Getting sick of trail closures round my way and the turbo is feeling like a torture device.

Work means early morning rides are out. The distance means the commute by bike is not an option. Only thing left to do is maybe turbo one or two nights a week and maybe a night road ride. Round where I live is mostly national speed limit B roads. Traffic is not high, but people do speed a bit.

Is it worth riding at night to get the miles in?

Will a bright front light (one of the 1100 Fluxient jobs from Torchy) and my regular rear commuting ligh do the job illumination wise?

Is it better to wait for traffic to die down?

Will it make it harder to get to sleep? I need to finish my turbo sessions 2 hours before bedtime to make sure I settle down by a reasonable hour.

Thanks all.

If I ride later on in the evening, it’s hard to eat / drink enough (to recover) before I’m nodding off – this usually means I’m awake in the night, hungry and thirsty.

Don’t use a light that bright on the road. Otherwise, go for it.

If that’s an 1100 lumen light you’re talking about, it’s waaaay too bright for the road. All you’ll do is dazzle and annoy people.

I love riding at night. If you are well lit up and have lots of reflectives on then you are a lot more easily seen – especially at a distance – than you are in daytime. Roads are generally quieter which means that vehicles overtaking find it easier too. Tone down the front light a bit tho!

I wait until the evening traffic has died down, say 7.30pm then go out and do a 90min ride. love it.

No real difference to riding in the evenings in the summer. Go for it.

The Torchy fluxient jobs might be a bit over the top though, a magicshine clone is more than enough for unlit roads. A riding buddy of mine has a fluxient, has to stay on low most of the time when there are cars about, and the they’re porkier than a lower powered light.

There is no reason why 1100 lumens is to bright or dazzling to other road users, the lumens output of the lamp alone doesn’t tell us much about the brightness of a light overall – the optics will dictate how dazzling those 1100 lumens are – tightly focussed it won’t help much, and it may well dazzle other road users, spread out across the road, then it’s less likely to dazzle, and will be more useful to a cyclist trying to identify the edge of the road and pot holes – although I tend to find a big difficulty on narrow roads is seeing where you are going when a car comes the other way and dazzles you.

Point the big bright light down to see the road and so you don’t dazzle other traffic.

Then light yourself up like a Christmas tree and enjoy. Real miles outside in weather is far better than turbo miles IMHO.

It’s a whopping big bright floody lamp, just what you want off road as a bar mounted light, not great for on the road. And its heavy.

Magicshine with one of them flat filter jobs FTW.

Add an additional rear light or two, ‘cos if you’re on NSL roads you need to let other vehicles see you well in advance – especially if their view is blocked be a vehicle they’re following.

I’ve going out fairly regularly on my road mtb at night.

Its good to get an hour of cycling in on quiet roads.

Minimum two lights at both ends though, one constant and one flashing, wear something reflective as well.

I use a 1000 lumen light for night road rides, 95% of the time I’m on unlit, twisty back roads and (for me) it works well. Helmet mounted lamp / battery in jersey pocket arrangement, also got a pair of Lezyne ‘Femto Drive’ lights attached to the bike.

Keep it to built up areas and it’s fine, the street lamps will keep the pot holes nicely visible and less chance of a badger strike.

I sometimes do an hour up and around some of the steeper climbs, makes a nice change from intervals on the turbo.

e2a: Exposure Joystick

At least two decent rear lights (I like Cateye Rapid 1s), a Joystick or similar 400 lumens on the front, some 25C tyres at 95 PSI (I’ve just received my new rim for the one I wrote off two weeks ago!). Watch for potholes and uneven surfaces because the oblique lighting has a habit of obscuring them.

Enjoy. Our club rides are 28 miles in the dark every Tuesday night.

I usually wait til after 6 when the traffic has calmed down a bit, we have about 3 miles of busy traffic to get through before we get to quiet country roads, I use my solar storm light on the front on the low setting on the busy lit roads but put in on the middle setting when we get to the quiet unlit roads, at least to rear flashing LEDs on the back, we normally get two 35/40 mile night rides in a week.

you don’t have to ride on the roads if the trails are all closed.
Any sustrans routes near you? canals? back lanes? any of the rural roads that are grey on google maps will do generally I find. I go ‘road riding’ at night on my 26″ hardtail taking to the pavement for fun or exploring around the area I live, your choices would be limited on a pure road bike.

There’s a danger of over-thinking this. Just make sure you have a front light bright enough to see, and a rear light bright enough to be seen. Something like a B&M Ixon front is perfect, as it focuses the beam on the road rather than drivers’ eyes. Out in the country, a £5 smart rear light can be seen from miles away.

I do quite a few overnight rides each year, and I can’t say it feels any more dangerous than cycling during the day.

Bright clothing preferably stuff with reflector strips all over it, stick some on your chain stays too and on the back of your hat. This was the one thing that made a massive difference to me out night riding, once I did this I found motorists REALLY slowed down and were less tempted to try & squeeze past in non existent gaps.

Although good lights are a must, the reflective strips light you up like a glowing skeleton!

I’ve just started night riding on the roadie and just have some pretty cheapo lights from Planet X, with two on the back for added security. I’ve been sticking to mainly well lit roads though. I’ve been quite enjoying it; after 1930 when the roads are quiet.

+1 for reflective and a (rare) road-specific front light. If you can be arsed, it’s worth buying a sheet of the 3M reflective stuff and strategically sticking up your bike and helmet as well. They even do a black version which on a dark bike is near invisible in daylight. Think about side-on visibility as well as front and rear.

Always carry back-up lights and give thanks to the lord for programming regular soap opera bilge at around 7pm so people can veg out with their ready meals on the sofa.

I night ride on my road bike and enjoy it. It has taken a bit of working out which are the best roads to use, the lovely roads over the moors are full of boy racers at night (well, one or two but it only takes one idiot to kill you). However, I have found some good lanes quite are quiet with sensible traffic on.

I prefer lanes to busy roads,even though they are unlit.

I use a powerful light and dip it when cars are coming the other way. I think the front light gives drivers plenty of warning that they are approaching a bike from a distance.

Out of interest, what are the “trail closures?”

Did not think about the East Enders protection factor!

So far we have:
– Tone down the front light.
– Invest in a decent rear light. I have one of those Torchy lights that project a line on the floor as well. Will fit that in addition to my Cateye rear.
– Backup lights. I have a Moon X-Power 200 lumen bar mounted light.

So, should I mount the Torchy light on my helmet?

@TiRED. I know your club. I’m a member too. Just don’t live close enough to the area to make it out for the Tuesday night rides. Unfortunately, I don’t even live close enough to make it out for the weekend ones either 🙁

We have a local chaingang that runs at night. We do about 4 miles, fast over a set route. It is interesting. You can see cars coming a mile off and with a half decent light and a few reflectives they should see you. It is relatively flat but we hit 35mph on sections which requires a decent light as gravel and potlholes sneak up on you.

I have a magic shine light which I run full output (900lumens) I drop it to half power or put my hand partially over it as I come to other cars (like you would with full beam headlights?)

It can be interesting. You really need to trust the person who’s wheel you are following as you can’t see anything when you are a few bikes down. Roads are often empty, there is a large amount of wildlife (foxes, badgers, rabits, doggers). I’ve done a few solo efforts and when you get out on a clear night in the moon light you get some amazing views. I thought it would feel and be more dangerous than road riding during the day but it is actually ok.

We meet at 6:30 ride through town and hit empty country roads about 7. Keep an eye on the temperature. A few weeks ago it dropped below zero towards the end of our ride (9pm) and there was some ice starting to form and we had to ease off.

If I didn’t go out at night, then I’d never get any miles in!

I try to wear bright clothing, but most of my wardrobe is dark. I wear one of those snappy, fluo/reflective bands around my ankle and I have two rear lights; one of those wide Cateye ones on permanent and a Lunar R2 on flashing. I use rechargables in them and try to recharge them frequently.

The biggest revelation to me lately is exploring all the little country roads. Previously I would just stick to the main roads that I knew and had a number of local loops that were easy to do; but quite busy with cars and HGVs.
Recently though, I have been looking for quieter routes and uploading them to my Garmin, so I don’t have to worry about stopping to check my location. It’s surprising the amount of barely used country lanes that you can find. Some of the roads I now go on, you might not see another road user for 10-15 mins at a time.

I prefer roady night riding to offroady night riding. Not that I’m doing either at the moment.