- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Add new comment
93 comments
Drafting a truck on the way to work makes for a great ride in. Always fun to see the people riding on the left look up in surprise as you flash past.
This hardly ever happens since congestion in London is so bad, but on the rare occasions the road is free why not give it a try.
By the way you don't have to be as close as that, 10-15m will still give you a decent draft and not as scary.
I drop off the back if they go over 30 mph, I don't want to be smeared down the road if I hit a pothole.
Its this: http://youtu.be/Boo9llCz4CM
A Pan Galactic GargleBlaster is a drink (from the book, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
"Its effects are similar to having your brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick" (apparently)
"After two of those babies, the dullest, most by-the-book Vogon will be up on the bar in stilettos, yodeling mountain shanties and swearing he's the king of the Gray Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine"
Wise advise is to, "never drink more than two Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters unless you are a thirty ton mega elephant with bronchial pneumonia"
God I love those books! They were a four part trilogy of books (apparently)
Or was a trilogy in four parts? I cannot remember....
And absolutely f. all to do with this story.....
This is not the first one of these videos I've seen: a Dutch cyclist drafting at 85kph! http://youtu.be/lnYp4srEooI
Another at 49mph: http://youtu.be/bTLrp0JgZt0
I regularly used to draft buses around London but they started putting the exhaust at the back rather than on the side so its really not pleasant to do any more.
Back in the 60s, a clubmate of mine got behind a truck on the A38 in Staffordshire. Bowling along happily at about 35mph, the lorry passed over a fallen kipper box without touching it. Roger did not!
idiotic irresponsible and dangerous, reverse the situation and how many would be whining about being tailgated by the truck?
And I believe the government made tailgating illegal recently along with middle lane hoggers too so hes probably also breaking the law..
When I was young a man committed suicide under a lorry my father was driving, it was a simple size of lorry. I remember vividly how my father described the police hosing the road and putting the victims body parts into a bucket
Yeah, 90kg of cyclist bearing down on 10 tons of tipper truck is EXACTLY the same as 10 tons of tipper truck bearing down on 90kgs of cyclist.
Christ almighty.
I have to agree
Not read every post on here, but a quick look through, seems that most think this is ok, admit to having done it at some point.
I can't think of anyhting more idiotic TBH!
If that truck slams it brakes on for any reason, there is no way that rider could react quick enough. Or what if he was to suddenly swerve, or there was an object in the road that the lorry cleared..?
We get so many cyclist moaning about vehicles being too close to use when we're out, we're the first to moan about poor drivers, hundreds of us now run headcams to try cover ourselves should the worse happen.
Social media is full of drivers slagging off cyclists, moaning that we don't obey the law, pay some mythical thing called 'road tax'
If this was a lorry tailgating the cyclist you'd all be up in arms...so why is OK when the positions are reversed?
Just more fuel for the likes of Keith Peat & his anti-cycling clan to rant about
So
Yes because the laws of the roads only apply to certain vehicles dependent on their size and the damage they can cause....
good grief do all us cyclists a favour and stay off the roads if you dont know how to abide by the laws all of them.
Erm, yes actually. Hence speed limits don't apply to pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders amongst other things...
I'm really not sure why you are and the other posters are so dumb as to think that a ten ton tipper truck being deliberately driven behind a cyclist is the same as a cyclist drafting behind a truck. I'm genuinely baffled by it.
Think you're right - looks like going towards Irlam o'th Heights...I've seen that geezer on my commute. I ride the cycle path - he is too good for that so rides the busy dual carriageway, drafting off lorries, riding in the middle of the 2 lanes (it only goes to 3 lanes further down) when he's going slower than both lanes.
Where the M61 joins the East Lancs under the motorway bridge there is a lot of traffic changing lanes both ways, 1 on 1 filtering, and he sails down the middle of where cars are doing that!! When I'm in the car I don't wonder why people hate cyclists with arrogant people like him.
Safety first.
There is a vast difference to drafting a truck and being tailgated by one and comparing them is being overdramatic, to say the least.
If you seriously give any credence to Keith Peat and his alleged clan of followers, then you should know that you're pretty much one of the only people who does.
The guy is an impotent bellend. Dint make him out to be any other than that.
Hope he was honest on Strava! All done it, dangerous, yes, fun yes, life without any risk...boring! Also if he hits the truck, it is his fault! Better than being targeted by looney 'I pay road tax' (actually my new car is exempt, do I need to get it crushed now?) drivers!!
I don't give any credence to Keith Peat, the man is a complete cockwomble.
My point was that the likes of Keith Peat, and numerous other in the anti-cycling brigade, will use any tiny incident invloving a cyclist to fuel their arguements... and this video is exactly the sort of stuff they will make a meal out of
I don't give any credence to Keith Peat, the man is a complete cockwomble.
My point was that the likes of Keith Peat, and numerous other in the anti-cycling brigade, will use any tiny incident invloving a cyclist to fuel their arguements... and this video is exactly the sort of stuff they will make a meal out of
I think the rule 'anyone can do anything they want, as long as it does not adversely affect someone else' applies.
What few have grasped here is the impact on the driver if it goes wrong.. and if nothing else it's pretty rude if you haven't got permission beforehand, it would stress out many a driver I imagine.
By condemning this behaviour I realise I'll get branded as a 'hysterical wailing moronic banshee with my knickers in a twist' by some, (probably by the same people who themselves wail hysterically about the daily injustices visited upon them by dangerous motorists!)
But so be it - I'd rather be alive.
PS I have learned from experience how little time you have to react when a lorry you are drafting suddenly brakes - this is the main reason why I wouldn't do it again after I almost went under. The new Michelin pro3's I flat spotted probably saved me, TBH.
If you think he is a cockwomble and will use any tiny incident to fuel their arguments, then you must grasp that he is a reactionary fuckwit that is going to do that no matter what, and the best thing you can do is stop giving him any kind of credibility.
He has nothing to contribute to any dialogue that ever has, or may occur, so stop worrying about what his shitty opinion will be about anything.
There are young men out there who have never heard of a pan-galactic gargleblaster? Man, that makes me feel old.
Sadly, they need not necessarily be that young either.
Mad bloody tipper drivers. Likely to brake hard for no reason.
Bloody irresponsible of some people!
Did he not know that using a mobile phone while driving is illegal.
they dont apply to pedestrians and skateboarders because they are not vehicles on the road... and despite the fact that speed limits do not apply to bicycles, you can be prosecuted simply for cycling too fast - under the charge of 'cycling furiously', so nothing whatsoever to do with damage they cause nor size etc...
The only dumb thing about this discussion is thinking that the laws of the road dont apply to cyclists in the same manner they do other vehicles, but its that sort of attitude that leads to drivers thinking cyclists are self centred and ignorant, so well done for fostering such thoughts in other road users and generally making me and any other cyclist a little less safe because of your crap attitude towards the laws.
Not in the eyes of the law and idiot drivers who would use such behaviour as an excuse to treat other cyclists badly as its an example of a cyclist breaking the law...
The laws apply to us as equally as they do motorised vehicle drivers.
Depends whether you are arguing about law or morality, really. You can keep emphasising the law, but it doesn't change the previous posters point that there is a significant difference between the two cases from a moral point-of-view.
What occurs to me about this is that its unfortunate that the demographics of UK cycling mean two fundamentally unrelated issues get conflated in the public's mind.
One being cycling as a means of transport, the other being the (seemingly timeless) association between young(ish) men and risky behaviour and doing things to prove their technical skill to themselves and others.
I don't really have a strong opinion on the rights-and-wrongs of the latter (no clue even whether its social or genetic in origin), but its really a separate issue from transport policy.
Was on a club run back in the eighties and had just got my first Avocet computer. I got in behind an artic at the top of a long smooth dual carriageway descent; hit 67mph.
I was seventeen at the time. Foolish, irresponsible, dangerous, a twat! Yes.
One of the scariest, enjoyable, intense, visceral, memorable moments of my life; absolutely!
I doubt there are very few on here who haven't ever done this.
This.
Potholes, ruts in the tarmac, exposed/sunken ironwork... they all ruin drafting. Even on roads where you know the pothole "layout" like the back of your hand, it can be difficult to judge exactly where you are in relation to the next one and you only get so many successful flicks/bunnyhops before you get caught.
Not when the two come together as in the example of this idiot, not only is he putting himself at risk but those around him too of emotional harm, its not only a matter of the law but also morality that you are responsible not just for yourself but those around you. This idiot crashes and hits any of the vehicles around him, who suffers emotionally, because he wanted to participate in risky behaviour and prove his skills to others. There are places where you can go to participate in riskier behaviour that doesn't put members of the public at risk as this one does, he is an example of a selfish, irresponsible cyclist and he does a disservice to all responsible law abiding cyclists.
Bloody idiot what on earth does he think he is doing having fun on a bike! To make matters worse his bike isn't steel and there no brooks saddle!! He needs to understand that cycling is serious stuff!
Imagine thinking personal autonomy still exists in this day and age I mean the days of John Stuart Mill and all that liberty crap are well gone
Pages