caloso

Some of us race. When you've signed up for a license and pinned on a number a few times you can tell the difference between an actual race, a training ride, and whatever free-for-all cluster you seem to be describing.

big chainring 

You guys are crazy. Nothing sexual about it. Its sad you make those assumptions. Pretty much used up all my stories. If you're a Sheridan Rd rider maybe I'll jump on your wheel. I'm the guy that follows really close. Might give you a hand sling if someone calls out a townline sign sprint. Points are double at the Baha'i Temple sprint.
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spelger

hope you don't think i meant that groping was ok. hell no and surely not in today's climate. not even sure my wife would appreciate it from me. pretty sure the OP did not mean it to be either. someone just inserted that idea into this thread.

would me to, that is why i would never do such a thing.

genejockey 

You were describing putting your hand on the posterior of a woman you don't know, without having asked whether it was alright. In a situation like this, you're not the one to determine whether it was appropriate or not.

WhyFi

On a club ride last week, one of the guys put a hand on the small of the back of another guy, who was laboring up an incline, to give him a little assist. It was not received well. And this was between guys that have been riding together for quite some time.

rubiksoval

The OP certainly meant it. Reveled in it, even.

He's an obvious p.o.s.

Miele Man

If someone I do not know latches on to my rear wheel I slow down or to quote Rae Dawn Cheong in American Flyers "... shake and break". I don't want an unknown rider right on my rear wheel. I had one do that a number of years ago and I didn't realize they were there and when i slowed down for an obstruction their front wheel snagged my rear wheel and my derailleur got wrecked. He went down. A rider who snags a rear wheel will almost always go down.

Don't allow unknown riders to closely draft you. Nor should you draft unknown riders.

Cheers

Miele Man

If it's with someone you don't know and done uninvited then YES!

Cheers

seypat

Creepers gotta creep, I guess. Ewwww!

datlas 

upthywazzoo 

richart

I like to be close enough so my lips touch the frosty mug...

strangdang

Wow, a lot of folks don't read good. As the OP said, riding up Sheridan Rd. north of Chicagp is race training. It's not just a group ride. It's expected for folks to jump in and out, and the experienced rider can tell pretty quickly how smooth the riders in front of him are. This whole scene has been going on since the 1960's that I know of. Whole Chicago area teams would ride by every day. But my question to the OP is, last time I was up there visiting my mom I took my wife on a drive up Sheridan Rd. to show her the sites, and starting in Wilmette and going through at least Winnetka there were "NO CYCLING" signs all along Sheridan. Do y'all just ignore them, or is there some generally acknowledged route around?

63rickert

I have been pushed by big chainring.

Have also been pushed by a few dozen others. Most of them were purely anonymous. At one time it was a completely normal thing. Not all pushes are equal. Three pushers stand out as direct straightforward no nonsense and powerful. They would be John VandeVelde, Jimmy Walthour, big chainring. The first two you can read all about them via Google.

Have been pushed by three women I know of. Nothing sexual about it. And yes, there was a time when there were women who did this. Have been pushed by at least two guys I know for sure are gay. Probably more. Nothing sexual about it. If you have never been there you don’t know.

big chainring’s mistake is thinking he is addressing fellow riders here. Half the commenters here would run away screaming and crying if they even saw Sheridan Road.

Sheridan Road is plain unsafe. So is the twenty-first century.

As for tight drafting. The draft is not so much from the bike ahead as from the body of the rider ahead. I said body. Does that make everyone get squeamish already? Measuring how effective the draft is would be measured in body lengths. An inch one way or the other won’t matter. Watching Olympic or World Championship team pursuiters you can see that once they start to get tired they will back up a full wheel length. And they don’t worry about it. No one needs to ride tighter than World Championship team pursuiters. How far back does a draft go? Riding behind a tightly grouped criterium pack at 30mph on a still day the draft easily goes back 15 or 20 meters. Nothing subtle about it. In the pocket as easy to ride along at 30 as if directly on a wheel. Get outside the pocket and you feel the edge of the draft as solidly as if a big truck was passing.

dr_max

You just have to read the answers of members here to big chainring posts saying he has been pushing women to catch on a group to see what would be their intent if they were doing it. They are transferring their own intent to big chainring actual nice friendly fellow cyclist genuine help.

himespau 

And that is why the 41 (and most of bf) is almost exclusively male.

genejockey 

Yeah, funny thing - nobody attributed a sexual motive to big chainring. What we said was, touching the backside of random strangers without permission is not something one should do. People get to decide who touches them.

tomato coupe

No, I think his mistake is thinking behavior that was tolerated decades ago is still acceptable today.

Bah Humbug

And his other thread got so obnoxious it was locked; this one is circling the bowl.

tomato coupe

Some people just have that special gift ...

genejockey 

Like yelling "Helmet" in a crowded bike message board 20 years ago.

big chainring 

And how am I responsible for that. I just throw out a topic or question.

big chainring 

And how am I responsible for that. I just throw out a topic or question.

L134 

likewise, if one doesn’t like being drafted isn’t it on them to blow by me, not barely pass me and then expect me to reduce my effort so I’m not drafting? If someone moves over in front of me and gives me a draft, I take it(not these days). If I come up on someone going only a little faster than they are, I slow and stay back. Some people don’t like that, some don’t like being passed. If I do pass, I will make appropriate signals until I know they are not there. Mostly, I ride all alone - it is less complicated.

genejockey 

Racial slurs are generally used by people in positions of greater power and privilege to put people of lesser privilege 'in their place'. It's the same privileged thinking when someone assumes that they have the right to touch a stranger without consent as we've been discussing.

Now, if big chainring rolled up next to a cyclist who's struggling and said, "Need a push?" and they gasped, "YES!", then slinging them as described is perfectly fine - he had consent.

I don't think this is a difficult concept - you don't touch strangers without their consent. What part of it is eluding you?