Swerving is condemned?
 

What's the rule on swerving to avoid monstrous potholes?

The weather was great, so I went for a ride.

Along the path, I saw a deep pothole pretty close in front of me, so I jerked left to avoid it, and the guy behind me, some self-righteous ******* on a Caad 9, yells "hold your line!"

I mean- he wasn't even following that closely. I think I have the high ground on this one..

you signal that there is a huge pothole coming up, then swerve.

Did you need to jerk the bike? Or could you have made a smooth line change?

If he didn't announce that he was coming up on you, it's his job to give you room and assume that you might make sudden movements. You should try to pay attention to what's around you, and see the pothole early enough that you don't have to make sudden movements. You're probably both somewhat at fault, but it doesn't really matter because nobody crashed.

He just wanted to yell to sound important like a racer dude. But the fact that he was riding on a bike path pretty much negates any cool biker dude status that he may have had.

I kind of needed to jerk real fast.
I'm also not into yelling stuff when I'm on the bike.

You should've told him to hold it for ya.

Wait, are you saying you were riding in a paceline on a PATH, or there was a pothole in your path on the ROAD? If the first is true, nobody had any right to yell at anybody.

If you've got someone behind you, and that person is with you in some way (a club member, a friend, etc.), it is your responsibility to signal any moves that take you out of a straight line, or any times you need to slow down. It is also your responsibility to indicate any hazards.

First of all, if you had to swerve, you weren't looking. You should be able to see the pothole and as you slowly move over a little, point at it.

If the pothole is not that big, just ride over it, it won't hurt you or your bike. Or just unweight your bike, a semi bunny-hop as you go over it.

Now I will rant about the idiots that swerve wildly at the slightest imperfection in the road because they don't want to hurt their precious little bikes.

The First Rule:

Thou shalt not rideth road bikes on paths.

Club, group ride, or race? Yes, you have a duty to your fellow riders to call out hazards or, at a minimum, be smooth in avoiding them.

Some random schmoe on a MUP who happens to be behind you? Nope. Every man for himself.

And while you're at it, learn to bunnyhop.

No, no...this was along the lakefront bike "path." Sort of like a road, but much ****tier. He had nothing to do with me. I don't do no wussy group rides.

I sort of knew there was someone behind me from the panting but I couldn't really tell how far behind, since he seemed to catch up and fall back periodically...

I also couldn't tell if it was a small or big hole until it was too late.

I think if I were on my old aluminum bike, I wouldn't have cared, but the Madone deserves to be handled with a gentleman's touch.

Mirrors are handy for seeing where people are behind you. I really like my bar-end mirror for that.

In that case; F the guy behind you.

The Second Rule:

Thou shalt not place any graven mirrors on thy road bikes

How would you react if you were the rider behind and some self-righteous ****** on a CAAD 9 swerved in front of you? You were lucky that he wasn't passing at that moment.

If I were the rider behind I would let the rider know that I was about to overtake on the left, then I would not have to worry about sudden movements from the rider in front.

He was just kind of tailing me. If I'd known he were really close (which I still don't think he was), I probably would've just slowed down to let him pass. I don't know, really. If that happened to me, I would be annoyed, but I still probably wouldn't say anything. That's just not how I roll.

I've noticed guys on Caad9's are usually more confrontational.

**** him. If he was drafting you without letting you know, then it's his own damn fault.

If I was the guy behind, I'd probably think that I'd been following too closely and consider myself goddamn lucky that my stupidity hadn't caused a multi-bike accident...

Dr. Phil mode on.

It sounds like you scared him out of his daydreaming. He blamed you rather than accept responsibility himself. Probably an only child.

Dr. Phil mode off.

If anyone truly thinks that total strangers riding in front of you need to call everything out or "hold their line" no matter what, then please do me a favor a stay the f*** away from me.

And no, I won't lighten up.

-Francis

Nice!

a bunnyhop would have been sweet in that case, btw.