Another etiquette question

[Eden]

I've done this in the past and now realize that it was rude. I was on a very hilly charity ride. The friend I was with could blast me up the hills, but I'd fly by him on the downhills. I just figured he'd easily dust me on the next hill.

Really its all about expectations - if you and your friend were OK with that arrangement with it then why should it have been rude? If I were riding with one other person like li10up and I specifically waited for them I think I would get a bit peeved if they went whizzing on by. (Yep li - I think that was kind of rude of your riding partner)

[Geonz]

If I'm riding with somebody significantly slower than I am, then I don't mind at all that they go flying by me... because I'll have a good time catching up, and they won't have to slow down and then speed up again.
If the roles were reversed, I'd explain that I was working too hard to waste *any* energy and knew that person could catch up... tho' I'd at least slow down a bit and try to get a reading on what the other person was thinking.

I'm thinking that if I got ahead, and then the person behind me blew by me... maybe they simply felt like they were doing *exactly* what I had already done to them, and either that was the natural rhythm of things, or they were trying to send me a "see how it feels?????" message. If they were rude... then I was, too.

[CycleChic06]

Ugh, this happens when I ride with my dad. I'm faster than him going up the hills. I only ride with him occasionaly, but when we do, I always ride with him going up the hills or if I get ahead, I slow down for him to catch up. As I see it, we're out for a ride together. I know I could charge up the hill and leave him in the dust, but it's not a race and we're out riding to enjoy each others company. But the second we get to the top of the hill, he takes off leaving me in the dust. It drives me crazy!

The way he sees it is that he's getting old and doesn't want to 1. show is age and 2. be beaten by his daughter. He feels he has to prove to himself that he's still strong and says stuff like "You can't keep up with me on the downhills." And "What's taking you so long?" And I have to hold back so hard from saying anything because he's VERY sensitive and defensive about it all.

[spokewench]

Hills, pacelines, etiquette. This is how I look at it.

If you are on the flat or virtual flat, you stay together in your paceline. If someone is slower in the group and is struggling, don't make them take a pull (if that is the type of ride it is, you are out to enjoy company, ride together, work on your paceline skills), or if they really want to pull, have them take short pulls and the rest of the people take longer pulls. If I'm really suckin at the back of a paceline (just hangin on), I just move off to the side a little at the back and let people rotate in front of me. For instance, if the paceline is pulling into the wind and the riders are pulling off on the right hand side of the line, I will sit just off and to the right so that they can see that I'm not moving over into the pulling through line and they will just rotate in front of me. Sometimes, people don't understand this at first, but all you have to do is tell them what you are doing and ask them to pull through and usually most people will get it. So in this case, the slower rider is getting the draft and out of the wind and the rest are rotataing a nice paceline. This is one way to deal with it. The other is to go the speed of the slowest rider and only have them pull for short periods, or i.e. really do a fully rotating paceline where everyone is taking short pulls.

When I take riders out for no drop ladies rides, and I have really disparate abilities in the group; you can deal with this in many ways. I will keep this group together in a paceline on the flats. Oftentimes, on the hills the abilities are so far different, that I make sure at the beginning of the ride that everyone knows, we go at our own pace on the hills, the ladies who have gone faster either get to the top of the hill and turn around and come back to the slowest rider and either ride with that rider or keep doing those turnarounds till that rider gets to the top; or they stop at the top of the hill and wait for the slower riders to come. It is too hard to try to keep a paceline with really different levels of riders together on a hill and to tell you the truth the slower you are going, the less effective a paceline is anyway! (Except when the slower you are going is caused by a really strong headwind)

So, hillclimbing and pacelines often do not work. I think that when you are riding with people you need to communicate your expectations. If you have done this prior to the ride, or during the ride, what your expecations and intentions are, then everyone will be okay.

There are days when you are out for a work out and sometimes we will blast off the front of a paceline in race simulations, or go really hard on the hills and for those kind of days, we will just have a plan to regroup at a certain point; or turn around and go back to get the people who got dropped after we have done our interval.

[bikerchick68]

hmmmm... I've never really thought this thru before... typically if I'm waiting for someone, they're newer than me and I'm riding with them to help out... as they catch up I call out KEEP GOING! I don't want them to lose the momentum they've got... and I can catch them since they're slower anyway...

when I'm with friends it seems like there are always times when someone will have a burst of energy and pull ahead, then slow up... I just keep going and vice versa... we never get that far off from each other and always end up together anyway... I have never, ever thought it was rude for someone to pull past me... heck, I'm usually either cheering them on... or jumping on to draft 'em!

[Kedwards]

I'm a little surprised that people would find that rude. Like Bikerchick, I'd much prefer a slower rider go on past me if she can and wants to. I definitely wouldn't be offended by it.