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Just always remember theres nothing there at night, that isn't there during the day.Only now, its awake.
And hungry.
Haha - quality!
Just remember the quicker you ride the harder the thing in the dark has to work to catch up. The one thing I would say is slime tube or tubeless wheels. Try and avoid punctures the best you can as stopping means all the little animals will glare at you.. freaks you right out when your light catches their eyes.
I'm with Rocketman on this. Get yerself as far from civilisation as your ride allows then stop and turn off the lights. It's amaxing what can appear in the gloom on a cloudless night. That great "hey night riding alone hasn't killed me" feeling, as you listen to your own heartbeat increase, when something rustles or snaps a twig in the forest nearby.
MTFU and get out of town.
I use a frame-mounted sword for personal protection. In all these years of riding I've only ever used it in anger two or three times.
My advice would be to take a spare light source with you. Then another one. Just in case.
This is words of wisdom from someone who's lights went completely in the middle of a forest in total darkness, and left listening to the rustling in the bushes and wimpering like a girl 😳
Oh... and as pointed out in the first post, don't, whatever you do, think about this....
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Be careful out there as the sun is now setting and the ghouls and monsters are starting to stir.......
Stop it! I had manned up until some at work started talking about the Chase panther.
Must think of something else....
Don't tell your mates where you are going. Not ever!
1 night they will jump out on you in the middle forest dressed in those rubber masks!!!!
The Blair witch is often after me on solo rides,the keep moving rule seems to have worked so far.
When you look over your shoulder in to solid blackness it is freaky, solved this by never looking back.
DM
done it quite a few times over the last few year and you really do needed to MTFU and remember you are the biggest baddest thing out there in the woods(unless you run into five armed bushes) 😯 😀 out tonight but not on own just me and my bro
I go bloody fast on solo runs driven by the fear factor. Grumpy badgers make interesting acquaintances. Once I happened up a bloke just siting in the pitch black in the middle of the woods on a log on his own. There were no car parks nearby. I cranked very very hard.
Having got a dog this year, I've taken up solo-night-dog-walking using my bike lights...I find it far scarier than solo night riding due to the lack of speed plus walking is quieter so you hear everything. Not helped when the dog runs off into the bushes and you'd prefer to keep moving but instead you're stood there whistling and begging the dog to come back.
There's a bogeyman in the woods? Why wasn't I told? And I'm going for a ride by myself on Friday night!
What tyres for being scared?
Tubeless 😉
May be it is not the deer we should be concerned about...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-16516500
I guess the trick of surviving the chase is to be quicker than the deer.
Aha, this old conversation crops up a few times a year
Don't worry about animal noises ... Though they do get close and close if you stop with a mechanical.
What's really scared me is (and from previous threads a couple of others have had the same thing) is riding through a gate after thrashing along a fairly popular ridge top bridleway for about 1km. Go through a bridle gate and let it slam behind me. barely 200m up the trail I hear it slam again .. 'oh they came up behind me fast' .. Look back and nothing there.
Long story short another km down the trail havng stopped and looked back a few times some freak finally emerges from the dark having been irritated that I kept on stopping glancing around with my lights and ruining his nite vision despite the fact that he'd been hanging back (keeping up with me with no lights)
EDIT .. This kind of thing has actually happened to me twice now. ... Always a logical explanation but freaks you out each time
@ Nuke . I hope you got a fast dog , like a Vizella that can run and run . Or a Husky , apparently they like running .
Best one I had, was riding along, could swear I could hear something rustling in the bushes, this carried on for a bit, so getting paranoid I stopped and looked around. Nothing. Carried on, rustling continued. Paranoia and fear set in, sprang off my bike ready to attack the rustling follower only to realise it was in fact a leafy branch caught on my rear derailler.
I,m out tonight in an hour or so, but unusually with company - their first proper offroad night ride. Should be a laugh.
[i]@ Nuke . I hope you got a fast dog[/i]
She's fast 😀
...just not necessarily in the right direction 🙁
Often see owls and all sorts of wildlife out on mine even though I never really get that far from civilisation, got a few places that could freak you out if you let your imagination go wild, like a trail over Hanging Hill and when going under some railway tunnels.
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6675166831_3fbdfbaf2e_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt303/6675166831/ ]nightride-3[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/matt303/ ]matt303uk[/url], on Flickr
Cranham at night is brilliant as there are soo many owls, deer and occasionally wild bore. The added bonus is the recent spottings of a large black cat. But we can't ride there now so my night riding is spent looking at a brick wall on the trainer. But make sure you listen to decent music. Agree with the turn the lights off at a rest point and soak up the noises.
Just remember that there's nothing there at night that isn't there in the daylight it's just that you can't see that they're not there so you start to think that they might be there and then you find that you don't want to be there either.
Brighter lights make you easier to spot & chase!
TBH you get used to it. When its a full moon turn your lights off and ride round the well known trails for proper fun!
I have a serious problem with my imagination... Always have been scared sh12less
of the dark. But then I do like to push myself... Just ran home from work...2hrs of farm tracks and woods at 9 pm.
Scariest time by far was a strenuous 2 day solo hike up to a mountainous bush clearing in NZ. Using a barely marked and overgrown hunters track.
Got up to the hut at dusk....went for a wander discovered the overgrown memorial to two Murdered Swedish back packers.
Then the penny dropped.
I'd read about the release of their convicted killer in a paper earlier that week.
Have never ever been so wired!!!!! Alone and still with a 7 hour hike out. **** still freaks me out.
I could feel myself losing the plot !
😆 at the Benton werewolf clip.
You would think i would be used to the dark as i often work alone onsite out of town through the night , but my 12 yr old imagination does sometimes appear in my 40 yr old brain with clips of The Fog, American Werewolf and such, plenty of over the shoulder looks. Nothing there though ever its just dark thats all, the voice in our heads is the primitive side of us warning us that the forest is bad in the dark, simply basic survival instincts from a bygone period of our evolution.
Still dont night ride on my own, although i lost my buddies the other night i stood still to regain my thoughts and retrace and noticed the woods were "alive" with loads of other night riders 2 of which were solo 🙂
Watch The Troll Hunter as well as Dog Soliders Pre - ride 😀
i love solo night riding (well when i do it).i ride on the ridgeway (avebury/marlbrough downs).when it's a really warm night (obviously i'm a lightweight 😉 it's fantastic (hope vision 2 led ftw 😀 i love hearing the tawny owls too 😀
A friend of mine from the LBS used to do a fair bit night riding in the local woods. A couple of times, (he reckoned), he blasted around a corner to be greeted by this ghostly figure of a woman with White hair and flowing robes, absolutley shat himself. 😆
Apparently there's an old dear around there who goes out walking in the woods at night in her dressing gown. Still not sure I believe him but it's always at then back of my mind. I should carry a spare pair of shorts for if that moment should ever arise 😐
Thing is I know I'm a afraid of the dark...yet still wouldn't stop doing what I do / love because of my very strong imagination.
I get mocked at work because of my fear...
Yet reallistically most people are so cossetted in society that they have no idea how they would react in such situations because they have never challenged themselves.
Oh and don't get me started about my solo night in the hut on Cadair Idris....Owain Glyndwr's steaming horse ;@))
Up until a few years ago, a tall thin woman with a shock of white frizzy hair used to walk her three (black) dogs in total darkness around the top of Sherbrook Valley.ghostly figure of a woman with White hair
She used to wear a red cagoule though, not flowing robes 🙂
So I did it.
I didn't get attacked or eaten by werewolves or witches.
I did crap my pants when the voice of the newly installed Endomondo starting talking to me.
Did I enjoy it, not sure yet.
Will I do it again, yes.