Night riding feels amazing

[Blue Hills]

Good lights are magical when there's a hint of Mist too.

how do you mean?
I hope not that you can't see anything/feel like you're about to pass through to the other side?

Got to agree with you OP - must get out on another.

I did a London to Southampton night ride a few weeks ago - at one point on a track through a wooded bit I surprised two young lads and a young woman leaning against a barrier or fallen tree trunk or something having what seemed like an innocent natter at some ungodly hour - after they had recovered from their surprise at me coming through the trees I think I heard one say "he doesn't know where he is".

(I did and I didn't - was following a gpx track I'd made but didn't actually know where I was)

 

[Blue Hills]

1:30am is for Badgers, burglars & prostitutes

the latter two intent on avoiding the attentions of the plod disguise themselves as the first of course.

 

[Blue Hills]

I’m tempted by this but bit concerned about safety issue. Presumably with decent lights and right clothing people find it ok?

I don't think it's particularly dangerous.
Less drink driving than there used to be.
And less pubs, particularly in the countryside.
I try to avoid Friday and Saturday nights for night rides though.

And I wouldn't ride when there was any chance of ice on the roads.

Be careful of that OP.

 

[Tripster]

the latter two intent on avoiding the attentions of the plod disguise themselves as the first of course.

Lost a bit on that one.....disguised as a badger or a beaver ?

 

[Blue Hills]

I live on the edge of a forest and would see a lot of deer at night, and sometimes doggers going at it, but after 12 hours at work I was too knackered to join in!

I thought doggers had regular vacancies for watchers? (sorry don't know the lingo - suppose there are different words for active, semi active and passive participants in the nocturnal drama).

I see a subthread on odd/suspicious/interesting things folks have seen on nightrides - nothing of mine immediately comes to mind - have seen a few things on nightime city walks when I was younger - though mostly run of the mill stuff like folk taking a suspicious interest in parked cars

 

[Teamfixed]

Its been a while but Audax night rides always felt like a magic carpet.

 

[Tripster]

I see a subthread on odd/suspicious/interesting things folks have seen on nightrides - nothing of mine immediately comes to mind - have seen a few things on nightime city walks when I was younger - though mostly run of the mill stuff like folk taking a suspicious interest in parked cars

I worked in a lighting factory once, regular nightshift 10-6... One evening about 1am the coating machine began dropping lamps all over. I was called over to take a look and asked where the operator was. Probably still in break outside.... I trotted off to his car and wrapped on window only to be greeted by his captain birdseye winking at me and a rather startled very old lass off the line who appeared to be cleaning it for him......... the things you see after dark 😱 Plea’s of not to say a word and begging for my silence where obviously heeded

 

[Blue Hills]

Definitely will try a dusk till dawn next year - would be about 14 hours right now!
I have hub dynamo light set just above front wheel, which is perfect for highlighting potholes well ahead. Also have a cateye 1300 on handlebar for tricky lanes, but I only use low light level to avoid losing night vision. Other safety measure is just going a bit slower.

yes and be particularly careful on downhills, especially if you don't have lights as good as yours.
I often pretty much freewheel downhills on night rides.

 

[raleighnut]

how do you mean?
I hope not that you can't see anything/feel like you're about to pass through to the other side?

Got to agree with you OP - must get out on another.

I did a London to Southampton night ride a few weeks ago - at one point on a track through a wooded bit I surprised two young lads and a young woman leaning against a barrier or fallen tree trunk or something having what seemed like an innocent natter at some ungodly hour - after they had recovered from their surprise at me coming through the trees I think I heard one say "he doesn't know where he is".

(I did and I didn't - was following a gpx track I'd made but didn't actually know where I was)

I run a pair of Electron lamps each with 8 focused LEDs that give very pretty 'cones' of light into mist. they can be adjusted (and switched) seperately so I genrally have them set with the nearside to the kerb and quite close to the front wheel whilst the other is further away and central. Here they are on the front of the Trike.

The other 2 brackets on the handlbars hold a pair of Cateye 'Opticubes' as the Electon lamps don't have a 'flashing' mode which I find more useful in traffic.

 

[ColinJ]

Its been a while but Audax night rides always felt like a magic carpet.

Mine felt like threadbare rugs...


... that drunks had puked on!

 

[Teamfixed]

Well yes, I have a very selective memory! Sleeping in a ladies loo with a survival blanket somewhere in north Wales at 3am felt pretty rough

 

[ColinJ]

I am sure that the lack of traffic is great if you live somewhere where it is hard to escape it. Drunks really can be a pain though. I have had them lurching out in front of me several times and I don't ride much at night.

I remember reading about drunks actually attacking a rider in Sowerby Bridge on the Three Coasts 600 km Audax! He was rescued by a group of other riders who came along in the nick of time.

I have finished a few rides at sunset on sunny summer evenings. I DO like that.

 

[GoldenLamprey]

Living in the UK and having a 9-5 job means I have to ride in the dark if I want to keep fit (not a turbo fan). With decent lights it is great. Animals are perhaps a risk, but you cannot spend your life worrying about 'what-ifs'. I nearly got taken out by a running deer in the daylight (6am), so it is not a problem unique to night-riding.

 

[Blue Hills]

Well yes, I have a very selective memory! Sleeping in a ladies loo with a survival blanket somewhere in north Wales at 3am felt pretty rough

you were lucky to find one open.
Most public lavs have been sold off or shut at dusk or even earlier.
Got to ask if you are a bloke or a woman.
If a bloke why not the gents?
were they, er, "busy".

 

[Blue Hills]

I nearly got taken out by a running deer in the daylight (6am), so it is not a problem unique to night-riding.

Yep, leading a ride once in broad daylight once a deer jumped over a hedge and nearly took several of us out. It didn't know, or probably even care, that we were there.
My animal encounters.
Not a night ride as such but a long two day ride when I bivvied in the corner of a sodden field somewhere between Birmingham and Oxford. As I lay in the bivvy I heard a strange grunting sound and seemed to see something frantically running backwards and forwards across the field. Eventually I fell asleep - whatever it was (a boar of some sort?) it wasn't attracted by the smell of me or the Lidl wine gums I had for my evening meal and breakfast.