To overtake or not

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Tomm Williams

Active Member
Easy answer is stop for a quick break and grab a drink of water, let them get well out ahead. Why ruin a perfectly good ride with this aggravating stuff when you can eliminate it in about 15 seconds?
 

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
I will usually just carry on at mny own pace, though I will sometimes oput in a little exttra effort to stay with somebody if they haven't passed me too fast.

If I then stay with them, I'll try to give turns on the front, that has happened a few times.

But more often than not, if I get passed, they will just disappear into the distance, and it isn't something to worry about.

The same goes if I pass somebody else. If they want to try and stay with me, that is fine, even better if they can give a turn sometimes.
 
Not an overtake but an attempted one

I was riding along a cycle paths alongside a dual carrigeway some time ago
On my ebike - as usual
nice flat paths - slight tailwind - good surface and getting a move on

After a while I got to a majot junction - hence traffic lights so I had to stop and, due to traffic, I pressed the button for the pedestrian lights (those ones with bike on as well - toucan???)

Anyway - I was waiting and a bloke on a mountain bike came up puffing
He stopped - looked at my bike and exclaimed
It's an ebike - Thank God - I have been trying to catch you since the last junction and just not managing it - now I see why!!!!

Didn;t have the heart to tell him that my speedo was ticking around 18 mph the whole way so the motor had cut out ( at 15.5. mph honest Officer) a while ago and only helped when I got up to speed at the start!!!

felt quite proud of myself when I realised a few minutes later!
 
Sure he did 😂🤣

Yeah - I would have gone with brakes sticking - explains why I was going slow better!!
 

johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
I slowly caught up with a couple of roadies today.Funny enough I thought of this thread when I did.There was a big hill coming our way so instead of sitting behind them or going past, I took a right turn and headed off in a different direction
 

CAESAR AVGVSTVS

Active Member
I normally wait a couple of minutes, if the overtaker doesn’t start to increase their speed I simply overtake them, but I make sure I have enough energy to complete the task. However, if it’s a fit woman, I see no reason to rush 😁
 

Sloth

Senior Member
I hate being followed or following. Out of the two I prefer to follow provided it’s not close enough to feel like a competition.
I’m not competitive and I’ve no interest in overtaking or having a peeing contest.
I once got left standing buy a not particularly sporty looking bike and an even less sporty looking rider. It was a while before I realised he was on an e-bike.
I’m slow but not that slow.
I’d turn off or stop and have a drink to allow some space if it got too awkward.
I’d only overtake if it was an easy no brainer and I was confident I could justify and maintain the move.
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
@Rusty Nails , those two cyclists seem like tossers.

Actually this happened to me last week but I don't think the two riders who passed me had any I'll intentions. There was traffic ahead so I slowed down a bit and these two.riders caught up with me. As the traffic made way to the open road, I gently started accelerating but these two guys wanted to overtake me so I eased off the power.

I let them get a reasonable distance ahead and then started applying gentle acceleration again only at this time the two riders got tired and started slowing down which meant I was catching up with them pretty quickly.

Being a nice chap, even if I do so say so myself, I didn't want to embarrass them so slowed right down as I was going to turn off a mile later anyway.

But then I got impatient, accelerated up next to them and then laid down some serious power. Hehe. ^_^
 
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