Steady on, Rascal, you weren’t that slow – especially after a long time ‘away’.
As I said during the ride itself, I always find riding ‘into’ darkness especially difficult. If I have to switch lights on during a ride my brain seems to disbelieve what my eyes are telling it, so I feel like I’m doing a double-take all the time. This drags my vision back in towards the front wheel – a big ‘no-no’.
It gets much easier when you start and end in the dark with light on.
As for lighting arrangements, I’d always try to go bar and lid. Stick a ‘floody’ light on the bars and a ‘spotty’ one on the lid. That way the bar light is like a scanning radar whilst the helmet light (that you can swivel independently of the bike) is like a focused beam. Also, only riding with a helmet light doesn’t cast good shadows for your eyes to pick up the relief – if you think about it, the beam is pretty much in line with your eyes so any shadow cast will be out of view immediately behind the object. Bar lights are lower than your eyes, so you can see the elongated shadow.
One other piece of advice, please don’t get lights brighter than mine, I don’t want to ride in my own shadow if you are behind me!
Anyway, what’s not to like? Razzing around the local woods and hills, acting like a kid, chatting shit and having a pint afterwards.
Mint.