Drafting behind vehicles

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Postby mrP(Boonen)VT » Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:35 am

temporary pedant licence

[quote]Sounds like an amazing toe,



Oh dear oh dear oh dear George.......you must have a thing about toes - only having 9 left :shock:
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Postby mrP(Boonen)VT » Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:36 am

temporary pedant licence

[quote]Sounds like an amazing toe,



Oh dear oh dear oh dear George.......you must have a thing about toes - only having 9 left :shock:
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Postby John the old'un » Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:53 am

[quote="George"][quote] 63 we had snow till Easter.
Wasn't the Thames frozen at the time and you could cross by foot :lol:

Sounds like an amazing toe, I wish I could have ridden to Ipswich, thats where Dr LASER's clinic is based, but unfortunately I had a broken neck :wink:


No, the Thames was not frozen but everywhere else was. I had a nightmare fall riding home from work one day that year. Used to commute from Wallington to Hackbridge every day, and that year the roads were rutted with frozen snow and it was treacherous.
Skidded off in front of a car, and found myself being pushed along the road by his front wheel as he skidded too. I survived by his presence of mind to keep his wheels locked. Otherwise it would have been John, the died young'un writing this from the "other side" . :shock:
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Postby huw williams » Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:30 pm

Always plays an important part of winter training for me.

Go down the Caterham bypass (A22) do laps of the roundabout at the M25 Junction while waiting for the Tesco trucks delivering to Purley or similar big heavy lorries to come off the M25

If you can hang on as it accelerates up the first long drag you can usually do 30mph+ all the way to Purley

Awesome :D :D :D :D :D :D
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The Impossible Ride

Postby the other Steve Dennis » Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:07 pm

'Guy on a Bike' Michael Seacrest who currently holds the world records for 12hr and 24hr on an indoor track was promising to attempt this:

[quote]Bicyclist Michael Secrest will attempt to bicycle across the entire U.S. (from California to Florida) in only 2 days, drafting behind a semi-tractor/trailer, traveling at an average speed of near 60 miles per hour! That is the equivalent distance of riding the Tour de France (which takes three weeks and covers approximately 2,100 miles) in less than 1/10th the time!

This ride will require Secrest to AVERAGE the "impossible" speed of 60 m.p.h. that was achieved in 1899 by "Mile-A-Minute Murphy", but for approximately 2,440 miles.


It was slated for October 07 and his website, [url]http://www.theimpossibleride.com/what.shtml[/url] is quiet on the subject but I suspect they had a logistical nightmare.

Mile a Minute Murphy is another old gem.....

[quote]Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Those lines were made famous by Superman, but they were earned by a real person: Charles M. Murphy, a man from Brooklyn who rode his bicycle faster than a Long Island Rail Road train.

The year was 1899. The whole country was in the midst of a biking frenzy. Murphy, a blond-haired, blue-eyed, mustache-wearing 29-year-old, boasted he could bike a mile in a minute, if he were fronted by a charging train that would eliminate wind resistance and create a vacuum.

[url]http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs610a,0,6371261.story[/url]

My own drafting story was when setting out on the dreaded 'Chimney' ride (they call it that cos it's like riding up the side of a house) whilst in Alicante with ACC in 2000? We started the long gradual climb towards the ascent when I heard the approach of a truck from behind, the guys were already putting the fear of God up us non-climbers and I figured maybe I needed a head start. I waved as I passed our group of climbers safe in my little draft, the truck dropped me not long after I was out of sight, the group dropped me as I sat at the side of the road staring at my Campy Nucleon rear wheel whose spokes had snapped at the initial effort (or thought) of the chimney itself. Another van came in handy as I needed to be transported to the nearest town.

Oh and drafting in motorsport is slightly different I think. In F1 I think 2 cars drafting negatively affects the performance of both cars - the dirty air effect. But Nascar (The US's faulty attempt at motorsport) drivers will team up to drive in pairs or longer and use the combined benefit of drafting to increase their speed. But no sooner have they got a great lead or moved from 30th to 4th than someone sees a small piece of rubber on the track and the race goes yellow and the race is nullified up to that point and everyone yawns except for the rednecks......
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Postby Sylv » Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:30 pm

We were about to be on for a good one on the way back from the ACC road race - a handful of us started drafting behind a huge 18-wheeler on the dual carriageway whilst mrpvt was knackering himself on his own ahead of the lorry - he'd missed the bus, literally.

Lorry was not going quite fast enough to be exhilarating though, and I don't know if the driver got annoyed by us or what, but he sooned pulled out in a lay-by.
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Postby huw williams » Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:35 pm

We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested
:D :D :D
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Postby Sylv » Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:47 pm

Are bikes allowed on the M25?

I forgot about that one - there's a tunnell under the Thames in East London that's allowed for bikes - it's about a mile long. (name?)

Not long ago I took it back and forth, drafting all the way behind a car. It is limited to 20 but the first one was doing up to 30. Easy on the way down, not so easy on the way up!
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Postby Andrew G » Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:49 pm

[quote="huw williams"]We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested
:D :D :D

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

People carriers are the best vehicle, nice high back and loads of glass so you still have good visiblity down the road to judge the traffic.
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Postby huw williams » Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:53 pm

[quote="Andrew G"][quote="huw williams"]We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested
:D :D :D

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

People carriers are the best vehicle, nice high back and loads of glass so you still have good visiblity down the road to judge the traffic.


Don't worry - it makes a big difference when the driver is aware of towing riders (as opposed to just jumping on the back of any old wagon) - there's no sudden speeding up or slowing down or changing lanes
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Postby Sylv » Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:21 pm

That's the name I was thinking of, wasn't sure of spelling though so didn't want to write it down for fear of a pedant-attack.
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Postby Andrew G » Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:38 pm

Not worried Huw, I frequently grab tows, people carriers just make life easier and they tend not to pull away so quickly from lights so make tucking easy.

Bikes not allowed on any motorway Sylv. I remember one team (Kenya? - an African one definately) got pulled up on the motorway where they were training for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, they just hadn't realised they weren't supposed to be there. :D
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Postby huw williams » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:08 am

they had bike racing on the M25 before it was open

Imagine closing the M25 for a day and having a 1 lap all category race - its aboout 120 miles I think - it'd be savage :twisted:
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Postby mrP(Boonen)VT » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:49 am

I was racing there (1985) - we parked on the slip road that is now the Leatherhead junction, turned through gap in central reservation and headed up towards Reigate, turning at the top of the hill (another gap), and back down.
It may sound boring, but it was traffic free ultra smooth tarmac with a slightly downhill finish - fantastic.

Riding the handicap world championship there, Tom McCall won it and I snatched 2nd :D

Still find it amazing when I drive that section to think what it was like, and wonder how many cyclists can say they have ridden up and down the M25 8)
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Postby sid_day » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:33 pm

One of my favourite commuting games is drafting a bus then, knowing it's route by the route number timing the slingshot out of the slipstream as the bus pulls into a stop.

Then travelling off at 30mph under your own steam :)

I use this when I can heading up to Waterloo from Elephant.

If I'm lucky I'll get a X68 which doesn't stop.
(There is no emoticon for yawn) :wink:

Unfortunately it is confounded a nowadays by large numbers of cycle commuters: the bus gets stuck behind them.
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