kostyap

I mostly riding alone or with my friend. When we ride with my friend we keep well apart because both of us feel that there is some cheating involved in it. My friend is faster then me (well on flats and downhills at least) but when I tried to draft him he was working hard and I felt like I'm resting. Fun of riding immediately disappeared since I was too busy watching his wheel. When I ride alone I like chasing down the guys who pass me but if I am able to keep up I am still trying to be well behind to avoid drafting.

What do you people think about drafting? Does it take away all the fun because of the all the concentration involved?

Tristan86

On a group ride or race of course, if you want to survive you do. On a training ride with my brother or some friends usually not to much, unless we hit a nice stretch of road and want to haul for a little while.

GP

No, you get used to it.

You have to be willing to take your turn at the front also.

patentcad

And the next level of road cycling sophistication is learning how to look like you're taking turns at the front, but actually suck wheel the whole ride. But that's a lesson for another day Grasshopper.

DanielS

Yes, in a race or group ride, of course. If I didn't I wouldn't keep up.

If you're only riding with one other person its nicer riding side by side because you can have a conversation. But it can be fun to run a little paceline, hammering along and sharing the workload. If you're going hard enough then you'll be very thankful when its your turn to sit in the draft!

bdcheung

When we do our all-team rides at a zone-2 pace, I draft. Why? Because sitting in the draft of a Cat-2, I'm at Z2, while he's chugging along in Z2 at 22mph.

fauxto nick

Get comfortable drafting if you want to ride with the fastest groups in your community. The typical Saturday ride I do barely gets my heart going if I draft the whole way but if I pull I get a great work out. Then on the harder ride I go on I barely can make it drafting the whole time, do I prefer being at the front of the pack pulling, of course! The fact is drafting is part of riding in a group, it's the reason a group can ride so much faster than a solo rider.

kostyap

LOL. Since I'm not drafting I'm always "at the front"

Reynolds 

I think drafting is an integral part of road cycling.

dmb2786

if you're not drafting, ride harder. you'll figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5CfRsmtQ44

varsity

I think there's a time and place for drafting, like other guys have already noted in this thread; that is, in a ride which is faster than you're comfortable with or a very long distance, then drafting is necessary. But other times, drafting can be pretty obnoxious.

An example: I ride in totally unsanctioned, midnight street races with a few of my friends. Usually it's a crowd of 20-30 people on fixed-gears, but since the competition at the front gets pretty fierce, I usually ride my road bike (yes, that makes me THAT guy) so that I have some semblance of a fighting chance of finishing toward the top. One of my friends is a totally unrepentant drafter who sucks wheels shamelessly during the entire race, moving up in position from rider to rider, then pulls out literally a block from the finish line to sprint ahead of any of us who had been pulling our own during the ride.

Some would say that my friend is being obnoxious. Some would say that he doesn't appreciate the essence of cycling in groups, or of being a part of a fast-moving peloton. But I don't care. These are races where the winner gets a bar tab and nobody ever remembers who comes in second; it doesn't matter to me that my friend drafts the whole time. Just a point.

skinnyone

I dont draft random people unless if at a race.

kostyap

I do not race but if I was that would be something like time trials where drafting is prohibited and where the race won on strength/endurance rather then some clever tactics.

brianappleby

If you and your friend draft each other, you work hard then rest, and you go faster overall.

Faster = more fun. to me.

ericm979

Since I race I have to work on my drafting skills, there's no choice unless I only want to do time trials, and they don't run many uphill time trials around here.

But even on centuries that I'm riding with friends, not particularly caring how fast we go, we'll take turns pulling on the flat or rolling hills parts of the ride. It makes the boring flat parts go by faster and it gives you something to think about. If you do it right it's a way to let riders of somewhat different conditioning or levels of tiredness ride together (the stronger rider takes longer pulls). If you're with experienced riders they'll know what to do and when to do it without talking about it... it just happens.

It does take concentration, especially when you are just starting. My two bad crashes have happened in drafting or pack riding situations. I am still leery of getting too close to riders I don't know. I am getting better at recognizing riders that are liable to use their brakes or swerve suddenly and keep extra distance from them.

But overall I think it's an important skill even if you don't race. Being part of a smoothly running paceline is magic.

There's been loads of stuff written on drafting (it's covered at length in most racing books) for good reason- it's hard. But with practice you can get good at it.

rizz

You know how to draft, now you need to learn how to race. So do all the others that aren't the one wheel sucking.

Draft and pull, it's all part of the sport.

pdedes

i've drafted and been drafted.

Peter

kostyap

Faster is more fun, I agree but I still like to do it on my own. So far I'm making slow but steady progress in regards to speed and it is fun on it's own

kostyap

I like riding with the person or 2 at most but I absolutely hate riding with the pack I think.

StephenH

I don't. Not used to it, doesn't seem natural. The fact that nobody else rides slow enough for me to draft is irrelevant.

I've got nothing against the practice as such. But it has always seemed odd to me how accepted it is among cyclists in general.

Val23708

if you need to bring ur HR up, you can let up on the draft. you can modulate how close you are to the rider in front of you to get the appropriate amount of draft.

Shoalwater

i drafted for 10 miles in a group ride yesterday until i got dropped, then i had the opportunity to ride alone for the next 20 miles, behind the rabbits and ahead of the next group...........lol...........i wasn't the first dropped however which was an improvement from the previous week.

later.

Brian Ratliff

With two people, if there is room, it's best to ride side by side. If you have to ride in line, then trade off with the pulls. In a group, well, it's not a group unless a person or two or three is pulling and the rest are drafting.

Drafting has been part of road cycling since the first races - it's that important. Once you learn the skill, it comes with absolutely no effort and it's quite automatic to ride within inches of the guy ahead of you.

Here's a great article on the subject written by one of my teammates.

RudeSiggy

The faster the ride, the more I draft.

The slower the ride, the more I shoot the sh*t with the guys next to me.

If it's a sprint, I'm in the draft! I'm always tucked in behind my best riding pal, a 6-3 dude that can crank it up to the mid-30s on his own. He knows the drill. He gets into good position, and I'll find his wheel one way or another.

He races more than I do, so there have been plenty of Monday/Tuesday recovery rides where he sucks my wheel for a good 90% of our ride.

EventServices

No offense, but this post is without a doubt the strangest thing I've ever read on BF. Maybe it's just strange in its innocence.

If, while riding with another person, you've ever wanted to maximize your efficiency, then taking advantage of the synergistic nature of drafting is the sugar in the candy of cycling.