newbojeff

1+ on the mirror. As someone else recently posted elsewhere here, it is a more important piece of safety equipment than my helmet.

I draft riders unknown to me all the time, but my commute takes me mainly out suburban roads that frequently have roadies on their way out of Boston. I always ask if I can draft. If someone comes up behind me and doesn't have the good sense to announce that they're going to draft off, I do not let them. I tell them that I'm slowing and let them by. If we're approaching a sketchy intersection -- one rotary comes to mind -- I break off the draft well before we get there.

(An aside, thanks to the guy wearing the Northeastern kit last week, who pulled me to a BBQ at 25 mph. You probably saved my marriage).

Part of my commute is on a MUP. My general behavior there is paranoid: stay well away from everything.

randya

you're the king/queen of speculation, ain'tcha?

bmclaughlin807

Negative... on a MUP bike riders have to yield to pedestrians... Which the OP did. The person financially responsible is the person that rear ended the OP.

Maintaining a safe following distance that will allow you to stop is not just 'a good idea', 'common sense', or courtesy... it's the law. If you rear end another vehicle you're almost always responsible (The only exception that I know of being someone that cuts you off and then slams the brakes)

And leaving the scene of an accident is a separate crime in and of itself.

noteon 

No, it's not acceptable behavior. Safety issues aside, drafting commuters is at about the same general rudeness level as farting in elevators.

cooker

Not if he saw the kid at the same time the OP did and braked immediately too.

apricissimus 

Jeez, are you following me now?

The OP didn't even realize that the guy was behind him, so I bring up the possibility that gaps can close fast when someone slams on their brakes.

Next time I'll conduct a full investigation and clear it by you before I post.

DataJunkie

You should also run any opinion by a random yet ethnically diverse group of your peers to seek approval for said opinion.

MrCjolsen

Wheelsucking is wheelsucking. Not cool, especially if someone does it after overtaking the person who's wheels they suck. In other words, I don't mind if someone I pass hops on my wheel for a ride. But when someone comes up behind me, then if they think they're so fast, they need to pass me. Ideally they take the front and then get behind me.

unkchunk

I don't particularly like being drafted either. And my way of dealing with the problem is to ride toward every pot hole, road debris or rock I can see and just skirt the edge of it. The drafting rider, having his field of view obscured by my big fat ass won't be able to see until... well, until after he hits the pothole, broken glass or whatever. My personal favorite are the concrete spills that have hardened on the road and sometimes have these little two inch gaps that I can easily line up and ride through with no problem. But you have to see em to not hit em. The moral of the story is the lead rider has all the power.

taliesin

It would be nice to commute in a pace line though...

vtjim

+1

GV27

+2

I don't see anything wrong with drafting whatsoever. 90% of the risk is taken by the rider behind. I'm careful who I draft but anybody can draft me all day long - it helps both of us. Yeah, the rider behind gets more benefit but the rider in front gets a considerable aero benefit as well.

It's pretty common for me to trade pulls with a roadie on the way home.

Indie

I have a mirror. Maybe I need a convex mirror, because the flat mirror doesn't show me a very large cone of what's behind me.

Febs

Yeah, that's a much better solution than simply asking the person not to draft you.

tyburr

Things I've learned since posting this yesterday:

It's time to get a mirror.
Maybe the guy wasn't drafting in the clinical sense but he was still way too close.
I'm willing to try Comm Ave now that it's not Beirut.

Thanks all -- much appreciated.

lil brown bat

Yeah, do give it a try -- it's fast and fun!

JHarris

I'll second avoiding the MUP around the Charles (both Storrow and Memorial sides). It gets too congested to really ride safely on. Combine joggers wearing headphones, couples walking the entire width of the path, fast cyclists, slow cyclists, and a host of oblivious people moving in two directions on the MUP and the road begins to become a much safer environment IMO.

I find it easier to act like a car than to figure out if the jogger I'm about to pass after yelling "On your left" actually hears me over the music blaring from his headphones. Then add in the guess work if he'll step out in front of me during said passing maneuver. I had that exact scenario happen to me a few years back. It's my nastiest crash to date and nearly resulted in a torn ligament in my knee. All because the guy didn't look over his shoulder before stepping from the right side of the path to the left...

cooker

Highly unlikely. It works for stock cars because they are boxy and their bodies can get very close so the trailing car pushes some air forward against the lead car. However, cyclists' bodies aren't likely to push air far enough forward to backfill another cyclist's vaccuum.

EDIT: I googled for data on this but couldn't find any. There is a claim that the front cyclist benefits on a site called exploratorium.edu, but no data.

gronk40

I am working on it ... and I am rarely surprised, but sometimes I am. I will research the mirror option.

BroadSTPhilly

Maybe I will finally install my mirror after reading this thread. It's reading stuff like this that makes me glad that I live in one of the fattest cities in the country. I ride on the Wissahickon trail parallel to Lincoln Drive and on the Kelly drive path in the moring and there are not a lot of people out there. Certainly no one has ever drafted me. Do any of you take different routes in the afternoon vs. the morning because of MUP traffic? I take Broad Street home even when I take the MUP in because I don't want to deal with afternoon MUP traffic.

chipcom 

Try a glasses mounted mirror like the Take-a-Look...you can scan big swaths of area all around you by just moving your head. Indeed, to check for people coming up from behind just takes a flick of the eye.

2manybikes

Objects in mirror are stupider than they appear.

noteon 

You guys have me rethinking the mirror issue. I tried a helmet-mounted one a few years ago and couldn't deal with it--don't remember why. Thanks for the nudge.

DataJunkie

I just found my take a look I purchased last april after being hit by a car. Rode with it this morning. It seems to help but it is going to take some getting used to. That and I think I have the more compact variety.

kbblodorn

It's rude to fart in elevators? That's usually how I mask the smell of my cycling clothes on the way out in the evening!