did the following day go a whole lot smoother (and it was a whole lot close-quarters than I was used to with the pace-lines I do around here).

So yep, good idea to practice.

urbanknight

I've done them, and they help. It helps for the front guy to know to stay in his seat with weight on his rear wheel, and it helps the back guy to know when to lean into the guy's tire, and when it's safe to detach.

Bacciagalupe

Unless you're racing, I'd think the better policy is to not bump wheels in the first place....

EventServices

Group ride much?

Our club used to practice rubbing wheels, elbows, hips, and arms while riding around on a grassy field. Basic survival skills for cyclists.

cyclezen

yeah, well, good intentions are often derailed by a rider 3 positions up...
a lot happens which isn't even the fault of any of the guys who eventually make contact.
Not all wheel/tire contact has to end with a crash. The practice gives us a chance to figure out how to come out of it without going down.

But do pick some soft turf - I do remember one guy coming up with rash after going down in what seemed like grass, except for the smooth rock in the patch.
Bumping happens and if you freeze with the deer in the headlights look; you're odds for a bad biff go thru the roof.

carpediemracing 

I've had many more close calls on "non-racing group rides" than anything else. Non-racers tend to ride less predictably than racers because they're used to having more distance between the riders.

I read Eddy B's book and treated it like the Bible. I did wheel touching drills for a fall semester at school, twice a week, on an unused grass field. We definitely did the touching wheel drill but we did others too. The touching wheels drills involved:
1. Touch your front wheel to the rider in front of you. Fall over. (You had to fall over).
2. Touch front wheel to rider in front of you. Practice different ways of not falling over.
3. I've found the following work for not falling over:
- Be on the drops, not hoods or tops, although practice will buy you a chance of staying up if you're on the hoods/tops.
- Keep going straight, muscling the bars so your wheel doesn't get swept out.
- Pull bike back under you so the rider in front can finish going across your line (or you can finish going across theirs)
- What I found does NOT work is that bounce thing where you "bounce" your front wheel away from the next rider's rear wheel. I have no idea how this would work and I probably fell 20 or 30 times trying to figure it out.

Since then I've hit a rear wheel so hard my rear tire has come off the ground (happened twice over the years, once when a dog jumped out at my teammate and he slammed on the brakes at about 30 mph - I ran into his axle on the left side of his rear wheel; the other time when a non-racer slammed on his brakes in a group ride and the pro in front of me slowed hard - I ran into his cassette). I've had probably 10 serious tire rubs at speeds from 18 mph (hairpin turn) to about 30 mph, and I've never gone down because of them.

Okay, in 2010 I hit the deck when a teammate stopped short (slammed on his brakes) after sprinting at 30 mph to catch some friends/teammates. I ran into him, technically touched wheels, and went down. It took about 21 years of racing and riding (after learning how to touch wheels) to finally hit the deck, and I hit the deck more because of the speed differential (15 mph) than the touching wheel.

I think wheel touching ought to be mandatory for all racers and strongly encouraged for all group riders.

It's important to know how to fall too. Knowing to tuck and roll, knowing to pull your chin down, it's critical. I was behind a guy that fell wrong at about 22 mph; he broke his collarbone after tumbling off his bike at about 12-14 mph.

I fell at 30 mph; I had no road rash left 6 days later. And I'd fallen many times in the first 10 years I raced and, probably due to some training in tumbling, never broke anything. Highest speeds were in the 50 mph range (and that was in the pre-helmet era so I was wearing just a Campy cap on my head - after that crash I'd only ridden twice without a helmet).

Other skills to practice:
- bunny hop
- track stand
- bumping from the side (elbow/forearm/shoulder/thigh, depends on the heights of the riders in contact)
- turning around to look behind you
- riding one handed
- clipping in
- picking things up off the ground while riding
- braking hard

These are all skills riders take for granted. They also teach you to let go of unproductive instinctive reactions, reactions that will take you down if unchecked.

Bacciagalupe

Almost every weekend.

My club basically tells its members not to touch wheels. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.

edbikebabe

I rubbed wheels with a guy on a relaxed group ride a couple weeks ago. He stopped pedaling to grab a bottle while I was fiddling with my helmet & not paying super close attention. We rubbed wheels, I got off his wheel & except for the embarrassment, no harm done. $hit happens.

hooligancyclist

It's happened to me, but now I pay more attention and it does not happen. Focus goes a long way if you can apply it for the entire ride.

gregf83 

The reason people go down when they touch wheels is they try and move their front wheel off the wheel in front of them too quickly. For example, if your front wheel is to the right of the wheel in front of you and it touches, your instinct is to turn the wheel to the right to move it away from the wheel in front. Of course, for anyone familiar with how countersteering works, turning the bars to the right will cause the bike to lean to the left which forces you back into the wheel or just down on the pavement.

I suspect the 'Bounce' technique just involves turning your bars hard enough into the wheel in front to get your weight over to the other side of the bike (to the right side in the above example) then when you release from the wheel the bike will lean away from trouble.

gregf83 

You should coach bike racers and tell them not to touch wheels. Maybe then they'd stop crashing

enjoi07

you can tell the earth not to turn as well, see how long that lasts. point is, it's bound to happen, so prepare for the worst.

BryGuy

I used to do this to my sister all the time when we were kids. Grind her speed off to tick her off. Who knew it was a handling drill back in the day?

urbanknight

So that's what the racers are doing wrong!

Seriously, it's not that easy for a bunch of people who don't know each other (or much riding skills) unless they are "drafting" from 2-3 feet back.

hsh101

This is how I sometimes ride with my club. Either that, or hang out off-centerline a bit. At this point, I think I know whose wheels to follow, and whose wheels to give some space behind. And, being that I'm rather small, I can't always see beyond the cyclist immediately in front of me. I want to be able to react quickly when they do something unexpected. Past two weekend rides, the rider immediately in front of me rode up too close to the rear wheel in front of them and slammed on their brakes. Both times, I was able to slide left out of the paceline, and keep it from cascading down to the other riders behind me.

EventServices

How far apart do you ride? Is it measured in furlongs?

Bacciagalupe

Re-read my initial post, I specifically said "unless you're racing." Races are a very different type of ride than most club rides.

Bacciagalupe

Try "inches." Thanks for playing.

gregf83 

I've seen your type of group ride. Very low risk and very slow. Not all group rides are like that.

There is no way around it, if it's a fast ride some riders will be under more stress than others and towards the end of a long ride, when riders get tired, mistakes start to happen. Even if the riders have been told not to make mistakes (or touch wheels) they sometimes happen.

urbanknight

Wow. You should become a commissaire for the Tour de France. Just tell them not to crash, and we should have some very safe racing.

datlas 

Thanks for the mostly positive feedback.

I am not racing anymore but my club rides are sometimes quite "competitive" and this is a skill I would like to add to my toolbox.

Bumping drills are on the agenda (along with numerous other "to do" items).

Doug

carpediemracing 

I think the bounce technique I read involves doing what you described in the first paragraph. Obviously it doesn't work or else I misread it. I think I read it properly and I think it's "fake" advice, i.e. advice that's not accurate coming from someone who may be able to touch wheels but can't describe it properly.

I do the second paragraph. It's the only way for me to stay upright, unless you hit head on and just have to wait for your bike to bounce back a bit.

datlas 

So the idea is to turn in to the wheel you bounced, slightly, to get your weight in that direction so you can quickly turn away?