out of interest, how many people on here ride at night much?
I head out to do muni at least one night a week at the moment and it’s great. Just got a new job working from home, so I can start working earlier than usual, finish at 4, catch a train and be out on the trails by 5.
Went out last week in the rain which was interesting, especially the point where I was up in the cloud and could see about 1 metres ahead, not enough to see side turnings and of course I’d forgotten my compass. In the end I rode as fast as I could in the direction I thought I should be going and tried really hard to keep track of any turns. Made it out, but not before two nasty rolling over lots crashes on a rocky trail which were interesting to say the least!
I have recently started riding at night, and I do like it. It is a strange feeling to be out in the woods, alone, on a unicycle, traveling in your little sphere of light. I think it would be fun to night ride with a group.
I ride lots of road and flattish tracks but I’ve done little night time Muni. I have a rear LED light on my seat post, and a front LED ,mounted as low as possible above the fork crown. I have a decent head torch but am starting to prefer a hand torch. Perhaps the ideal would be a powerful but light hand torch strapped to each wrist?
If you keep the speed down and rely on reflex, you can balance over quite a lot of bumps, but when the UPDs come, they come suddenly!
I’ve ridden a little bit with a maglite held in my hand, but never again once I got hold of the lumicycle lights.
I think the thing about head mounted lights flattening out the terrain is a bit of a myth, lots of people come out with it, but then you meet really incredible (bi)cyclists who ride it all on head torches without any problems.
I find when you get used to turning your head to point the light you can get a really good view of the details of the trail without any major problems.
However if you’ve not got very powerful lights, hand held torches may be better because the light simply goes that little bit further due to starting closer to the ground.
I think if I ride at about half to 3/4 of my fastest speed I can ride most of the stuff I ride in the daytime, but riding faster I soon start falling off. Riding fast in the dark makes you much better at doing the start falling off, pull up on the handle and power yourself out of the fall thing. If you push it too far though it makes you fall off really bad as I discovered at the BMW!
Night riding in a group is great fun, although you have to be careful that the faster people don’t get cold waiting for slower people and that no-one gets lost, especially a problem if you’ve got a mix of unis and bikes.
In fog, mist or drizzle, if you use a head torch then back scatter can be a problem. And a head torch can attract insects which then kamikaze into your eyes.
I ride at night as much as i ride in the day. Night rides are more fun cuz half the world isn’t watching you, which can be quite an annoyance if you are practicing new skills and aren’t that good at them yet. Ah, yes, the night. When the world is asleep and the streets are quiet… at least until I get there. Night trials and night urban riding is my absolute favourite thing to do on my uni. It’s also a bit more of a challenge because, as said before, you cannot see as easily. I don’t use a light of any sort. Seeing as how I ride in a town (kinda), they have street lights at various points, although this is no match for daylight. If you haven’t gone night riding you have been deprived of much fun. Did I mention I love night rides?
The nocturnal unicyclist,
Steve, who will be accepting any donations to put toward his personal unicycle fund, and who likes to talk about himself in the third person.
Moonlight serves me pretty well (when the moon is full that is).
I rode from Emerald Bay to Avalon by moonlight over the summer (32 miles one way). The most disconcerting part was the deer not hearing me until the last second and then abruptly bolting in front of me across the road. It sure was a fun trip, though!
People using frame mounted / hand held lights, do you not trash them when you crash? I’ve come too close to that with my head mounted lights already but my red led light attached to the frame is significantly worse for wear and has been knocked off a few times.
I’ve not done much offroad without lights, except at a full moon, I did ride much of the way to Shoreham by sea in the dark, but that was mainly road riding and I was just saving battery power.
As far as the danger of it goes, after sitting in a pub last weekend with a bunch of mountain bikers and hearing all about their injuries, I feel like a paragon of sensibility.
I night ride every time i get the chance and it is really fun when it snows that night because then it feels like you in a weird unknown world. it kinda like to me when in the Never Ending Story movie when the wolf runs through the woods or like the forest in the the beggining movie Gladiator when all the ashes are falling.
I use a plain old b*ke light on the front of my uni and it has relly helped me alot like when i lost something in the mud.
I’m riding home from work in the dark most nights now. Not off road, but along some unlit cycle track. I’m glad I’ve got a good 10w head lamp. Last night in the torential rain it was quite pretty to see the shafts of rain turn white in the lights beam. This morning I took the bus as the cycle track was likeley to be under water…
