Noted Colin but you have to do at least one of these rides. Overnighters are the worst and best rides i have done.
(Hopefully,) I've already done my worst ones! I've only ridden a reasonable distance at night when struggling solo on November and February 200s in very cold conditions, desperate for the rides to be over and terrified of getting a puncture on top of some isolated 1,100 ft hill, with fingers potentially too numb to be able to fix it. Those cold, dreary audaxes put me off night riding.
The clincher for me was the two lunatic drivers racing each other who nearly killed me on the North West Passage in 2007. I had reflective gear on and fairly bright lights on the bike but the first driver still passed me going scarily fast and only a couple of feet away. His mate was gaining on him and went by so close that I was blown sideways off the road by the shock wave. It was very clear to me that I wasn't enjoying myself and that I didn't want to die up there alone on the hills.
Perhaps I'd feel okay riding with better lights in a large group, but even so, I'd rather do a night ride in the summer. I think Ravenbait's Dumb Run might pull me in eventually. I fancy a cycling holiday in Scotland and I could plan one to coincide with that.
Anyway - don't make me feel guilty! I wish I was fit enough to ride from Manchester to Blackpool on Friday night & early Saturday morning, ride back to Hebden Bridge Saturday lunchtime and then set off at 09:00 on the Sunday with sufficient energy and enthusiasm to get round SITD and actually enjoy it ... but I'm not!
Enjoy
this FNRTTC and I'll maybe join y'all on a future
summer night ride!
instead of using the nice trains I'm trying to work on a couple people but I don't think they are CTC members (I'm pretty certain one's BC).
