wunderkind

So imagine yourself on a bike lane road, coming towards an ascent. You gather momentum, however you are closing in on a slower rider up front. Do you slow down and therefore lose your momentum or make use of the momentum to overtake (when it's safe)?

Similarly do you overtake on descents or just tuck behind. I guess for descents, it doesn't really matter since you're really letting gravity propel you forward. Therefore slowing down and tucking behind is fine.
However for ascents, I do find it a bit frustrating when I am trying to gather up speed to help propel me up a climb only to encounter a slower rider that would force me to discard the effort I've built and trundle along from behind. Actually it is worse as I would've wasted that spurt of energy.

What would you do?

pwdeegan

Pass when it's safe, and keep enjoying the ride!

DataJunkie

You overtake in both scenarios provided it is safe.

serra

Pass 'em up without a doubt, especially downhill, cause it's fun to go fast I pass people going uphill all the time on the way to school, I don't even think for a second to stick behind them. I admit, it's sometimes a bit of a downer getting passed up, but I tend to forget about it pretty fast, so I hope others do the same.

agarose2000

Do the common sense thing. If you can pass safely as you accelerate toward the climb, do it. If you can't pass, you're **** out of luck, and will just have to wait and then make the pass when it's safe.

BarracksSi

... too slow to pass anyway.

bhop

If i'm going faster, I pass when i't safe. If not, I just cruise behind.

cyclezealot

Don't have to worry about etiquette cause I am always the last one down..

Metzinger

I use this at an appropriate moment:
...and slow if necessary.
Weighs about the same as that mouthful of water sloshing in the bottom of my bottle.

wunderkind

Cool. As I am getting better at "slaying" this hilly serpent, I can increase my climb rate. Also there are a few smaller humps where I can gather speed, sorta like a roller coaster effect which alot of riders don't seem to make use of. At the final hump, I can gather enough fwd momentum carry me up 1/3 of the climb before having to start down gearing.
So as much as I can, I want to conserve the momentum for the final climb.

At the same time, I don't know if I am rude to overtake on climbs as probably the other rider was huffing and puffing as I once did before.

JeremyZ

Agree, pass when safe.

I was riding with my wife yesterday. She is scared of speed and brakes going downhill. I love her dearly and rider slower to be together with her, but I absolutely refuse to throw away momentum by braking downhill. She doesn't even mind that it makes the next hill is twice as hard. Then, she gets mad at me for not waiting

unterhausen

bike lane road being a road with a bike lane? On a MUP, I would usually just slow down. If on a road with a bike lane I give plenty of room and pass.

groovestew

How did you feel when you got passed back when you were huffing and puffing? Getting passed on a hill made me more determined to try harder. Now that I'm in much better shape, I don't think twice about passing someone on an ascent (so long as it's safe). I hope that passing someone will help give them motivation as it did for me a year ago.

EKW in DC

+1 I used to get passed all the time when I first started a year ago. I expected it b/c I was out of shape and slow. I din't think those that passed me climbing the overpass or bridge or whatever were rude. In fact, I would have thought it rude if I slowed them down somehow as a newb.

I don't think there's an etiquette issue here at all. Giving them the bird as you pass... that's an etiquette issue. Passing a slower rider <> a breech of etiquette. If the coast is clear and you can pass safely, do it...

wunderkind

Don't get me wrong guys. It's just that the riders seem to be concentrating to ride up and passing 'em may just be a surprise to them and might lead to lost of concentration.
I'm thinking too much into this aren't I?

I don;t mind being passed tbh. As the other poster said, it would be rude to hold up people.

Seattle Forrest

Pass when it's safe to, and welcome to Silly Commuter Racing.

corkscrew

I pass when its safe.

Bicycles on the way up (my commuter-laden touring bike is a mountain goat compared to most of the bikes I see around here). I pass cars on the way down.

paul2432

Another vote here for pass when safe. I'd much rather have a person pass me then follow too closely behind.

Paul

wolfchild

I always turn my head and look behind me to make sure that it is safe to pass and then I just pass them. There is no way that I am gona be stuck behind somebody slower then me.

crazybikerchick

Well don't pass them right next to their shoulder or anything! Move well out of the bike lane, overtake, and then back into the bike lane. If traffic is so congested that you can't find a gap and need to pass them closer, a simple "passing on your left" should suffice.

On a downhill in the city usually you can be going the speed of traffic anyway so if going fast I would just stay out of the bike lane entirely.

The only thing I think is rude in passing other cyclists is when people who are going SLOWER than you are pass you at a red light to either run the red light or just bud in front of you into the crosswalk, and then you immediately must pass them back.

rnorris

On longer rides I tend to end up playing "tag" with fellow cyclists because my riding speed is different than most (faster uphill, slower downhill). I aim for politeness and pass when I can do so without crowding other cyclists, and keep a bit more to the right (where possible) when being passed by them. It doesn't bother me to pass people because I know they'll return the favor on the next downhill stretch.

Jonahhobbes

I love Silly Commuter Racing!


I have an arch enemy that I regularly race and beat. The Sly dog took a shortcut the other day in an attempt to win the race home, I closed the distance and made it to the point of just behind his back wheel when my rain cover blew off my Topeak bar bag and I had to stop to retrieve it. grrrr

fat_bike_nut

Well, in my experience, I find the best way is to pass when safe in both situations. So that's vote number, uh ten?

I try to pass on the left, and if it is a road with motor vehicle traffic, I make sure that there are no cars coming when I pass the other rider. If it is a MUP...and on a weekend...well...chaos can ensue. Roadies on the MUP can zoom by quickly and silently, and some MUP riders don't seem to understand that there are people riding behind them, meaning that I have to pull an emergency braking maneuver and hope that nobody ends up in a crash

bmt074

Definitely pass. Different people climb hills at different paces. I like to climb at a moderate pace (10-12 mph). A lot of people immediately switch down to the lowest gear on their bike and climb at almost walking speed. Personally I'm not comfortable climbing at walking pace so I will generally just pass when it is safe.

gerv 

+1. I never seem to have a problem passing people. Even newbie-looking recreational riders on fat-tire MTBs pass me all the time. Ain't it fun to be on the downhill side of life?