Originally Posted by
hsilman
ok, first of all I'm sorry that one of my first posts on this forum started a big e-fight between a couple of sandy vaginas. You two sound like a room full of my 90 year old jewish grandmother with all the kvetching.
To the rest of the relatively helpful posters, thank you for the input. Yes, being in NYC I see hundreds of cyclists every day on my rides. I was simply pacing these guys, not drafting it seems since I was nowhere near as close as you guys are talking about when "drafting". I had a chance to utilize the same route, and the speed increase was because Manhattan is on gentle downward slope going south along the Hudson. The only benefit to pacing these guys from a yard or 2 back was psychological.
ciao!
But in your first post you stated that you were drafting.
I am not familiar with where you are riding but if there are a ton of commuters, then you are probably just riding in the same direction.
Now, if you were riding a couple of feet behind me on the MUP where I am all by myself for miles at a time, then I would think that it were strange and dangerous since I don't always keep a set cadence, suddenly stop to snap a photo and don't point out road hazards when I am by myself. I really don't want to be hit by a person behind me because they are too close to stop and avoid me.
I am also very hard of hearing, and when I first notice that someone is behind me, startles me quite a bit.
If a rider passes me I may speed up but I try to keep a separtion distance to avoid being annoying. I want to be far enough behind that they would not hear my huffing and puffing. I have asked the last person in a pace line if I can hop on the end. But I don't just join a group uninvited.
But I typically don't have this problem since I don't ride all that fast.