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Best vehicle you’ve ever drafted?

  • This topic has 42 replies, 39 voices, and was last updated 12 years ago by SammitySam.
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  • May 30, 2014 at 9:08 pm #21570
    JackBuxton

    **This is all a bit of fun, I’m not exactly condoning it, as its not the brightest idea. We’ve all done it though!**

    On a long descent the other day i managed to tuck in behind a pretty tidy Aston Martin, and this got me wondering what the best car you’ve ever drafted was? (Would have been an expensive crash if he slammed on his brakes!) The best tow I’ve got was off of a UPS van that looked to be going way over the speed limit.

    Anyway, comment below! :H

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  • June 3, 2014 at 1:07 am #797097
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    700c

    I tend to get good tows from
    I tend to get good tows from tractors, esp on main roads where they’re fast with no harsh acceleration or braking.

    Lorries I’ve tried, but after one did something like an emergency stop on me, (he didn’t know I was there), I’ll never do it again..

    June 2, 2014 at 10:30 pm #797095
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    Redvee

    I used to ride before 7am and
    I used to ride before 7am and if I timed my departure right I could pick up the Park n Ride bus on it’s way out to the start of the journey, no stopping but only a short 1 mile stretch of drafting at 25 mph on my SS.
    There is a set of lights where I’ve pulled up behind HGVs or had them pass me on the approach to the lights knowing I can take advantage of the acceleration off the lights. Slow away from the lights and what felt like a relatively slow speed was infact 30+mph. When the HGV pulled away the dust etc kicked up soon hit me.

    June 2, 2014 at 10:07 pm #797093
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    giff77

    The #38 bus coming out of
    The #38 bus coming out of Paisley to my place. It’s not a mega climb but it still goes up. Jumped on leaving the high street and it was one of those occasions where it didn’t stop for about a mile. When the driver did pull in I had the gumption to swing out and it was like getting a sling shot as I was on the flat by that stage. Went shooting past the line of moving traffic in front of said bus and briefly taking in their faces of astonishment as I passed was a great experience.

    June 2, 2014 at 3:01 pm #797091
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    Some Fella

    Got behind a combine
    Got behind a combine harvester on a busy A road for a couple of miles on Sunday.
    Not fast by any means (about 20mph) but i only had to turn the pedals once on what would have been an otherwise very tedious and windy slog.
    Added bonus was that it held up traffic behind so didnt have to contend with cars whizzing past at 60mph.

    June 2, 2014 at 2:07 pm #797089
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    allezrider

    At Uni I used to draft pizza
    At Uni I used to draft pizza delivery mopeds – not a great tow but great fun knowing they were on a delivery deadline 👿

    June 2, 2014 at 1:01 pm #797087
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    mrmo

    got a tractor couple of weeks
    got a tractor couple of weeks back 7 miles at a nice comfy 27mph.( He did pull in at one point to let a couple of cars past, but he soon caught and past me again. )

    Tried to catch a truck this morning, he pulled away from the junction, I managed to get behind then spun upto 35mph and ran out of gears 🙁 bit of buffeting as I dropped back.

    Moral, I need bigger gears.

    June 2, 2014 at 11:50 am #797085
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    Daveyraveygravey

    What a refreshing change to
    What a refreshing change to read something about drafting and not have all the holier-than-thous coming on saying you shouldn’t do it, it’s dangerous, what if yadda yadda happened…

    I don’t draft as often as I used to, because I am an old git now and less confident of my abilities. I used to like tractors because they wouldn’t go much over 25 and that was enough for me. Buses are annoying because they stop too often and don’t seem to be able to modulate the brake pedal, and the exhaust is usually right there at the back. Lorries and vans can be trickier because they usually speed up outside of my spinning envelope and the break-off can be a fright.

    June 2, 2014 at 11:06 am #797083
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    stuke

    Empty brick lorry, got on the
    Empty brick lorry, got on the back of it in the 30 limit and off we went…

    June 2, 2014 at 10:36 am #797081
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    MKultra

    I live next to a council
    I live next to a council depot so on occasion I get to draft an old JCB telescopic handler. It’s like following a tank for 5 miles as you can tuck right in there out of harms way, no one messes with you at junctions either.

    June 2, 2014 at 10:10 am #797079
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    edster99

    Saturday I was behind an
    Saturday I was behind an agricultural unit – not exactly sure what I would call it – like a tractor but all four (very large) wheels are the same size and its main purpose is probably to drag machinery around, rather than be in the fields ploughing or whatever. It has a decent road gear that means it can travel at 30mph pulling a very large trailer / box thing that is about 10ft tall and wide. On a reasonably flat road, with not too much uphill, it is excellent for loads of draft although after about 2.5 miles my legs were beginning to burn. Fortunately it turned off at that point so I could pretend I would have been able to hold on for a bit longer 🙂

    June 2, 2014 at 8:38 am #797077
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    notfastenough

    A car trailer – one of those
    A car trailer – one of those very boxy things with the body mounted really low to the floor and carrying a sports car or whatever, with me just leiurely cruising along at 28mph.

    I think my fastest drafting though was on the chaingang. The clubrun was running a little late and a few guys needed to get back soonish, so rather than the scenic backroads back into Manchester, we took the dual carrigeway – A6 out near Buxton – there was about 12 of us absolutely flying on a slight downhill, and I looked to my right to see a car full of people gawping as they overtook us.

    June 2, 2014 at 8:21 am #797075
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    JohnnyRemo

    msw wrote:Hearses (empty I

    msw wrote:
    Hearses (empty I hasten to add).

    Probably not “empty” as hearses generally carry the coffin for their next “appointment” in the space under the one on view…

    June 2, 2014 at 6:09 am #797073
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    msw

    Hearses (empty I hasten to
    Hearses (empty I hasten to add). Shaped like a speed record pacing car and big windows so you can see right through, plus the drivers have a tendency to speed up and slow down very smoothly…

    June 1, 2014 at 6:16 pm #797071
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    Kapelmuur

    An elderly horse box emerging
    An elderly horse box emerging from the Cheshire County Show last year and making its asthmatic way up the gentle incline towards Pickmere.

    I averaged 20mph on a section I usually struggle to achieve 14mph.

    June 1, 2014 at 6:09 pm #797069
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    Ghedebrav

    crazy-legs wrote:I used to

    crazy-legs wrote:
    I used to draft lorries down the bypass. 3 mile dead straight road, ever so slightly downhill but to get onto it was a bit of a crawl over a bridge. If you could get behind a fully laden lorry as it came off the docks and crawled up that, you were onto a winner. The acceleration once it hit the summit was generally pretty steady and the road was limited to 50mph so they were never going full gas.

    No junctions, no lights, good surface meant it was dead easy to sit behind them until they hit the outskirts of town. Fastest I ever had was 57mph on the speedo, spinning out 53-12.

    Only once did I ever really shit it when I got dropped and the maelstrom of wind and turbulence that suddenly hit me at 50+mph was terrifying.

    I got between two lorries once – slipstreaming one while there was another one behind me (he wasn’t there when I started, he’d caught us up en route). I was really worried that if anything happened to me, the lorry behind would just go straight over me but it was all OK. As I swung out into the right hand lane once we were in town (the lorries went straight on in the left hand lane towards the motorway), the rearward truck came alongside me. I thought the driver was going to have a right go but instead he leaned out and shouted “you were doing 50 mile an hour then mate, f***ing well impressive! You should ride the Tour de France!”

    :-)

    Breaking Away, anyone?

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