Went for my first night ride last night – previously I had a couple of ‘get me home’ rides with a torch on the bars because I had overestimated my ride time.

It was round the new blue/red trails at Swinley, and I was sporting the Gloworm X1/X2 combination I had just bought from crgmoto, using the STW member discount so they were something like £230:

http://www.crgmoto.co.uk/gloworm-x1-and-x2-led-light-system-combo—over-2000-genuine-lumens-1937-p.asp

I was impressed with the lights, with the X2 on the bars and the X1 on the head everything was quite visible with them at the medium setting.

One really good thing I noticed about the night riding around the defined and bermy singletrack was that it really emphasised that you need to ‘look ahead’ round the trail with the spot on your head, otherwise you get caught out.

Maybe during the day it was possible to subconsciously ‘clock’ where the berms went and so be able to ride these ‘lazy’ but at night you need to ‘look ahead’ and I got into the habit of almost using the spot to ‘trace’ the route I was going to take.

So I felt it was a pretty good training exercise to force some decent technique, at least for someone like me with dodgy technique (a lot of which came from watching my GPS on the bars…).

Obviously requires a light on your bonce to do this though.

One of the riders also bought along his dalmatian dog so it was quite fun riding behind and sometimes alongside her. Also saw a fawn 🙂

night riding always FUN didn’t do as much as I wanted this year due to work etc but yes it does make you look ahead/read the trail 🙂

I’ve always found that night riding really brings a focus to my riding. I find that, after a winter of night riding, I’m much better when the light nights come round. On the Malverns it can get busy on the summer evenings so it’s nice to ride without loads of walkers. And it’s a real blast too

On the Malverns

I am up there next weekend, visiting my mate Dave Jones.

He’s an osteopath so if you need straightening after your next crash he is local:

http://www.facebook.com/SixWaysClinicLtd

Labrynth must be eerie in the dark!!!

Still yet to lose my night rising cherry. Out of interest where do you park to ride Swinley at night?

I often go on my own at night to Swinley, park near the church and that way Labyrynth is almost your last trail.

i like to fact that you cannot see the top of the hill, when climbing. Love a warm summer’s evening dusk to night ride.

Ha, we missed out the labrynth as the two other riders were sporting very wide bars !!!

I parked at the lookout, as you can get out I think at any time – unless the electronics fail on the detection device that lowers the barrier. The other two parked somewhere else.