Abe_Froman

Man, I've found it's a lot safer riding on streets at night than during rush hour. Between people on their phones who are oblivious, and commuters who are just angry and willing to **** with someone slowing them down by four seconds, I'm much more comfortable at night.

woodcraft

I have a friend who does insane amounts of night riding.

He routinely- like on 2 & 3 consecutive nights- goes out at 1:00 or 2:00 & rides 50+ miles, much on dirt

then goes to work.

One time he rode all night on dirt with 10k' climbing, showed up in the morning for a group road ride of 70 miles, then 20 miles home,

and went out the next night for another 40 or 50. All on a mountain bike.

I practically need a nap just thinking about it.

base2 

During the winter there was a core group of about 6 of us that rode every Thursday at about 6pm. After a fashion I was also commuting 26 miles to work starting at 1:30am. Eventually, for my own safety/ability to see I added 2 Cygolight Expelion 850 headlights, one at the front hub, the other at the handle bars. To be seen: I added 2 Axiom Pulse 60 lumen tail lights. Then wraped the black painted frame in black 3M Scotchlight tape. It's reassuring to have 1700 lumens up front and 120 out back if I wanted. Though I never ran any more than the lowest setting on the lights. It's also reassuring to know that the passive 3M tape always is visible & becomes moseso as the odd car approaches.

Night riding is awesome! It adds a whole 'nother dimension to your town that most people hardly know exists.

This was my bike before & after.

Before



After

RAF M

Wow. Your friend must have been doing this for a while. Normally, I'd think his body would get sore and need time to repair before his next night session. But consecutive nights? 50 miles? Insane. His body is probably used to it right now.

OldTryGuy

Nicknamed Psycho Johnny since many rides are my Midnight Madness 100+ miles. Love riding late and early. Have a 12:01AM to 11:59PM 68th birthday ride coming up shortly.

woodcraft

ikr? He enters, & wins, 24 hr mtn bike races.

RAF M

@base2- The after setup looks pretty lit. I might consider slapping on flashy M tape on my ALR 5. My frame is charcoal gray, so the tape should blend in. Your safety setup looks great. All the power to visibility, man. Cheers.

Spoonrobot 

I have the night person perk, love riding in the dark.

Most of my night rides end before midnight, I like to get home around 9-10pm as, depending on the season, that often gives me a good 6 hour ride with half in sunshine and half in darkness. Getting home much later tends to effect me next day too much and if I get home really late like 1am I end up so wired I have a hard time getting to bed much before the sun comes up. Riding in the beam of a headlight is invigorating, the distant city lights are a beacon and the roads seem different as does the perception of speed. Climbs seem easier and it's fun to look around with a powerful headlamp and see all the creatures out and about. I prefer to ride in urban, suburban or industrial areas, far rural areas feel very isolating and lonely and I haven't quite mastered the mental strength for long night time country rides.

Recently I've taken to leaving for rides at 4am or so. Early morning works a little better with my schedule. I'll get a couple hours of empty roads and darkness and often when I leave on Sunday morning I get to see late night crowds shuffling out of waffle house or trudging home along the sidewalks. Clothes and hair slightly disheveled, gait helped along by a few drinks here and there. It's easier to go places when you don't have to worry about any cars too. I'm on a quest to ride every road inside the I285 perimeter around Atlanta, Georgia and often leaving very early or very late is the only way to ride some of the roads. It's fun to figure out connections and see things that would usually not be visible from a bicycle.

I'm not sure the benefits are anything other than personal happiness and getting better at riding at night. I enjoy it and that works for me.

jon c. 

I don't ride at night often, but I love it when I do. In my rural area there's very little traffic and you're really much more visible than you are during the day. The only concern I have is creatures dashing in front of me when I'm coming down a hill, although I've never actually had a close call and being able to ride in the center of the road gives you a bit more room to react.

RAF M

Good luck on your journey. I plan to do something like that in the future, depending on if I'll continue living in a city or move to the suburbs. Perhaps you might want to consider taking photos or video record your cycling quest so that it will be even more meaningful. As for benefits at nighttime riding, I think our minds are closer to a meditative state, as we let the quiet of night and empty spaces around soak into our hearing and visual senses. Compared to the daytime, it's just not so peaceful.

trekmogul 

I ride 7 days a week at 0415am in the morning for a hour and 15 minutes. Running a Lupine Betty R 5000 Lumens up front and on the rear , i am blasting away a Dionotte 400R that just obliviates yah..

Mike F

The creatures can be challenging. I have suicidal bunnies and kittens, I haven't seen them this year but some coyotes too. Two years ago the coyotes were really bad. Its kinda sad but usually around May, the coyotes show, kittens and bunnies thin out and then the missing cat posters go up.

Nachoman

Depending on the traffic situation, I find sunrise and sunset to be the most dangerous time to cycle, even with all my lumens.

RAF M

Makes sense, especially when those times are usually when folks come from work or go to work. At least that's true in my area.

a1penguin

I love night rides! After 9 pm, the malls close and there's not much traffic out there. With all that dark, a cyclist with almost any light stands out. I use two front lights and two rear lights at night. Bar light is probably 700-800 lumens, helmet light is 300-400. 200 lumen Hotshot Pro and an older PDW Danger Zone, both on different flashing patterns.

I also carry pepper spray.

On a hot summer night when I am inside and baking it is better to go out for a bike ride until it cools off enough for sleeping. Because of low traffic, I can bike on some roads that I would never consider biking during the day. I find the peace and quiet and lack of all that urban activity to my liking.

TrojanHorse

Amen, especially if you're riding into the sun. Dirty windshields, distracted drivers, half blind anyway... I don't even like DRIVING then.

Just based on what I've seen driving around the most noticeable cyclists after dark have more than one light in the rear. I saw a college kid one time, had a bunch of blinkies all over his backpack and he stuck out like a sore thumb (in a good way). I try to have a minimum of the standard seat post light and one on the back of my helmet at night, along with reflective tape. I think you're on the right track there.

TimothyH

Agree.

I run two lights down low on steady, one on each chainstay. A blinky is at the seatpost and another is behind the helmet running either steady or pulse.

The idea is to have a system rather than just a light - down low, middle and up high. It is extremely visible.


-Tim-

base2 

3M Scotchlite Reflective Striping... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010ASWF4?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

I really agonized over whether I should buy it ir not, In the end (obviously) did, thinking that if nothing else I could decorate my other bikes or give some to others in our group. Now all my bikes have it applied in various places. Red & white also make great accent stripes and it's also useful for covering up rack abrasions & chipped paint.

Scotchlite is better than Scotchcal because it really does return a LOT more light than the Scotchcal. Also when compared to Hillman or whatever version you find at the home improvement store, the Scotchlite conforms to the surface much better. The home improvement store stuff just creases & wrinkles around compound curves.

The package for the black listed above...when it arrives, the fancy printing on the package says Scotchcal, but that's just the generic label. The actual part number printed with inkjet (appearantly) is Scotchlite.

TrojanHorse

Your link is no good, not sure why. I bought thin black and thin white scotch reflective tape (not sure but I think it was scotch cal because I didn't know the difference back then!). I put the striping all over my helmet.

For "serious" night time riding, I also have ankle straps from Road ID and I got a jogging reflective vest from amazon. I don't know how well it works when I"m in the bent over roadie position but it's got to be better than nothing! I see them on joggers and they work great on upright people.

There was a guy in the road forum a year or two ago that took reflective tape and covered his Venge - each piece was cut in an interesting geometric pattern - the effect was remarkable. I'm not that motivated but it really did light up when lights hit it.

Check it out - Introducing ReflectiVENGE....

GuitarBob

Here's the link to the reflective tape: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010ASWF4/

TimothyH

I've used Oralite V82 conspicuity tape on my wheels. It comes in rolls several feet wide and as long as you want. Any color.

https://www.hhsignsupply.com/product...-753p46677.htm








This is the result.



-Tim-

rumrunn6

for a long time I fantasized about an all night century ride then crashing on the beach at sunrise

GeneO 

I like riding trails in the dark in the summer. It is nice because it is quit and peaceful with no one around. I don't do it often enough.