Commuting - Who else likes riding in the dark?

So the days are rapidly shrinking while the nights are growing longer. Around this time of the year lots of commuters complain about riding in the dark clearly regarding that as an awful thing to do. But I actually have a lot of fun doing it!!

There is something I always liked about the dark (here is my dark side, I guess :)). Night is the time when your work responsibilities are all over (or haven't started yet in case of morning) and it's time to party and have fun!! :) Also, the days are mostly so grey and drab around here this time of year that I'm glad when they're over.

Some people are concerned with safety of night riding in traffic, but I never so it as a problem. I found that as long as cyclists and their bikes are properly decorated with lights and reflectors, it is easier to spot them at night than during the day. I also encounter almost no buzzers at night - I guess people prefer to err on the side of caution when they cannot clearly see the cyclist's outline.

Crime is not a big problem in Toronto either. Of course, I prefer to stay away from unlit ravine paths at night, but as long as I stick to the streets, I feel as safe as during the daylight hours.

Any other nocturnal creatures around here who love dark riding? :)

I do.
Traffic is much better. I'm more visible. It's generally more peaceful when I'm not getting mugged.

I like riding at night. Don't know why.

Me, me, me! I think I said this in another thread, but it seems like I spin easier, the ride goes faster and the hills don't seem as steep in the dark, when you can't see for the same distance as daytime. I also feel more alone...which I mean as a good thing, like I am in my own little world.

Part of my commute is on the O&E towpath now and I don't mind riding it at night either. I just gotta watch for critters and peds. I usually sing or talk loudly to myself to give em a bit of warning that I am coming. Sneaking up on deer can make you have a bad day. ;)

the hills don't seem as steep in the dark Oh yes, I forgot this one, but it's true! Doesn't work so well in the city where the street lamps make it easy to see hills so you can start worry about them in advance. But on a quiet dark country road it is awesome! I hardly notice any hills. :)

I do.
Traffic is much better. I'm more visible. It's generally more peaceful when I'm not getting mugged.

+1 on the more visible. I have also lived placed where it can be too hot to enjoy riding in the day.

Keep a look out for those waves. They are invisible at night.

I like it due to the fact that my eyes are fairly sensitive to light and my night vision is spiffy.
One doctor told me this was due to having light blue eyes. I have no clue if this is valid or not.

I love riding in the dark, even when I can not see very well due to poor lighting on my part. Something about it...

As long as there's not a lot of traffic I enjoy my evening commute in the dark. Things seem more restful and calmer at night.

I love night riding. Flashing lights and reflectives make me more visible in the dark than hiviz clothing does in the daylight.

I like it due to the fact that my eyes are fairly sensitive to light and my night vision is spiffy.
One doctor told me this was due to having light blue eyes. I have no clue if this is valid or not.

Hmm, I got blue eyes, good night vision and sensitive to light too. Could we be alien brothers?

Riding on the local singletrack is better at night (with good light systems) because there are almost no other people on the trails, and I'm not likely to whip around a corner and surprise someone since my lights give advance warning. I just got back from a little off-road ride... this time I had two halogen systems and one HID along, totalling something like 60-80W effective output.

Hmm, I got blue eyes, good night vision and sensitive to light too. Could we be alien brothers?


LOL!

It is even worse up in higher elevations. If I forget my sunglasses on a sunny day my eyes tear up something fierce and I barely can see. When I head up to the mountains sunglasses are even more important. Now I have the desire to research how pigmentation affects light sensitivity. Wait....nope. The desire is gone. I will ask my current dr the next time I hurt something. That should be...oh...a week or two. :p

LOL!

It is even worse up in higher elevations.

Don't forget I used to live right across the border from Trinidad at about 6600 feet and had to commute over Raton Pass. ;)

i prefer country roads in the dark, there is somethign special when the only sound is your tires skimming across the road. mmmmmm

and few cars at 2am it is nice on cr 520 since no one uses it, i get a lane to myself for 10-20 miles at a time

Me. It's more peaceful and more energizing at the same time which is strange.

Riding at night seems both more restful and more exciting.

Years ago my bike commute was 16 miles through the country in the dark. I didn't use a light and didn't even really look up at the road. It was very peaceful.

I still often do laps around the neighborhood (it's a really large place) late at night. Seems that you have to pay less attention to your surroundings as the cars lights let you know they're coming.

Nighttime in heavy traffic I do not enjoy.

Hmm, I got blue eyes, good night vision and sensitive to light too. Could we be alien brothers?

Me, too. 20/15 vision, blue eyes, and very sensitive to light, but I wear sunglasses in even overcast weather, and wear glare-reducing orange lenses in my sunglasses for day & night riding.

That being said, I have stellar night-vision, and love to ride and drive at night. I can see for longer distances without having to be aided by sunglasses, and can make out distinct shapes & stuff without light. Maybe I'm really nocturnal, and my work schedule forces me to go to bed at 10:00PM?

As others have said, I feel safer at night with my lights and reflectives. I also tend to be more alert to traffic and can maintain focus on spinning circles and keeping my cadence up.

My favorite group ride is the Tuesday Night Urban Assault (http://www.tnua.net/) ride. Runs only from October through April, meets at 6pm and rides-out at 6:15 for about two hours. I like riding near the back of the group watching the line of blinkies stretched-out before me.

So the days are rapidly shrinking while the nights are growing longer. Around this time of the year lots of commuters complain about riding in the dark clearly regarding that as an awful thing to do. But I actually have a lot of fun doing it!!

There is something I always liked about the dark (here is my dark side, I guess :)). Night is the time when your work responsibilities are all over (or haven't started yet in case of morning) and it's time to party and have fun!! :) Also, the days are mostly so grey and drab around here this time of year that I'm glad when they're over.

Some people are concerned with safety of night riding in traffic, but I never so it as a problem. I found that as long as cyclists and their bikes are properly decorated with lights and reflectors, it is easier to spot them at night than during the day. I also encounter almost no buzzers at night - I guess people prefer to err on the side of caution when they cannot clearly see the cyclist's outline.

Crime is not a big problem in Toronto either. Of course, I prefer to stay away from unlit ravine paths at night, but as long as I stick to the streets, I feel as safe as during the daylight hours.

Any other nocturnal creatures around here who love dark riding? :)

There should be a "light up the path" ride from the Ontario Science Center at night all the way downtown. Now that would be a cool ride. Of course not everyone can afford HID's and such so there will probably be some sandwiching of 1-2 people in between people with powerful lights so thier lights can light up the path in front of the people in the middle gaps. Ahh.. now that would be fun...

Ahh yes, back to the topic. I like night riding. It's pleasent and you can collect your thoughts. ALso there is something about lights at night that just make the shutterbug in you want to take night photos.


Zero_Enigma

Me. It's more peaceful and more energizing at the same time which is strange.


Riding through the mountains under a full moon and stars is
exhilirating ! I arrive at work feeling as if Ive done something
illegal :D
I see more frogs, Deer, Fox, bats, etc. than cars.......
I love early AM commute !!

me, I just seem to relax in the dark. Maybe it is because you feel more solitude, even with cars whizzing by you.

I love riding at night, especially in the summer when it's so hot in the daylight hours. The only problem is watching out for other riders and walkers on the MUP with no lights at all. I came up on two idiots that had run into each other head on and were severely injured. No lights, no reflectors, and no common sense. Both of there road bike frames were broken so they must have been running at high speed as well. I've also seen bicyclists run over walkers/joggers dressed in all black with no reflective material or lights. Of course, reflectors or reflective material is useless if the other person is not using a light to reflect off the reflectors or material. It just makes you wonder what people are thinking when they go out riding at night totally unprepared to do it safely. Then there are the people that think the reflectors that came on there bicycle is all they need out in traffic.

Yeah, night crawler here too. In fact I commute 14 miles every night on my bike and I love it. I use a big blinkie light on my seat bag, and a smaller blinkie on my backpack, and so far motorists seem to give me a lot of room. I also use a home made pvc light I built with an MR-16, 20-watt halogen bulb that completely lights up the road whenever I flip it on. On my commute, when there's no traffic, I switch the light off and enjoy the cool darkness, just riding along at my usual 15 mph pace. In the darker sections of road where it's harder to see, I'll flip on the halogen and see plenty. Its perfect for 20 mph fast rides.

Like anything, you have to adapt to the lay of the land, and riding down here in central Florida at night is a definite boon. I ride at night year round and its great. During the winter months it can get iffy, but with arm and knee warmers, and a sweat jacket, I can handle all but the worse of Florida cold. With my new balaclava I ordered from e-bay I should be able to handle even 30 degree weather.

I thoroughly enjoy my pre-dawn commutes to work. Even with the upcoming time change, having to be there by 6:00 AM, I'll still be riding before day break.

The thing with my commutes is, riding in the dark means riding in the Dark when there's no moon or it's overcast. My best lighted route takes me past a dozen street lights, a convience store and a country club in a 7 1/2 mile commute. A little over three miles of that, there is no ambient light. I can take another, longer, route with half the street lights and no convience store. On a clear, dark, night there are a quadrillionzillion stars out. <insert advocating redundant active light use, when riding at night here>. On a full moon night with no cars in sight, I turn my headlights off and ride in the moonlight.:)


I like it due to the fact that my eyes are fairly sensitive to light and my night vision is spiffy.
One doctor told me this was due to having light blue eyes. I have no clue if this is valid or not.
I have heard it said by people in the circle to know, that the best Marine Snipers have blue or green eyes. Mine are green.

Without going into a lot of boring details about rods, cones and night vision; the more you use your night vision, the better it will be. Vitamin A can help with this, but don't over do it. A can be toxic at high enough doses. Just eat more liver.:D

Love it. It's more peaceful, especially on the Hudson Greenway.

+ 1 I left work yesterday early so that I could get in an evening ride, at least starting while it was still light. I just ding-ed around the neighborhood, which includes going back behind the high school, with the football field on one side (not in use, so quiet this night) and forest preserve on the other, through the trails in the forest preserve (I saw kids on a horse-drawn hayride "Hey, look! Someone's riding their bike!"), over through the golf course, through the neighborhood itself, then repeating any combination of the above. I started out heading east first, then turned around and rode west into a hot pink sunset. I hadn't been on my bike all week, so I had riding pent up. It was so fun being out that I stayed out well into darkness and that gave me a chance to test my light set-up. It's humble, but it delivers what I need. Among the class 3 ANSI lime green windbreaker (plenty of reflective tape - thanks, www.AlertShirt.com), reflector-o-rama, and lights, I'm here to tell about it.

RE: Light eyes/light sensitivity. My optometrist said that darker eyes absorb more light; lighter eyes absorb less, hence the sensitivity.

I love seeing that it's the Canadians and Minnesotans first out of the gate to weigh in on riding during our long northern nights! Thanks for a fun thread, chephy.

I've always loved riding at night. for the last 2 and a half years I've worked midnights so on many of my nights off I have trouble sleeping. so, if you can't sleep, ride!! and now with the time change and all my commute home from work is also in the dark. I feel at ease riding at night and for some reason no matter where I ride I feel like I belong. I just have to remember to slow down on side streets because many people do not look when they back out of driveways, and or don't have their lights on until they get out of the driveway. other than that it is a great experience

I am another person that loves riding at night. When you alone and riding through town late at night it is super peaceful. Those late nights when I would be in the labs at scool, it would be a little foggy out and nice brisk weather are the best. You feel like you are flying.

Another one of my favorites is when you are mountain biking at night. You run your powerful light for down hill sections and when it is a nice moonlit night you can run nothing and ride my moonlight or you can use a tiny led. I have had some amazing night rides.

I love riding at night! It's a great feeling, that's for sure. My typical ride home from downtown is via downtown city streets, dedicated bike paths, then decently busy city streets through my suburban neighbourhood.

During the winter months it can get iffy, but with arm and knee warmers, and a sweat jacket, I can handle all but the worse of Florida cold. With my new balaclava I ordered from e-bay I should be able to handle even 30 degree weather. 30 degrees - and you call it winter?! :roflmao:

:)

I like riding in the dark. Peaceful. And feels neat to be lighting your own way. I like riding in the rain. Fun to splash around. I'm not sure if I like riding in the dark and the rain, though.

30 degrees - and you call it winter?! :roflmao:

:)
Hey, 30 is below freezing. I'm just glad it doesn't stay really cold around around here (below 50) for long periods.;) :D

Riding in the rain is fun as long as you have a place to dry off after. Having to sit in wet clothes ruins it.

I had to buy a light that runs for 8 hours so I can keep riding centuries into the night wihtout running out of light. Coming home after midnight is great. Where I live there is almost no traffic at that time.



l this time I had two halogen systems and one HID along, totalling something like 60-80W effective output.

Did you want to borrow a couple of lights so you can have more ?

Did you want to borrow a couple of lights so you can have more ?LOL, I won't be able to climb hills if I add too many more! :D I brought the third one along in case I needed to lend it to a pal... on the last ride, one guy had an old dual-beam Cygo that was dimming before we even got started.

I love riding in the dark, except for last Monday night.
I was turning onto the bike path that runs along Skaha lake, and I misjudged where the curb ended.

I saw it at the last second, and tried to hop up, but no chance. I flipped over hard (didn't skid at all - just dumped on my head/shoulder) Damn good thing I had a helmet on, cuz if my head hit as hard as my shoulder, I'd be in the hospital or worse.

Even so, I saw the "flash of light", and there's a nice dent in the backend of the brain bucket.

The only damage to the bike was I burnt out both my cygo-lite bulbs. Anyone know where to get cheap replacements?

I love riding in the dark, except for last Monday night.
I was turning onto the bike path that runs along Skaha lake, and I misjudged where the curb ended.

I saw it at the last second, and tried to hop up, but no chance. I flipped over hard (didn't skid at all - just dumped on my head/shoulder) Damn good thing I had a helmet on, cuz if my head hit as hard as my shoulder, I'd be in the hospital or worse.

Even so, I saw the "flash of light", and there's a nice dent in the backend of the brain bucket.

The only damage to the bike was I burnt out both my cygo-lite bulbs. Anyone know where to get cheap replacements?
If they are MR11 6watt - I changed my cygolite bulbs for 6v 10w from batteryspace.com - just a few bucks each. I was running the 6v at 8.4v - my bad.

Riding in the rain is fun as long as you have a place to dry off after. Having to sit in wet clothes ruins it.
Don't forget having a place to dry your clothes. One of the things I don't like about the winter is that I know my gear will be cold and soaking wet when I don it for my ride home. After a few miles, it's no big deal, but there's something inherently depressing about putting on cold, wet clothes.

Hey, 30 is below freezing. What's your point? :D :D :D

I like riding at night as traffic is usually quieter and I get much more respect and space from drivers when all my lights are up. Drivers seem to be a bit more cautious since they have difficulty gauging distance and around here, at least, are more careful in consequence. I love riding in the country but I won't venture out of the city after dark even on back roads.

If you don't like riding at night, maybe you should get yourself some of these...

http://www.fossilfool.com/down-low-glow.php?PHPSESSID=965462bb5995d71386a0012572316a37

They're just so cool.

That is not going on any of my bikes, no way, no how, ain't gonna' happen.:eek:

On the other hand, I can see how a light like that could be useful. On somebody else's bike.:)
Maybe I'm just too old and conservative for something like that.;)

i love it except when there's a huge descent. then i feel like i might die soon. fun though.

That is not going on any of my bikes, no way, no how, ain't gonna' happen.:eek:

On the other hand, I can see how a light like that could be useful. On somebody else's bike.:)
Maybe I'm just too old and conservative for something like that.;)

Nah, it's just that you're a country boy out there in the Panhandle with your mostly gracious motorists. :) Something tells me this is going to appeal the most to urban night riders. I generally go for a more conservative outward appearance, but I'd really like one of these for where I live. There is something to be said for impressing the idiot/scary young male motorists with your cool toys before it occurs to them to start playing Harass the Cyclist.

I love riding at night most of my miles for the last year have been at night. As Ozzy says whooooo bark at the moon.:D

Although I've long read about the kind of benefits everyone has mentioned about riding in the dark, I had never tried it until a week or so ago. I'm a commuter more in spirit than in actual practice, so my occasional rides to work have generally come on fairly warm days in the summer. But I'm trying to do better, and have done a couple of rides recently starting around 6:30-6:45am, which at this time of year (prior to the time change today) has meant I've been in the dark for around 30-45 minutes. I found it to be true -- I do feel safer (aka more visible) and it's nice to have a little less traffic to deal with than I do starting even 15 minutes or so later. Only problem I ran into is eyewear/protection -- I need to pull out my racquetball glasses or get another pair of clear lensed glasses to use until it gets light and I need to switch to sunglasses. Even the bright yellow lenses I normally wear when riding are too dark to use in the dark.

mike

I dig it, it's quiet, and you can see cars approching :)

When I was a Teen, I use to prefer riding in the dark just because of this, and we did it with out lights, because we were silly, and invincible.