# What is meant by "half wheeling"?



## Globalti (6 Sep 2011)

I've seen this expression a couple of times and from the context it didn't look like it would make you popular. What does it mean?


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## Rob3rt (6 Sep 2011)

Riding slightly ahead of the cyclist to your side.

I think it also extends to having your wheel overlap another riders by half a wheel such that if they moved sideways for any reason your wheels would collide and a crash is imminent.


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## dellzeqq (6 Sep 2011)

it's competitive cycling on a club run. What happens is that the person on the right hand side gets slightly ahead, and the person on the left hand side feels obliged to up the speed a little bit. Before you know it the entire club is rushing forward and then the slower riders get dropped. It's really what a club is not about.


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## alecstilleyedye (6 Sep 2011)

dell is spot on. when i first joined the club i went out for the gentle sunday ride with the elder statesmen who were brilliant people to learn the etiquette of group riding and the ethos of the club run. the half wheeling no-no was pretty much the first thing i was taught not to do…


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## Globalti (6 Sep 2011)

Thanks. My cycling buddy does this all the time; he is incapable of keeping a steady pace and he speeds up when we're going hard and he takes a turn on the front. We want to join a club but the timings of our two local clubs' runs seldom fit with our family obligations. (North Lancs RC and Clitheroe)


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## Flying_Monkey (6 Sep 2011)

Yep. I used to do it all the time, unconsciously, when I first joined a club. It's a lot about insecurity and trying to make an impression, but also just about lack of experience riding in pairs.


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## Brahan (6 Sep 2011)

dellzeqq said:


> it's competitive cycling on a club run. What happens is that the person on the right hand side gets slightly ahead, and the person on the left hand side feels obliged to up the speed a little bit. Before you know it the entire club is rushing forward and then the slower riders get dropped. *It's really what a club is **not** about.*



I can't agree 100% with that. Sometimes a few hard miles really brings out the best in the group. Agreed, you shouldn't ditch your club mates, wait for them at the next junction if you have to.


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## PK99 (6 Sep 2011)

Brahan said:


> I can't agree 100% with that. Sometimes a few hard miles really brings out the best in the group. Agreed, you shouldn't ditch your club mates, wait for them at the next junction if you have to.



A club run is not a training run!

Half wheeling on a club run and breaking the group is very bad form. Different thing on a training run where everyone knows the deal (and how to find their own way home!)


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## totallyfixed (6 Sep 2011)

PK99 said:


> A club run is not a training run!
> 
> Half wheeling on a club run and breaking the group is very bad form. Different thing on a training run where everyone knows the deal (and how to find their own way home!)



Absolutely agree, half wheeling in my estimation is a huge taboo.


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## Smokin Joe (7 Sep 2011)

totallyfixed said:


> Absolutely agree, half wheeling in my estimation is a huge taboo.


And bloody irritating too. 

If somebody did it to me I used to just drop behind and sit on their wheel.


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## HLaB (7 Sep 2011)

Smokin Joe said:


> And bloody irritating too.
> 
> If somebody did it to me I used to just drop behind and sit on their wheel.



When I was younger, I'd out pace them, but now I'm older and wiser  I do ^^that^^


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## oldroadman (7 Sep 2011)

Rob3rt said:


> Riding slightly ahead of the cyclist to your side.
> 
> *I think it also extends to having your wheel overlap another riders by half a wheel such that if they moved sideways for any reason your wheels would collide and a crash is imminent.
> *



No, that's not it, that's overlapping and it's daft in a group, and in a race for that matter, unless you all now what you are doing and it's an echelon. A common mistake by people who start "racing" without the background of a club to help them learn not just etiquette but sound practice and sense. Personally I don't worry about someone doing it to me, I just don't want them to crash and bring someone following down as well.

While we are at it, getting out of the saddle without presure on the pedals makes the bike "jump" back a little, and is another excellent way of causing a crash. Something else riding with some experienced people in a proper club will help you with. It's all simple really!


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## Christopher (7 Sep 2011)

oldroadman said:


> While we are at it, getting out of the saddle without presure on the pedals makes the bike "jump" back a little, and is another excellent way of causing a crash. Something else riding with some experienced people in a proper club will help you with. It's all simple really!


Gawd a bloke I trained with once used to do that! Nearly had me off the first time, but I was too much of a wuss to say anything, I just stayed further back after that. 
& half-wheeling on a club run is a chaingang, not a club run.


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## dellzeqq (7 Sep 2011)

as PK99 says training runs are different. I've been out with a club that made it clear - if you were dropped you were on your own. I remember somebody going off the edge of the road, into a grass ditch. Soyanara! 

There are exceptions. The Cheam and Morden has a lot of ex-racing cyclists (I've been out with a pair of brothers who were tandem champs in the 50s). There's sometimes a bit of sprintfoolery at the front, and on hills for an imaginary jersey - and there's usually a sprint for the cakes at Capel. And if you've seen those cakes, you'll know that they are worth sprinting for. When I went out with them I usually had the fastest bike and I was usually the youngest (sometimes by quite a way) so I'd always win the sprint for the cakes. Form dictates that one takes extra time parking one's bike to allow the more senior members first crack at the tea.


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## oldroadman (8 Sep 2011)

[QUOTE 1533270"]
From what I understand as well as the above, half wheeling equals to taking the piss of the lead rider.

It's like you are saying 'I'm quicker then you if I want to be, but I'll just ride here by your side slightly in front of you and be annoying instead.'
[/quote]

Spot on. Just plain bad manners.


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## thehairycycler (8 Sep 2011)

I never knew this even existed, Is there an a book of rules and propper form for group and race cycling? I've been out with a club and they told me just to keep inline with the cyclist beside me and as close as I felt comfortable with to the bike in front and point out the pot holes and other obsticals! 

I do however get a row for braking at junctions even when i've signalled and there was a car coming


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## GilesM (9 Sep 2011)

Smokin Joe said:


> And bloody irritating too.
> 
> If somebody did it to me I used to just drop behind and sit on their wheel.



Holding on to them was the easiest thing to do, and it usually got the point across. The first club I joined had a half wheeling trophy which was awarded each year.


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## dellzeqq (9 Sep 2011)

[QUOTE 1533270"]
From what I understand as well as the above, half wheeling equals to taking the piss of the lead rider.

It's like you are saying 'I'm quicker then you if I want to be, but I'll just ride here by your side slightly in front of you and be annoying instead.'
[/quote]
I see your point, but it can sometimes be a bit more subtle than that. Speaking from experience it takes two or more to half-wheel, and it happens when they get all 'joy of spring'. 

Admittedly my experience is of older cyclists referring in a kind of way to their youth, but there might, on any given occasion, be a mixed reaction. Those in on the know might smile, even if they've been dropped, but others might get a bit cross. I've seen people get quite cross (especially when the half-wheelers go past a turn that the ride leader had intended to take) but, equally, I've seen people just say 'boys will be boys' even if the boys are well in to their seventh (or eighth) decade.


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## Tim Hall (9 Sep 2011)

dellzeqq said:


> and there's usually a sprint for the cakes at Capel. And if you've seen those cakes, you'll know that they are worth sprinting for.



I wouldn't know. Last time I went on a ride to Capel there were no cakes to be seen, not even for ready money.


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## Noodley (9 Sep 2011)

oldroadman said:


> No, that's not it, that's overlapping and it's daft in a group, and in a race for that matter, unless you all now what you are doing and it's an echelon. A common mistake by people who start "racing" without the background of a club to help them learn not just etiquette but sound practice and sense. Personally I don't worry about someone doing it to me, I just don't want them to crash and bring someone following down as well.
> 
> While we are at it, getting out of the saddle without presure on the pedals makes the bike "jump" back a little, and is another excellent way of causing a crash. Something else riding with some experienced people in a proper club will help you with. It's all simple really!



100% agree.


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## iAmiAdam (9 Sep 2011)

Rob3rt said:


> Riding slightly ahead of the cyclist to your side.
> 
> *I think it also extends to having your wheel overlap another riders by half a wheel such that if they moved sideways for any reason your wheels would collide and a crash is imminent.*



This ^

The other thing about increasing speed, that's fair game.


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## cyberknight (11 Sep 2011)

dellzeqq said:


> it's competitive cycling on a club run. What happens is that the person on the right hand side gets slightly ahead, and the person on the left hand side feels obliged to up the speed a little bit. Before you know it the entire club is rushing forward and then the slower riders get dropped. It's really what a club is not about.



+1 on my sunday club run today 2 people were struggling to keep the pace so i slowed down and gave them a pull for the entire run, rest of the gang did not even slow down.What was more gallign was that the ride leader had said to me when i was at the front to make sure no one got dropped !.Even worse was that at the cake stop i went to the loo and the rest all bar 1 had buggered off !

I have posted my concerns on the clubs forum as this is not good form , especially as it is laid out that this ride is a non drop group.

Hand signals for potholes etc have gone out the window as well.

If it continues i will be looking for another club.


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## gds58 (12 Sep 2011)

cyberknight said:


> I have posted my concerns on the clubs forum as this is not good form , especially as it is laid out that this ride is a non drop group.
> 
> Hand signals for potholes etc have gone out the window as well.
> 
> *If it continues i will be looking for another club.*



Good for you mate, if this is the way they are behaving then those responsible clearly have no idea what a 'club' is! It sounds to me like there are a few who maybe can't quite cut it on a 'proper' training ride so they go on the club run and show off a bit to those who simply want a nice brisk and social ride out. I bet they'd soon whinge if they got dropped from a training ride 40 miles from home!!

I've been on many club runs where the stronger riders amongst us have helped to push somebody who's struggling a bit, for 20 to 30 miles to make sure that they got home with us safely, and this is how it should be. 

I think that part of the problem is that there are a lot of 'faux' (fake or wannabe) racers who have bought a nice £1200 bike and think that they can race but don't actually commit themselves to having their backside well and truly kicked in a real race and they have never learnt the 'craft' of group riding properly and they are spoiling the real pleasures of a good sunday club run for the rest.

Up until the beginning of this year I'd been completely out of cycling for some 15 years but since getting back into it I've been riding out with a small group of friends and I then realised just how much I'd missed the fun of riding shoulder to shoulder (literally) having a chat about whatever, the occasional sprint up a hill or for a road sign just for fun and then waiting for the rest to catch up and maybe a stop for a coffee and cakes somewhere. You can rest assured cyberknight that it's these other idiots who are the ones missing out.

Graham


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## Chrisz (12 Sep 2011)

cyberknight said:


> Even worse was that at the cake stop i went to the loo and the rest all bar 1 had buggered off !





We did that to one of our members last year  



We all headed off and no-one noticed he wasn't with us! left a rather nice Orbea orca sat outside on it's own. He was only missed after a fairly fast thrash/chain gang along the canal road. A couple of us went back to find him but he'd already made his own way towards home - lots of apologetic emails/phone calls etc. and he still rides with us (we are much more careful now)


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## Andrew_Culture (5 Oct 2015)

There's another really obviously danger to half wheeling. I was at the back (naturally) of a group of only about six friends on a sportive last year and the front two were overlapping wheels. The fella in front looked over his shoulder, which causes a sort of involuntary slight swerve, and yes, wheels clashed.

The chaos caused grows exponentially as it filters backwards through the group and resulted in the rider in front of me going down, and me going over the top of him. He found a nice soft hedge but I landed on his bike and the road. I was not happy.

What made is worse was that we'd just caned past a club group of about forty riders. No need to guess what they thought of seeing the carnage something as simple as some half wheeling caused.

Half wheeling. No neeeeeed!


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## raindog (5 Oct 2015)

the greatest half-wheeler ever


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## oldroadman (5 Oct 2015)

Brahan said:


> I can't agree 100% with that. Sometimes a few hard miles really brings out the best in the group. Agreed, you shouldn't ditch your club mates, wait for them at the next junction if you have to.


No. On a club run (social) it's just wrong. If you want to be competitive, try a race and find out what it's really about.


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## Strathlubnaig (6 Oct 2015)

oldroadman said:


> No, that's not it, that's overlapping and it's daft in a group, and in a race for that matter, unless you all now what you are doing and it's an echelon. A common mistake by people who start "racing" without the background of a club to help them learn not just etiquette but sound practice and sense. Personally I don't worry about someone doing it to me, I just don't want them to crash and bring someone following down as well.
> 
> While we are at it, getting out of the saddle without presure on the pedals makes the bike "jump" back a little, and is another excellent way of causing a crash. Something else riding with some experienced people in a proper club will help you with. It's all simple really!



Absolutely, on the first APR I attended someone did exactly that, on a short rise they crept back a bit and I was not experienced enough to be aware of it, and Bam !...road rash and broken spokes...


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