Richmond Park in the Dark

iso2000

Hi,
looked at Strava flybys of a recent evening ride I did. I was surprised when I saw one cyclist dissapear into Richmond park after 7pm in February. Didn't even know it was open to cyclists after dark. Do many people ride around the park in the dark? I am tempted to give it a go soon.

marcusjb

The park is open to cyclists and pedestrians all the time* - you have to go in and out of the park via the pedestrian gates either side of all the road gates.

I often ride through it at night if I have been to see friends somewhere. I also do train in there at night.

It's amazing. Though comes with the warning that the deer do move much closer to the road and are often on the road - so you do need to be careful.

* apart from times when the cull is on, there's one going on currently, so once the gates are closed at sundown, they are all locked and no entry until dawn. I think the latest cull will last another 2-4 weeks, but I can't remember from the signs.

ugo.santalucia

You can go any time you want if they are not culling... the walking gates are always open... when I lived in Richmond I used to go at 5 AM in summer, it was glorious!

In the dark you need good lights as deer love to roam at night

kingstongraham

ugo.santalucia wrote:

You can go any time you want if they are not culling... the walking gates are always open... when I lived in Richmond I used to go at 5 AM in summer, it was glorious!

In the dark you need good lights as deer love to roam at night

And so do walkers.

It's not a time to hammer it, that's for sure. But it's great to be away from the traffic.

surrey_commuter

Lots of commuters going through in a the dark. It is spooky to start with but you soon get used to it. Good advice not to hammer as you often smell the deer before seeing them but also dogs, walkers runners and skiers loom out of the dark

okgo

With good lights you can ride it as fast as you would in the day. I often do intervals in there at night. Love it with no cars. But I repeat, you do need good lights.

And expect to be surprised by the sheer idiocy of other folks in regards to what they will wear, ride without lights, etc etc. But if yours is good enough, you will be able to see these lemmings

iso2000

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to give it a go. Might need to be new front light first though.

veronese68

I ride the paths through Bushy Park a lot when it's dark and took to using a light on my head as well as the times you can smell the deer and not see them are quite disconcerting. Being able to look around and see does help give a bit of warning of wildlife around you.

davep1

Living down in rural Sussex has taught me not to underestimate deer, although this tends to be more relevant in a car than on the bike! I have had one instance of a couple of deer running across the front of me when on the bike, almost close enough to touch. There's a saying about if you can only see one be very aware because they are never on their own

cougie

okgo wrote:

With good lights you can ride it as fast as you would in the day. I often do intervals in there at night. Love it with no cars. But I repeat, you do need good lights.

And expect to be surprised by the sheer idiocy of other folks in regards to what they will wear, ride without lights, etc etc. But if yours is good enough, you will be able to see these lemmings

I disagree with this. Your lights wont light up off to the side where you're likely to find deer crossing your path. You need to be more cautious. Its the same for my night rides and badgers. I can see a long way ahead but that's no use when Mr Badger darts out of the bushes at my side and misses me by inches.

rnath

Agree with @cougie. Night riding around Richmond Park is a genuine pleasure, but there is definitely more wildlife near (and occasionally on) the roads so it's only common sense to back off the pace a bit. Runners can also be hard to see until the last minute.

As for lights, I think it's easy to go overboard - I regularly see a couple of guys with blindingly bright front and helmet light combos that, although no doubt providing a lot of security for rider, practically give me a radioactive tan as they ride past. Seriously, just add a foghorn and they could hire themselves out to Coastguard Rescue as a lighthouse :roll: FFS, dip your lights!! My lowly Cateye Volt 400 works fine...

okgo

Sure, but there's risk all the time, deer have run out on people in the day. I think I've only ever seen a badger in there once in 6 years, which was the other week.

fenix

Yeah but in the day - you can see the deer ? At night - unless you have lights off to the sides - you won't see them coming - so you clearly can't ride as fast ?

okgo

I have a good spread of light on the Exposure. Mostly in the day, but still not always.

Anyway, evidence of me riding faster for half a decade suggests you can do it with good lights, as I said. Clearly there is ALWAYS risk with with riding a bike fast at night, anywhere.

hsiaolc

What time do they close the gates to cars?

rower63

hsiaolc wrote:

What time do they close the gates to cars?

at the moment 1700 (was in there yesterday and saw the sign). But it follows sun-up & sun-down.

The total closure of the ped-gates for shooting deer I think starts around 2000 and re-opens shortly before 0700

spam02

rower63 wrote:

hsiaolc wrote:

What time do they close the gates to cars?

at the moment 1700 (was in there yesterday and saw the sign). But it follows sun-up & sun-down.

The total closure of the ped-gates for shooting deer I think starts around 2000 and re-opens shortly before 0700

Reopens at 7.30am officially (although they will sometimes open them earlier)

okgo

They're quite bad at opening them earlier than they should in summer tbh.

Moonbiker

skiers?

surrey_commuter

Moonbiker wrote:

skiers?

oh yes - so long as you have no lights and wear light absorbent materials you can do what you want

http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events9.html

You will have to take my word for it that the guy doing press-ups in the road where it is pitch black under the trees by the ballet school was far worse

cougie

#peoplearestupid

Brexit Trump and the existence of Britains Got Talent proves this over and over.

pinches

I had a Badger run out in front of me last night in the park - it's not just the deer you have to be aware of!