Originally Posted by
Dean V
You must live in a good area for cycling if the motorists are infrequent and considerate enough that you can get away with stringing an echelon across the road. You must also have great confidence in those around you if you are willing to overlap wheels, especially if you are riding a tandem.
Around here drafting isn't much of an issue as we are the only tandem and it is reasonably hilly. On the ups we are trying to hang on and everywhere else it is the opposite.
The paceline/echelon talk here mostly pertains to single riding. I haven't found much need to force the issue with tandems as we don't go so intensely with others.
As far as road usage goes... Idaho, not so much as the big group rides are seldom. WA has more big group rides and when common sense allows usage of more than a couple feet of road then the echelon will string out more. In Colorado... the groups were so big we basically just took over 1/2 a lane or more regardless.
Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
The key when you're overlapping wheels, either in an echelon, or just a race/pack situation where you find a rider beside you is, is you can't do it just a little; you need to be overlapped to the point you can protect your front wheel, i.e. you're far enough up that you can use your elbow/ forearm to keep the other rider off your wheel.
Always protect your front wheel. So not overlapped at all, or enough that you can keep your wheel from being swept.
Excellent points. Though it is amazing how spooked many people get if you so much as reach out to touch them while riding or come within 2ft of their handlebars - a common communication practise in the racing crowd (and even the pros get it wrong as you often see on TV). I've tried demonstrating to people how easy and safe it can be, but have more or less given up.