We did a night ride last night. Yes, you guessed it, out along the towpath, and back over Kinver. It was our first ever night ride together, and Carla’s first night ride ever, so we learnt as we rode. One thing that we found was that when we rode one behind the other ‘roadie’ style that the lights of the rider behind casts a shadow of the rider in front right where that rider in front is going. Not a full-on blind spot, but enough for the sub-conscious brain to tell you to move to one side slightly to try and avoid it. A bit weird because the ingrained roadie in us wants to follow the wheel in front thereby putting the shadow back.Anyway, all was going well, it was a star lit, frosty night, we’d seen a couple of owls, and three other night riders, when my light failed. First time I’d ever used it! I had read the instructions that stressed how important it was to store the battery fully charged. I had made the assumption that because it actually worked when I bought it that it was fully charged, with a run time of 2hrs. However, after 40 minutes it went dim very fast. We continued the ride with me looking over Carla’s shoulder to see where I was going. This was actually quite good fun!

In one way it felt like we were going really fast as we raced into the pool of light in front of us, but in another way it felt slow, as if we were standing still, and pedaling the ride past us, cocooned in our own little world (yeah, I know, I live in a little dreamworld most of the time!).

We arrived safely back at home with an hour and a half under our belts. It had been an excellent ride, on a route that we know well. We wondered what it would be like to night ride on a route that we didn’t know. We have plans for more night rides, but we’ll probably stick to the familiar until we get a little more confident. I’ll bet Wyre Forest would be good at night.

Carla used bar mounted Smart Lights, with a 4w flood, and a 10w spot. I used a Marwi Nightpro head mounted light with a 12w flood. Both gave good light to ride by. I can’t decide whether helmet mount is better than bar mount. One thing you have to remember when you use a helmet mounted light is not to look your friends in the eye!