Mountain Biking - how to justify night riding?

To make a long post short, how can you justify night riding to a girlfriend/parents/family/friends? I have a light, and a group of 15 or so to night ride with, and the trees/obstacles all have reflectors. Non bikers assume mountain biking is dangerous, but at night, suicidal!

How do you justify it?

It's fun and it helps improve my technical skills, thats all the explanation I need to give anyone. However my wife, friends and family know how much I enjoy riding so they just shake their heads and go on thinking that I'm an idiot. I'm okay with that.

They know that if I don't get my rides in I'm a royal pain in the neck. With daylight savings time ending soon there really isn't much of a choice, either night ride or only ride on weekends.

I don't. I enjoy it, and people will either support me and wish me well or they won't and I'll go anyway. Of course it would probably be my wife's idea to go so...

How do these people justify driving a car at night when visibility is limited and there are a lot of drunks on the road?

Well, my problem is that "the parents" are concerned for my safety. They worry enough when I'm out riding 15 miles deep in the woods, so they can't understand why I would risk injury in the dark of night. I can see where they are coming from, but was looking for any kind of leverage at all provided by complete strangers on the internet :rolleyes:

Thanks guys.

Ughh, different when parents are involved. Hmmmm........good luck. Unfortunately I cannot think of anyway to actually say that it is "safe". However if you are doing it with a responsible group it is less dangerous.

Will the "but you don't want me to get fat and lazy" angle work by any chance?

How do you justify eating anything but rice and beans? Other stuff tastes good! Night riding is fun! However, I did do a face plant one time when I went night riding.

To make a long post short, how can you justify night riding to a girlfriend/parents/family/friends? I have a light, and a group of 15 or so to night ride with, and the trees/obstacles all have reflectors. Non bikers assume mountain biking is dangerous, but at night, suicidal!

How do you justify it?
try riding singletrack along bluffs. how about icy bluffs.

I plan to justify it in the simplest terms. I want to. My gf won't say anything and neither will anybody else. I have an abrasive personality when dealing with authority so they get further by letting me fall on my face than trying to tell me to do something.

Maelstrom nailed it. If that doesn't work, tell them that you ride a lot slower at night. ;)

If you are riding with a group I don't see the problem.

what kind of light do you have?

Most of the good ones now are like riding during the day really.

Like lowcel said, in about 2 weeks, you will have 2 choices.

1. ride at night
2. become a weekend warrior

Good luck dealing with the Parental units.

Just tell your parents at least you're not going out and getting drunk or high.

Just tell your parents at least you're not going out and getting drunk or high.
while it might seem stupid at first... actually true: i am sure that statistically mountain biking at night is less dangerous than teenage driving at night or partying... (although explaining to your parents that partying is dangerous may not be the best thing)

but seriously, mountain biking is a positive, constructive sport that builds strength, coordination and endurance and increases your general health and energy... plus in a group you're building "social skills"... and doing sports is about the best "alternate activity" for smoking cigarettes or excessive drinking or drugs or generally "getting in trouble from boredom"... (oh, yeah, i speak from previous experience there! except the smoking cigarettes! and especially the too much "teen boredom"= trouble!)

if you're riding with a decent light (say >15W halogen) then a group ride at night is not "dangerous" (i ride extreme Freeride trails at night - actually going for a night-ride in a few hours! :) )

explain it to them rationally, show that you're responsible and can be trusted and with a little time and perserverance it should work out. (although with parents the _should_ does always equal _does_)

Tell them about the advertising for your HID light which will say somewhere in the literature, "Turns night into Day".

Just don't show them the HID light. My wife was like, "OK, it's a good start, but don't you need a second one on your helmet?" Of course, she didn't want me to buy another one though!

How do I justify it?

I want to ride my bike, it's dark, and I have a light. End of story.

Besides, when you're running an HID light on your helmet, things aren't quite as dark anymore.

My light:
http://www.blewsclues.com//gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=527&g2_serialNumber=2