Night bicycle riding is a certain aspect of cycling that you’ll need to embrace throughout many of your cycling years. And most of the time, people often consider it unsafe or not really interesting as riding in the broad daylight, since everything around you isn’t as luminous and you can’t really see the distances.
This makes it more dangerous to go around crowded roads with lots of traffic, or dark and bumpy paths where obstacles and potholes can really give you a hard time. Not to mention that, during the low-light conditions, it’s also impossible to enjoy your sight-seeing experiences.
Having said that, riding at night does give you the kind of freedom that you can’t find during the day, whether it’s urban cycling or trail biking that you’re more interested in. With less traffic during the nights, you can enjoy better speed and comfort while traveling. And, the roads will not feel so crowded or noisy as during the day, thus, allowing you to calm yourself down after a hard-working day.
Plus, during these rides, you’ll find yourself witnessing some of the most interesting aspects of the nights that you have never seen during the daylights. So generally speaking, the entire experience of biking at night will give you a completely different perspective on your normally familiar routes, making it more exciting to just get on your bikes and start exploring.
As a result, it’s not something that you should shy away from, especially if you’re already bored with your same old daylight biking experiences. The only thing that you’ll need is to know how to prepare for your safe cycling trips, which is exactly what we’ll introduce in our detailed guide on night bicycle rides.
So feel free to take a look at our following article and get yourself prepared and ready before you start enjoying these unique biking sensations.
Night riding can be equally fun if you know what you’re doing
Things to prepare before you get on the bike
Since it’s a post on night biking, so we won’t go into details on the complete preparation stages that you have to follow to get your bikes ready. But instead, the required equipment will mostly focus on what you really need when riding in the dark conditions.
That being so, the number one problem for bikers when riding a bike at night is certainly the lack of natural lighting on their paths. This makes it a lot harder to see the roads in detail and in distances. So you’ll need good lighting options to make up for that. And in most countries, it’s even required by laws that you equip your bikes with proper light equipment. So you should always consider doing that at first.
In addition, there is also the factor of you being seen by other drivers, pedestrians, or bikers, which is also equally important. By improving your ability to be seen by others during low-light conditions, you can protect both yourself and other road travelers.
And to top it all up, you should always carry with you a small toolkit, which can be used to work on any mechanical failures on your bikes. This is absolutely necessary since it’s going to be tough to find a fixing station while you’re out traveling at night.
For these reasons, the following segment should be able to show exactly what you need to prepare for your night biking trips, either be on the street, darker roads, or even off-road experiences:
Front light
The first thing that you’ll need to brighten up your night ride experiences is the front light which is also compulsory when riding at night. Here, depending on your certain cycling preferences, there will be different front lighting options for you to choose from.
If you only use your bike for some urban riding experiences where all the routes are properly lighted, and sometimes even crowded by lights coming from different vehicles, there is no need to go for a front light that’s too bright. Just make sure that the installed light is enough to shine the low-light areas of the roads without glaring the opposite person’s eyes. So naturally, a normal light with less than 400-lumen rating is enough. Plus, a standout flashing light next to your front light will also make your bike a lot more noticeable from the opposite side.
In addition, if the paths that you often travel across don’t have good lighting options, it’s up to you to equip your bike with a proper front light. Usually, a bright light with a minimum rating of 400 lumens or more will be needed. And when you get into a darker path, you will even need to increase the lighting to 800 lumens, just to make sure that you can have the confidence for riding.
Last but not least, for off-road bikers, to ensure your safety while moving on the pitch-black trails during the nights, it’s absolutely necessary to include a powerful front light with 1200 lumens or more. The exceptionally bright lighting will allow you to detect whichever obstacles that are in front of you and make sure that you can stay safe throughout the night time bike riding experiences.
A propre front light will ensure your vision
Helmet-mounted light
While it’s not required by riding bike at night laws, if you’re really concern about your night cycling safety, then it’s also possible for you to put on a helmet-mounted light. This will provide additional lighting on your bike and also make you more visible.
Here, you can have it pointing to whichever directions that you’re looking at, thus, increasing your vision during low-light conditions. This is especially helpful when you’re going off-road and must deal with the bumpy rides.
At the same time, while traveling on the street, many road travelers and pedestrians will find you extremely noticeable, thanks to the unique helmet-mounted light on your head.
Helmet-mounted light is extremely recognizable
Rear and sidelights
While you might not hear a lot about it, but a rear light is equally important as your front light, in terms of enabling good visibility while you’re traveling. As a result, drivers from the back can easily notice you and slow down before they decide on their next moves.
In most cases, you won’t need a rear light that’s too bright, since your purposes are to be noticed and not to blind other drivers. So make sure that you choose rear light with warm colors and relatively dim LED lights, which is more than enough to keep you safe.
And also like on the front, you would want to install two flashing rear lights on the vehicle, which will make it a lot more visible when looking from both sides.
Rear lights are needed to increase your visibility
Bright and reflective clothing
When riding on the streets during the nights, having bright and reflective elements on your bike will surely improve your visibility in other’s eyes. Which is why it’s always recommended that you wear your bright and reflective clothing on any of your night rides. These clothes will make sure that the drivers get the most amount of reflected light, enough to alert them that there are drivers ahead. Along with clothes, you can also wear shoes that are reflective, since the constant movement of the feet will certainly make the cyclist more noticeable.
And last but not least, if you still worry about your safety, it’s totally possible for you to make uses of the reflective paints and cover your bikes with a complete coating. This will make sure that your bike will glow up whenever it gets shined by other vehicles. Feel free to learn how to make a bike lighter by using reflective paints and let you literally glowing up during the nights.
Bright and reflective clothing are needed in both daylight and night time
Mechanical tools
One of the disadvantages of night bicycle riding is that it’s going to be much harder to find a place to fix your bicycles. And most of the time, you’ll find yourself having to perform the fixing on your own. So it’s important to always carry your small toolkit, which can be used to deal with any mechanical failures on the bikes. These should consist of two spare inner tubes, a portable air pump, and a multi-tool, which is enough to deal with most problems that you’re having.
Read more: Strava Vs Mapmyride Vs Ridewithgps – Which is the Best Biking and Fitness App?
And lastly, with mobile phones are becoming extremely helpful nowadays, you should always remember to carry one for emergency communication, especially during your night rides on unpopulated areas.
A complete guideline for bicycling at night
With your preparations for night bicycle riding being completed, it should to come to the actual riding experiences. And in the following discussion, we’ll show you the complete guideline when riding a bicycle at night.
Plan your routes
To make sure that you can enjoy your safe and exciting night trips, cyclists must first decide and make plans for their selected routes.
Here, it’s important for you to stick with your familiar paths, which you have traveled during the days. This will ensure that you have already memorized all the obstacles and potholes, thus, reducing the chances of you getting into an accident, especially during your off-road biking session. Also, despite having yourself fully equipped, don’t try to go into the dark or places that you’re unfamiliar with, since you can’t expect everywhere to be safe.
In addition, if you only want to do some hardcore training with your bikes, there is no need to go off-road or any dark areas. Instead, you should always stick to lit roads, that always have proper lighting and good visions. And since it’s during the nights, you can enjoy the traffic-free experiences with little to no obstacles at all.
You can use smartphones to plan your rides
Get your partners
Riding alone in the dark can get a little intimidating or even dangerous, if you, unfortunately, find yourself running into a disturbing neighborhood, or getting into any unwanted accidents due to the lack of vision. As a result, it’s always a good thing to bring your biking companion along the routes.
That way, you can enjoy your comfortable chat while attempting to work hard on your biking session. And at the same time, riding in groups will make sure that you can always have each other’s back, in the cases of accidents or unpredicted events.
Cycling in groups is always more fun
Things to remember while riding
And to make sure that you stay safe throughout your night bicycle riding sessions, it’s important to remember a few rules on working with the crowded traffics or challenging road conditions.
Start by always reminding yourself to be aware of your surroundings, which consist of the traffics and potential obstacles on the path. Make sure that you keep an appropriate speed while traveling on crowded paths, and remember to signal other drivers with your hands or installed lighting system.
In addition, while traveling on lit roads with crowded traffic, there is no need to turn your front lights too bright, as the intense glare can disturb other drivers and make it harder for them to see. So make sure that you adjust to only dim light and also point the light slightly facing the road. This is both more convenient for you as the cyclists and other road travelers.
At the same time, for darker roads with little to no lighting at all, you should remind yourself to keep the light always at high settings, which will allow you to travel safer.
There is no need to turn the lights too bright on lit roads
Enjoy your trips
And lastly, you should also spend your time to enjoy your night rides, which will deliver a complete array of different experiences compared to normal daylight cycling. And with all the preparation and guidelines that we have provided, you can enjoy all the cycling at night benefits.
Conclusion
While it’s undoubtedly more dangerous and less exciting than daylight cycling experiences, sometimes, you must have to go on your night trips with bikes. So if you wish to promote your cycling experiences and maintain your safety, make sure that you follow all the guidelines and instructions that were introduced in our above article.
And at the same time, with proper preparation and knowledge, you can totally enjoy your refreshing night rides, which will deliver some amazing and unique experiences for most cyclists. So don’t shy away from it if you have the chance. Just make sure to get yourself the best bike lights and you should be good to go.