[Closed] solo night riding - bad idea?

As long as someone knows where you are i dont think it's any more stupid than solo in the day is it ?

Not that solo riding in the day is stupid either.

Get on with it, you'll be reet.

I do it all the time... just let someone know I'm off for a ride and take a phone.

As someone who's fallen off and broken an ankle while on a solo evening ride, I was a little wary for a while after the accident, but I don't let it stop me now.

Edit: The phone is all very well but lots of places on the Quantocks don't have a phone signal (and hopping to find a phone signal with a broken ankle flopping around is pretty painful) 😳

anything that could happen at night could happen in the day ! - except for your lights dying....

It's too scary for me! All those creaking trees I would need to ride super speed. What a wuss I am.

not at all, its great for fitness - all the animal noises, creaks, etc make you ride faster and not stop 😯

MTFU 😉

Yep, solo night riding is great fun. Scares me silly sometimes, but fun nonetheless!

Same rules as day solo riding, maybe emergency lights too?

Would agree with the letting someone know where you are, and roughly what route you plan to take, and when you plan to be back.

Things do go wrong like punctures and broken chains etc, but so long as someone as a rough idea.

Perhaps the Mods could set up a sticky for people to post "routecard" type information? That way people could reply back when they've returned from their little jaunt.

Do it regularly when I can't get the other boys to MTFU and get out. As you say - leave details with someone and check in when ride complete. I have a mega lightweight bothy bag which I normally take on the hills and I stuff it at the bottom of my bag so if it all goes really wrong at least I can get some shelter while waiting for the cavalry.

Great to go somewhere like GT and be the only car in the car park!

Sometimes take a diversion home if I'm not too pissed after leaving my mate, scares me stupid heading through the woods knowing my light is on its final few minutes!

Doing it again tonight. Leave a route trace with someone, phone/text in at midpoint and end (preferably to a sober riding mate with a car) and pack the requisite kit (first aid, survival blanket, whistle, phone etc)in case it does all go wrong.

Have a good one.

It's great fun - just as long as the monsters lurking in the shadows don't get you!

Yeah as long as you take the kind of precautions you'd normally take when out riding ie: ^^^^ what everyone has said up there.
It's briliant.

I love riding on my own, good thing really with m8's like mine. Headphones on & away I go. I find it really funny some of my m8's wouldn't even consider it.
Anyways as above, give a route (stick to it!) to your partner & give them a timescale & get the f*** out & ride!

last time i was night riding i heard a horse running by the side of me kinda scared me as i thought it was going to run straight at me but i just kept on going and just hoping i wasn't going to get trampled lol

I night ride alone fairly regularly.

Found a fire extinguisher beside the trail recently and just *had* to try the handle.

Queue loud roaring noise and huge cloud of white powder. Which was quite scary.

But a mate subsequently said - what if someone had seem it - large white cloud, roaring noises and strange lights flashing inside...they'd have thought aliens had landed.

Went on my first solo night ride on Monday....wow, I'll be making it a regular thing. Great buzz from hitting the trails on your own, much quieter than being out with the lads so much more to see too.

Having a plan as to where you ride and leaving this with someone and telling them when you will be back is key. Not having a phone signal for all the trail is a very valid point. I send a text message every 30-60 mins advising where I am on the route. So if they do need to come looking they know where I last was.

I do it myself if no one else is playing out, used to give me the spooks but i now i really enjoy it. Spent a time last thursday creeping through the tress trying to spot an owl i'd heard.

Did it last night (in order to meet up with those man enough to ride after the rain, and to get home again afterwards). Lots of dense, dark remote woodland to go through. Don't even think about it anymore.

All the above common sense advice should apply, but it's like riding solo in the day really.

Solo night riding is fine you just need to be sensible, I ride alone once or twice a week; take a phone, warm clothes, first aid kit, back up lights, let someone know where and how long you are planning to be out for, let them know you are back safely.

Enjoy the quite and remember to switch of your lights when you stop, the moon and stars are brill

i don't have anyone to tell where i'm going 🙁

you won't be missed then 😉

Blimey, this place is getting far too Maily Dail these days 😯

I usually just jump on the bike, ride it and enjoy myself. Now I'm going to have to plan my route, make a route card, leave details with someone, stick to the route, and be back by a certain time, carry spare lights, carry a phone, and be extra careful. Probably sound advice but life's too short... 8)

I suggest listening to "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin while nightriding solo.

Great fun night riding solo, done a loop of the local hills last night, really clear night and a full moon. Amazing. A bit hairy coming of West Lomond as there was a herd of cows in the field, i'm not keen on riding near them during the day but its bloody scary in the dark, did sh!t myself at times when when the lights caught there eyes!!! Does help to focus the mind though...

Dont be such a jessy, there's nowt dangerous about solo night riding, I mean it's not as tho you'll go out without telling anyone where you are going and ride right on the ragged edge of your ability is it....? 😯

I've done it a few times, and fallen off, thankfully I returned home with nothing worse that a full body mud suit. does make me think twice about it now though

I prefer riding on my own (at night or day) something about the solitude. Anyway on a recent ride I stumbled into a gypsy camp with about 20 blokes stood round some burning trash all pi££ed. Made a sharp exit with a few of them shouting at me.

dont forget to pack:

spare mobile phone
spare mobile phone battery
life raft
flares
spare flares
waterproof matches
night vision

(if going for a quick local spin)

if you're planning on riding past the end of your driveway then i hope to god that you're not stupid enough to ride without a support vehicle?!

(me.... im a real man, i ride naked and covered in bbq sauce, best way to train is to always be outrunning the wolves and bears)

your life will be too short psling if you don't bother with any of that list 😉

I went last night. Loads of fun. The only change I make is to keep my mobile phone in my jacket pocket rather than my backpack so it's easier to get. I also let someone know when I have left, my route and the Wife a time as to when I should be back at the latest. Then she is allowed to worry.

Sportstracker allows live updates to a web page if you're that worried.

Always take a couple of backup lights for fixing stuff or to limp home under when you smash your HID into a tree (bah.)

I've been out a few times solo riding at night. Its really no big deal, spare lights and a phone are pretty sensible.

However, when I tell people I've been riding in the woods alone at night they all thinking I'm some kind of mentalist.

"What if I meet some kind of nutter!" they exclaim.

Well any nutters in the woods would need a light the same as me to see where thay are going, the woods are, after all, pretty dark. If they have a light I'll be able to see them and guess what I'm on a bike so I won't be very easy to catch!

I ride on my own every night.. my dog is with me (but she's not riding). It's great. I love being freaked out by the weird shapes bushes and trees appear in the lights.
Nutters? I think you'll find they are more scared of the dark than you are 🙂

Did it several times a week all last winter. Did not die. No-one knew where I was and usually didn't have a phone. However, this winter have decided to be a bit more sensible and at least take a phone (especially as riding in a new area so I am usually lost).

Wish me luck...

I think the only nutter in our deep, dark primeval woods at night is me......

perhaps i should try it. Dark is not a risk. Less people about is. But i can think of local loopsthat would be fine. On a more general night ride question. Do you wash your bike at the end of the ride? I just can't imagine standing the freezing dark with a hose pipe.

I live on my own and commute along the river bank in the middle of the night.
In Winter, it's not unusual for mine to be the only tracks for several days.
I wonder what would would happen if I didn't turn up for work and didn't answer my phone one day. I wonder if they would send someone out to look for me ?

I used to ride alone at night here in the New Mexico mountains, but gave it up a few years ago (wife convinced me I was crazy doing it). On rocky trails, you really have to pay attention and it does hone your riding skills. It can really be spooky, with all the night noises that my mind would immediately interpret as a mountain lion or mother bear with cubs close by---did see a bear once and almost always had deer jumping across the trail. Ran into packs of coyotes on occasion, but they normally aren't a danger, at least until after you fall, break body parts and can't get up.
In complete honesty, I always carried a Kimber .45-caliber semi-auto in my Camelback when night-riding alone in the mountains, since the locations were almost always out of cell phone reach.

Does the .45 semi-calibre pass the STW "things allowed in Camelbak" regulations, then?

Cleaning bike - no. It's a singlespeed. It never gets cleaned.

I always carried a Kimber .45-caliber semi-auto in my Camelback when night-riding alone in the mountains, since the locations were almost always out of cell phone reach.

mtn lions and bears!!! **** that i wouldn't ride in the daytime 😆

any mtn lions in moab? american friends are planning a trip and very tempted to go.

Done it before and found it quite "elemental", the last time I did it in the forest I ended up pedalling out of it PDQ with my mind convinced there was a red eyed, sabre toothed, taloned beastie/devil clawing at my back wheel. 😳

Haven't done it for a while but I used to regularly pop out for a solo night ride on my lunch break on night shifts. To be honest I'm tempted to say manly things like MTFU and stop bothering about all that telling people where you are/carry phone/tent/emergency helicopter ect malarkey. However, having laid in heap in the middle of the moors at 03:00, thinking thoughts along the lines of 'Oh my, my shin does sting a bit, I wonder how long it will be before a friendly (;-/) dog walker happens by me?', I would say go for it but do take on board a bit of the advice above! It's ace and you will no doubt thoroughly enjoy yourself 🙂

It's as safe or adventurous as you want it to be.

"What if I meet some kind of nutter!"

That would be either the local hashing club or the local MTB club. It's a wonder that wildlife gets a look-in with the number of nutters charging around the woods with torches these days.

pastcaring---there are both bears and mountain lions in/around Moab (and generally all over the mountain west), but the likelihood of seeing one, especially a mountain lion is VERY remote. I have hiked & biked in the mountain west for 30 years and have only seen a lion on three occasions--one in New Mexico, one in Colorado and one in the Sierra mountains in California and each time I was in a really remote area---they are very solitary and stealthy--of course like my friend says, it's the one you don't see you have to worry about.

Bears are pretty common and I see a couple while riding almost every summer---they normally capture and relocate several every year that wander down into Albuquerque in pursuit of fruit as it ripens in late summer. They are usually only dangerous if you get between a sow and her cubs----not a good thing to do.

scotabroad--I know what you mean about the imagination ramping up very quickly riding alone in the dark--the slightest sound or movement becomes a beast in pursuit.

Some of the sketchy people I have run into who are wandering about in the forest worry me a whole lot more than the wildlife.

"Some of the sketchy people I have run into who are wandering about in the forest worry me "

Halloween is nearly upon us... tell us more?

I do quite a bit of solo nightriding, but I tend to do the non technical routes starting from my house, and let someone know where I'm going. I only do the techy routes when in a group.

With the exception of a few, the majority of the rides posted on here are in your own back yard for a few hours. Yeah be sensible, but get real. You're not Chris McCandless.

...but you're not alone are you...look over your shoulder......

😉

DrP

I always carried a Kimber .45-caliber semi-auto in my Camelback when night-riding alone in the mountains, since the locations were almost always out of cell phone reach.

Now that sounds like a good idea. There are areas in Fife where this would be well advised at night!!

Anyone do night rides on road?

Its a good night to ride alone- full moon or almost. I've got the lights off on most of the climbs.... stealth mode....

@ cynic-al

I dont do night rides as such but do ride in the dark, head out at 5 ish for a few hours.

Its Ace

Long term solo night rider here.

Do it folks.

Ach it's fine. Just remember the same animals are in the woods at night as there are in the day... it's just they're awake and hungry.... 😯

Anyone do night rides on road?

Been solo night ridding for years it great fun – the aims is to hit the same speed at nigh as I do on the same trails in daylight usually get there around about xmas – top fun is under a full moon turning off the lights and running without
Oh and watch out for the eyes in the undergrowth

I started night riding back in about 1992. Mostly fire-roads on the Chase, switching off to save batteries whenever possible. Lights were shite back then, truly shite. Folk really did think I was mad.

As long as you have reception, an extra layer to put on and something to eat (at least chocolate doesn't melt this time of year!)you can stay put until you're found should something bad happen.

I see snakes every now and then among the fallen sticks. Oh, and the Sussex Ripper but he's fairly friendly.

thanks busydog,

i've seen a few black bears in whistler and up state new york/new jersey (scary big ****ers) but have never rode anywhere with lions! i think the plan is to camp for at least one night. hope i'm not the slowest rider/runner 😯

I like playing guess the creature from the colour of their eyes - But I wasn't expecting a small herd of cows in the woods last Tuesday - big n black with blue eyes.
After that surprise I should of expected the combine and three tractors over the brow of the next hill -doing a flood lit harvest - they had very bright lights. 'Close Encounters' - Not such a quiet ride.

pastcaring--you are more likely to be hit by an asteroid than encounter a mountain lion---well almost as likely anyway. If you are in a group it's even less likely. Last mountain biker I heard of that got attacked by a lion was so unlikely due to it happening in heavily populated Orange County, in S. CA. It was an older lion who was in poor health and couldn't catch any of it's normal prey---so along comes someone grinding along on a bike!!!!
They are getting steadily pushed out of their normal territory by population, so most often found in remote area---the above-mentioned cat an exception.
We have had a few sightings of Jaguars in SW New Mexico, but they are even more reclusive, not to mention about twice the size of the typical mountain lion--they cross up from the mountains in N. Mexico (used to be seen quite often in NM, but driven to a zero-population here in early 1900's. I'd probably fill my biking shorts if I came across one of them.

Do it, its great. Dont worry about the loons, most of the times I've met the and now you're scaring me types its been mid day week days. Probably the biggest hazard is rabbits in the headlights.

it's ace fun, just watch out for these!

http://www.bigcatsinbritain.org/index2.htm

there's one on the chase, it's even more terrifying than all the bloomin doggers 😯

cynic-al - Member
Anyone do night rides on road?

Not yet - but I'm leaning that way.

looks like i'll have to get a gun 😆

Date : 26 January, 2009, 2-30pm. Location : Battle Abbey near Powdermill Woods, Battle, East Sussex. A driver saw a big black cat the size of a retriever dog in a field on the Battle Abbey Estate. The driver then took his dog for a walk in Powdermill Woods and was approached by 2 schoolboys on a track from their school at Battle. They were scared, they said they had just seen a big black cat jump across the track. Source = sussexbigca****ch.

Gun hell--how about an RPG!!!
When I was a kid, we lived on a cattle ranch in SW Nebraska and rumors were going around about people seeing two large, black cats, but no pictures ever taken. Come to find out, two panthers had escaped from a circus truck about 75 miles away. Never were caught/killed, but sure had everyone a bit nervous

looks like i'll have to a gun

just take a slow mate, I've seen the nature documentaries it's always the lame one at the back of pack that gets taken.

or

when riding solo take some kitekat

i'm alright going downhill, but I AM the slow mate going up!
maybe an incentive to try harder on the climes?

cynic-al - Member
Anyone do night rides on road?

haven't been for a nightride on or off-road with anyone else in years. (Why are group nightrides always Wed nights?)

For me solo night riding is the only way. Mates just don't really get it so i have to go on my own.

They think I'm mad of course but its great. On your own makes it even more exciting IMO.

I wanna do more night rides and it will probably be solo on the road - hills (Pentlands) are 40m from my house, and I sleep much better if I get in by 8pm or so rather than the 9+pm of the local chain gang or the (much later)pm of the TBC rides. I also get to ride at my own pace.

i do about 12 mile sof the night riode alone meet a mate ride go home he does the same. We ride the gnar studd together the other stuff si fairly tame. Happy to night ride sole but within limits.

I often nightride alone, and am sometimes a bit drunk. Beer makes the dark medievel trees all friendly.

Loads of fresh blood over the Chase on Tuesday night, about a gallon trailed up the fireroad by TA into the bushes. It was either rutting deer or more likley the Panther/Werewold hybrid feasting on lone singlespeeders.

cynic-al - Member

Anyone do night rides on road?

*tho later I did get a lead acid and 2x10W units, could just about manage gentle/slow offroad on them

Did a couple night road rides last year but prefer to ride off road when possible.

EDIT just checked they were 2W bulbs not 6 - oooooh feel the power!

Try not to c*ck it up on the footpaths though. Less people to find you at night 😆

Rode with a mate of mine last night but he's always miles ahead(!) At one stage I heard a creature (largeish) right behind me. Carried on and heard a similar noise again. The noise appeared to "follow" me for a good 100 metres. I actually found it very bloody unsettling! Don't usually get spooked but last night I was.

18 miles of mostly very technical singletrack - lots of fun but legs aching now!