Night Rider

Dylan Smith said:

I did my first night riding in years last night.

I'm very impressed at how well the 3W luxeon front light did - about
2/3rds my journey is unlit country roads, and it lit the road ahead
pretty well. I'm paranoid about being rammed, so I have retroreflective
strips on my backpack, a retroreflective ankle band (with built in LED),
as well as a primary steady red rear light.

It was a really pleasant autumn evening, really T-shirt weather except I
already had a long sleeved top on. Only about 10 knots worth of
headwind. Most enjoyable.

Quoted message said:

It's amazing how orange car headlights look once you've been alone for a
while with nothing but the pale violet of a "white" LED lighting the
road ahead.

It also seemed that car drivers gave me more room at night than I
usually get during daylight hours. Hardly a scientific study, but it
seemed like a very large proportion of drivers were going right onto the
other side of the road when passing. The other thing I liked was being
able to 'see' other traffic around blind bends due to the headlights.

very much like lanes driving, where at night in the narrow ones nr my
folks place, you can reach the heady speeds of 30mph normally 20ish
about as fast as is prudent.

not as good in the bike as most lights don't have the punch to allow one
to spot fallen stones etc.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Dylan Smith said:

I'm paranoid about being rammed, so I have retroreflective
strips on my backpack, a retroreflective ankle band (with built in LED),
as well as a primary steady red rear light.

It also seemed that car drivers gave me more room at night than I
usually get during daylight hours. Hardly a scientific study, but it
seemed like a very large proportion of drivers were going right onto the
other side of the road when passing.

That's very much my experience. Some people come far too close during
the day, but I've never had that at night. I just have a single blinky
led rear light which seems entirely adequate. If you can bring
yourself to do without some of your other stuff, I suspect you will
find people still give you a wide berth.

Quoted message said:

The other thing I liked was being
able to 'see' other traffic around blind bends due to the headlights.

I like this too. Only problem is too many of them are slow at dipping
or don't dip at all. I'm planning to get a brighter light not to see
where I'm going, but just to turn on when I see a car approaching, so
that I can dip it when they come in to view and hopefully they'll do
the same.

Rob

Dylan Smith said:

I'm paranoid about being rammed, so I have retroreflective
strips on my backpack, a retroreflective ankle band (with built in LED),
as well as a primary steady red rear light.

It also seemed that car drivers gave me more room at night than I
usually get during daylight hours. Hardly a scientific study, but it
seemed like a very large proportion of drivers were going right onto the
other side of the road when passing.

That's very much my experience. Some people come far too close during
the day, but I've never had that at night. I just have a single blinky
led rear light which seems entirely adequate. If you can bring
yourself to do without some of your other stuff, I suspect you will
find people still give you a wide berth.

Quoted message said:

The other thing I liked was being
able to 'see' other traffic around blind bends due to the headlights.

I like this too. Only problem is too many of them are slow at dipping
or don't dip at all. I'm planning to get a brighter light not to see
where I'm going, but just to turn on when I see a car approaching, so
that I can dip it when they come in to view and hopefully they'll do
the same.

Rob

Dylan Smith said:

I did my first night riding in years last night.

I'm very impressed at how well the 3W luxeon front light did - about
2/3rds my journey is unlit country roads, and it lit the road ahead
pretty well. I'm paranoid about being rammed, so I have retroreflective
strips on my backpack, a retroreflective ankle band (with built in LED),
as well as a primary steady red rear light.

It was a really pleasant autumn evening, really T-shirt weather except I
already had a long sleeved top on. Only about 10 knots worth of
headwind. Most enjoyable.

It's amazing how orange car headlights look once you've been alone for a
while with nothing but the pale violet of a "white" LED lighting the
road ahead.

Riding at night can be a very surreal experience. I had a long
night-time stint in this years 7/24 as organised by Simon of this parish
[1]. The section from Lockerbie to Langholm was mainly over a road
closed to motor traffic as there had been a landslide. It was passable
by bike. It was past midnight while I was on this part and the absolute
silence combined with the only light coming from me was an experience.

[1] A full ride report has been posted here and is also available at
<http://www.7-24.org.uk/seven24/story/article_92.html>.

--
Don Whybrow

Sequi Bonum Non Time

One tentacle, one vote.

Dylan Smith said:

It also seemed that car drivers gave me more room at night than I
usually get during daylight hours. Hardly a scientific study, but it
seemed like a very large proportion of drivers were going right onto the
other side of the road when passing. The other thing I liked was being
able to 'see' other traffic around blind bends due to the headlights.

Yes I find this too. Decent lights which make you stand out and show
the road surface well actually make me feel safer at night than during the
day.

I have a Hope front light
(http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/acatalog/info%5fhope%5fled%5fbar%2ehtml) and
it is almost embarrassing when cars pull over 100 yards ahead and wait for
you to pass!

Cheers
Noel

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I like this too. Only problem is too many of them are slow at dipping
or don't dip at all. I'm planning to get a brighter light not to see
where I'm going, but just to turn on when I see a car approaching, so
that I can dip it when they come in to view and hopefully they'll do
the same.

Just wear a peaked hat so you can screen the glare (while benefiting
from the light that floods the road).

in message <[email hidden]>, Don Whybrow

(') said:

Dylan Smith wrote:

Riding at night can be a very surreal experience. I had a long
night-time stint in this years 7/24 as organised by Simon of this parish
[1]. The section from Lockerbie to Langholm was mainly over a road
closed to motor traffic as there had been a landslide. It was passable
by bike. It was past midnight while I was on this part and the absolute
silence combined with the only light coming from me was an experience.

[1] A full ride report has been posted here and is also available at
<http://www.7-24.org.uk/seven24/story/article_92.html>.

Just to say - we will definitely be going ahead with the 2008 7/24, on
21st-22nd June, over (pretty much, may be slight variations) the same
course. It's about 400Km in total, of which about 260Km is on road, and
the remainder varies between landrover track and highly technical
singletrack. It's ridden by teams of up to four riders, typically two
roadies, two mountain bikers. So far no-one has tried to ride it solo,
although we did have one solo entry the year before last (he was a
no-show).

It's a very good ride, a lot of fun. So start getting your teams together
now!

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; First they came for the asylum seekers,
;; and I did not speak out because I was not an asylum seeker.
;; Then they came for the gypsies,
;; and I did not speak out because I was not a gypsy...
;; Pastor Martin Niemöller, translated by Michael Howard.