Safe and courteous method to announce your presence on the end of a bunch?

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Move to the front and half-bike.

 

[VamP]

Just give them the nod as you speed past.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Just yell, "THE PUBS ARE CLOSING"

 

[jarlrmai]

1. recover
2. make sure you are not red faced or breathing heavily
3. draft for a bit
4. go no handed
5. get the water bottle out
6. cruise past
7. just before the 1st proper climb turn off down a side road.

 

[wait4me]

Never caught anyone, so can't help.

Me as well

 

[Arjimlad]

Whistle a tune or sing something from "O Brother Where Art Thou" would be one way of approaching it, that is unless you are mincing your lungs in a mangle trying to get past..

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Don't compliment their lycra if you're struggling for breath, it gives entirely the wrong impression.

 

[screenman]

Can't see a problem here, anyone out on a bike ought to be checking over there shoulder periodically and if they are not then they need the wake up call from another cyclist overtaking. We have been in sight of another cyclist in front of us many times and it is often the case that they are completely unaware anyone is behind them, so it is quite fun to shock them out of their tunnel vision type riding with a loud hello. The converse is true though, if a cyclist looks back and sees us they tend to look back every 10 seconds .

So make somebody riding a bike jump or shock them as you say, this normally leads to a sharp turn of the bars as they look over their shoulder, when you leave school you might learn this is not a clever act.

 

[screenman]

At the end of this morning's twenty mile thrash, I caught up with the tail-end Charlie of three guys out for a spin. Just as I did so, I remembered that the last I'd done this, I'd scared the bejesus out of a rider merely by saying hi and, for once, I was stumped as to what to do or say. After taking a thirty-second breather, I accelerated past, said 'good' morning' and got the 'I'm-not-acknowledging-you-and-I'm-gonna-keep-staring ahead.'

So, what's a good protocol to adopt, folks?

I was one of those 3 we had just done 260 miles without a stop with only another 40 to go, we did wonder why it took you so long to get past us.

We were also going into a headwind so it made your approach extremely hard to hear, maybe a little hello from 20 yards back and when you got no responce a slightly louder one would have helped.

 

[Shanks]

It depends, if is on a long descent then I usually scream "fat man coming through" and laugh as sail by. At somewhere between 17/18 stone gravity on my side for once and there's not many in our group that can keep up with me going down. If it's on the other side going up it doesn't really matter what I want to say I'm normally wheezing so much the words don't get out and anyway if I do manage to pass anyone they'll get few minutes notice 'cos one of us is usually walking

 

[Inthecup]

I was one of those 3 we had just done 260 miles without a stop with only another 40 to go, we did wonder why it took you so long to get past us.

We were also going into a headwind so it made your approach extremely hard to hear, maybe a little hello from 20 yards back and when you got no responce a slightly louder one would have helped.

Uh-oh. What were the chances of that?

 

[ColinJ]

Hope hub.

That would only work if you got up to warp speed and then freewheeled past them ...

I sometimes freewheel on my MTB on towpaths to let people know that I am coming up behind them. Hope freehubs certainly do make a racket!

 

[Jon George]

1. recover
2. make sure you are not red faced or breathing heavily
3. draft for a bit
4. go no handed
5. get the water bottle out
6. cruise past
7. just before the 1st proper climb turn off down a side road.

I like your style.

 

[totallyfixed]

So make somebody riding a bike jump or shock them as you say, this normally leads to a sharp turn of the bars as they look over their shoulder, when you leave school you might learn this is not a clever act.

Thanks for that, it's always good to get advice from experienced cyclists.

 

[screenman]

Thanks for that, it's always good to get advice from experienced cyclists.

No problem, you will notice the same in drivers, in that when they look over their shoulders the steering wheel often goes the same way. Much the same as horse rider.