I'm seeing far to many riders tailing buses these days within inches of them. Its gunna end horribly wrong
The thing that makes me cringe is seeing people go up the inside of buses (quite often next to railings on their inside). Hitting the back of a bus (mostly that's a large, flat area on the buses 'round here) seems slightly better than getting left hooked by one...
It's not that dangerous, you can listen to the engine and tell what the driver is doing, and if you hover by the right hand side you can shoot down the outside if necessary. Bikes will generally brake more sharply than a bus anyway
I do so sometimes. Not really inches away, that woud lbe scary, but a couple of feet back works well, you have to conectrate more than normal perhaps. The only real danger is a pothole suddenly emerging! - and of course buses stop too often, so you can only draft for a short while.
Buses are such a pain in the arse though! I find that they sit themselves right in the middle of narrow lanes and you just can't get past them and if you do manage to overtake them they NEVER let you go back in! Then they just blooming overtake you again - usually just before the bus stop so you have to stop behind them anway! The only time I get around them sucessfully is when they are stuck in a big line of stationery traffic! Sometimes though when it's freezing it's nice to get out of the wind behind them!
I've done this a bit, but busses can stop bl**dy sharply when some ipodded texting zombie steps out in front of them!
I find tipper trucks are better to draft for that reason, plus you can wave at the driver via the little camera at the back anyway you don't need to sit right on their tail to get a decent draft. Funniest time was drafting a school coach down the embankment, with the little oiks giving me all manner of handsignals
The busses stop very quickly on Oxford Road - try being a passenger.... Me and a mate once drafted a rather large tractor and trailer once - he was doing a steady 30. Only realised it was a bad idea once we got home.....the trailer contained manure - whilst it didn't smell to bad in the open air, once inside I realised that I stunk like a cow pat...not nice....
LRT buses are great to draft on days like today, when there's a killer headwind that they're sheltering you from . Their drivers usually indicate, plus I know where the stops are anyway so I can anticipate them. Still, I never sit too close behind as the distance gives the fumes more space to disperse. The closer you are, the closer you are to them at source - and it's not nice to be gasping it in...
The only dangerous bit is when for one reason or another you decide to overtake, and glance over your shoulder to check out what's behind...if they slam on the anchors at that precise moment....
