Beginner's Corner

Pack Riding 101

April 12th, 2010 // by oktrailmonkey

This ini­tial arti­cle of the Beginner’s Cor­ner is about some­thing very impor­tant to road­ies: rid­ing in a pack. You can’t ride long dis­tances eas­ily with­out rid­ing in a pack, and work­ing together can make things eas­ier and just plain fun. So here’s some do’s and don’t’s of pack riding.

Pack Rid­ing Defined

“Pack rid­ing” is best thought of as orga­nized group rid­ing. Rid­ers take turns “pulling,” or lead­ing the group, while the other cyclists draft behind them. Over time, each rider takes turns pulling, with every­one rotat­ing through the lead spot. As the lead rider pulls off the front, he or she drifts back (usu­ally to the left) and rejoins the pack at the rear. The ben­e­fit of all of this orga­ni­za­tion is that it makes rid­ing eas­ier for every­one because all of the rid­ers are work­ing together, tak­ing turns doing the hard work. With that in mind:

Do:

  • Be pre­dictable. Smooth, steady rid­ing is the name of the game. As rid­ers get closer together, every­one needs to be able to trust the oth­ers not swerve into them, or oth­er­wise cause mayhem.
  • Call out obsta­cles. Watch out for things in the road, and call them out for other rid­ers. “Hole!” and “Bump!” are com­mon yells. You can also point things out, too.
  • Call out approach­ing vehi­cles. Help every­one be aware of oncom­ing cars and trucks. Use “car up!” for cars com­ing from the front, or “car back!” for ones com­ing from behind.
  • Pay atten­tion. It’s easy on long rides to zone out, espe­cially when rid­ing hard, but resist the temp­ta­tion. Watch the other rid­ers, approach­ing cars, debris in the road, whatever–just pay attention.
  • Try to be orga­nized. The most fun packs are well organized–riding in two lines, two rid­ers abreast, what­ever… but orga­nized. If every­one pays atten­tion and rides in place, it is eas­ier to be more pre­dictable and avoid wrecks!
  • Take turns pulling. You know the type: the dreaded Wheel-Sucker. Be polite and take a turn up front. Even if you can only hold on for 30 sec­onds, do it. It’s the right thing to do and it will earn you brownie points in the pack.
  • Keep and even level of effort when pulling. Keep the speed or level of exer­tion con­stant when you get up front. Resist the urge to speed up and show your stuff. That irri­tates peo­ple and breaks up the pack.

Don’t:

  • Yo-yo. It takes a lit­tle prac­tice to stay a steady dis­tance behind the rider in front of you (about 2 or 3 feet is best.) Try to be steady–not falling back then speed­ing up, then falling back again. It breaks up the pack and shows you are noob.
  • Let gaps get cre­ated. Keep up. Don’t break up the pack by let­ting the rid­ers ahead of you get away. If you can’t stay up at the pack’s pace, call out that you’re drop­ping off, and grace­fully pull out of line.
  • Swerve or ride unpre­dictably. Can’t say it enough: ride straight and predictable.
  • Stare at the wheel of the per­son in front of you. Look at their back, then around, then back again. Star­ing at the wheel ahead of you makes it easy to zone out.
  • Draft and not take a turn up front. Don’t be a wheel-sucker.
  • Speed up when pulling. Keep the pack together by keep­ing the pace the pre­vi­ous leader held.
  • Pull too long, then get gapped on the end. One temp­ta­tion is to pull too long, then not have the energy left to stay on the back of the pack when you pull off. Always keep a lit­tle reserve so you can stay with the group.

I hope this helps. Just remember–don’t stress about rid­ing in a group, just have fun. That’s why we’re doing this… right?

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