Night rides.

lesz42

with my modded HL-EL530 ( P4 led) , tesco cree aa torch, i can make it round Llandegla Blue



corners seem so diffrent, braking in time can be an issue!, and you do go faster i think?

EdwardH

With two very young kids the vast majority of my riding is in the dark. either starting at 6am or 8pm, I long for some rides in the daylight........

simmo3801

No longer a night ride virgin. Wed night at Glentress on the red route. Excellent fun. Funnily enough I rode things I'd normally avoid during daylight too. P7 torch on bars and Fenix torch on helmet worked well.

Sarnian how do you find the On-one for trail riding? I assume it's a 456 you have?

Simmo

Sarnian

simmo3801 wrote:

No longer a night ride virgin. Wed night at Glentress on the red route. Excellent fun. Funnily enough I rode things I'd normally avoid during daylight too. P7 torch on bars and Fenix torch on helmet worked well.

Sarnian how do you find the On-one for trail riding? I assume it's a 456 you have?

Simmo

Well I know I have said this before, but I have owned a Inbred, 456 and now ride a 456 summer session and I still think they are one of the best HT I have owned (I have had a few in 20 years) I love them just my thoughts.

The summer session

ESHER SHORE

I am heavily into night riding and do 3-4 night rides a week in my local area (NW London)

this involves a 15 minute climb, long singletrack runs and 5 minute descents across some surprisingly technical terrain

on my Devinci Hectik (all mountain) bike I use a Light & Motion Stella 200 on the handlebar, and a Princeton Tec EOS 50 on my helmet, as a "fill in" light for seeing the trail whilst my handlebar swings from side to side during technical riding

the Stella puts out a clean 200 lumens, and the EOS a healthy 50 lumens

last Winter season I only had the Stella, and with my new EOS headlamp I am going much faster (more confidence) to the point that I have had to be careful about not drifting off the trail and ending up in hedges or trees!

I have also had to adjust my technique to make sure I "look" at where the trail should be to use my headlamp to illuminate the trail


Night riding is the best thing I have done in 25 years of riding MTBs because it turns the Winter from being a depressing "once a week" ride to riding whenever I like

I would strongly recommend ANY rider to not waste money upgrading a handlebar or whatever, and spend their money on some good lights so they can actually get out and ride every evening if they desire!

ads4

First night ride last week and it was just awesome! Borrowed a Niterider Trinewt and was very impressed with the light quality. It certainly takes a bit of getting used to, everything seems so much faster as all the shadows move with you, especially if you have a helmet mount! Will definitley be out again next week, Swinley is a different ride in the dark!

simmo3801

Ok thanks Sarnian. Looks great in the flesh!! For some reason I can't get my head past the narrow tubes being weaker than the thicker alu ones on my curent Kona Cindercone. I know they won't be but was just concerned that it wouldn't be up to being thrashed at Glentress or wherever off drop offs etc. They do look nice tho especially the chocolate 456. Their website is a bit confusing tho. I take it the 456 and the Inbred are the same frame??

Vaudevillevillain

Love night riding, but dont do it often enough to be honest.

Reading this thread has inspired me however, gonna plan a big late night one in the coming weeks for a Xmas treat!

It'll be majority streets and roads but theres nothing like cycling round the pitch black yet deserted streets.

stev68

Sure is a buzz dodging trees that spring out from nowhere at 20mph in pitch black!
Starting to get naffed off with the mud now

tsenior

last night above about 250m it was pretty misty here, coming down through the quarries in the mist and dark was a very strange experience!

.blitz

It was misty in the valleys on the Chase but not particularly muddy. Most excellent

afcbian

Regularly go out night riding and went out last night in Moors Valley/Ringwood Forest.
It was absolutely lashing down and quite chilly, but with the right gear to keep dry and reasonable lights it turns a daunting wet/cold/dark ride into 2 hours of mud plugging fun.
When you add very very wet ground to night riding it makes it even trickier, and although your pace is no doubt slower the work rate is increased just to stay upright.
I find Night riding very technical as picking the right line is obviously harder to do as the reaction time is decreased due to short range visibility.
I would go as far to say that I prefer night riding to day riding actually.

bluechair84

I've done four night rides so far this season on my MiNewts... Fantastic fun! It's a completly new experience to daylight riding, just like riding on snow you almost have to have a new set of skills to handle it.

Don't forget the glasses though! I didn't wear em last night and surfing waves of brown slush for two hours buggered my eyes up!

Oh, the helmet mounts for the MiNewts are £60, so I just bought a P7 to put up there instead - can't wait to try it with my bar mounted lovelies 8)

MrVanilla

My training circuit is Carsington reservoir, park up in Hopton (the Carsington car park gates are shut at 5:30) then you have a nice circuit of 8.2 miles on mostly firetrack (do a reverse lap for 16.4 miles), nicely sheltered apart from the bit across the main dam. Light wise, a single P7 for flood with a Triton M30 Quad Cree for throw. Got some XPG's coming for use on the helmet
Love night riding but not skilled enough yet to do some proper singletrack in the dark!

bigmart

tilt wrote:

If you're only going to using one light it's better to mount it on your helmet than the handlebars IMO.

No way, if you turn you head as a car approaches (on any road sections you might have to do) your going to be completely unseen

but could put a cheap light on the bar for the purposes of roads

we night ride every week, got snowed on, on Tuesday night. Still prefer the summer evening though

Kai in the Borders

I'm another night riding fan. That said, I easily prefer the long summer daylight after work. Riding in the dark is different but fun.

I tend to do my night riding on local natural trails in the Scottish Borders and the likes of Glentress. The latter is much easier as the trail is more clearly defined.

FWIW, I now run a Hope 2 on my helmet with a cheapo Cree single LED torch on the bars. The former is by far and away the most effective for me. I quite like the Hope but can't help but feel that the beam doesn't project far enough so maybe an upgrade will be on the cards in a year or two.

I generally do night riding on my own. Might sound a bit spooky but it is really rewarding. Like someone said, you feel like you are stealing time.

Don't know about anyone else but I make a point of trying to go out when there is a full moon. It really makes a difference.

Kai

gaz047

always fancied a bit of night riding and took the plunge recently. wow!! i got out for my first one last week and loved it, totally buzzing after it. i got a magicshine on the bars, stuck on some warm clothing (was blowing a ba£tard and showering) and headed out on a local loop of 15 miles (up through lyme park, past the moorside hotel, over bowstones and back to poynton via pott shrigley, if anyone knows it).
i couldn't believe how different the trails felt, it felt like i was doing warp speed!!
i saw wildlife i've never seen in the day on this route, deer, foxes, rabbits and a badger which when i approached didn't scarper left or right off the trail, but ran infront of me for around 50m before darting off into the trees, bizarre!!
i only saw one other person during the ride and that was a random bloke up on the moor with a headtorch, looked a bit dodgy so i gave him a wide berth (having said that, its probably what he was thinking!!!)
can't wait to get out again this week, if your thinking about doing it, don't, just do it, you'll love it.
out of interest anyone done llandegla at night?

tsenior

gaz047,

yeah, done the red there a couple of times in the dark its alright.

wednesdays the car parks open late, they hire a few sets of lights and its fairly busy, other days just park in the moors (pub) and ride up the back road.

gaz047

cheers Tsenior, will have to get myself out there at night 8) . going on fri morning for a day run after nightshift

thegeek

So, can I ask what the consensus is on which lights?

I'm thinking of 1 x Ultrafire C1 on the helmet:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14027

and 2 x P7 on the bar:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060

Or, alternatively on the bar one of these:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16092

plus one of these:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060

Plus a C1 on the helmet.

Any thoughts?

cougie

Get the bikelight magicshine for the bars - you really only need one of them and the battery life is great. If you cant wait for the delivery = then the P7 torches are good - I dont think you need two apart from for a back up.

Helmet light is essential too.

thegeek

Or what about 3 x C1s, two on the bar and one on the helmet - $50US for all three! (only £31)

thegeek

cougie wrote:

Get the bikelight magicshine for the bars - you really only need one of them and the battery life is great. If you cant wait for the delivery = then the P7 torches are good - I dont think you need two apart from for a back up.

Helmet light is essential too.

Hi

Thanks for this. Do you mean the Magicshine torch or the bike lightset?

stomith

You only get about 50 mins from a single 18650 in a torch on the bars. The 'bike light' from DX gives about 2 hours happily, 3 if you're lucky, as they have 4 18650's in a bundle.

The P7 torches are good...especially for the cost.

The other point to note is that the torches are quite a bit bulkier than the bike light.

cougie

The magicshine bike lightset - you'll get a good 3 hours on full from the battery. The torch is just as bright but you'll only get an hour or so on full before you need to change it. (in practice - this isnt a hassle at all)

stomith

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149

thegeek

stomith wrote:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149

Is this complete with batteries and charger?

stomith

Terribly sorry...missed your reply.

Yes - it is the complete kit kind of thing, as per the pictures on the site.

Just don't forget a US > UK adapter plug thing. I think they cost a couple of dollars on that site too.