Is riding on unlight country roads at night suicide?

[MacLean]

Hi all,

I cant decide on this. Im planning on doing lejog and can only do my large 50miler+ runs at the weekends, so during the week i am limited to 6:45pm and onwards, which usually means its dark.... But i need to train.

Now I want to do this route tonight as although its not a huge distance, it has a pretty steep hill climb that should allow me to give my legs a good workout.... Im just slightly worried about riding on unlight country roads, with no cats eyes or anything when it gets dark, I do obviously have lights but dont have any idea of how dangerous or not this may be... What do you guys thing? Anyone do this themselfs?

BTW the A road is pretty quiet although i will get a good 20 - 30 cars or so passing me... THanks!

 

[MacB]

Lots of us do long miles on unlit roads commuting through Winter. My personal experience is that it's actually safer than daylight on some of these roads. If you're really well lit up then cars aren't sure what you are or where your vehiclce starts and ends. I certainly feel they give me more room in the dark than in light.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

If you have good lights you should be fine. I feel more visible during my 3am commute home on 12 miles of unlit rural A road than I do on the same commute during daylight.

 

[fossyant]

How good are your lights........................

What have you got. Unlit roads you'll be wanting something very bright - e.g. Hope Vision 1, or a 'high power LED torch' type light, and rears good quality ones like Smart superflash, Blackburn Mars 3 or 4 etc. etc. Also have a backup light as well on front and rear.

 

[MacLean]

Hmm yeh, my lights were about 20quid for a deal off amazon for the pair,

They seem pretty bright, but yeh not sure if they're gonna be bright enough....

I may go for it, but be ready to turn around when I hit the country roads if I dont feel they are bright enough.

 

[MacB]

For an idea on lights, I run two or three of the little smartflash ones at the rear, 2 are fixed to the rack and one on saddlepack, I have them all on flash. On the front I have a standard LED which is a light to be seen by rather than to see with, I run this on flash. I also have a Fenix torch which is my light to see with, on full power I can go as fast as I want on unlit roads. Though I do lust after a SON frontwheel dynamo and Edleux light.

 

[gbb]

I used to do a lot of night (evening) riding...good front lights and concentration are the first requirements. Sometimes it can get hairy when you can't differentiate between the road and verge.

The other downside is oncoming cars with main beam, or oncoming over the brow of a hill with normal headlights, you're convinced they've got main beam on, but it's just the throw of their normal lights that's in your eyes.

I found a helmet with a visor useful. Look 10 feet or so in front and use the visor to block the glare.

6 and 2 threes...quiet roads, but the headlights can be a problem.

 

[zacklaws]

If you plan on riding unlit country roads at night, I would do a good slow recce in daylight first. The state of the roads presently are dangerous enough with all these potholes that have appeared this winter. Even with good lights it is difficult to tell shallow holes from deep holes till your on top of them. Another problem I have found on country roads, I can sometimes get disorientated to the edge of the road if it is not marked by a white line and have left it in the past on occasions

On the plus side, cars approaching from the front and rear can be spotted from a good distance especially when going round blind corners providing they have their lights on.

So go for it but keep your speeds down to give yourself time to react to these potholes and anything else which may suddenly pop up in front of you, for example, ninja joggers, dog walkers, animals etc

 

[palinurus]

With good lights it's fun, with poor lights it's awful.

Rear lights are easy- there are plenty of good LED lights that are cheap enough that you can have two (so if one fails you have a backup). Front lights need to be bright enough to see far enough that you can travel at a reasonable speed.

 

[palinurus]

I may go for it, but be ready to turn around when I hit the country roads if I dont feel they are bright enough.

Good plan. It will be pretty obvious if they are not.

 

[HJ]

I used to commute on unlit rural roads and found that have a decent set of lights makes all the difference, you need something to see by not just been seen. This is my light set up:

I use the DiNotte 400L Road Rider's Experience, which are currently on sale at 20% off from DiNotte.

 

[jig-sore]

Lots of us do long miles on unlit roads commuting through Winter. My personal experience is that it's actually safer than daylight on some of these roads. If you're really well lit up then cars aren't sure what you are or where your vehiclce starts and ends. I certainly feel they give me more room in the dark than in light.

+1

but you need decent lights. hope vision 1 gets my vote, more then enough light on the road for around £70-£80, oh and get some decent batteries.

 

[briank]

The upside, apart from the fun of it, is that with very little other lights around your eyes will quickly adjust - you'll maybe even find yourself out on a clear night when the moon is full and turn your lights off altogether. Silver daylight - magic!
But 99% of the time you need a front light bright enough not only to distinguish the unmarked road from the verge but also to let you pick out big stones fallen off walls, ditto branches off trees and, of course, meandering hedgehogs.
Twin lights are good, the lesser bright enough and angled to do the above, the other much brighter and angled up so that the occasional pillock who isn't just cresting a rise but coming towards you on main can be persuaded to drop'em.

 

[GrasB]

Night riding, on back roads?... I love it .

The problem is you need high end lights & they ain't cheap. My minimum if you intend on riding relatively swiftly is a single light, such as a Hope 1 or exposure Joystick, is an absolute minimum but I'd say you really want 2 of them. It's better if you have a tighter spot & wider beam too.

My current setup is for riding at high speed in the pitch dark & being able to see all obstacles in my path in time. The result is 2x Exposure Joysticks an Ay-up 'wide' up front with an Exposure red-eye & Ay-up 'intermediate' with saxon caps up on the seat post & a Cateye LD 610 on each of the seat stays. I just suggest sitting down when you work out how much I've spent on my light setup.

 

[HLaB]

I don't know if I'm right or not I feel more visible at night, my gauge is the quality of overtakes and they seem to be better. IMO Good lights = no problem.