Any freaky night riding tales to tell?

SirDidymus

Night riding alone is something i do quite often on my road bike. First time i got my new bike light i thought it would be a nice idea give it a test at night in the old Wolds, on my MTB. Never again! I can see night riding with a group to be fine, and quite fun, but alone is not a nice experience.

I don't believe in ghosts, and obviously the rational part of my mind shouldn't think there's any serial killers lurking ready to pounce on an unsuspecting mountain biker, but still i freak at any slight unusual sound or gates banging in the wind.

cooldad

Well, there was that once with the chick with the wooden leg, the gimp mask and the ferrets....

supersonic

I keep seeing white rabbits!

Yacoby

SirDidymus wrote:

Night riding alone is something i do quite often on my road bike. First time i got my new bike light i thought it would be a nice idea give it a test at night in the old Wolds, on my MTB. Never again! I can see night riding with a group to be fine, and quite fun, but alone is not a nice experience.

I don't believe in ghosts, and obviously the rational part of my mind shouldn't think there's any serial killers lurking ready to pounce on an unsuspecting mountain biker, but still i freak at any slight unusual sound or gates banging in the wind.

If you are thinking about those things you obviously are not riding hard enough.

I really love night riding as long as I know the route well. The only hard bit is when I am riding with a dog. Suddenly you see this black shape cross the trail in front of you :P

SirDidymus

Yacoby wrote:

If you are thinking about those things you obviously are not riding hard enough.

I suppose i should clarify that where i ride close to home, it's just public footpaths across the Lincolnshire wolds. Lots, and lots of those gate things to lift my bike over. The amount of times I've done that i can chuck them over (not literally) easily, but means getting off and listening to nothingness. One time i went through a gate that could be opened, must of not shut it properly but as i was riding along i heard gate SLAM behind me. Obviously the wind, but freaked me out.

TownyDC

Never been out for more than 5 minutes on my own in the night, if i do it's after i've left my bother at his place and it's a quick jaunt home. sometime even with the 2 of us we bump into the odd person up in the woods or on the trail, on their own walking in the dark and you sort of wonder what are they doing on their todd this time of night.
Badgers have freeked me out after jumping out of bushes a couple of times.
Sadly a few weeks back a fella decided to hang himslef overnight on our local trail, he did it on the monday and was found on the tuesday morning by a walker. We always do our ride on a Sunday and Wednesday so we missed what obviously would have been a very disturbing site had we have come across him. :shock:

Richie63

Almost got toasted by some large deer on the outskirts of Sheffield last year - Blakamoor area- I never knew we had wild deer so close to the city until that moment and I've been here for 17 years.

castlelad

Badgers and foxes are freaky little feckers in the dark but owls are the worst, just see their eyes and then a shadow when they take off, :shock: The only bit of woods i go through alone is from keele uni to silverdale(newcastle under lyme) and its got a few badgers,foxes and owls, and when i come out at the bottom(it's 1 mile long,approx 800 yds dh section) i come out in a horses field and they hate it too say the least, but there's a car park at the bottom of bradwell woods(it's on the youtube video i put on,bradwell wood pt 2) and it's locally known as bummer's bend ,now that is a shocking sight :shock: , but it's only ridable in daylight....

SirDidymus

TownyDC wrote:

Sadly a few weeks back a fella decided to hang himslef overnight on our local trail, he did it on the monday and was found on the tuesday morning by a walker. We always do our ride on a Sunday and Wednesday so we missed what obviously would have been a very disturbing site had we have come across him.

God, that would of been awful... :shock:

Rushmore

SirDidymus wrote:

TownyDC wrote:

Sadly a few weeks back a fella decided to hang himslef overnight on our local trail, he did it on the monday and was found on the tuesday morning by a walker. We always do our ride on a Sunday and Wednesday so we missed what obviously would have been a very disturbing site had we have come across him.

God, that would have been awful... :shock:

Agreed... I think I would have needed concealing..

Rushmore

Whoops! Counselling...

Bloody spell checker...

Nick Cod

Done a few night rides some organised some alone. The usual deer, foxes owls and bats are always entertaining. One event that sticks in my mind was last September doing one of the trailbreak rides in Hampshire. Some poor guy came off his bike and dislocated his shoulder. He had his friends with him but they asked if I could carry on and then phone them back once I reached a road so they could give the inbound ambulance some indication of where and how far from the road they were

Turns out they were about a mile away from the road so I called one of the riders to let him know. When I finished the call I suddenly became aware I was under thick tree cover and must have spooked all the birds who were clearly not happy about me making phone calls in the dead of night. It was like they all had decided to show their unappreciation by simultaneously crapping leaving me defenceless to their dirty protest

The amazing thing was despite the road being bombarded with bird poo I some how managed to avoid being peppered with the white / brown stuff......... lucky escape

rudderboy

I regularly ride as part of a group in the deepest darkest woods of NE Scotland, so pretty used to it, but I've got a 5 mile ride home afterwards on my own along single track lanes through the woods.
The other week I was riding along when a bloody owl came swooping out of the woods from my left and literally chased me a couple of hundred yards up the road - I could hear its wings flapping behind me as I pedalled away furiously!! I must have surprised it or something - not as much as it surprised me though!!
A little bit of wee definitely came out...

miss notax

castlelad wrote:

Badgers and foxes are freaky little feckers in the dark but owls are the worst, just see their eyes and then a shadow when they take off, :shock: The only bit of woods i go through alone is from keele uni to silverdale(newcastle under lyme) and its got a few badgers,foxes and owls, and when i come out at the bottom(it's 1 mile long,approx 800 yds dh section) i come out in a horses field and they hate it too say the least, but there's a car park at the bottom of bradwell woods(it's on the youtube video i put on,bradwell wood pt 2) and it's locally known as bummer's bend ,now that is a shocking sight :shock: , but it's only ridable in daylight....

Ah yes, we have a few car parks like that in the New Forest :shock:

I don't ride alone anyway, let alone in the dark, but the scariest thing i've found is riding along a bit of fast singletrack in a relatively wooded area, came around a corner and saw a small fire off the side of the trail to my left (weird enough) but then realised that a bloke with a big shovel was stood the other side :shock:

Strange people in the dark with a fire and big garden implements is rather alarming - i'm pleased to say that I did my gender proud by screaming

SirDidymus

miss notax wrote:

Strange people in the dark with a fire and big garden implements is rather alarming - i'm pleased to say that I did my gender proud by screaming

Hmmm, i detect a classic, good old mafia guy disposing of some evidence. Of course i would of just stayed completely mute, being the manly man i am... defiantly wouldn't of screamed. :oops:

Was talking about this with my friend, he say's we should watch all of The Blair Witch Project then go for a hearty little night ride in the countryside. Because that's such a fantastic idea, and won't end up with any of us crying into a video camera.

I must say i'm surprised with some of the odd things people have recalled. At least with a bike you can just pedal like mad though.

Walkertalker

I had been out a couple of times with my new lights so was riding with confidence, climbing through Hawthorn Dean, near Hawthorn, Co Durham. I Got to the first initial climb I heard a weird noise I was busy thinking what the, then I turned right and it looked like a tall man dressed in black just standing in the woods. Just at that moment something tapped me on the back. Three incidents at once was two much. I climbed the next couple of miles like I never have. built the courage to go back, yes in the dark a couple of Nights later, my wife thought I was crazy. Got to the same spot and spotted a couple of Owls and one flew right in front of me. Go regulary now. Still spooky!

raggedstone

I mainly ride in the night, by myself (in the winter). Never been particularly frightened by anything yet. Other people with dogs are the biggest concern because the dogs are basically invisible, and it's hard to tell if they are evil big dogs or cuddly daft dogs from the eyeshine.

I like having owls jump out on me - it doesn't half make you jump though, becuase they are so bloody silent. I've had quite a few barn owls creep up on me and pass over me quite low. Always see loads of wildlife in the summer at night. The hills by me are teeming with rabbits, foxes, badgers, bats etc. I sometimes stop to try to watch the bats and listen to the wildlife (over the creaking trees). It's peaceful, provided it's not too windy. Sounds like an express train when the wind really gets up.

Never been at all bothered by the possibility that there might be someone nasty in the woods. I never see anyone but other mountain bikers and keen walky types. Who else is realistically likely to be out in the middle of nowhere in the dark, in a place that is well known to be frequented by mountain bikers?

miss notax

raggedstone wrote:

Who else is realistically likely to be out in the middle of nowhere in the dark, in a place that is well known to be frequented by mountain bikers?

Ahh, but you never know do you??!!! :shock: :shock:

butcher of bakersfield

raggedstone wrote:

Who else is realistically likely to be out in the middle of nowhere in the dark, in a place that is well known to be frequented by mountain bikers?

Well that's obvious. The only other people who are going to be out in the middle of nowhere in the dark, chancing on the odd passer by, are serial killers. Where else can you murder people without being interupted? :?

Personally, I never see anyone when I go off-road at night. I've yet to see another cyclist on the cycle track even, and I go out most nights. Everyone seems to stick to the relative safety and lights of the road side.

Further afield I choose my rides selectively, depending on how brave I'm feeling

The Rookie

Not freaky, but one place we ride occasionaly has a road leading to a dead end and then the trail we take, often see cars there with canoodling couples, but this one night a couple were caught with pants well and truly down (and it was too warm for steamed up windows) as 20 of Dealextreme's finest lit up the area like it was daylight.

At least I now know that dogging is NOT my thing!

One day riding back from work in the dark (21st december in fact so genuinely the darkest day) and I was convinced I was being followed, nasty feeling, not had it since!

Simon

Boy Lard

I wasn't on my own luckily, but in some fairly local woods, about 10 o'clock at night, pitch black, saw something flickering off through the trees, as we got closer I realised it was a fire and thought some teens must be having a camp out or something. Bit closer still and saw a woman dressed in a long white robe dancing around the fire and chanting, there were some of her 'followers' sat around also chanting. We rode passed as heads turned to follow, but no-one said anything on either side.

Each to their own, glad I wasn't on my own though.

stubs

Having a quick ride through my local woods testing out my rebuilt forks. As I get to the darkest spookiest quietest spot I was suddenly caught in a really powerful beam of light from the side of the track. No noise or anything just this bloody light following me as I piled on the speed and hurtled for civilisation. I didnt stop pedalling till I was past the golf course over the railway line and in sight of streetlights. Some git had a good laugh at me pedalling like fook but I nearly had a heart attack.

tenfoot

I've done many solo nightrides and my mind does occasionally work overtime.

A few times I've imagined hearing noises but nothing has materialised.

Only time I nearly soiled myself was when my endomondo app gave me a (voice) mileage update, just after I thought I'd heard something.

Most of my nightriding is done with Townydc, however. At the moment we seem to have a problem with some idiot with a greyhound who keeps leaving logs across the trail. Makes you a bit nervy. Expecting some rope to be strung between two trees at some point.