Flutterby™! : Cruisin' down the road 2012-05-03 15:41:01.728923+00

Cruisin' down the road

2012-05-03 15:41:01.728923+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Drafting (a standard road bike at 55 MPH) like a boss (YouTube Video).

When I have ridden with packs of uprights, coming down Signal or Lookout, most of the pack starts feathering their breaks at 30-35.. and then there are the nutcases pedaling like the madmen we are, seeming oblivious and enjoying endorphin ecstasy.

During the summer of 1972 I rode my new Schwinn Varsity an awful lot. I lived in Red Bank then and would often ride to my job at McDonald's on Hixson Pike. A couple of times I managed to catch a truck stopped at the traffic light at Newberry Street and Dayton Blvd and draft from there to the street I lived on about 1/2 mile on down toward Chattanooga. I had no bike computer back then but the speed limit there was 45 and the cars that passed us did so slowly so I estimate I was doing around 40. That doesn't sound so fast and I've hit 47mph on a downhill on my current road bike but remember I said this was 1972 on a Schwinn Varsity. It had chromed steel wheels and hard rubber brake pads. I did good keeping it from running away on downhills doing around 20.

I fairly routinely take my standard upright to 45MPH or so. That bike (Cannondale Six13) doesn't feel scary, but I did have one that got the shakes once in the 35MPH+ zone, and that was freakin' terrifying.

When we lived in Lagunitas, I used to ride into Fairfax and could occasionally catch an SUV down White's Hill and draft it in to Fairfax proper, if I had to peel off before my pace vehicle needed to slow below 35 or so (the speed limit there...) I had to actively brake.

And one day I was doing the Nicasio Valley loop from Lagunitas and dropped in behind a cement or hopper truck of some sort, when they were doing road maintenance out near Route 1, and did the best time around that loop I've ever managed.

But, yeah, even in a paceline at 25MPH, leaving the line (or being rotated to the front) and hitting that wall of air is pretty amazing.

I've done 49 downhill on my bent, feels great. 30-35 is scary on an upright bike... I'm wondering how the escape from that draft went. If the trucked slowed down, it would be decent, but hitting a wall of 50+ mph wind might be rough.