So is wheelsucking strangers on a commute wrong? Do you do it yourself? Do you see people doing it on you? How does it make you feel? I've found myself doing it more and more often as it does make things a little bit easier when you need it the most.

It's dangerous and rude.

Tight riding requires some skill on both riders' part, no way to know if a stranger has that skill...

We've had this discussion before, but I think it's been a while.

I think it's definitely wrong. You just don't know what kind of riding style the person you're following has. They might be the kind of person who brakes suddenly for no apparent reason, in which case you've got a pretty good chance of crashing into them. More to the point, I think it makes a lot of people, particularly people who are uneasy riding on streets to begin with, uncomfortable.

If I'm not going fast enough to zip past another bicyclist, I try to stay at least 15 feet behind them. Even then, I frequently find people riding in a way that makes me believe that they want me to pass them (slowing down, frequently glancing at me over their shoulder, etc.), in which case I'll put in a little extra effort to oblige.

I don't really mind when someone else gets on my wheel, but I do appreciate it if they at least say hello.

Never done it myself, and never would. Never even seen it done on my commute. I would not like it if it were done on me, but then again I'm not sure who'd want to be puttering along at 20 km/h behind me anyway.

nope, never

depends on how close you are. overlapped wheels? 6 inches behind? six feet behind? sixteen feet? sixty feet?

the guy in the pic is too close for most people i would imagine. it wouldn't bother me though. a guy followed me for a couple of miles right on the wheel today. meh...

it does not bother me if someone does it to me. If he laps my rear wheel he is the one going down. I generally don't do it and try to pass with a "70 year old passing on your left" to let them know. If I don't want to pass I fall back out of the draft.

Keep in mind that unless that stranger specifically OKs you riding in his draft, he has absolutely no obligation to ride smoothly, nicely or with your safety in mind. I haven't looked at the laws of other states, but Oregon subjects bikes to the same laws and obligations as cars with specific exceptions. Tailgating is not one of them. A judge is going to have little sympathy if he hears you were operating your vehicle 24" behind another.

And as a fix gear rider, I really don't like others drafting me without telling me. I've ridden fix gears for decades. It's like walking. If I am approaching a turn, I know I have to hit the apex slower than a geared bike so I don't scrape the pedal. So I often simple do a quick back-pressure on a pedal stroke. Bleeds just enough speed to keep my pedal off the pavement if I am not going too fast. Now I never do this riding in company. But alone? It's fun. Years ago I was riding through a park in Seattle on my early season commute. Did this going into a right angle turn on the path and heard a huge commotion behind me. The rider I had seen oh, 50 yards back had caught up and was drafting me. He didn't crash, but his serenity was blown out of the water. Now in Portland, I am waiting for the day when a brakeless fixie does this and I hit the brakes. I'm hoping I don't crash. They certainly will.

Ben

I don't do it unless I'm waiting for a safe moment to pass, but even then I try to hang back.

In the US we call that "drafting". I generally ride too slow on the MUPs for anybody to want to draft me.

I ride faster on the streets, but nobody drafts me there - too much going on.

Only time it bothers me is if someone has lights casting a shadow in front of me. Told a guy a couple nights ago that I didn't mind as long as he turned his light off or aimed it down. Dropped him pretty soon after that though. Otherwise, it doesn't bother me in the least. This is on MUPs, and not streets.

Actually, I have been drafted once. It was my coworker, who wanted to take it easy on his evening commute (we live in the same neighborhood), because he trains for racing with a cycling team, so it would be counterproductive to ride hard on every commute ride. I didn't mind at all, because if the roles were reversed, I'm sure I would have died. I can't keep up with his true average speed, let alone his top speed.

Has happened once or twice in 8 yrs of riding. Gives me a little motivation to ride harder. I had a conversation after a hard pull with one guy who turned out to be a parent of one of my son's classmates. I don't ride differently when someones on my wheel so it doesn't bother me.

I think it's mostly an issue in people's imagination as it doesn't happen very often and if it does it takes zero effort to strike up a conversation and sort out whether you want someone on your wheel or not.

Only a total langer wheelsucks a stranger, but fortunately its rare, and easily solved, therefore not a big deal.

And communication! You really have to know a lot about the people you're drafting off.

I think that depends how you define "strangers." My commute takes me over the same roads at the same time every day. I know who's on the roads. If there was someone whom I could draft, I'd know him/her. If I'd never seen him/her before, I'd introduce myself.
No, there's no one there for me to draft.
No, there's no one there to draft me.
Lonely.
I think as long as you're cheerful and friendly, and make sure the other person is cool with the situation, it's all good.

So mostly a negative thing. If I'm being honest I don't like when someone else does it to me either. It does make me a litle bit uncomfortable. I better stop doing it myself then.

I've never had it done to me on a commute. Of course my commute is mainly downhill on the way in, and uphill on the way home. There is no reason to draft on a downhill... not much pedaling required. Uphill, well at a peak of 13mph on the climb, I'm not sure anyone is benefitting by staying on the back wheel. When I commute with my e-bike, I maintain 20mph on the uphill. You're welcome to stay on my back wheel if you would like as we zip past the roadies. (However, I don't think you can keep up)

I do it when people pass me and then go exactly my speed 5' in front of me

Or worse, slows down as a string of cars comes past.

FWIW, I wish there were more bicycle commuters around here so the whole "drafting strangers" thing could become a real problem!

I've only had this happen to me once. In all honesty, it made me uncomfortable. Not because I was afraid that he would hit me or anything, but more so that I pissed him off and he was angry that I passed him. It was on my relatively short 5 mile commute, down a long and straight road that's probably a mile long. I passed him on the slight uphill leading to the long straight road. I then proceeded at my normal speed after I was a good 30 yards in front of him. I was probably going 20 MPH at the time. (I tend to fly on my short commute.) Half-way through the road, a car comes up behind me and I see two shadows instead of just my own. (It was dawn, he didn't have a light, the car did.) I look back and the guy is right behind me, drafting me. So, thinking that maybe he was mad that I passed him and he wanted to go faster, I picked up the pace. I probably ended up at 25 MPH or so at the end of the road. Luckily he went left and I went right. If he would have said something, I wouldn't have cared, but because he didn't say anything, it made me uncomfortable. I don't often have people keeping up with me on my commute so seeing him was a bit of a surprise.

Ok, I don't even get why someone would even want to draft on a commute. When I'm on my way home after a long day, the *last* thing I want to do is have my breastbone kissing my top tube while I kill myself trying to get a KOM or something. No. Commuting to or from work is for watching the foliage, smelling the flora, or dreaming up shenanigans. If I want to kill myself, I'll do it on a weekend, tyvm.

Killing myself= at work

bike riding= reviving the dead me lol

Interesting, I think that answered a question I've had for years. The Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis is very busy, you'll like end up riding somebody's wheel because of the amount of traffic. A few years ago, I was at the same pace as a rider on a fixie. I was on his wheel, but not as close as the photo in the OP. After a 1/2 mile he made an irritated comment and I wasn't sure if he didn't like wheel-suckers in general, or the fact that an old man on a city bike was keeping pace with him... But I apologized and passed him.

After that, I've never held a strangers wheel.

On the other hand, I've had a good number of riders jump on my wheel. I've gotten to know one of them since we have overlapping commuting routes. He likes the days when I get stopped at a light, 'cause on my daily commuter I'm fast and he enjoys the higher speed with less effort. I'm riding this pace with or without him, so no skin off my nose.