Perfect Night Ride Conditions Later

tsenior

Forcast for most areas of england and wales between 9pm and 1am (except maybe the northeast) : Low winds, dry, no cloud cover, mild.

and best of all only 2 Days off a full moon!

should be nice up on the moors

.blitz

Batteries have been on charge all day in readiness. I am all fired up to go I love these Autumn nights

weeksy59

apart from it being dark and not having lights, sounds ideal lol

tsenior

blitz: between work and our little lad its the only time i get out nowadays!

weeksy, you gotta get out there mate, its a totally different experience.

Herbie The Dog

Locked and loaded.

Although having the shite scared out of me by a troop of marines on exercise is something I will be prepared for this week.

AlteredCarbon

Bike is already in the car! I'm heading out to lend a hand in a light test tonight so looks like a cracking evening for it. Did the same last week in the rain and mud so we've already covered the weatherproof part of the test!

.blitz

tsenior wrote:

weeksy, you gotta get out there mate, its a totally different experience.

Agreed. Not going night riding is like finding Angelina Jolie lying naked on a bed of £50s with your name written across her t*ts in chocolate sauce and you saying 'not tonight love...'

weeksy59

NEver had the experience lads.. I have some crappy lights that came with MBUK last year but never got round to using them.

Wallace1492

Ahhhhhh its a whole new ball game. Dipped my toe in it last year, but this year diving right in. Superb fun last night, and itching to go again, but will probably be tomorrow night.

Shooting though the trees in the total dark is great fun, you go over stuff faster (well it seems like it) and you have a huge smile on your face.

tsenior

you do need lights but dont need to go as bright as alot of people do

i've got an old 2nd hand hope single LED and a petzl headtorch which together put out about a 1/4 of what some other riders use.....some of the rigs i've seen up at llandegla in the dark i think: ok you can go full speed but its virtually like riding in the daytime, wheres the romance/frission of danger? !

if the moon is very bright later i'm going to try some fireroads and wide/open sections without artificial illumination. Obviously this wont work in the woods!!

.blitz

tsenior wrote:

you do need lights but dont need to go as bright as alot of people do

Agreed again

tsenior wrote:

if the moon is very bright later i'm going to try some fireroads and wide/open sections without artificial illumination.

Doesn't work

I tried it a couple of times last year on a full moon and even allowing time for my 'night vision' to kick in, it's dark round Cannock with no lights even on the fire roads. When it's dry, Cannock's sandy surface is slightly reflective but it's only enough to vaguely make out the fire roads against the undergrowth.

I kill the lights when I stop for a banana/snickers tho. Most excellent standing by the side of the trail in total darkness, just listening...

tsenior

will be interesting to find out....i was thinking of the tracks through some old limestone quarries near me, when i've been out walking there at night (usually back from the pub so my senses may be heightened, LOL) the reflecting moon light off the white rocks can make it seem really bright.

if i dont post tommorow i'm probbaly still up there having ridden into a tree

.blitz

ride_whenever

tsenior wrote:

will be interesting to find out....i was thinking of the tracks through some old limestone quarries near me, when i've been out walking there at night (usually back from the pub so my senses may be heightened, LOL) the reflecting moon light off the white rocks can make it seem really bright.

if i dont post tommorow i'm probbaly still up there having ridden into a tree

Same in the snow, you don't need lights if riding in the snow with a decent moon and even under trees because there usually aren't leaves and snow!

I currently have a mate who wants to go riding with aviation grade night vision googles and IR filters on our lights. Now THAT would be fun!

.blitz

ride_whenever wrote:

I currently have a mate who wants to go riding with aviation grade night vision googles and IR filters on our lights. Now THAT would be fun!

That would be good. I could go for that.

Thewaylander

This is why I'm saving my pennies after my splurge buy, and hoping to get some lights in.

miss notax

.blitz wrote:

tsenior wrote:

weeksy, you gotta get out there mate, its a totally different experience.

Agreed. Not going night riding is like finding Angelina Jolie lying naked on a bed of £50s with your name written across her t*ts in chocolate sauce and you saying 'not tonight love...'

The £50s would interest me (and possibly the chocolate sauce), but Angelina Jolie?!!! Meh :?

(Agreed about night riding though! Out tomorrow night )

mak3m

mmmmm straying into newb territory here :P

due to work etc i find it hard to get out and was looking into night riding and it looks mint tbh. However reading a few threads, here and other places, i was under the impression i needed a bank of super bright blue/white led lights in the region of £300 to £400 quid to even consider going xc in the dark

could few of you give us an inventory of your lights and rough cost of what a safe minimum would/could be

really fancy scaring the crap out of myself in the middle of nowhere :twisted:

Radioactiveman

I started out MTB on night riding was a good few months before I saw a trail in the daytime !!!
Might explain why I fell of so much at the start

I currently use a lupine wilma 7 on the bars and a cateye doubleshot on my helmet.
Previously used a Light and Motion Arc Nimh and a niteride something or other on the helmet.

Plenty of people swear by the dealextreme bargains etc I am sure if you do a search or wait around 5 minutes someone will be along to give you a link or a review etc.

ride_whenever

Radioactiveman wrote:

Plenty of people swear by the dealextreme bargains etc I am sure if you do a search or wait around 5 minutes someone will be along to give you a link or a review etc.

Not hugely impressed by the lupines. If you want big light and long run times look at the troutie lights

bartimaeus

Search 'What Lights' or 'P7' and you will see you can buy everything you need for £70 - and that's a BRIGHT light on your bars and a torch on your lid. See this thread for the links.

OK, so you can get better 'quality' - but you will be spending £250+ to get more light... and the issues people have had all seem to be covered by simple DIY fixes. I went with the P7+C1 set up, and have been night riding all summer (after the kids are in bed)... it has really transformed my riding.

tomtomthepipersson

Bartimaeus wrote:

...have been night riding all summer (after the kids are in bed)... it has really transformed my riding.

Same here. Having 2 kids has forced my riding to be more nocturnal than before so I got a couple of P7s for my bars and a Fenix for my helmet. Apart from occasionally getting the fear when I'm all alone in the big dark woods it's superb fun.

Have just bought a few of the new Magicshine lights* to try out... will hopefully venture out tomorrow night to see how they perform.


* these ones

Herbie The Dog

Without doubt the best night ride for a couple of years. Clear skies, big fat moon and clear trails with just the right amount of grip to shred it (I think that's what the kids say these days).

Bring on tonight!

tsenior

was a fantastic night, i stayed out for 3 hrs, rode some woods that are normally forbidden territory and stopped for a pint.

i did end up in a fetid water filled ditch coming back through the old steelworks site though

.blitz

Tried riding with no lights and I can confirm it doesn't work

tsenior

yes i'll chalk that down to experience!

ddraver

Well it was crap in N Wales tonight!! I have never been so wet ever. I was so wet that the lights were bouncing off the raindrops so we coul nt see anything at all!!

(Fun though!)

bartimaeus

Sadly, not quite perfect tonight as it was a bit cloudy.... but I saw yet another badger, which always makes it a worthwhile ride.

I also clocked 27mph downhill through the woods, which in retrospect is a bit scary, but I find that night riding gives you real focus, so at the time it seemed just fine . I think I may have my suspension set pretty well now, as for the first time I think I understand what they mean in the reviews when they say they 'floated' over the tree roots.

I'm up to 600 miles since I got my bike at Easter - and I would guess 200+ of those have been at night. I really do owe a debt of gratitude to sonic, dazza and all the contributors to the 'What Lights Discussion Thread'... if I'd been faced with spending £250 to get lights I'd have probably been at home watching the telly tonight.

matt@theforce

mak3m wrote:

mmmmm straying into newb territory here :P

due to work etc i find it hard to get out and was looking into night riding and it looks mint tbh. However reading a few threads, here and other places, i was under the impression i needed a bank of super bright blue/white led lights in the region of £300 to £400 quid to even consider going xc in the dark

could few of you give us an inventory of your lights and rough cost of what a safe minimum would/could be

really fancy scaring the crap out of myself in the middle of nowhere :twisted:

I go out a couple of times a week in the dark through the woods and only have a cheap set of lights

My main light is a http://www.niterider.com/prod_minmini.shtml Minewt mini-usb and I use a petzel under my helmet which is about 80lumens and I leave it set to wide beam.



I find this setup adequate for my speed and style of night riding, I will upgrade them at some point but at the moment, I'm gettiing out and thats all that matters


Matthew

Northwind

Was lovely up here last night. Chucked it down all day so the trails were sodden but it stayed dry all night. Just a wee bit of comedy rising mist to render all our mega-lights completely useless from time to time Just cold enough so you can thrash along at top speed and stay cool.