- This topic has 20 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 10 months ago by
HalfWheeler.
-
CreatorTopic
-
September 24, 2014 at 8:57 pm #22454
davidnhill43
Can any roadies tell me the procedure for coming alongside a fellow competitor and touching his wheel, I was told years ago by guys who used to race that you should not come away too quickly or you will fall off your bike, has anyone had experience of this and how did you deal with it ?
-
CreatorTopic
-
AuthorReplies
-
Huw Watkins wrote:HalfWheeler
Huw Watkins wrote:HalfWheeler wrote:If you touch the wheel in front of you the likelihood is that you will crash.You will probably have no time to “deal with it”. You will hit the deck in the fraction of a second.
All the best ;-)
What rubbish.
The attempt not to use definitive words and all the caveats and qualifications have obviously passed you by but then people do tend to debate in binary language these days…
As for advising him to stay a foot from the wheel in front of him and try not to overlap, is that rubbish too?
Criteriums are one thing, club runs and chain gangs are quite another. What do you think the OP will experience first seen as how he’s new to road cycling?
Super Domestique
Super Domestique wrote:HalfWheeler wrote:
The trick is to stay at least a foot away from the back wheel of the rider in front of you. Also, don’t try and overlap (ie come alongside) the wheel in front of you. If you have to move to the side all of a sudden you will sideswipe the back wheel of the rider in front of you and crash.The superb irony of such wise advice coming from someone with the usename Halfwheeler was not wasted. Truly a lol moment. Thank you Sir!
Not that ironic. No point halfwheeling at the back of a bunch or behind the front two pair, is there?
53x11
As someone else said, you can
As someone else said, you can practice this, and if you race a lot, you probably should practice it. Regardless of what great advice you get here, your instincts in the moment will be wrong unless you’ve done it before. The point is to train your reactions. Coaches in my past have used a grassy velodrome infield for this, then graduated us to a hard surface. While you’re at it, do some bumping drills. None of this is a solo activity.Quiz: What is the most important reason to have your hands down in the hooks in tight traffic?
Answer: So that no one can hook your bars. If you’re on the brake hoods, you’re more exposed.JohnnyRemo
Jimmy Ray Will
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:JohnnyRemo wrote:Jimmy Ray Will wrote:Avoidance is the way forward… Two easy things you can do….
2. Stand up. If an overlap should happen and a wheel is coming across yours, simply stand up out of the saddle. This will shift your front wheel quickly 10 – 20cm back, which will often help you avoid the overlap.
…but very probably take off the rider behind you…
Potentially…. but;
1. Rather them than you hey?
2. Do nothing, fall off and you’ll definitely take the dude behind you off
No – do not do that manoeuvre. Point is you have to trust the guys around you and *no-one* should be making sudden, unexpected, significant moves in a peloton. Sometimes you will touch a wheel and then it’s pretty much down to luck whether or not you manage to stay upright (happens to the Pros – so gonna happen to you/me)
Must be Mad
Never touched a wheel
Never touched a wheel yet.
However I do tend to have an ‘escape route’ planned (to the left or to the right) in case the rider in front slows unexpectedly – better to overlap for a moment than to cause a crash.If I don’t totally trust the rider in front, I’ll stay a few centimeters further back, and if the rider in front is being erratic, then rather than position myself directly behind then, I move slightly to the left or right, so my wheel will miss theirs when they slow.
Also think about the road surface, if it full of potholes or road furniture then bikes will be moving around more.
Jimmy Ray Will
JohnnyRemo wrote:Jimmy Ray
JohnnyRemo wrote:Jimmy Ray Will wrote:Avoidance is the way forward… Two easy things you can do….
2. Stand up. If an overlap should happen and a wheel is coming across yours, simply stand up out of the saddle. This will shift your front wheel quickly 10 – 20cm back, which will often help you avoid the overlap.
…but very probably take off the rider behind you…
Potentially…. but;
1. Rather them than you hey?
2. Do nothing, fall off and you’ll definitely take the dude behind you off
Jimmy Ray Will
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:Avoidance is the way forward… Two easy things you can do….
2. Stand up. If an overlap should happen and a wheel is coming across yours, simply stand up out of the saddle. This will shift your front wheel quickly 10 – 20cm back, which will often help you avoid the overlap.
…but very probably take off the rider behind you…
Huw Watkins
HalfWheeler wrote:If you
HalfWheeler wrote:If you touch the wheel in front of you the likelihood is that you will crash.You will probably have no time to “deal with it”. You will hit the deck in the fraction of a second.
All the best ;-)
What rubbish.
Wheel touches are obviously to be avoided but they do happen and not all of them – or even most of them – result in a crash.
They’re not uncommon in the last few laps of crits when it can get a bit squeaky in the lead up to a bunch sprint.
Hold your nerve and don’t panic. Move away gently and not too far – don’t over compensate
Super Domestique
HalfWheeler wrote:
The trickHalfWheeler wrote:
The trick is to stay at least a foot away from the back wheel of the rider in front of you. Also, don’t try and overlap (ie come alongside) the wheel in front of you. If you have to move to the side all of a sudden you will sideswipe the back wheel of the rider in front of you and crash.The superb irony of such wise advice coming from someone with the usename Halfwheeler was not wasted. Truly a lol moment. Thank you Sir!
OldRidgeback
In BMX racing wheel touches
In BMX racing wheel touches are pretty common, along with elbows and bars banging together. If you stay on, good.If you touch the wheel in
If you touch the wheel in front of you the likelihood is that you will crash.You will probably have no time to “deal with it”. You will hit the deck in the fraction of a second.
I’ve seen wheel touches three times this year in my local chain gang. First time was just a tyre buzz, luckily nothing happened. The next two times both riders went down. At 25mph. Not nice.
The trick is to stay at least a foot away from the back wheel of the rider in front of you. Also, don’t try and overlap (ie come alongside) the wheel in front of you. If you have to move to the side all of a sudden you will sideswipe the back wheel of the rider in front of you and crash.
And try and read the road in front of the bunch; is there anything ahead that might make the bunch brake suddenly? Riding in a bunch is constantly looking at the wheel ahead of you and then looking at the road ahead of you, back and forth, back and forth all the time.
If you want to learn how to ride in a bunch then join a club. Go out on Sunday runs, learn basic road etiquette and skills. Then after a few months start going out on training runs with a local chain gang. You will be pushed, prodded and shouted at but don’t take it the wrong way, road cycling can be risky and they’re just making sure you’re learning how to ride safely and not be a danger to the group and crucially to yourself.
All the best 😉
Thanks for your comments
Thanks for your comments lads, it seems to be a subject that we don’t hear much about, but something that could happen to any of us when you are surrounded by other ridersKirinChris
I think the advice is
I think the advice is probably correct but the chances of putting it into practice are small to zero.If you touch wheels it’s probably because you are going one way and he is going the other. Then you’re going down.
This is something you can
This is something you can practice… with a trusting mate. Just rub wheels a bit and see what happens.The worst thing to do is panic. If you turn away from the wheel, the chance is that you are going to fall off, as you are unbalancing yourself… i.e. the fact you are going into the wheel ahead is because you need to move your wheel to where the wheel in front is in order to maintain balance.
You have to push into the wheel you are overlapping so that you can shift your centre of balance away from the rider in front. This is not simple to do, but bloody mindedness can get you a long way. I had someone hit my wheel once… he resisted the crash, but in doing so buckled his wheel so badly that he couldn’t continue the ride.
I’ve also done it on a MTB once… it was my superlight front wheel and an accident was not avoided… on that occasion because I pushed so hard against the wheel in front I pulled the spokes out of the rim and the wheel collapsed.
Ho hum.
Avoidance is the way forward… Two easy things you can do….
1. Avoid overlapping wheels in front… simples. Just don’t do it, its avoidable in 95% of situations. Either give up some ground, or move further up alongside the rider in front. If you find yourself in a group and your wheel is overlapping, ease back a bit so that its not.
2. Stand up. If an overlap should happen and a wheel is coming across yours, simply stand up out of the saddle. This will shift your front wheel quickly 10 – 20cm back, which will often help you avoid the overlap.
SideBurn
As above; if you hit the
As above; if you hit the wheel of the rider in front you will go straight to the scene of the accident, wheras the person in front will be OK.
However if you turn into their wheel the friction between your tyre and theirs will slow you down suficiently to un-overlap the wheel in front.
Unless you do this instinctively then ouch….
If you watch people in a professional bunch; if they are likely to hit another rider they seem to lean onto them. Not try to avoid them. This seems to cause the other rider to crash! (Wallonie Grand Prix recently, for example). How you practice the above manouvers…. dunno -
AuthorReplies
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.