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I managed to talk one of my local drinking partners into his first night ride last Sunday...he's online buying new kit now as a result - loved it bigtime!
Wash pits and foof in the morning, ensure mud spattered shins not on display in a skirt and hope no one at work notices mud in my hair.
I only shower after a ride if I have company, otherwise I leave it till Monday (or Thursday) :o)
"I only shower after a ride if I have company"...nope, barely allowed back in the house after a night ride until I get a shower - Mrs D tells me I smell like a dead horse... 😥
Grit in your ears.
...a useful way to confuse your body when it's used to just veg-ing after work - had this bloody cold since my first go last Wednesday!
😳
Tinsy, bring it on!!
I've got a nice hand-held 5,000,000 candlepower monster and enough brown tape to stick it on my forks!! 😆
#21. Convincing yourself that that "little off" you had doesn't need hospital attention - then waking up the next day in the worst pain ever - followed by a further nagging from spouse/life partner/significant other telling you that you "can't go to work in that state" and "it serves you right" . This is followed by a phone call to NHS Direct with the following question:
"Yes hello, I was just wondering, should my {insert name of relevant body part here}be"
a. "this shape?"
b. "that colour"
c. "this size?"
d. "be able to bend in that direction?"
e. "make me cry when I touch it?"
This is followed by more nagging from other half,a trip to A&E, several weeks off work - more nagging about how stupid you were to go out riding "in the dark" in the first place" and "how you've ruined Christmas because she has to drive everwhere now" -followed by (admittedly brief)doubts about whether it was all worth it. Then more weeks sat at home reading internet forums about how good night riding is and wishing you'd managed to get more than two of the bleeders in before all of the above happened!!!!?!
Just thought I'd get that off my chest.
Bregante, is this a summary of some 'lights failed on a DH' incident that you had?
BTW, your wife and mine must be twin sisters!
AND ALWAYS FINDING THE BADGER SET THATS NEVER THERE IN THE DAY TIME
Bregante, is this a summary of some 'lights failed on a DH' incident that you had?BTW, your wife and mine must be twin sisters!
nope. more like "skills failed on a DH" incident - just happened to be at night. Broken arm, wrist, no skin left on left leg etc etc etc.
First thing I'm gonna do when the quacks give me the all clear is book meself on one of them "stop crashing" courses that Great Rock does. I was tempted to go for the weekender with Nigel Page but not sure I'll be fit by then 😕
and I'm pretty damn sure my wife [u]couldn't[/u] have a twin 😯
Samuri said
"2. 15 miles riding around on open moorland convinced you're being followed by a madman, years off your life."
In the woods around bristol I regularly have to ride away from Vampires and werewolves! Not the nice twilight ones.... I am talking proper scary buggers.
Although never actually caught sight of one!
In answer to the opening question though.......... FAB-U-LOUS gotta love the night ride. 😀
Oh look its stopped raining..better charge the lights, erm Darling!
Gotta get me some lights after reading this thread! 😯
Getting chased by Park Rangers thinking you're on a nicked motorbike/scooter! (has happened twice)
And getting followed by an inquisitive twooting owl
And I like the excited feeling you get when you spot another night ninja's light in the distance and you try and loose 'em!
The abundance of wildlife at night always makes me feel really privilaged.
I like being in the middle of nowhere surrounded by darkness and no sound except for the monster you KNOW is behind you
brillant cos it gets me away from "I'a a celb..." 🙄
meeting five heavily armed trees/members of the paras on the trail then having a surreal conversation with them about mountain bikes VERY weird 😀
oh and I forgot #22
Going back on particular techy, steep, rocky muddy bit of trail a few rides later in the daylight and openly admitting 'how the hell did I ride that?'
Never fails to amaze me the stupid things that night riding has you drawn into. It must be the fact that you cannot see the full magnitude of what you are riding or the consequenses of what could happen if it all went wrong.
It must be the fact that you cannot see the full magnitude of what you are riding or the consequenses of what could happen if it all went wrong.
yeah! We used not to do very technical routes in the dark as we thought it would be toe dangerous, but then one evening we got lost in Grizeale and had to do Rock & Roll (DH to Nibthwiate) in the dark without lights (it was mid August), and found it was easier than riding it in daylight as you couldn't see the scary bits :o)
The same thought crossed my mind down the Ice cream run in Rivvy at night.
It did seem easier in the dark. No need to look for a line, because you can't see one, just ride it and hold on!
I can never see "a line" down the ice cream run!!!!
Ooh, I've just thought.
Does anyone know what the Blue Pig is like in darkness? I can imagine it'd be pretty entertaining. That is going to be playing on my mind for the next 2 weeks until I get home and ride the damn thing.
Wash pits and foof in the morning, ensure mud spattered shins not on display in a skirt and hope no one at work notices mud in my hair.
Does anyone else find that kinda sexy?.......Just me then.....I'll get my coat 😳
alpine girl - Memberensure mud spattered shins not on display in a skirt
My old work colleagues cottoned onto this and used to pull my trouser legs up to check!
Yay! we have a skanky bike chick club starting 🙂
I call it "magic bed" - I get in all muddy and, hey presto, in the morning my legs are pretty clean!
WOW. I need to get myself a light, have never night rode but boy does it sound good! excellent posts lads haha
Chucky
just blame the dog !
Archie didn't come with us!
Besides he gets better thought of than i do in our house.
I [s]think[/s] know i'm bottom of the pecking order. (somewhere below the fish 😯 )
Great threasd! I love night riding.Last night I arrived home late after one pint too many. Didn't bother cleaning my bike,or myself. Not good.
back from night ride, 3 hours of fun with 'duggie style'. Night riding is immense, trails look so different. TBH i commute either one way or two ways ( depending on shift times) every day so road riding in the dark is not new. have to agree with the feeling of stillness and peacefulness around you at 1am is priceless.
inspired by this thread went out for my first solo night ride tonight, made it interesting going out on my cyclocross loved it. Now drinking black sheep and waiting for some food to arrive.
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Tuesday nights Keswick Mountain bike ride,Horizontal snow on Dodd wood,Very difficult to see anything! freezing feet and hands but loved every minute of it!!
Picture thanks to Max Cousins,(Happy Birthday)! 😀
No 9 is SO TRUE! But she's getting used to it now.
My father in law used to be a rally driver and loved night rallies which he felt were a bigger buzz and also (for him) safer - maybe it's something similar. He could never sleep after one though - all hyped up.
One thing I find funny though is that really simple stuff can trip me up. EG at the bottom of a steep bit I stop to get my breath and reflect on how brilliant it was - but because there's no perphiral vision I didnt realise there was a hole right there where I wanted to put my foot. Duh!
I was in Glentress tonight and saw lots of folk including a small group with a young chap (maybe 7 ish) heading up toward Spooky Wood (which still has lots of ice and frozen snow). Hats off young man! If he can do it.....
Chucky... you took the words from me. When I ride the ICR at night I always find it to be faster and more fun.
Night Riding is ACE for many many reasons. The feeling of remoteness, of being the only people on the planet, the views, the stars (watched a satellite shoot over Rivi pike the other week) and the warm welcoming door of the pub!!
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discovering your 20 quid pikey ebay LED torch (including charger and 2 sets of betteries) is brighter than your other half's 200quid-retail light, and showing him the way home. We're both in the less-is-more camp on the lighting front but he wasn't impressed with his cateye tripleshot...
Agree night riding seems to make for fsster/smoother riding; you loosen up and ride whatever happens to be underneath you rather than target-fixate on the hazard and tense up.
Good thread for motivating us to get out, did first nide ride in a looong time this week and itching to make the effort to get out again.
A group of us have been night riding every week now since about now last year. In the middle of the summer I was actually missing the dark nights and slippery trails.
Cant count the number of trees Ive ridden into or the number of times we have ended up in the bushes laughing.
Ive also enjoyed kicking golf balls like mountain bike polo players as we rode over the golf course in the dark.
Quite possibly more fun than riding in the day.
mmmmmm sounds like i'm missing out on something here