Originally Posted by
acaurora
You know I actually have never seen this elbow wriggle people speak of... every time I have been in a paceline people actually signal with their hand to move forward, hehe. But I guess I'll look out for this elbow wriggling in the future. I just think that that kind of elbow movement could easily be mistaken for moving forward in a paceline if you, say, get a bug stuck on your arm.
Using your elbow to signal is far safer than using a hand signal when you're 5 inches off the wheel in front and holding a steady line on the shoulder of what's typically not an incredibly smooth road. I can ride in many situations with one or fewer hands on the bars....but that doesn't mean that I always want to. Elbow "tick" is a pretty universal message in faster group rides or likely to anyone who's raced, so it's best to keep your hands on the bars and if someone misses the signal once, educate them so they'll catch it the next time. Chances are good that if a signal is missed by someone behind, they're one of only 1 or 2 people in the group who don't know to watch for it.
-Jeremy