anagallis_arvensis – Member
Just buy some lights strap them to your bike a go for it. I used to ride offroad with a 10watt spot and 2.5 flood with a lead acid battery. Didnt die, had fun.

Yes, but let’s be honest, actually being able to see where you’re going is better 🙂 I put mine back on for a laugh a few years ago, they really are rubbish!

I used to ride offroad with a 10watt spot and 2.5 flood with a lead acid battery. Didnt die, had fun.

I had those (or similar). When the moon was full it was more effective to turn those crappy lights off and use moonlight. 🙂

i don’t think you need big lumens to have a good night ride. i have a 300 lumen bar light and a similar helmet light, sometimes i use one or other and sometimes both. when using both you get a nice 3D effect for more technical stuff . there is a 2 mile riverside path which is nothing much in daylight, however at night it is totally absorbing. pick the wrong side of the wrong tree and you’re in the river etc. we have 2 forest parks where there is a good 2 hours hard riding. As someone above said, even on terrible weather, once out on the bike, the fun is great, you always come back buzzing

Yes, but let’s be honest, actually being able to see where you’re going is better

But then its just like riding during the day but in the dark.
Just means you go a bit slower but its no less fun. You dont need to spend hundreds of quid just get some lights you can afford and go for it. Problems only arise when you have a 10watt smart and some **** behind you has a Cateye Stadium!!

anagallis_arvensis – Member
Just buy some lights strap them to your bike a go for it. I used to ride offroad with a 10watt spot and 2.5 flood with a lead acid battery. Didnt die, had fun.

Yes I could have just bought the first light I came across and I am sure I wouldn’t have died – but I might as well get the right lights first and only buy once. This thread has helped achieve that hopefully. The difference in cost between entry level lights and what I chose is tiny.

The 3 of us are going to run the same set up actually and we’ll experiment on Friday night. Will report back… if I am still alive.

Night riding is ace.

https://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/ is ace. If you get lost on the website (it’s a bit hit and miss) give them/him a call – well helpful.

I agree bazillion lumens is not necessary. Decent battery life is important as is lifetime (charge-deplete-charge etc) once you know you’re into it.

Like lots have already side night riding is a fantastic experience.

Certainly agree with the comments about starting off somewhere familiar.

It might be also worthwhile agreeing with your mates that when off road to ride with a bit more of a gap than usual to avoid riding in the shadow of the light behind. It’s a bit of a personal thing, but I also prefer rear reds to be off when off road.

But then its just like riding during the day but in the dark.
Just means you go a bit slower but its no less fun. You dont need to spend hundreds of quid just get some lights you can afford and go for it. Problems only arise when you have a 10watt smart and some **** behind you has a Cateye Stadium!!

True, but my 2700lumen bar light cost less than my old Smart’s did, and lasts about 5x longer. IIRC the smarts would do a 2 hour ride, if you turned the 10W off when it wasn’t needed and used the 2.4W the force[i].

I used to ride with someone who had those stadiums, in the days before easy access to cheap LED lights it was like someone turning upto a gunfight with a thermonuclear warhead 😆

Plenty of other places to cut spending on night riding, go singlespeed, go rigid.

Generally run my lights on the lowest setting, despite having a about 2500 on full whack. Flip them to medium for the quicker runs and when it’s slightly more technical, but very very rarely on high or turbo

I like the night time aspect of night riding, trying to make it light riding in the daylight seems a bit counter-intuitive

It’s also surprisingly how little light you need to ride

Have fun, and remember there’s nothing in the woods at night that isn’t there during the day. It’s just that at night it’s awake. And hungry.

Have fun, and remember there’s nothing in the woods at night that isn’t there during the day. It’s just that at night it’s awake. And hungry.

D’oh! I predicted post 6 for this comment.

Is it too early to start praying for a couple of proper cold snaps this winter?

Night riding is ace, but riding crunchy freeze-dried trails with a million fairy lights from the frost is really quite magical – not that it happened at all last winter. 🙁

Night riding in real frost or snow is something else – a bit like being in space!

danny, I remember a week in Jan this year when I rode pretty much every day. Everything was frozen dry and fast as heck, it felt rude to not got out!

Have fun, and remember there’s nothing in the woods at night that isn’t there during the day. It’s just that at night it’s awake. And hungry.
D’oh! I predicted post 6 for this comment.

I think originality and unpredictability are over-rated

nedrapier – Member

danny, I remember a week in Jan this year when I rode pretty much every day. Everything was frozen dry and fast as heck, it felt rude to not got out!

Posted 9 minutes ago # Report-Post

Where are you based?

I am in a moderately hilly bit of the mudlands – some nice bits involving woodland, quarries and the odd bit of open country. The ground didn’t freeze properly at all last winter – there were one or two hoar frosts, but that was it.

We’ve already hit the time of year when my beard comes back soaked after a night ride due to the cool air. It’s winter when it actually freezes 🙂

It’s also surprisingly how little light you need to ride

I started night riding around 2005 and light technology was at best….limited! However riding by myself it seemed fine at the time, eventually buying a Hope Vision 4 in 2008, which was like turning night into day, but now its de rigueur to have one on the lid too, which is great for the fast twisty, undulating stuff. (still got the Vision 4 on the bars tho)

Surrey Hills dannyh. Middle of the Jan, it was below freezing for a week or more. Lakes froze up enough to walk on them.

Oh I remember the upgraded to 2x 10w lead acid halogens followed by the early lumicycles (which were comparatively adequate).
Decent bar and helmet setup these days runs for a long long time and as long as things don’t get too misty you can ride anything you would on the day 🙂

^^^ those club Wednesday rides with the lead acids were character forming though, weren’t they ? 😀

I remember my old BLT lights with a piddly 5w halogen and a big water bottle battery.

Just been out on a quick 16 miler – tracks, farm lanes, old railway and back via the canal.

Always keep an eye out for stupid dog walkers in the middle of nowhere, a big dark coloured dog is hard to see.

Fairly busy with random pedestrians tonight and a group of 4 MTB’ers with equally powerful lights – I dipped mine and pulled over to let them pass on the tow path. Animals, 2 rats, a badger and a load of bats tonight – might have been explained by the abundance of insects in my light beams.

Just get out there, the darker the lanes/tracks the better.

Watch out for badgers. Even a helmet mounted light won’t help when they attack from the side.

Go for a pint and chips afterwards. That’s the most important part.

I won’t comment on what specific lights as I run a Maxx-d and that’s out of your budget.

I used to run (a long time ago) a cateye triple shot which was probably about 300 or so lumens at best.

That’s enough to go carefully exploring at night but once the speed goes up it feels inadequate fairly quickly.

Helmet + bar with wider beam on the bar is best ime.

Attitude is important, pegging the pace back a bit helps at first as do familiar / easily navigable trails and a willingness to know when to rein it in a bit or cut short if it’s not going well.

I get the piddle ripped out of me for my heavy camelback but I’ve not once had to walk back to the pub. Walking back on your own to the car when it’s hissing down, dark and cold for the sake of a second spare tube or a chain tool is crap (at least that’s what I’ve heard!).

From sunny day to flipping cold evening can catch you out. It’s just heading towards that point in the year so have a jacket or extra light layer.

I love night riding and occasionally I’ll pop out on my own but it’s more fun in a group.

The only other thing I’d say is if you are all new to it, keep each other in sight especially if one or more or of you doesn’t know the terrain/route well. It will make you all feel more comfortable.

Pub, chips or kebab after.

no matter how much light you have you can still get lost in dense trees.
was doeing a bit of exploring last winter and the path just disapered, spent about half an hour battling trees trying to find it again before i gave up and got my phone out to see where to go. strava upload showed i’d been going in circles and doing figue of eights and hardly actually got anywhere.

@bigfoot that’s a good point.

It’s worth having a fully charged smartphone on you because at least you can use Google maps or whatever to find a general direction or road if you really do get disoriented.

10watt spot and 2.5 flood with a lead acid battery…

I just had a 10-watt with an adjustable beam. I think the battery weighed a kilogram and the light lasted 90-minutes as long as it wasn’t too cold. 🙂

As others have said, it matters if your mates have far better lights than you. Otherwise how much light you have just affects your speed.

Bigfoot does make a good point, and obviously any navigation is more difficult, familiar trails will look different…

But then its just like riding during the day but in the dark.
Just means you go a bit slower but its no less fun. You dont need to spend hundreds of quid just get some lights you can afford and go for it. Problems only arise when you have a 10watt smart and some **** behind you has a Cateye Stadium!!

Cateye stadium? There’s a blast from the past!.

I like riding as fast as I normally do in the day on a night ride, one particular local run has a couple of gaps that I wouldn’t make pootling along with a low light.

Good advice on the benefits of bar lights against head lights. I’ve wanted to buy some lights for this Winter and was going to go for some fancy bar lights I saw on chain reaction like the KNOGG or the well received Hope tech ones.

I’ll have to rethink this purchase now, as it makes more sense to go with head lights.

Do you really need both sets, and light up half the county?

You don’t need both sets, if I only had one if would be a helmet light, but combined with a bar light is better. Also means you have a spare if one packs in.

No need for it to be a super bright mental battery packed type, an exposure joystick packs enough punch for most folks needs.

You don’t need both sets, if I only had one if would be a helmet light, but combined with a bar light is better. Also means you have a spare if one packs in.

Or if your helmet mounted one hits a low branch.

Couple of these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321380802075 one bar one helmet (or get the 3 led version for bars)

And replace the batteries with these
https://www.bikelightsuk.com/batteries/magicshine_mj6038_4400_mah_standard_battery_P604.html

And get a charger from there too. Will do the job nicely. I used the batteries they came with for a winter with no issues but after reading about a few issues I replaced them just to be safe.

I just got 2 sets of evolva X5 from amazon – one for the bars and one for the helmet. Didn’t want to drop decent cash just to try out night riding.

They’re pretty good. Controls are a bit annoying, and batteries might not be the best quality – I wouldn’t leave them charging in my house unattended. But I can ride, full speed for 5 or 6 hours with them.

Recommend as a cheap option!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolva-Future-Technology-Runtime-Original/dp/B015FFO5DM

Yup, I’ve got one of those Evolvas as a bar light for my first foray into night riding. It’s great! Super bright, last for yonks.

Probably a daft question, but when people helmet mount them, are you sticking the battery pack on the helmet as well? Or in a backpack?

I tried both – prefer the battery in the backpack. Bit awkward getting the backpack on and off without yanking the cable, but better than the alternative.

I was impressed with the amount of cables, tie downs, straps and cable management stuff came with them. The bar mount works well – ill be getting a gopro/tripod attachment so I can mount the helmet light a little better.

I started night riding around 2005 and light technology was at best….limited!

Pah newcomer. I remember riding with a maglite jury rigged on to the bars.
The thing with shit lights is it is still highly enjoyable but it is just a lot slower. With a not bad light set up I cant quite get past the feeling I am cheating.
With a bit of relevance to the OP I would make sure the budget includes a pair of lights (* front and rear) since it can be rather inconvenient losing all light either direction.

However, shining a torch on some doggers is more scary.

There are a couple of trails I avoid at night due to the high probability of meeting doggers whilst having to ride slowly for the turn off (pun possibly intended).

Ready to go. Total budget £52 for a total 700 Lumens / 2 hours or peak at 1000 lumens for short bursts.