Does anyone do any regular night-time roadie-ing? With the evenings drawing in, I’m contemplating my ride schedule. I do a bit of night riding myself and I often see people out XCing in the dark, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any roadies out at night?

Am I mistaken, or do roadies just avoid the dark? Surely with decent lights (front and rear) it’s gotta be safe enough?

Do you have to have drop bars to be a ‘roadie’? I ride the urban roads sometimes at night & sometimes the rural, I do it all on a mtb!

Some guys I know have started a regular night road ride out of Romiley on a Friday night.

I often go out at night on the road. It’s much faster than during the day and without the usual associated risks. Though watch out for foxes and badgers. 🙂

I ride a fair bit at night, you just need good lights and some hi-vis on the road, once you lose street lights its incredible just how dark some country lanes can be if the hedges are high.

Riding late through the city centre of Bristol is quite good fun, its fairly quiet from 2230 onwards and blasting through the suburbs and the centre without traffic is great fun.

Wildlife is stupid too, it will stand there in front of you whilst you approach at 30kmh whilst it tries to work out what you are..

If the winter weather isn’t too awful I’d rather do a night ride than go on the turbo so I pretty regularly head out for a night ride on the road. Lets me do family stuff, bath daughter and get her to bed etc and still get a ride in.

Getting home at eleven o’clocl, showering and trying to sleep can be a problem though so I tend to limit the rides to 30miles at most as that lets me get in at a reasonable hour.

I use my Hope MTB lights and tend to find that cars give me a lot more space than in daylight.

I see a group regularly in Lichfield, when I get back from my weekly night ride at Cannock.
Usually 6-10 of them.
I think they just do a couple of laps of an extended circuit of the Greater Lichfield Conurbation, which is about 8 miles.
Having just got my first modern road bike I was thinking about asking if I could tag along, but I’m worried they will scoff at my tricked out to the max TriBan3. 🙂

I haven’t done much night-time roadie-ing for a couple of years but we used to have regular rides from Hayfield (with richpips) and I quite often extend my commute which I suppose in winter counts as night-time road riding.

You need some good lights – you’ll be going a lot faster than you would off-road and on unlit country lanes you want a set that shows up the potholes.

Riding at night is actually safer; cars can see you coming from much further away and you can see them too – the glow of headlights over hedgerows or round a corner so you’re less likely to actually hit anything or be hit.

I usually ride twice midweek throughout the year with a mate who works so during the Winter months we are out in the dark. We live in the country so ride on unlit roads the majority of the time.

I build my own lights so have built some bar and headlights for my mates also which are pretty bright but very necessary on the uneven country roads.

Night riding on the road is great just like night riding mtb.

If anything though there’s more advantages. You get that same focus but there’s less traffic and any that is about is easily spotted due to there lights meaning you can be a bit more confident around the corners and spot cars way in advance of daytime conditions.

Personally I like exposure lights because they’ve served me well across dozens of night rides. Do a few then do next years Dunwich Dynamo , still the bet UK cycling event IMO.

4 road night rides per week. 3 are my commute home from Trafford Park to Marple and 1 is a group ride with colleagues. The 5th ride is a rather boring off road ride home along the Mersey. If anybody has a more interesting off road route, I’d be very interested.

Aside from the daily commute. Our club ride is 7PM every Tuesday. Usually 30 miles for the winter route in all weathers (was -6C one night earlier this year). There is also a turbo session, which seems rather popular too 😉 . Then I ride the 12 miles home.

It’s all down to good lights (Strada and Cateye) and good clothing (Pearl Izumi bib longs).

I commute but full on night riding has always seemed odd on the road.
Local to me there are several chain gangs that use industrial estates and quiet loops. Places where there is unlikely to be traffic after 6pm.

Often see a group out round near Long Eaton/Ilkeston in the winter – seem to be using massive lights similar to the ones we use for off road riding, when we meet in the lanes I think the group that blinks first loses…. 😯

Yeah I rideout at night. I tend to pop out at about 8pm when I’m home and ride the same routes as I do when in daylight. This means I know the routes very well, know the points where I should keep a good lookout (crossing main roads/junctions etc.) which also means I can turn off the lights and enjoy moonlight strewn lanes.
I do only ride the lanes though, never go on main roads.

I prefer early morning rides on the road, less likely to get egged. I go out about 6-6:30 most weekends in in the winter all weathers. My first spill off my current road bike was on an untreated road over the chase. No ice anywhere and it was raining, but we turned off the main road and when we got to the first corner both wheels disappeared from under me. When I got up it turned out the whole road was sheet ice all the way across and all the way along. Had to walk back to the main road, couldn’t get back on without the bike going sideways.

I do a two or three 60+ mile rides a week at night this time of year. The main problem is the state of the roads. If it has been raining the potholes can be a bit hard to spot. I love it when it is dry. If I go over to Wales I hardly see any cars some rides, and those I do see tend to be considerate drivers so its quite a relaxing way to spend an evening.

I try to do it as much as I can, but one thing that puts me off is that living pretty rural, you soon feel very vulnerable riding about in the middle of nowhere when darkness falls! It’s amazing, I wouldn’t think twice about it during the day, but after dark I’m clearly going to get raped and murdered – in my mind anyway.

I have no choice with my commute. 20 mile before dawn and 20 miles back after work. Some of my best road biking is early doors when the roads and fells are quietest. Sheep eyes look best in the dark……

Sounds like a great idea OP 🙂

Regular night rides here with the Huddersfield Star Wheelers.
Tuesdays are 25-30 miles, with a choice of 3 different-paced groups.
Thursdays are training rides, which is either one of a couple of different 30 mile loops, or a few circuits depending on group preference that evening.
Once it’s dark at 5.00pm, then it doesn’t make a lot of difference what time you ride in the evening, apart from traffic volume. We’ve plenty of options to head out into the hills round here.