Barren

My first LONG ride this year was in a group night ride.. a friend encouraged me to join them.. I loved it! I had a cheapy light for the first two weeks.. then I said to hell with that and bought a cygo-lite dual beam job with NiMH cage mount battery. Rode all summer in this weekly night ride group.. it was a blast! Start near the outskirts of town and then all country road riding after that. Low traffic.. Our biggest issues are animals running out in front of us.. Deer, oppossums, skunks, etc.

Night rides in the summer are great! No sun to beat down on you!

vtjim

Oh yeah, that's the one drawback to night riding. You need to start trying to justify spending hundreds of dollars on lights.

Methos

Pfffffttt... Once you start spending money, you can convince yourself that anything is justifiable. My conscience has learned to become weak and silent when it comes to necessary spending, .

vtjim

But I'm married to my conscience!

PaulBravey

I have a simple deal with my conscience - she has no qualms about me getting a new doodad for the bike as long as I don't care when she buys yet another pair of shoes

ruirui

opie.. here are some, but i think even though these are smaller.. but u'll have to rig it to fit on ur helmet for some. u can also get some Cateye LED to be mounted on the helmet. the one i have can be mounted almost anywhere..

E500 C.E.

for riding at night i have just been bungie cording a maglight to my handlebars. It has been cheap and works well. Once i get enough extra money ill start thinking about upgrading my light.

LordOpie

I have one of those, they're good for camping.

dc70

I thought that was Buzzin'Hornets, replacing Benson n Hedges...

JavaMan

I like riding in the dark for 3 reasons:
1. It seems like cars give me a wider berth when I'm lit up.
2. The hills don't seem as large (because I can't see very far!).
3. I can hammer to my heart's content without overheating.
Tom

ruirui

yup.. camping is great.. i went swimming with them before at night.. just to test it out to make sure it's water proof.. hehe

John00

I just bought this CygoLite Night Nicad HID at REI for $220 Haven't tried it out yet other than in the backyard, but is seems very bright!

https://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...ry_rn=4500819&

wmButler

I live in the desert and in the summer the only way to get a nice 200 mile ride in is at night. Otherwise you would have to stop once an hour (at least) to refill bottles. I can't think of anything quite as enjoyable as riding rual backroads with only the sounds of wildlife, the light of your bike light and the bright (really bright once you leave the city) stars. BTW I recently did my first draft legal ultra length event, you have never really ridden in a paceline untill you ride in one going 30+mph at 2AM.

tobiasg

Where do you all get the 20% off coupons - is that a member thing?

Thanks!

LordOpie

check the hot deals forum

MMPC

Well I guess I'm a convert to night riding now! Lord Opie invited me along last night and it was a blast - thanks man. Of course the lunar eclipse going on during our ride back wasn't bad either. As for lights, my Cateye EL-500 (1 LED, 1000+ candlepower) didn't do too badly, but not nearly as nice as Opie's helmet-mounted torch. I may have to look at an upgrade at some point. Anyway, night riding is most definitely a fun time. I look forward to my next excursion...

squeegy200

I got a set of Rudy Projects from Nashbar for $49 with interchangeable lenses and a hard case. What I found in summer months, the bugs focus on your lights. Consequently at speed they hit you in the face! I had to wash bug debris out of my eyes after the first early sunset.

Regarding nighr riding:
I do a nighttime road ride once a week. During the fall and winter, the lights become a necessity. I used to routinely ride mountain bikes afterhours. One of my memorable experiences is spotting a pack of coyotes early in the ride. As the ride progressed later into the evening, I would stop and focus my headlight behind me see numerous pairs of eyes in the brush. The coyotes were following us. I repeated this scenario several more times for the remainder of the ride.
I've also been on a forest single track and was startled by the noise of rustling brush that surrounded us. Not knowing what was near me, I stop and used my headlight to illuminate my surroundings and discovered I had ridden into the center of a large herd of deer.

Night riding is an exceptional experience.

clfjmpr44

Just had an awesome night ride here in Northern VA last night. My brother and I took off from work on the W&OD and I gave him a 19 mile escort to his house in Arlington. On the way out we benefitted from his nite rider, which made it almost daytime. On my solo return journey to my house was a different story, stupid 3 led cateye definitely made it more exciting. Just enough light to get an idea of what is ahead of you, but on descents, I could only guess what might of been out in front of me.

Dazza

The mushrooms can do that to a person

my58vw

I have spent about 800 dollars in lighting, I know what you mean, of course most of it is on my jekyll for patrol (about 500), and only about 100 on my roadie...

I love riding at night too, it is sure fun going 30 down the road and not being able to see becuase you are outriding your light./.. fun!

Chris516

I might try that, when...I get the guts to do it.