Night riding without lights

bomberesque
bomberesque Posts: 1,701
edited September 2009 in MTB general
any of you military types borrowed some night vision gear to try a little stealth night riding?

if so how did it go, did you get court marshalled / run into a tree when they fell off etc etc?

Getting bored of riding my local woods, even at night. Looking for some interesting alternatives but figure NV goggs would probably be suicide. Still; why not eh?
Everything in moderation ... except beer
Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer

If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
... or being punched by it, depending on the day

Comments

  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    I've got a night vision monocular, from that you probably could use NVGs for night riding, but you'd probably still want IR illumination to get good contrast.

    I've also not used lights when it was snowing, the moonlight was more than enough with the snow reflecting everything!
    Neeermad
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  • Da Mighty Chicken
    Da Mighty Chicken Posts: 1,200
    deleted.....never mind me, posted in wrong thread somehow? :oops:
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  • ravey1981
    ravey1981 Posts: 1,111
    how about riding with a blindfold then ;) Or ride somewhere else...
  • projectsome
    projectsome Posts: 4,010
    this sounds like fun
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  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    just wait til november and buy Call of Duty...Modern Warfare 2 Prestige edition....£110 comes with apparently fully functioning multi mode Night Vision Goggles!
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

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  • bomberesque
    bomberesque Posts: 1,701
    sounds like an idea :D
    Everything in moderation ... except beer
    Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer

    If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
    then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
    ... or being punched by it, depending on the day
  • RealMan
    RealMan Posts: 2,166
    Why not just ride with lights + sunglasses?
  • Hercule Q
    Hercule Q Posts: 2,655
    ride at dusk with a green filter on your goggles
    pinkbike
    Blurring the line between bravery and stupidity since 1986!
  • Chaz.Harding
    Chaz.Harding Posts: 3,144
    Or ride anytime with your eyes closed :lol:
    Boo-yah mofo
    Sick to the power of rad
    Fix it 'till it's broke
  • Chaz.Harding
    Chaz.Harding Posts: 3,144
    Seriously though, riding with night vision will be bloody hard. For a start you only get a 2d picture (unless you spend a fooking sh!tload!), so trying to battle round trees, drops etc with 2d vision will be hard.

    Then, there is illumination. You'll only get shades of green, or a black / white heat signiture picture. This is fine for shooting stuff, but again, trying to navigate over rough groun quickly will prove difficult.

    Most NVG's you will get at consumer level, are pretty damn shite. Sometimes, you're better off using the Mk1 eyeball.. The stuff I get to play around with costs thousands (for one peice of NVG hardware, is about £2,200), and I still wouldn't fancy trying to use that to ride a bike with...

    So whoever mentioned that they are getting the ones free with COD5, for you're own sake, don't go out riding with them! Or if you do, take a mate, and a light, and a phone!! :lol:

    Oh, and sorry if I killed the thread... :oops:

    But you did ask! :lol:
    Boo-yah mofo
    Sick to the power of rad
    Fix it 'till it's broke
  • Dazzza
    Dazzza Posts: 2,364
    What if he bought a pvs-7 gen 3 though. ;)
    The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
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  • dave_hill
    dave_hill Posts: 3,877
    cee wrote:
    just wait til november and buy Call of Duty...Modern Warfare 2 Prestige edition....£110 comes with apparently fully functioning multi mode Night Vision Goggles!

    £110 for a set of nods? They must be real high quality then...

    You want a set of THESE BABIES, you do...
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  • stubs
    stubs Posts: 5,001
    dave_hill wrote:
    cee wrote:
    just wait til november and buy Call of Duty...Modern Warfare 2 Prestige edition....£110 comes with apparently fully functioning multi mode Night Vision Goggles!

    £110 for a set of nods? They must be real high quality then...

    You want a set of THESE BABIES, you do...

    520g of hard pointyness to land on if it all goes pear shaped and you do a faceplant

    NAAHH think I will stick to my pair of £10 Tesco 3 W LED torches
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  • saltyman
    saltyman Posts: 472
    i had a 3gen monocular a couple of years back, set me back £3,200 and was awesome, never had the head gear to go hands free however, would of killed myself in my car/bike if i did lol......

    you can have some great fun with decent NV gear.
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  • Sarnian
    Sarnian Posts: 1,451
    I have used NVG for driving, I am not sure about using them for riding with one problem I can think of would be shake while on the bike, and they can be hard to define some things like pot holes.
    It's not a ornament, so ride It
  • The Northern Monkey
    The Northern Monkey Posts: 19,136
    just eat a shit load of carrots!
    Santa Cruz Butcher
  • bomberesque
    bomberesque Posts: 1,701
    bigchazrocks

    that's roughly what I thought / was after;

    2D
    Low contrast
    Shaky (most of even the good ones appear to be less goggles than bins on a bracket
    effing expensive

    well it was just a thought. I know that military types get access to all sorts of good stuff to play around with on their days off and wondered if anyone had actually tried to use them for biking. I did find some on Amazon for <100USD that include an IR lamp. Could be worth a laugh

    OK then; what lights?

    /runs
    Everything in moderation ... except beer
    Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer

    If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
    then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
    ... or being punched by it, depending on the day
  • furby
    furby Posts: 200
    bomberesque wrote:
    well it was just a thought. I know that military types get access to all sorts of good stuff to play around with on their days off and wondered if anyone had actually tried to use them for biking.

    A nice thought but NVG's are hardly something you can just borrow for the weekend. shame really!
  • captainfly
    captainfly Posts: 1,001
    A lack of perspective and massive eyesrain would be the the best result for riding with NVGs crashing is more likely. Developing your own nightvision is probably better, wearing a red filer glasses/goggles to stop you losing your night vision when someone else NEEDS everything to be blight all the time.
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  • dave_hill
    dave_hill Posts: 3,877
    Or just wait for a clear night with a full moon and go somewhere well away from street lighting. It's amazing what you can see in conditions like this.
    Give a home to a retired Greyhound. Tia Greyhound Rescue
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  • BurtonM
    BurtonM Posts: 425
    why dont you ride off a cliff.
    yeehaamcgee wrote:

    That's like saying i want a door for my car that doesn't meet the roof, because I once had the wind blow it shut when I was getting in, and I had my head squished between, well, the door and the roof.
  • BurtonM
    BurtonM Posts: 425
    nahh just messin
    +1 for the modern warfare 2 : prestige edition. Fully working night vision goggles will be on my christmas list for santy to bring me this year :) screw the game, i just want the goggles
    yeehaamcgee wrote:

    That's like saying i want a door for my car that doesn't meet the roof, because I once had the wind blow it shut when I was getting in, and I had my head squished between, well, the door and the roof.

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