Originally Posted by
genejockey
My problem is not the etiquette for impromptu drafting, but rather rolling up on someone on a downhill, or the flat, and KNOWING that rider will smoke me on the hill just up ahead. It seems rude to pass someone only to make them pass me again only quarter or half a mile later. But I also hate braking before a hill though I usually end up doing it. AND I stay far enough off their wheel, and to one side, so I'm not drafting at all. So, I hang out behind them, not drafting, often freewheeling, till we reach the base of the hill where they'll drop me.
I imagine it's annoying, grinding along and hearing someone freewheeling behind you, but I can't help being fat and having good hubs!
And then there are the fools who pass a tandem near the top of a hill. For those folks I do drope the hammer as we go over, and hope to never see them again. I don't mind draftees, but I dislike riding near idiots. We were once riding our tandem with a good friend, a very strong rider many years younger. We went of the top of a pass and told him to get on NOW but, overconfident, he didn't. Last time we saw him, he was about 15' behind us. Actually, at the bottom of the steep part of the pass we waited several minutes for him and then traded leads the rest of the way down.