gringomojado

Though he was not drafting, this brings Egan Bernal to mind!

gm

blacknbluebikes 

Don't assume anyone knows the 'emergency stopping distance' of any large vehicle unless you've driven it. A lot more goes into braking capabilities than into acceleration power. One could *definitely* eat the tailgate of that truck in less than a second. Now, that said, I do believe in letting Dr. Darwin do his work... ride on.

Rolla

The infamous "drafting a truck" scene from Breaking Away:

tomato coupe

I've always liked this video, especially when he bunny-hops the center line reflectors at 60-70 mph.

livedarklions

When you're drafting at that high speed, how do you gear it? Honest question as I've never drafted like that.

Koyote

You get into your tallest gear and try to keep up with the vehicle. When you spin out and decelerate, you slip out of the draft.

RB1-luvr

drafting big trucks is so dangerous, but so fun. I don't do it anymore cuz I'm old and fat, but I did it extensively in my younger road racing days. I got up to 55 mph once behind a tractor trailer going down a slight grade right through a town center. So dumb.

Pulling up next to a truck at a light that saw you a couple miles back but didn't know you were behind them is fun too. Usually earns you a "holy crap!" and a thumbs up. again, so dumb. Thankful I survived.

drlogik 

Guilty as charged. It was back when I had no fear of speed.

Back in 1980 (I think) I was living in Georgetown South Carolina and cycled to Myrtle Beach regularly along Hwy 17. It was a year after the movie Breaking Away came out. One day when I was getting out of Georgetown a Semi truck, really loaded up and accelerating slowly passed by me. I jumped out of the saddle and caught him.

I made the 30 mile drive from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach in 35-ish minutes as I recall...including stopping at two red lights. As I look back on that it still puts a smile on my face but if I had fallen.............

The thing I didn't realize about drafting behind a big truck (it was the first one I got a really good draft from) is that when the truck gets up to around 50 mph, the wind draft behind the truck actually pushed me into the back of the truck. It created a vortex that just sucked me in. I had to keep moving to the side to catch wind and slow down some.



----

RB1-luvr

In the 80s, mopeds were fun and much safer. I drafted a moped from Gay Head to Edgartown MA (18 miles across Martha's Vineyard) with two kids on it. The kid on the back was sitting backwards with a boom box on his lap directed at me. I had tunes the whole way. Fun memory.

Gyro

I had my 1971 Honda 350 scrambler up too 100 mph lying on the tank............ Sorry felt left out!

Koyote

51 mph average speed. Even with standard road gearing of that era (lowest gear of 53-12), you'd have to spin 145 rpm.

I'm thinking there's a little bit of nostalgic exaggeration here...Or that vortex effect was pretty wild.

drlogik 

Maybe, but maybe not. I wasn't able to keep up pedaling once I hit around 45. The draft behind the truck was strong. Strong enough that I almost hit the back of the truck a couple of times. That wasn't scary part. The scary part was not being able to see anything on the road surface that the truck might roll over. Tire bits, a rock, or other piece of debris...

I pushed that out of my mind because it was so exhilarating. I never did it again though. I drafted trucks but not like that, not on a highway at highway speed.

LarrySellerz

In theory you should just just bounce off of a truck that brake checks you under most circumstances (well that or get sucked under) its not like overlapping wheels with a bike where you have to react to save it.

tomato coupe

Oh my ...

drlogik 

Koyote

I've done some drafting and never experienced anything like that, so I'm thinking the vortex must've been a particular combo of the truck's speed and the ambient wind direction and speed. And yeah, one dead raccoon on the road, right in the middle of the truck's lane, and there'd be a dead drlogik, too! That always pops into my head when I'm drafting at speed.

You go test that theory, Einstein. If you live to tell about it, come back and give a report. Better yet, don't.

63rickert

Back to original query and putting aside the truck drafting ---

Every day I see cyclists riding no handed while texting. So far have seen only one resulting accident, the rider ran straight into back of parked truck. How they mostly get away with this beats me.

rsbob 

you’re right, he should have used “voice to text”..What a dumb asprin.

venturi95

This post reeks of someone who has no real world experience drafting motor vehicles. I used to occasionally ride with some folks who had a Honda Cub with a roller bar on the back for sprint training. I have drafted trucks a few times, too scary to be moving 40 plus mph with no idea what lies ahead, that is the biggest danger by far.

Koyote

I honestly have no idea how you reached this conclusion. If you don't feel like clarifying, that's fine -- I don't much care.

rsbob 

Back in the 80s was 5 miles from the finish of a double century with my good friend, when a pickup with a canopy pulled in front of us doing about 18-20 MPH. We drafted that guy within a mile from the finish and it felt wonderful and a relief. Since it was not a race, that kind of drafting didn’t matter.

Doug64

My wife and I are avid bike tourists, and have ridden over 22,000 mile on fully loaded touring bikes during the 12 years prior to Covid. We ride on all types of highways, and don't draft on vehicles. However, we have discovered a phenomena we call semi-surfing; using the pull that larger trucks create as the pass by.

The surfing effect is really noticeable on roads like this narrow one in Iowa where the truck traffic is heavy.


We usually make use of bike paths when they are available. But, when we encounter our fist wanabe racer or pedestrians we usually head for the roadway, which in our opinion is usually much safer.

rsbob 

Have noted the same phenomenon when I am forced to ride our two lane state highways. Don’t know if the nice pull is worth having semis and double dump/gravel trucks whisking by at 55-60.

Russ Roth

My fastest was 70mph at which point the winds made it too unstable, always wondered if I could have reached 75 on a better day but never made it back to that particular climb to find out. Now I'd wuss out at 50-55.
Drafting tractor trailers always made my commute from Schenectady to Albany easier, the trucks that knew what they were doing would go about 40mph and if they did it right would manage to only hit a couple of lights for most of the distance, I did it so many times that the first time I saw that clip in my mid 20s I didn't think anything of his accomplishment.

That doesn't sound quite right and seems like too high a cadence, I had a course I would do weekly that involved a nice long slope that if you pedaled hard would let you reach about 55ph, with a 53/11 that was only 90rpm which was what I would spin out at each time. Seems like a 53/12 would be more like 100-110 cadence to only do 50mph.

Koyote

Nope. Not even close. 55mph with a 53-11 requires a cadence of 146rpm. A 53/12 at 110rpm is 38mph. (All assuming 700x23mm tires.)

You don't have to believe me. You can go here to verify, or to one of the many other such calculators on the 'net. They'll all give you the same numbers.