Night riding...who is into it?

[laxman2001]

Just got back from one. Only creature sightings were some mice and about 30 deer.

Super fun though. 2 magicshines work great!

[Tech Tonics]

I've been night riding for the last couple of seasons...mostly in the spring and fall, but lately I've been riding during the summer. A few thoughts:

It's nice to have a small normal headlamp (like a petzl zipka or something) so you don't burn battery life while dealing with flats, or safety meetings or whatever. plus, when you are not moving the magicshines can get pretty damn hot.

Early morning, like before dawn rides are amazing. Starting in deep darkness and being in the mountains when the sun comes up is a great way to start the day.

I started riding at night when my kids came along also. I think my wife is stoked to have me out of the house after the kids are asleep. But, riding with other people at night is wayyy less spooky than riding solo.

[SchralphMacchio]

okay, you guys are all rock stars as my vagina is still a bit sore. I just did my first night ride today, solo. It's a full moon and even though I've only been on the bike once in the last 8 months and in horrible shape I figured what the hell, I just got a Magicshine 1400, let's go!

Okay ... technical steepish rooty loggy singletrack is a bit too much for me between being out of shape and uncomfortable/disoriented with just the light on my helmet. I am definitely going to get another light for the bars just to get a little more depth perception. It's so much harder to gauge steepness and depth of features when the light is so highly directional! First techy part of the trail, crash 3 times in a row, the last one put a shiner on my jaw and my shoulder from hitting a tree. Still got like 7 miles to go and I'm already beat up, and I'm by myself. Spooky.

The Magicshine 1400 is pretty interesting - the light output seems pretty nice with just the XPE lights, or just the 900 light, but when you do the combo mode it runs less current through each so you're not actually combining the full output of the two! Oh well, good deal for the money and the dimming control is really damn easy to use and nice for when you're taking a breather or get to a well-lit clearing.

There is a reason it's called Magicshine and not Magicbalance

[leroy jenkins]

I just did a sweet moonlight ride.

I have found, on this ride and others, that too much light is a bad thing. Something about the light fucks with my eyes. Like if the light is too bright, or the night around it is too dark, all I see is the lit up circle, and something about the motion fucks with my eyes over time and I have a hard time focusing.

Tonight, this wasnt a problem, but thats cus it was a bright moonlight night and my vision outside my circle of artificial like was good. I think if the light i was using was much brighter, it would have drowned out everything around it and this problem would have been worse.

I use a single 90 lumen light mounted on my helmet, and have found it lights up things just fine. Depth perception isnt excellent, but it isnt non existent either. I ride only trails I already know pretty well from riding in the day time, but even so, depth perception isnt that bad. Def a lot better than storm days skiing.

If its a full moon, sometimes I turn off the light for climbs completely. Its amazing how well you can see once you let your eyes adjust.

I may be insane though. I see a bunch of folks with 3-4 lights hanging off them everywhere, shining them in each others eyes when they stop to talk, etc. All it seems like they're doing to me is ruining their night vision.






Anyone know if a gopro will take decent footage at night with a full moon out? Better or worse with a little bit of artificial light?

[rideit]

Jackson mags, I am starting a tuesday night ride club.
We will meet @ Fitzy's ~5:30-6:00, and ride until whenever.
Demo lights will be available.

[Danno]

I just got two magicshines, one for bar and one for helmet. I'm ready to go!

[bodywhomper]

bump

thanks for the tip on the magicshine!

i just used my new 900 (helmet mount) for the first time on a solo midnight ride. STOKED!

schralp, if you read this, i always thought that night riding in the east bay hills really opened up the availability and accessibility of sag-free singletrack.

cheers

[The Gnarwhale]

Night riding is good. Any SLC/PC folks want to get out for weekly rides this fall?

[SchralphMacchio]

schralp, if you read this, i always thought that night riding in the east bay hills really opened up the availability and accessibility of sag-free singletrack.

Probably so ... I got a little ambitious and heard good things about the trail of liberte egalite fraternite over in the park of ruddish wood and it's pretty grown-in/covered in places. I couldn't tell if those root rollovers were 4" or 2' drops with such a strong/harsh light source and no visual reference for slope angle. Needless to say I want to dial it down for night riding, if you have any recs I'd love to hear them because outside of JMP I really don't know anything about East Bay riding.

[iscariot]

Thought this might belong here...

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/red-bul...ecap-2010.html

[bodywhomper]

Probably so ... I got a little ambitious and heard good things about the trail of liberte egalite fraternite over in the park of ruddish wood and it's pretty grown-in/covered in places. I couldn't tell if those root rollovers were 4" or 2' drops with such a strong/harsh light source and no visual reference for slope angle. Needless to say I want to dial it down for night riding, if you have any recs I'd love to hear them because outside of JMP I really don't know anything about East Bay riding.

actually, i think that's one of the trails i've previously enjoyed. twas lots of fun. when i rode it last in the dark, many moons ago, i had no light, only the light of my friend's niterider who was in front of me. he was on a rigid bike with drop bars and i was on a hardtail, so we were playing it conservatively. to me, any of the EBRPD trails are fair game in the dark, and the exploration aspect is part of the fun. in my experience, the biggest objective hazards in the east bay hills (and where i live now in the foothills) are homeless people sleeping on the trails (almost ran over a guy on site o once) and deer on pavement when in transit to the trails.

[monkeywrenchMoose]

Night riding is good. Any SLC/PC folks want to get out for weekly rides this fall?

Gnarwhale, those are some cool shots! Few questions for ya.
1) What light set up are you using, especially for the second shot (it looks like you can see really well!)?
2) What trail are you riding, looks like the Crest? Which option do you do? Mill D, Millcreek or the Canyons?
3) If I buy some lights, can you show me the ropes some time?

[BushwackerinPA]

I rock 900 my helmet, and 600 on my bars! .

some from last night

[monkeywrenchMoose]

I got bored tonight and strapped our camping headlamps to my handlebars and helmet. Boy oh boy was it fun! I never knew the shoreline could be so challenging or enjoyable! Here are some grainy iPhone pictures. I'm hooked. Now I need some better lights!

[Shredhead]

Now that the days have shortened, I'm back to night riding.

Does anyone ride with there dog at night and if so, what do you use to keep track of them? Mine has a reflective blaze collar with an LED blinky light. It work pretty well, but I'm always looking for something better.

[BigKuba]

So tell me, how are these NiteRider SlickRock 900 lights that Chainlove has been tempting me with recently? They were on for $179 a minute ago.

Would I need a 2nd light (presumably this would go on the handlebars), or can I get started with this alone?

[BigKuba]

Does anyone ride with there dog at night and if so, what do you use to keep track of them? Mine has a reflective blaze collar with an LED blinky light. It work pretty well, but I'm always looking for something better.

Our dog has two metal tags clanking against each other and evil-glowing eyes. That's worked enough for night rides around the neighborhood parks, but I would consider adding a blinking LED (or a beacon ) if I were to get into actual night MTBing.

[BushwackerinPA]

So tell me, how are these NiteRider SlickRock 900 lights that Chainlove has been tempting me with recently? They were on for $179 a minute ago.

Would I need a 2nd light (presumably this would go on the handlebars), or can I get started with this alone?

the slickrock is more than enough by itself. I have one and use it as my primary with a MOAB on my handlebars but using the slickrock by itself is more than ok.

Always mount your first light on your helmet so you can see where your looking and not where your handlebars are pointed.

FYI the light is awesome and one of the brighter lights I have seen. 900 lumens for sure.

[Alaskan Rover]

I LOVE riding at night. I can think of few things better than riding fast and silent on a country-road that I know well, with the ONLY light being that coming from a full moon.

By the way, I've always eshewed those hyper-expensive bike lights in favor of a $14.88 Ever-Ready "Energizer" headlamp sold by Walmart.

To be sure, I think the ultra-expensive "bike toys" in general are a total crock. $3700 bikes...$700 cranksets....fricking $900 wheels!!

Nothing but "Bike Bling"....shame...shame.

[springsproject]

Been rockin these cheapos this season. Pretty damn bright, cheap, recharchable, and light. Did a late night full moon run the other night, so fun.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13095

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16178

[BushwackerinPA]

I LOVE riding at night. I can think of few things better than riding fast and silent on a country-road that I know well, with the ONLY light being that coming from a full moon.

By the way, I've always eshewed those hyper-expensive bike lights in favor of a $14.88 Ever-Ready "Energizer" headlamp sold by Walmart.

To be sure, I think the ultra-expensive "bike toys" in general are a total crock. $3700 bikes...$700 cranksets....fricking $900 wheels!!

Nothing but "Bike Bling"....shame...shame.

your kidding right......you cant ride singletrack on moonlight in the east and trust me the cheapest adequte lights I have seen cost 50-100 bucks to make or 100 bucks for the magicshine ones that dont suck. if you night race better lights are more important than a better bike for sure though and I think for the most part stuff can get to expensive, but just because you dont like the pricey stuff or cant afford dont hate on people that can.

I started with homemade light that put out about 100 lumens, after seeing what a duel 600 and 900 lumens light set can do I will never urge people to use cheap lights.

[BushwackerinPA]

Been rockin these cheapos this season. Pretty damn bright, cheap, recharchable, and light. Did a late night full moon run the other night, so fun.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13095

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16178

250 lumens?

now that is cheap useable option

ifs its true.

[Alaskan Rover]

your kidding right......you cant ride singletrack on moonlight in the east and trust me the cheapest adequte lights I have seen cost 50-100 bucks to make or 100 bucks for the magicshine ones that dont suck. if you night race better lights are more important than a better bike for sure though and I think for the most part stuff can get to expensive, but just because you dont like the pricey stuff or cant afford dont hate on people that can.

I started with homemade light that put out about 100 lumens, after seeing what a duel 600 and 900 lumens light set can do I will never urge people to use cheap lights.

I was talking about roads under moonlight alone, not single track. When I ride single track at night, I always use a headlamp. And I've been in places in the East that have so much ambient, suburban background light that I almost need no light at all.

But about lights, trust me...you CAN get a decent light for less than 50 bucks. I've had great luck with the Energizer LED headlamp. It's cheap, has four white LEDs and 2 red LEDS, adjustable to all different combinations, and is very light weight. In terms of brightness, it is sufficiently bright as the LED beams are multi-focus. It's not as bright as a halogen but the batteries last FAR FAR longer...and when they die, I just put in another set of rechargable AA batteries.

As to high prices, it seems high prices are endemic to the biking industry in general...just look at the high-end equipment that many bike-shop workers are trying to push on mid-level recreational folks. Why? Because it increases their revenue stream and the bling-biker falls for it every time. Bikeshops that use such tactics are about as shameless as Lexus dealers. I've seen it time and time again: middle-aged accountant walks into a bikeshop looking for a weekend rec bike and walks out with a Deore XT-equipped $2200 carbon-forked wonder, when a $399 bike with Altus would have served his fat-ass just as well. Why? Because he got talked into the flim-flam sham spewed by the salesman that you can't get a decent bike for under $1800.

[Jethro]

rover, I am with you about the expensive lights. I used my 18 volt drill batteries to overvolt power a 12 volt 20 watt mr16 landscape light zip tied to my visor. Each battery gave me about an hour of burn with some very bright light. A 50% overvolt gives serious light at the expense of lamp life. This year I bought a Baja Designs Stryker headlamp. I Think it is the best 700 lumen light you can buy. It kicks ass over my home made system which was brighter than the old niterider halogens. It makes the dual 35 watt halogens on my KTM 300 seem dingy and yellow. I could easily ride a non lit moto with it, which is significantly faster than most mtn bikers. At $289 it was a very good buy for the good times it had brought.

[Alaskan Rover]

Didn't want to turn a good night-riding thread into a rant about high prices and bike bling, so I apologize for that. The most important thing is to enjoy where you ride, when you ride...no matter what you ride.

Night-riding, especially under the moonlight, lends a magical, almost ethereal aspect to any ride...and I simply enjoy the hell out of it. I get a charge out of just being on a bike, ANY bike...like you can forever be a 13 year old when you're on a bike, and the world's problems simply glide by you.