Commuting - Awesome ride

Lo all.

A couple nights ago, I needed to go to work for about 20 minutes late at night. I usually bus down to work with my bike and ride back home, an uphill ride. 7 mile.

I decided to ride there and back. I had the roads to myself, (this is Cleveland at 9:00PM). It was the ride of my life. I was flying at 25-33MPH the entire way. (Quite a change for me, because on my usual uphill ride I never break 18MPH).
The weather was perfect, just a touch of cool breeze in face. The darkish roads with streetlight every so often, made the ride a bit surreal. There were hardly any cars to bother me and I made most of the green lights.

What can I say, it was simply awesome.

The ride back was a bit harder, but what a night. I am thinking of doing this on the mornings now, before the traffic starts up, at least once a week.

My direct commute is much the same, although shorter. Downhill to work, uphill home. I love those mornings where traffic, conditions, winds (and the sputtery old engine) all work for a big ring, high cadence ride all the way. On the rare occasions where I pass cars, it makes my entire day.

Of course payment is extracted on the uphill, headwind ride home…

Riding at night is awesome, isn't it? Even though I've been doing it for about 8-9 months, I still get giddy before my night commutes. The amount of cars to deal with is perhaps 15% of what it is during the daytime commutes - and dropping, I suspect, as folks increasingly won't be able to afford to drive more than their required (mostly daytime) commuting. The decreased traffic alone makes the ride much more enjoyable, and, I believe, safer - with the very important requirement of taking the precautions appropriate - a good headlight, rear blinkie (for me, Dinotte for both), a backup for each (about about to look for a powerful 1xAA everyday carry flashlight that will suffice as a better headlight backup than I have now), and reflectives. A lot of people that haven't done it (at least properly) themselves want to tell you that night riding is the most dangerous thing a person could possibly do. After actually doing it for some time, I'm convinced that these folks don't know what they're talking about - just more excuses to drive everywhere.

My favorite time to ride is the return trip at the end of my shift rotation, when I'm working 4 PM - midnight... most folks leave the plant at 10 or 11, so there is even less traffic than there is when I'm coming in for my midnight - 8 AM shift. It's usually dead quiet. Not only that, but the wind is usually with me. Once I get home and take a shower, I'm feeling absolutely great, and then it's my time to relax for a few hours before slipping into bed.

Just wait until summer! You want nice conditions? There's no better time to ride than summer nights.

About to do a night commute in about an hour. :)

Downhill, Cleveland? You must be an eastsider.

+1 for riding at night being safer. Less cars means less things for cars to pay attention to, and less cars for you to have to pay attention to. Also great is long sequences of green lights that only go red when cars actually show up to cross.

Steve

Nice to find some other night riders. My shift takes me to work at 7:00 p.m., home at 6:00 a.m. The only thing I worry about is that my trip to work is right about when Happy Hour ends.

Just tonight I was at the supermarket on my lunch break (around 1:30 a.m.), on a road where the is virtually no traffic whatsoever. I was waiting at the stoplight, and I see a car approach from the right. They have a green light, but it's about the only thing to watch, so I watch them drive through - directly onto the median, plow over a No U Turn sign and rupture their gas tank as they veer back onto the road. My light had turned yellow, so I turned after them, the smell of gasoline permeating my vehicle, a wet trail of expensive fuel following them. They were weaving and had slowed from the incident.

I got close enough to get the make and model as well as the license plate, called it in.

As good and as safe as I am on a bike, all it takes is some moron like that to end your days.

Be careful out there, night shifters.

Riding at night is awesome, isn't it? Even though I've been doing it for about 8-9 months, I still get giddy before my night commutes. The amount of cars to deal with is perhaps 15% of what it is during the daytime commutes - and dropping, I suspect, as folks increasingly won't be able to afford to drive more than their required (mostly daytime) commuting. The decreased traffic alone makes the ride much more enjoyable, and, I believe, safer - with the very important requirement of taking the precautions appropriate - a good headlight, rear blinkie (for me, Dinottoe for both), a backup for each (about about to look for a powerful 1xAA everyday carry flashlight that will suffice as a better backup than I have now), and reflectives. A lot of people that haven't done it (at least properly) themselves want to tell you that night riding is the most dangerous thing a person could possibly do. After actually doing it for some time, I'm convinced that these folks don't know what they're talking about - just more excuses to drive everywhere.

My favorite time to ride is the return trip at the end of my shift rotation, when I'm working 4 PM - midnight... most folks leave the plant at 10 or 11, so there is even less traffic than there is when I'm coming in for my midnight - 8 AM shift. It's usually dead quiet. Not only that, but the wind is usually with me. Once I get home and take a shower, I'm feeling absolutely great, and then it's my time to relax for a few hours before slipping into bed.

Just wait until summer! You want nice conditions? There's no better time to ride than summer nights.

About to do a night commute in about an hour. :)

I couldn't agree more. My morning commute to work commences around 4:30am. There are very few cars out and most of the time, I only turn my head light on when I see a car coming. Once your eyes are adapted to the dark it's a completely different world out there. The early morning for me is my favorite. Peaceful and full of wildlife. Of course, my commute is typically rural. Thanks for sharing.

When I first started riding back in the 70s a few of us used to go out on midnight rides--screaming through quiet residential neighborhood streets in the wee hours is still a treasured memory of mine.

These days I'm still an early rider. I get rolling about 5:00AM or so, and the first mile-and-a-half or so lets me relive those old days a bit. :D

It's great to be out when there are so few cars that when one does go by it's a rude interuption...