Originally Posted by
Lanterne Rogue
If you race, then you must become skilled at riding in a paceline.
If you don't race, then you are stupid to ride in a paceline.
In my experience, pacelines are the No. 1 cause of preventable bike accidents. Too often you are entrusting your life, or at least your clavicle, to a relative stranger going 25 mph less than a foot from your tire. You wouldn't do that in a car -- why do it on a fragile two-wheeler with no safety equipment? The point of a paceline is to go faster with less effort. But why are you riding a bike? Isn't it for fitness? Do your own work and reap the physical and mental benefits of independent achievement. Being a mooch sucks.
My goal of riding a bike is not to not get into an accident. Yes, it is probably the leading cause of bike accidents. At some point, you shouldn't care. It's a sport. It's about extending your body. My goal in riding a bike is to go faster. Riding with a group, learning to go fast with a group, is part of bike riding for me. For your point about fitness, some of the hardest rides I've done have involved pacelines. The objective of staying with the paceline and contributing to pace pushes you more than simply plodding along alone. Yes, I race. Yes, I was riding in pace lines long before I was racing.
You don't like riding in groups. Good on you. You're the guy who walks up to a bar, orders a glass of water and preaches to everyone within earshot about how awful drinking is for you. Put kindly, a downer. The goal of my life is not to not die. I like building things, including my body and my motor skills, and if that entails a little more risk than planting my ass on the couch, so be it.
PS: you talk about driving... my driving skills have improved dramatically since I started racing six years ago. Just say'n.
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Cat 2 Track, Cat 3 Road.
"If you’re new enough [to racing] that you would ask such question, then i would hazard a guess that if you just made up a workout that sounded hard to do, and did it, you’d probably get faster." --
the tiniest sprinter