I was riding on the tow path into Philly with a friend, planning to meet a thrid rider half way there. Well, we are crusing at about 20mph as we see two guys coming toward us in what appeared to be a small pace line. The next thing we know, the guy in front goes down and the guy behind him falls on top. As I speak I still have no idea how I didn’t run over his arm as it sprawled across the path.
When we turned back it turned out that they weren’t pacelining at all. The guy in front was the person we were meeting. The guy behind had decided on his own to suck onto his wheel without telling anyone. Our friend decided to slowdown, not knowing there was anyone behind, and a crash ensued.
To be fair, my friend is often not very aware of his surroundings when he rides, so I will lay part of the blame on him. But I think that only exemplifies the danger of wheel sucking…you have know idea what kind of rider you are following.
I don’t normally have a problem with someone catching a draft, but at the very least I think they should alert you of their presence. Shortly after that someone jumped onto my wheel and hung there for 8 miles. I only knew he was there because I have the habit of glancing over my shoulder occasionaly while I ride.
Sorry about your friend’s luck. Yeah - I am usually turning around a lot, mainly to see if there is any traffic before I move to the center of the road to avoid a house where I know a dog exists - which is about every damn house I ride by. No wheel suckers lately though, come to think of it I can’t ever remember this happening to me outside of a race.
that path isn’t somewhere that you can count on keeping a constant pace anyway.
i get a fair number of wheel suckers there, sometimes it’s fine - like when they’ve established some eye contact first. but that path has some significant hazards (kids, entire families, etc.). to just hop on someone’s wheel there without them knowing is crazy and reckless.
I am a local to the Philly bike scene and I am very wary of the bike path out to Valley Forge Park. Altough its something of a drag I have found it better to stay in side on a compu trainer in the Philly aera and leave the Delaware Valley to do my outside training. The Tupper Lake and Lake Placid Tri courses offer really good roads with a do able amount of car traffic, but other bikers in Philly are a great danger to each other and should be avoided. Of course the Philly bike paths are a lot better in the winter when only a few of the die hards are out there, but on nice summer days beware. Tim
That sucks. In Albuquerque a few weeks ago, we were riding on some path. I turned back because I knew my wife was wheel sucking me, but there were 6 others on her wheel. I knew one was there, but not the other 5. Kind of scary to think of the pile up that could have caused. Hope your friend is ok.
It’s not impossible, but it’s very difficult for a rider behind to take down one in front. My guess would be that your friend went down for reasons unrelated to the wheelsucker, and that the wheelsucker crashed into your friend, thus the wheelsucker got what he deserved if his presence was unannounced or unwanted.
There is nothing inherently wrong or evil about riding someone’s wheel, in fact, it’s a skill that all serious riders should develop. What is wrong is not asking and/or alerting the rider being followed.
I’ve probably logged 1500 miles on that path over the last year and never had a single incident or even close call (knock-on-wood). Yeah, I’ve had to slow down and carefully pass families, but I’ll take that over traffic lights and/or motor vehicles any day.
From everything that I have understood about wheel sucking and from what I have personally seen happen in group rides. It is never the front guy that crashes if someone clips his rear tire or bumps into him. It has always been 100% of the time from my experience that the guy in the back goes down not the front guy. So it might have been something else. Not saying that it is impossible as Nigel has stated but yes he should have asked to suck his wheel.
I have been asked several time and normally just adjust my speed a bit higher to shot them out the back. I just hate knowing that someone is right there when I am out riding on my own. Totally different when I am with a group but I hardly do group rides any longer after too many bad experiences with the group in my area (guys in aerobars mid pack, double pace lines in heavy traffic, weaving side to side).