The 50+ "Riding in the Dark" Thread
 

OK, how many of you ride when it is dark?

When and why?

Do you have lights? What kind and how many?

Streets? MUPS? Neighborhood? Parkways and busier streets?

Commuting?

Just for fun?

Thought about it but have not committed?

I will be, while commuting when the winter days get short. Probably about 50-50 split between streets and mup as the mood strikes me (or the MUP curfew gets enforced).

I don't enjoy it as much since I tend to get tense, so there won't be many night rides just for fun.

Never. Back in the seventies when I raced, I had nightmares (literally) about being stuck somewhere and forced to ride home in the dark without lights. Lights back then were pretty anemic compared to what's available now, but the nightmares have stuck. I was riding near sunset a few months ago and felt the same panic that I felt in those nightmares.

I do and I love it. But then I have two medium powered head-lamps , two tail-lamps and plenty of safe roads and MUP routes to enjoy.

If you are a 4 season cyclist, you will spend substantial time cycling before dawn and after dusk. Embrace the darkness!

I have two sets of 300-lumens headlamps for lighting up the road. I also have Planet Bike front lights set to blink, this is so drivers can see me. I have two Superflash tail-lights, one set to blink and the other left steady. I've been told I look like a police car in persuit.

Redundancy is its own virtue.

When: Um, when it's dark!? Evening, late night, winter, summer....
Where: commute home (small city urban), in the country, around town.
Lights: Yes, lots. Dynamo light on rando bike with battery backup lights. Battery lights on commuter/town bike. Always redundent lights.
Commute, fun, exercise....

Can't see why I'd want to ride in the dark, it's dangerous on many levels and I don't need to. Lights have improved a great deal, so it might be better than in the past. Lots of people here ride mountain bikes at night, they seem to have fun, and all you long distance riders that start early and finish late seem to have a need. No riding in the dark for me.

I do lots of night riding. It's one of my favorite times to ride. I light myself up like a solstice tree (Dinotte front and rear, one or two Ixon IQ front, Planet Bike Superflash turbo rear, a couple of PBSF rear), wear lots of reflective material (ANSI class 3 jacket or class 2 vest with added reflective bands, reflective ankle straps, reflective bands on bike and helmet) and make sure to not be where the drunks are (the biggest challenge hereabouts).

I tend to avoid bike paths at night. Aside from not wanting to deal with the folks who are there (the drunks bother me and I bother the homeless), we have a nutria problem. This is a possum-sized critter that comes out of the rivers and creeks to feed on greens. Unfortunately, our bike paths are so close to the water that the nutria need to cross the bike path to find food. Their vision is not so good, but when they finally see a bike about to ride between them and the water they race for the water. This puts them right in one's wheel and they are big enough to take a bike down.

I mostly ride on the forest roads out beyond our suburbs. My commute used to be on these roads and I always enjoy seeing some stars without all the light pollution (nothing like CO, but not bad for sea level). Sometimes I ride at night because I am riding a double century and I want to finish before the commuters head for home. Other times I am riding to the beach and want to spend the entire day, or two, there before I ride back.

Of course I ride in town at night too. However, these are mostly just short utilitarian trips of less than ten miles round-trip. I try to avoid high-speed streets or those that have a high concentration of suburbanites (they tend to be the most aggressive and most likely to be drunk drivers here). That means I get to wear out my rims on lots of stop signs as I cut through the neighborhoods.

I do have some recommendations for someone who is new to night riding:
1. Assume you are invisible until you can confirm that you are seen.
2. Bring some chemical hand warmers if the weather could be at all cold. It's hard to have a good time when your hands are in pain. I wear a skull cap that covers the top of my ears as well.
3, Use your ears. Cars can be heard for miles; you should never be surprised by one.
4. A helmet-mounted headlight is very useful when you need to check/fix something on the bike. It is also darned handy for seeing on curves and for alerting motorists coming out from side streets that you are there.
5. Don't overdrive your vision. You should always be able to stop within your field of vision. If you want to go faster, buy a brighter light.

1 Every weeknight during standard time
2 To get home from work
3 Lumotec front, B&M Toplight rear; Shimano dynohub.
4 All of the above.
5 All my riding is commuting.
6 Always just took it for granted.


Paul

I very much enjoy an early morning pre-dawn ride on our local MUPS.

I meet several commuters, who are all friendly and sport a good headlight. I see more animals - my concern is always hitting a derr or being t-boned by a deer - so I go slow, especially in treed areas, Often I ride through dawn, and great sunrises, turning my two front lights to blink to save the batteries, then one light on blink and finally no lights on blink.

I have two bikes each equipped with two forward lights. One bike has a very small white blinkie and a red blinkie on the back, the other a red blinkie.

My lights would not be good enough for street travel, but they work great on the MUPS. Two are 53 LED lights, and the other two are single but bright LED's.

It is a whole different environment for riding. I really enjoy it.

With days getting shorter, will be back riding at night. Farmers should be getting close to being thru with harvest this week. Which will make my night rides MUCH safer.
Have a led headlight that has flasher mode. Led tail light that does same. Have a very good headlight(for head) that I going to try and velcro strap to handle bar for me to see by. I do slow down at night. Lots of night critters in these parts.
Have to say I really enjoy riding on those cool evenings on a full moon.

It's been so hot here this summer that I started many of my rides a couple of hours before dawn, sometimes earlier. I use a blinky on the back but will upgrade to a design shine 500 lumen tail light when available. I use a shiningbeam s-mini(400 lumens) on an exposure helmet mount and I use an eagletac t20c2 (500 lumens, 720 lumens on turbo) on my handlebars with a rotating mount. The lights use rechargable LiIon 18650 batteries and I carry backups. I usually ride with a buddy that has the same setup so when we are out there, we are bright. The lights are light weight and powerful and have a long run time. There is a certain disappointment that comes with the sunrise as the time before dawn with its plethora of animals and absence of cars carries with it a certain magic.

I will be on my commute home; today the sky was overcast and dusk seemed to come early. I have a couple MagicShine lights, a dual halogen Cygolight helmet light, and a homebrew dual halogen setup. For taillights I have the a couple Magicshine, a couple dionette, and a ViewPoint. I also have a unnamed yellow triangle strobe.

I have a 3 speed IGH project bike that has a generator front hub and a German high end LCD light. I need to get that built because I always wondered how it would compare to the battery lights.

Umm......have done a lot of bike commuting since taking up cycling in 1973. Worked various hours involving to or from work in the dark so have used a variety of generator- and battery-powered lights, including Miller, Soubitez, Cateye, Wonder, Brite Lite, Planet Bike, Blackburn, etc. head-and tail lights.
Currently, for dark rides, I use a Cateye EL320, sometimes in combo with a UNO, and a Cateye Reflex tail light, with a Cateye 150 tail light on the helmet. It's never very dark on my commutes - at least one headlight is always flashing. Tail lights flash but not sequentially.

Yes, I ride in the dark. When we lose Daylight Saving Time, my after-work rides are in the dark.

MagicShine headlight on the bar. Expilion 250 on the helmet. Cateye blinky headlight on the bar.

Three Planet Bike Super Flash tailights, one of seat post, one on left seat stay, and one on the back of the seat wedge.

Reflective mesh vest (new for this year), and reflective bands on the ankles.

I ride in the dark but very rarely away from residential and commercial lights. With nearly observatories we are a "dark skies" community, but there's still much more light in settled areas than out in the desert. I just run a pretty decent Cateye five-led flasher on the front and a Superflash plus reflective bag on the rear. The headlight is fine for residential streets and busy roads in town but not for doing anything more than about 12 MPH in the real darkness.

I have been riding early mornings. Usually a 15 mile ride with the first half of the ride being in the dark. I have a Bell headlight LED, that cost around $20.00 so its not real powerful but I put it on pulsating mode and it can be seen from about 1/2 mile away. I can tell when I am riding the motorists can see me and they give me the room I need to stay safe. I also have a Blackburn 3.0 led red flasher clipped on to my saddle bag. I don't mind riding in the dark but would rather daylight.

never ride in the dark,seems really dangerous,,,,
Bud

Of course I ride in the dark. Why would I not? Unless it's midsummer, it's already dark by the time I leave work, and if I didn't ride home I would have to walk.

I have only blinkenlights, since my entire area is pretty well lit at night. I have a few different kinds on my bikes, and I like to have two on each end in case batteries die en route. I do carry spare batteries too. I'd like to get a nice bright headlight to see into darker spots, but I haven't done that yet. It would be more of luxury in my case.

Not if I don't have to. I might ride home in the dark if I get stuck out and the sun goes down. I have a mini Newt if there is a chance and several blinkies but when traveling in the dark my spine tingles every time I detect a car coming from behind.

I commute in the dark and do a lot of long rides that end up in the dark. I have never really talked myself into starting a ride at night in the dark unless it's local. But what I've found is that it really isn't any more dangerous, and on small rural roads there is a lot less traffic. I'm not sure the drunks are worse at night, they are out all the time as far as I can tell.

I wear reflective gear and have a dyno rear light and a radbot 1000.

I work 12 hour swing shifts from 5:45 to 5:45 so a great deal of the year I'm riding in the dark on my commute which goes from suburban to rural roads. During the summer, I'll ride late at night for fun if I'm trying to stay up to get ready for a change in shifts. It's a blast to zip around town at 2 or 3am on big empty streets!
In the fall or colder weather, I'll wear a "hunter orange" hoodie or one of several hi-vis shirts with reflective stripes over my shirt.
I use a PB Superflash on the back of my helmet and a Radbot or the new 1 watt Superflash on the back of the bike, and my headlight is usually just a led flashlight bungied to the handlebars! I guess I'm too cheap to spend big bucks on a really nice headlight so far.
My wife rode up on me one night as I was pedalling home from the gym last year(in the orange hoodie, with the pbsf and radbot blazing), and told me she'd never worry again about me being invisible on the road at night. I take that as a job well done!

Yes

Our winter weather enables us to ride almost all year round. Plus, as randonneurs, we have to be able to ride at night. Have been doing it virtually since I started cycling about 15 years ago. Purposes have and do range from commuting, to training, to randonneuring, to socialising to touring.

Currently we use B7M Fly Senso LED lights on our primary single rides powered by SON dynohubs. We use a B&M Cyo on the tandem connected to a battery pack (this light is designed for dynohubs, but we haven't to a tandem wheel built with one yet). Rear lights are usually Planet Bike, but we have others as back-ups.

For randonneuring, we are required to have on board two separate headlights and two separate rear lights, plus a reflective vest or bandolier. The dual lighting system is so that if one fails we aren't excluded from continuing the event.

Everywhere we ride our bikes. The beauty of the dynohub system is that power is available at any time for our headlights. Having said that, though, I am looking at non-dynohub lights for our touring rides that are based on Cree 3-watt LED flashlights.

And yes, night riding for us is fantastic and fun. In our part of the world, the roads go to sleep, so to speak. We can be out at 7 o'clock on an autumn or winter or spring evening, with the roads virtually to ourselves. When I lived in the city, the same thing applied, although it generally was much later.

One overnight tour we did in Canada was especially memorable. We left late because of work, and we scored a sighting of the aurora borealis, and were kept company with the serenading of coyotes along the route. That was a very special night ride.

Machka recalls a report that was prepared on drivers on the QEII highway between Calgary and Edmonton, and it found many, many drivers in the morning daylight hours were impaired by drugs. Many people assume they are safe to drive in the morning after a big night out on the booze, but they aren't.

In my experience on the roads I ride, the number of obviously alcohol and drug impaired drivers at night has been negligible.

The most significent danger for mine are the bike riders who frequent MUPs with no lights and dark clothing. Then there are the ones who have powerful lights aimed directly at the oncoming rider's eyes. I have far fewer problems with drivers dipping their lights for me than I do with some of the MUP riders I have encountered.

I'm the opposite. Back then, I called riding without lights, riding pirate because it was like a pirate ship without it's flag up to warn people. The modern term is riding ninja, which I think it better. But actually I feel safer generally without lights because there are no lights to attract drunks and as long as you stay out of the way of known traffic lanes you are pretty safe. My leg lights with their C batteries and monofilament lamps had the unfortunate habit of lasting a week or so when doing consistent night commuting, so I got used to occasionally riding in the dark.

That said, I'm very happy for the advances in lighting science and always have lights on the bike and on my helmet, and go out at all hours. A couple of weeks ago, I did exceed their limits. I was riding to the start of the Big Dam Bridge 100 ride and going down a long, steep unlit street that went down to the river. It was much more exciting than usual. Fortunately, it being just before dawn, I had the street to myself.

I have a planet bike blinkie in back and Cat Eye lights on my bikes.

I do group mtb night rides & will ride the local rail trail after dark, but I just don’t feel comfortable riding on the road when it is dark. Wednesday 2 weeks ago was my last bike commute from work and I made it home just as it was getting dark - it made me nervous to be on the road even with a big, bright rear blinky.

My light is a 5 year old helmet mounted light that was meant for a snowmobile helmet, but I MacGyvered it to fit a bike helmet mounting system. The battery is heavy, but the light is very bright and burns at least 2 1/2 hours (maybe longer, but 2 1/2 hours is the longest I been out riding). The battery goes in my Camel Bak and I run the wire up my back to my helmet.

I don’t ride by myself at night! It is just too spooky for my over active imagination. Once, in the late, late summer, I went for a solo mtb ride after work. It was getting dusky, but I was having such a good ride I decided to do one more trail. About half was through, under the hemlock trees, it was pretty darn dark – dark enough that I kind of had to use my peripheral vision to “see” the trail. Well, as I’m riding along I think I see what looks like a big bat flying to my right. I look over, but of course nothing is there, but every time I turn my attention back to the trail, I kind of see this shadow flying on my right. My rational side maintained control, but, boy, I rode the rest of that trail in record time!