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Which do you prefer to see mid ride? Do you like turning your lights on or off for the journey home?
Sunrise is preferred, but sunset is encountered more often.
Sunset for me, sunrise means I'm on my way to work!
Sunset is warmer, so I'll go for that. But I used to ride into London from St Albans for work - i.e. due south - and I'd get a great view of the sunrise quite often, which was a lovely start to the day (all downhill from there though...)
I rode the sunrise lap at the Strathpuffer this year and it was a stunner, but I think that's the only time I've experienced one on the bike. Seeing a sunset is a regular occurrence though, which I quite enjoy.
Touring = sunrise, mountain biking = sunset 👍
Done a few rides where I've seen both!
Twice I've started out before sunrise and finished after sunset during the winter and I've lost count of the times I've done summer rides staring before sunset then finishing after sunrise. The summer ones have been due to having a 'day' off in the middle of a run of night shifts and the winter ones have been to get some big days in. Finishing a long ride as the world starts to wake up is lovely but I much prefer riding through sunset, especially around this time of year as the leaves are turning and you still have some warmth.
I love a good sunrise but it tends to mean I'm up early (duh!) and that's rarely for fun
so, sunset
Sunrise for me. One of "those" moments each year for me is the day where my commute starts in the dark, then you feel the warmth of the sun as it rises. Or rather it was one of "those" moments as I doubt I'll be doing as much commuting in the future and my wfh rides tend to be over extended lunch breaks.
Sunset.
Sunrise is too early.
I do love 'chasing the light' on an evening ride too.
Sunrise without a doubt. I'm an early morning person often on my bike at 5am or earlier.
Last weekend I was riding as the sun set. Bivied around 10pm then got up at first light and rode towards the first showing of the sun.
For me, dawn trumped dusk by a country mile.
Touring = sunrise, mountain biking = sunset
Always this. Ok nearly always.
Love a sunset, although seeing a sunrise after a night ride is nice. The majority of my photos seem to be sunsets.
I can’t think of a for-fun ride that I’ve seen sunrise on. Plenty of sunsets
Lots of commutes where I see a sunrise, and then many where I see the sunset on the way home.
Most of my riding is in the evenings once the kids are in bed
Sunset is warmer, so I’ll go for that.
Ah but in winter often that just means sunrise = frosty and hard, sunset = muddy, wet and slow...
Sunrise definitely. It's rate I'm up to see it but mud summer sunrises are amazing because everything is so quiet and still. People are often still out and about making noise at sunset.
Also happy memories of leaving clubs at dawn.
Ah but in winter often that just means sunrise = frosty and hard, sunset = muddy, wet and slow…
Very good point!
I love to ride into the night when I'm out in the open, the hills round here are at their best in a winter's evening I think. In the woods, I don't much like either.
Maybe the best I've done wasn't really night at all- doing the endurance dh at fort william one year, the cloud base dropped and it was really heavy and dark up top, but then halfway down the sun shone up the valley under the clouds and so every lap, you'd ride up the gondola into miserable twilight, then a wee bit above the sheep gate suddenly you get a gorgeous sunrise-set (since it was genuinely evening, too, but the sun shines right up the glen). Then, do it again.
(I mean, by that point in the race you're losing your mind, which probably adds to the effect)
Sunrise? Meh, from me.
Sunset is where its at. Being in a holloway on the North Downs at that magical time when it's neither day or night is magical. It could pretty much be any year in any century in the last 500 years. I almost always ride solo so the sense of timelessness and magic is even more enveloping.
The only time I've not really enjoyed it is when ive not been prepared and left lights at home. Now i usually take at least the Diablo with me just in case so I don't have to ruin the moment by having to rush back to the roads to make my way home. Yes, road lights always on the bike before anyone asks.lol
Sunrise in spring, sunset in autumn.
Sunrise - early morning is probably my favourite time of day - always feels special to be out of doors at that time. Getting to ride the dawn lap at any 24 hour race was always a treat (dog-tiredness notwithstanding).