Own up.
With all this chat on night riding who browns their pants a wee bit when out on yer own in the dark?

It’s amazing how much faster you can ride in the dark on your own!

Yep, have been since I was four

Seriously?

It’s just like the daytime you know – except the sun has gone to bed.

And you can’t see the man man with the machete standing in the shadows……

hahahahaaha I’m always nervous when I’m out night riding – shadows move as you ride past etc…. they all get my heart racing 😀

I’ve decided it’s a feature of my character that has helped my ancestors survive millenia until I was born 8)

I go mountain biking and trail running in the forests in the shadow of Frankenstein castle, this week has been the first week this year where I have needed my head torch when out running, while there is still lots of leaves on the trees, away from the light beam the shadows are very very black, its been really spooky. Especially seeing as they found a headless corpse last week 😯

normally night right with at least one or 2 others, more for a ‘what if you bin it’ be a long cold night if your hurt and cant get going waiting for someone to find ya lol

have done a few runs on my tod on the local trails, couple off odd things, worst was coming round a bend and seen a pile of lights, think to myself ah a load of bikers – nope just a load of guys in camo gear, i say alright lads, no response just stare at me, i assume they where ‘lamping’ as they had rifles and they maybe thought i was a gamekeeper or something – i rode of a fair bit faster, well it is Northern Ireland and they had guns lol

A while back I had the day off & watched some horror film or another, then went for a night ride.

I was riding through woods of silver birch trees & everytime I turned my head, the light reflected off the white bark & I thought it was a ghostly lady in a wedding dress!! Pooped myself once or twice!

Nowadays I’m on the South Downs & it’s the reflective sheep’s eyes which get me!
I heard an axe murderer coughing on one ride, although my friend who was with me said it was a sheep.

I say it was a close call, if he hadn’t have coughed, he’d have got me!

I’m not too comfortable with it if I’m honest..

I used to spend weeks at a time plotted up on desolate urban canal banks, or next to windswept gravel pits in my quest for catching carp.. I’ve spent a good chunk of my life sleeping under the stars.. It used to get a bit spooky sometimes and I’d often have to investigate any unexplained noises, but on the whole it was relaxing and I usually felt very at ease.. I find night riding a fair bit harder for some unknown reason..

I think it might have something to do with the primal instinct for tuning in to the surroundings, which can be quite difficult travelling sideways down a hill at 20mph

yes……..as a city lad the outdoors still terrifies me ………. even with all the years of outdoor pursuits and so on.

No way in comparison to frankenstien castle above but in the woods is a disused cottage, at the entrance they undertook a lot of foot and mouth ‘disposals’..really odd silent feel in the area and the sheep tend to avoid the locality.. really dark in the wood

running through at night looked left and the light caught all these luminous green eyes at less than a foot of the floor but then 2 sets of red eyes at about 6ft off the ground….fastest 2 km i have ever run.

Took partner up next day for a walk in the sunshine went on the path looked around and found a helium filled ballon in the trees with red relecftive metallic bits. I said nothing……..

Different wood looking for trails through the forest and clearing out found two old shoes…..mentioned this to a local gamekeeper and he said a bloke hung himself there ….called the trail deadmans shoes…..never ridden it or walked it at night……avoid the area in all honesty at night freaks me out.

in short night time woods….too many horror pics and stories….freak out…..still go out there though 😕

Remember to switch off the pep talk coach on endomoundo, I could keep hearing a distant voice no matter how fast I went.

😳

It’s always a good work out when you go solo night-riding. Something about the pack of werewolves following you, just out of sight…

Not in the slightest. Enjoy creeping up on doggers and drug dealers. Got massive lights that scare the shite out if them, they’re more scared of you. And as for ghosts and the bogeyman, seriously, we’re grown ups!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln2Xq8fCNI8[/video]

I know who isn’t…

Me? Well, I’ve just equipped myself with 3200 lumens worth of retina destroyers, I’ll let you judge for yourselves.

Yep. Good init?

Erk @ Frankenstein’s castle. Hope someone wasn’t trying to recreate the story.

I only go to the part of the forest further North from there at night, so it wasn’t me!

Spooky in the French Guiana jungle at night though. Never see any animals during the day, but at night, wherever you look you see eyes staring back!

not me (hard as nails i am 😉

when i do ride at night (haven’t done it for a long time/about a year) i like riding on the ridgeway (avebury/marlbrough downs) it is pretty cool actually (hearing all the animals (tawny owls hooting e.t.c).there’s definitely an atmosphere (not russ abbot 😉 about riding on the oldest man made road in europe at night (over 4000 years old). 🙂

@ druidh, yes seriously,saw ghost when I was four. Won’t go into darkened room. Not too bad outside, years of night fishing has desensitized Me, but still weary of dark rooms (not the photographic type).

Not me. Grew up in the country and used to shoot at night a lot and in the morning/ evening for duck so used to standing around in the gloom listening to the sounds of the countryside.
On night rides I would turn the lights off while waiting for people. It’s just like the daytime only you can’t see as far 🙄

My locale was the favorite dumping ground for the Krays, and I imagine still is a repository for some nasty east end evidence. Several bodies have been unearthed during my mtb career.

Scared my self sh*tless by riding alone at night last autumn, last thing I want to see when I round a bend are several cockney geezers called Errol holding shovels.

just ride with headphones in,if you cant hear it it can’t kill you

Done it a couple of times, not to comfortable with it really. I made the decision that if I got a puncture I would just keep riding until I got to civilisation. Gonna try and MTFU this winter though and get out on a few more solos

Ha Ha I Hate the dark I was scarred for life when i was about five whatching american werewolf in london..I like to bike into work but dread it in the winter theres no lights or anything around here very secluded..on a plus side I set my fastest ever time to work in the dark!! 🙂

I grew up in the country too Mr Smith and was a gamekeeper for allot of my young working life..I wasnt bothered either when i had a shotgun or rifle to hand lol

I love mooching around in the dark. Like Granny Weatherwax I am aware that “the forest holds many dark and terrible things and it” 😆

Seriously: let’s think about this. It’s dark. You can’t see therefore no one can see you. If your feet are making a noise, someone else’s feet will similarly make a noise. If you’re frightened of the Bogeyman, have you got solid evidence that he is not (more) frightened of you?

Right, you might fall down a hole/trip over something – but that’s not fear, and you’ve fallen loads of times surely (if you’re a mountainbiker).

If it really is supernatural you’re stuffed anyway, so no point in worrying.

The thing that does frighten me is the eastern european people who take crayfish out of the New River at night … I am afraid that they will attack me because they think I will dob them in.

Seriously: let’s think about this. It’s dark. You can’t see therefore no one can see you. If your feet are making a noise, someone else’s feet will similarly make a noise.

This is my point.. on a bike you are completely at the mercy of your fortune, and not your wits..
people CAN see you.. and people CAN hear you, but not vice versa..

I totally get the Granny Weatherwax thing, being of Ogg descent, but I have a little tiny Dartmoor Beast phobia in the back of my mind..

Yunki, yes, on night rides I use lights so am visible yet – illogically – I feel safer on my bike. [Interesting mental thing going on here.]

When walking I have a torch (only for removing thorns from dog feet etc) so I am less visible from afar yet I feel more vulnerable – which is interesting.

So this is what CBT calls ’emotional thinking’ where, because you are frightened, you believe the activity is dangerous.

EG people are frightened of spiders so think they are dangerous. No. Not in the UK. People are frightened of flying, yet it is statistically the safest form of transport.

Awesome. I love this questioning of conditioning.

EDIT: You’re an Ogg? Do you know the Hedgehog Song? 🙂

No one can see us? You mean 1000 Lumen MagicExtremeHopeDmax’s can’t be seen from the outside in?

Do you know the Hedgehog Song?

not every verse.. but I do know A Wizard’s Staff Has A Knob On The End 😀

@ yunki lol

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=share&v=q_a1wxqloEs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dq_a1wxqloEs%26feature%3Dshare

No I’m not scared of the dark purely because there is no such thing as ghosts and vampires. Also the nutters will be in town or cities not on the hills in the cold and rain 🙂