Solo night riding – road or mountain bike. Madness?

Done it on the road bike a few times and I like it! Will be giving it a go on the mtb this winter at Woburn I reckon now I have one of those decent cree ones.

I particularly like getting up in the mountains on a track on a full moon and riding without lights.

It’s a euphoric feeling.

Going dark is awesome. Really sharpens the senses.

I quite enjoy a solo dawn ride, dark at first, dewey air, leaving when everyone’s in bed, gradually getting lighter, followed by a butty by the harbour

less likely to see other riders (or mutters) on our busy local trails than in the evening too

If only I’d thought about this an hour ago I’d be out there now instead of in a warm bed

I enjoy road riding in the dark a lot less for the fear of being splatted

In my last job I spent a lot of time away from home. Always took the bike and found some great stuff. Night riding somewhere you know is good, riding somewhere for the first time in the dark , solo, is another level. 😀

I’m the same as Pete, I do all my riding early in the summer and winter so half of the year is at least partially dark. Not really done one yet. I’ve got a lovely photo from New Year’s Day 2013 where I was out just as the sun came up ove the local reservoir, saw one copper riding to work and about 5 cars in 2.5 hours. It was lovely, do it every year now.

Sorry, didn’t mean to cast too much of a damper on things! I’m sure I’ll be fine. I think my point is that you can be as skilled, experienced, careful, nonchalant as you like but sometimes these things happen. I’m not one to dwell on stuff like that, otherwise, gulp.
Gan canny!

In all honesty, considering the hills I’m on. There’s probably not a lot in it safety wise. There’s very rarely anyone their in the day and I’d be on the deck until I got myself(hopefully) up anyway.

Night walking, riding on and off road, been doing it for decades; it’s especially good in snow and if you take a camera and tripod you can get some great photos.

Best of all is Alpine walking where you set off from the hut before dawn; there’s an incredible peace that you get that early and the atmosphere as the sun rises is just amazing.

Rarely ride with anyone tbh so night time makes no difference

If you’re worried about axemen take an axe with you. What odds there being two people with axes on the trail at the same time

I ride solo at night a fair bit, on and off road, and mixed up too. There’s something quite peaceful and otherworldly about pottering along in your own, self-contained pool of light. And in really basic terms, you just get used to it, so it feels comfortable. It’s a lot like riding solo during the day but darker.

I don’t understand why some people are scared of the dark.

This. There’s nothing there at night that isn’t there in the day.

Except at night it’s awake. And hungry.

You’re better off riding with somebody else at night, preferably someone slower than you so that when the mad axeman bursts out of the bushes you don’t need to ride away faster than him, you just need to ride faster than the other rider.

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member
thegreatape – Member
I don’t understand why some people are scared of the dark.
Of course you do, unless you are bloody stupid. The human mind is complex, but some fears/actions are quite understandable and explainable. Congratulations on your display of bravado though. Well done

I was hoping to hook a big hitter, but you’ll do.

Love night riding alone, especially when it’s raining. I tend to stick to offroad. There’s something therapeutic about being by yourself staring into the distance being accompanied by the pitter patter of rain and crunching of gravel and mud.

I night ride twice a week, Monday is a solo ~25 mile mostly off-road and Weds is a group ride normally 2 – 5 of us.

Obviously there’s more risk when riding on solo at night but that’s part of the appeal.

I have a Garmin so use LiveTrack which my wife very rarely remembers to check 🙂

I really like the whole just me, the bike and the night thing as it’s a really good stress reliever. I equally like riding with a group of like minded mates and the Weds night ride ends at the pub!

anyone else setting a reminder to pick up some cheap lights on the classifieds in a months time?

Love night riding solo. I get a real buzz out of it, and often set PRs on Strava, on non-technical fire road stuff.

As for axe men – not seen any yet, although when I was out with someone last week, and I stopped for a pee, there were 10 or so loud cracks coming out of the woods next to us, that did sound suspiciously like an axe.

We hopped on our bikes and quickly evacuated the area.

I was hoping to hook a big hitter, but you’ll do.

OUCH 😆

Not seen any axemen but the odd poacher with a shotgun is not uncommon around our way 🙂

🙂

I found the night rides are much faster than doing the same distance during the day. Probably it’s because taking photos when it’s pitch black has no sense 😆

BTW, by talking “night rides” – what time do you normally start yours? For me it’s about 11pm… 😐

I do almost all of my riding alone and early in the morning so at this time of year, that means all in pitch black. I do tend to ride less on the road just because there are some stupid muppets about who assume that country roads must be empty at 5am but I certainly don’t cut back on riding in general.

In fact, night rides, early in the morning on your own are brilliant though it’s nice when things warm up a bit…

The only riding I do at night now is urban or an organised cyclocross session at a local sports centre. I went off road one night but a badger ran out in front of me. I hurtled over the handlebars, broke my pelvis, smashed my helmet up, might have been unconscious, smacked my ankle up & generally made a mess of myself.

Amazingly, I might have been found if I’d remained unconscious as a group of Mtbers came by along the old railway line where this happened. But after them, say 830pm onwards, I suspect no one would ever have passed me until day break.

This could have happened on a road ride too of course – or even in the day (replace badger with deer…) – but stupidly being alone and remote left me very much is danger had a not remained concious/regained consciousness.

So, lessons learnt. Learn from this idiot,me.

Six o’clock rides to work scare me to death – pitch black ,next to a river & lake so plenty of chance of fog – very eerie . Regularly see a woman walking her West Highland Terrier on her own though….. so in reality i must just be a bit of a wuss 🙁

Yes arewethereyet that sounds like me. I might go for the badger excuse, or possibly rabbit.

We have a lot of wild boar and deer in the woods here. I’m more worried about hitting one of those after coming VERY close to a high-speed crash into a stag in Bushy Park years back. The nice thing about forests where most people don’t go at night is that you’re not at any real risk from people randomly waiting to rob you.

I worry increasingly about hitting a deer when driving my car at night when I, er, tend to make brisk progress….

You get used to it. Ride within yourself on tracks you know and it will be grand.

Having once fallen off and hurt myself at dusk on a February afternoon, and realising that no one would find me until day-light (if I was lucky, no mobile signal either) – I stopped going out solo night-riding…

But still get out at least weekly for a night-ride with friends – tonight will be Innerleithen 🙂

I have a spot tracker.

The on your own part of it is part of the buzz.

Tell a mate/partner that you’re going and drop them a text when you get back. The first part might sound a bit wussy at first, but becomes second nature very quickly.

“going on a night ride round xxx tonight mate, I’ll text you at 10pm to say I’m not dead!”

“cheers, no probs”

“I’m not dead”

Helps if it’s a fellow rider, and in my experience people enjoy being the go-to trusted guy in such a thing.

Done!

There’s nothing there at night that isn’t there in the day.

Except at night it’s awake. And hungry.

This. I’d certainly never spotted the *pterodactyl that dive bombed me one night in the light of day.

*it may well have been a heron along the river bank but in the dead of night, solo and bright LED lights it certainly had me thinking for a while….

OUCH

It’s OK Junky – of my life’s aspirations, being an STW BH, isn’t one of them. I’m quite happy annoying you all from the sidelines with no status 😉

Must add that obviously a solo rider is much quieter than a group.

Result , you stumble upon more wild life .

Like when an owl has to fly right in front of you under low branches.

Or Badgers , Deer , Foxes ect , love it !!

Last night’s solo ride started at 6:30 so not quite dark but not far off. Saw a badger, 2 mink, a weasel and 3 owls. normally see deer as well but not last night maybe I was making too much noise!

Agree with stanleigh – pretty much seen a family of foxes grow up this summer ( wished i’d taken some pics now ) .

Like when an owl has to fly right in front of you under low branches.

Or Badgers , Deer , Foxes ect , love it !!

Problem is them there wild boar are a bit peeved at people intruding on their family evening walk. That said, the wolves that are reputed to be coming back in the next year or two could make for a fun night ride.

How so? Are there many tales of wolves attacking humans?

Tell a mate/partner that you’re going and drop them a text when you get back. The first part might sound a bit wussy at first, but becomes second nature very quickly.

“going on a night ride round xxx tonight mate, I’ll text you at 10pm to say I’m not dead!”

“cheers, no probs”

“I’m not dead”

Helps if it’s a fellow rider

If I’m out on my own, my brother gets a livetrack email, from my Garmin app. There would be no point sending it to my wife, as I ride most of the routes with my brother, so he would know where I am, or rather, how to get there, plus my wife goes to bed early, so I could be out all night if I relied on her.

My wife only gets concerned if I’m not back by, say, 3am. Unless I’ve told her in advance.

Love it. Although I have questioned it whilst heading out at 11pm onto the moors in a blizzard. (still went)
Road riding just as much fun, ridden over Hartside Pass several times in the small hours – you get cars stopping as they can’t figure out what the lights are heading towards them. Once had a police car slow right down as they passed me on Alston Moor. They looked across, I waved and smiled and off they went.