Cycling - Bunch Riding
Bunch riding etiquette and skills can be quite daunting for individuals new to cycling. If you are new to this you are best to be at the back and learn and improve your skills in a safe area to yourself or alongside a rider than can help you. As a bunch it is up to the group of riders to provide a safe environment to ride in.
We are in control of our own destiny and therefore take ownership of providing a safe riding environment - which means highlighting to an individual that they are not riding in a safe manor, then given the right opportunity explain the correct way to execute the area of concern.
Often the calls to other riders (doing something unsafe) might be a little toned with urgency but please appreciate that this is not only for your safety but for everyone else too – don’t take it personally just take the advice on the chin.
This is probably the easiest way to understand some of the bunch ride etiquette – so please take 2:30min to watch this
Main Areas of Focus
- Erratic movements within the bunch (sharp or quick change of direction toward riders or into traffic)
- Half wheeling (when riding in a group you should ride shoulder to shoulder, not halfway down their bike or the outside rider in the middle of the road)
- The bunch can easily snake along together if riding in pairs front wheels parallel.
- You can easily clip other riders if you are a half wheeler
- Signals (this is not just the front person it has to be through the whole group – if the leader points something out it needs to be highlighted to the whole peloton)
- Calls or Communication (turning, stopping, car back, car up, single file etc )
- Passing ( you can’t assume you have clear space to pull out and pass someone – CHECK BEHIND FIRST & COMMUNICATE TO RIDERS IN FRONT & BEHIND)
Obviously these things aren’t happening all the time but it only takes one of these things to have an incident.
BE AN AWESOME CYCLIST! BE SAFE!
Bunch riding, means that you need to ride right behind the wheel of the rider in front. If the riders communicate and signal to each other, there should be no problem but if riders can’t trust one another then the group ends up looking like a bunch of unorganized cyclist spread across the road over a large distance and this is harder and more dangerous for traffic to deal with than one TIDY BUNCH of cyclists!