[Closed] Who does solo night rides in the woods?

Me. I do a solo night ride every week. The scariest thing is the amount of eyes watching you at any one time. A quick sweep of the undergrowth with my headlight uncovers dozens of eyes at any one time.

I do, and yes it's the eyes that are a bit freaky.

Just remember that anything that's hidden in the woods during the day is still there, it's just awake at night 😉

It does a bit for me, but the last time I went out round Cannock for a night ride I found a guy swimming alone in Fairoak pools at 10pm.

I don't know how his steel balls didn't sink him.

Like most things, it's just a matter of getting used to it. I don't see it as being any more dangerous. I do most of my rides alone (as I prefer it that way) and on routes where I rarely meet people even in the day. My wife knows where I am, when to expect me back and she can even get a decent idea of where I am by tracking my phone. I also tend to ride a bit slower at night as I can't see as well and as a result have fewer crashes. So, if anything, I may be safer at night. The rest is all just a matter of getting used to a strange environment.

quite a bit, its always good to turn your lights off in the middle of the woods and see just how dark it gets....

It can be a tad freaky. The only time I've been genuinely petrified was when riding along a river bank I disturbed a heron - when the damn thing took off, just for the briefest of moments, it looked like a pteradactyl in my lights. 😯

[i]Anyone else get the heeby jeebies riding solo?[/i]

Part of the fun of it! Seeing bushes in the shape of swamp monsters and giant owls peering from the side of the trail. Love it.

You always ride faster in the dark when alone in the woods, great for your fitness! 😀

I do over at Thetford and occasionally you'll get loads of deer eyes looking at you out of the gloom.
Last time I was there, on ran across the path as I was barreling along, so I slowed just in case there were more. All of a sudden about 4 more large deer hooned it across the path, so I was pleased that I slowed down! I didn't even have a headcam, so there wouldn't have even been any internet based deer-strike glory!

What gives me the heebie jeebies is when you hear something that doesn't sound like it shouldn't naturally occur in the woods. Last time I was at Thetford towards the end of my ride I heard a noise like someone banging two large nails together; like a metallic tink tink tink. Just sounded really out of place and put thoughts of Blair Witch in my head! Made me ride a bit faster to the car park, I suppose!

agree in the woods no one to hear u scream!!

its good as i get to see badgers/bats and owls. if i hear a thundering through the undergrowth i've scared a deer

Yes, no problem with it. I do ride a bit more cautiously than I would in daytime or with others, just knowing it could 10 hours until someone passes by to pick up the pieces if something goes wrong.

Night-running in the woods scares me though. At least on the bike i can turn downhill and outpace most things...

You should try night riding where the eyes you see could belong to something very large and potentially scary )

edit - I don't mean big alice in dogger's wood btw.

Sort of - I do early (5am) rides on my own so same difference. Can't say that it overly concerns me.

I disturbed a heron - when the damn thing took off, just for the briefest of moments, it looked like a pteradactyl in my lights.

What gives me the heebie jeebies is when you hear something that doesn't sound like it shouldn't naturally occur in the woods

The farmers around my way use wind powered bird scarers, they make a random metalic clanking noise. No matter how hard I try, I can't get the image of someone dragging a ball and chain along behind them.

I've also done a few night rides around Broxbourne Woods, which backs on to Paradise Wildlife Parks. You can hear the lions very clearly, which is pretty weird...although not as scarey as the creatures your imagination has invented..that really don't exist.

i do too,
and as i said in an earlier thread,

i turn my rear light off
play loud music on my mp3
i shout "there are 10 of us" every now and again
and i call the missus as soon as i get out
its a great way to get the adrenaline going and to be truthful im more worried about having my bike taken than it is about me being hurt

Ride Delamere all the time on my own.

And yeah, still get a bit twitchy if im honest..

Never been a great fan of the dark ever since my Dad came out with the lines- "Don't worry Son, theres' nothing there at night, that isn't there during the day... Only now, its awake, and hungry...."

I try not to stop and look around too much! Although, it being Bristol, am never too far from civilisation.

I found road riding in the dark far scarier, as you don't have time to swerve round the pot holes at 35km/h when your lights only illuminate 10-20 yards in front of you.

Mating foxes is always a heart warming noise to hear in the woods at night

I solo nightride and I sometimes commute offroad across the Quantocks in the dark, but if anything was to happen to me I could be right in the s**t (I've fallen off and broken my ankle on an summer evening ride before) at least now I've got Garmin Live Tracking so the wife might have some idea where I am (where to start looking).

I ride follow the dog at cannock at night quite often. It's less scary if you wear headphones, but it's surprising how much you judge your grip with your ears.

Lots of wild life about though, but less chavs than there are in the summer so I actually feel a bit safer.

Yes. Not a huge amount but - up til now - has never bothered me. Probably should on grounds of accidents and so on!

Regularly. I can often get out earlier than the rest of the gang so then I'll do a longer loop and meet them for the mid ride pub stop.

The only slightly worrying one was last year, after an afternoon and evening of torrential rain when no-one else wanted to go. I went out to see how a local river bank trail was and found half way down that the river had burst it's banks. From there on I had a mile of following the tree line through axle deep, fast flowing, muddy water. I took a dunking in a dip in the trail which stopped my bike light working for a while and at another point had to wade thigh deep. Thankfully the bike light started working again as my helmet light started to fade.

Turning your lights off for an open bit when the moon is bright and high is fab.

Used to, not much anymore as there's enough local groups to tag allong to the back of, when I'm not broken anyway 🙁

Be careful out there.....

Every week and it never bothers me tbh. I dont even think about except when these threads come up

Safer in winter at 8 pm than you are in summer as no one is out in winter anythign else is just irrational fear/paranoia

I grudgingly do solo night rides, if I didn't I would get very few off-road winter miles in..
I totally get the heeby jeebies, to a crippling extent, which is odd as I've contentedly lived large swathes of my life alone, outdoors..
I can only put it down to being on the bike.. On foot you can be still and tune into the surroundings, identify anything approaching, but on the bike, you're handicapping a lot of senses..

I do, I am OK riding but hate stopping for punctures or to adjust my helmet or lights.

I definitely FEEL like I am going faster riding solo in the dark.

It definitely concentrates the mind and I try not to think of Dog Soldiers etc when I'm out on my own.

I reckon I see more wildlife on my own at night than when in a group which is a wee bonus except when deer jump out in front of you. If you get the willies, try stopping in thick trees, turn off your lights, sit down and tell yourself that you are in fact the scariest thing in the woods! 😆

Nacho

You're not the only one who sometimes gets the heeby jeebies. I guess it's human nature.

Riding solo without lights under a full moon and clear sky is an absolute joy. It's hard to beat the feling of riding by moonlight when you can see your own shadow and make out colours. Add in snow and you get to experience an almost dreamlike view of familiar trails. Marvellous!

I used to do it all the time, until I came off and broke a rib in the middle of nowhere when it wasn't much above freezing.

That time I managed to get myself home, but the thought of a more serious injury leaving me stranded for hours has put me right off.

I've got one of them stupid bright lights. Actually, two. One on the helmet and one on the bars. I reckon they'd be pretty good protection if I did meet anything unpleasant as you can't look a them.

trails by moonlight! one of the perks I think.
Last year, full moon, in winter - it was glowing bright, it was like scenes from old films where they film in daylight then put a filter on the result -- stunning, wondrous.

i shout "there are 10 of us" every now and again

Genuine LOL at this.

Ride home from work through the woods (which are also a military training area), a couple of years ago riding with fairly dim lights in the dark I nearly came off as my front wheel hit something. I couldn't work out what it was and so picked it up - nearly had a brown trouser moment when I realised it was an anti-personal mine, thankfully clearly marked For Training Purposes Only.

Depends

The two places I ride regularly are still pretty near the city, you can see the city below you so its not really scary in the slightest.

Alone somewhere like Carron Valley, which is a frickin massive big forest pretty much in the middle of nowhere its easy to get the heebie jeebies.

Logically you are safe because you are the only bastard in a 5 mile radius daft enough to be in a forest on their own in the dark.

But in the dark alone, the fern at the base of a tree that casts a weird shadow is actually an axe murderer with a fetish for tubeless tyres.

Still it all adds to the fun!

Have occasionally added an extra loop on the way home after leaving others, starting to head out solo a bit more this winter.

May have a night on the turbo after reading the ghost thread.

LOL, some great replies, I love riding at night (we try to go out once or twice a week) and where I ride locally isn't exactly a big forest - Woodbury common. I just need to MTFU and get out into the woods more when no-one else is out. I know the fear is totally irrational but it's there. Bumping into marines hidden in the woods on night manoeuvres can cause all sorts of bodily functions to briefly fail as well 😯
I must try turning the lights out on a full moon though, that sounds good.

I night ride local trails solo, no worries or problems whatsoever.

I am getting to the point where my rides have at least the end in the dark and things are getting darker.
Here in the FoD we do have things that [i]will[/i] get you. The axe wielding psychopaths I can live with, they are contractors, but the boar! They are either big and black and look like shadows until you hit one or little and camouflaged and multiple and have big black mums who chase you. The noises they make in the ferns make you think of Jurassic park. Deer are no worry, they move, boar just stand there and defy you to come through.

Does anybody find rabbits get in the light beam and seriously get in the way.

I also had run ins with badgers and dogs.

Once I was cycling up a singletrack and a badger came flying down. It was being chased by two dogs. One of the dogs absolutely maimed my front wheel. Never heard such a fuss.

yep, ride once or twice a week. No bother.

nearly killed a rabbit when it got confused and ran AT my front wheel.

Not in the woods, but my commute has about 5 miles of fen bridleway, complete with massive drainage ditch. I often think I was scared by one of the many deer in the area, my body wouldn't be found until the spring.

Had a fantastic night up Cannock on my tod, a great ride but real spooky on my own. There were deer all over the shop, which was scary until you got used to them, and after awhile I started thinkin about big cat sightings and seriously freaking myself out. I thought "think logically, you'd have heard if there had been anything like that up here - besides, what would they live on?" Then I saw another deer and aanswered my own last question.

It was scary but fantastic - deffo be doing that again.

I enjoy going out I'm my own at night, but do tailor my rid e accordingly.

There is a byway that we use where quite often a car or two will be sitting. I don't tend to look at what's going on in there, but there are some very herbal smells coming out occasionally. I usually avoid this byway if I'm on my own.

Not scared of axe wielding maniacs or spooky sounds, but can do without bumping into scallies on my own in the middle of nowhere.

i shout "there are 10 of us" every now and again

Genuine LOL at this.

I expect one day someone will shout back
" if there are 10 of you, how come there is only one set of lights?"

All the time.

I've been "ambushed" by soldiers in the Pentlands. I don't know who was most surprised as I doubt any of them had seen such bright lights on a bike.

I'm about to invest in a Spot Tracker as the consequences of an off up here, especially during winter, could be dire.

I do. Made more interesting when the big cat story is running in the local press

They are either big and black and look like shadows until you hit one or little and camouflaged and multiple and have big black mums who chase you.

I've been ticked off by the mods for posting less offensive things than this... 😯

but can do without bumping into scallies on my own in the middle of nowhere.

kcal - Member

trails by moonlight! one of the perks... stunning, wondrous.

exactly - my only rule is only ride stuff familiar with and now living in Aus if a wombat is bigger than 700c it has right of way

I've always thought this was a daft idea, for many of the reasons mentioned above. But with a two-year old, and a brand new boy due 1st November, I reckon late evening is going to become my only riding window for a while. So I'm going to be ManningTFU and heading out Blair Witch winter-stylee

Does anybody find rabbits get in the light beam and seriously get in the way

It's bats for me. Always encounter several of them

I do and rather enjoy it off road. Find it scarier to ride solo on the road bike at night along country lanes though. Had a very close encounter with a deer that shot across my path the other day. Suicidal rabbits are pretty common too. And then there's those car drivers who's judgement of speed and distance seem worse than usual in the dark. Scary stuff.

I expect one day someone will shout back
" if there are 10 of you, how come there is only one set of lights?"

I bivvied on top of a hill about 1800m up in the Verdon once, scrub oak and bushes up there and nothing else. Woke up as something shook the bush I was tucked into, as I came round and moved I heard a loud grunt-snort and the bushes shook as something big forced through them. Nearly ruined my sleeping bag. Wild boar.. they're pretty big out there I think!

There is a byway that we use where quite often a car or two will be sitting. I don't tend to look at what's going on in there, but there are some very herbal smells coming out occasionally. I usually avoid this byway if I'm on my own.

Unlikely you'll get attacked by dope smokers. Bored to death, yes...

I don't quite get the "What if I fell off?" argument for not going solo night riding.

More to do with where you ride than the time of day, surely?

When and where is "Someone will be along in a minute." an acceptable contingency plan for immobilising injury? Popular trail centres on a sunny Sunday perhaps...

I assume everyone rides within their limits when solo whether it is dark or light summer or winter.

Yep solo night rider 3 or more times a week depending on the OHs rota, which hopefully will mean every other week he will come with me. I take comfort from the fact I have a 40kg jingling idiot running along next to me though. Dont think I'd fancy it completely alone.... mostly I'd struggle to get motivation more than anything!

Cannock at night quite often since about 1998 when all we had was halogen Cateyes and a couple of kg of batteries that lasted 45 mins. I dont find the wildlife paticularly scary except when something in the woods gets killed by something else in the woods - the screams are quite unsettling.

Ther have been a few unusual sights but I guess riding round on a bicycle on your own at night counts as one.

Go tubeless if you value your life when riding at night. The Trolls throw the thorns down in your path to make you stop and fix the puncture. That is when they pounce on you, when you least expect it..

😆

but can do without bumping into scallies on my own in the middle of nowhere.

IME they are more scared of you than you are of them and once they calm down they share

Hmmm - now that would make for a good [s]float[/s] ride around the woods. 😆

I've just started night riding again and get out a fair bit on my own round Cannock. Generally not too fussed although a few weeks ago when I rode before sunlight (so I could get a ride in before heading to Twickenham) a badger poked its head out of the ferbs and scared the hell out of me.

Its only when you stop and look behind you that you realise just how dark it is.

I've always been surprised at Cannock at just how few people seem to be out riding, especially over the last few weeks when its been warm and dry.

Done a fair few road rides at night too which i really enjoy. Although it was a bit minging last night.

my regular week ride starts through the forest and I can chose wether to do a whole lot more of the same wood or spank it through for some bridleway and then road/canal action. Have to say most of the time unless my mates there I like to spank it on through. Have had to watch out for loads of toads recently, they go pop when you accidently cycle over them, ughhh.

I do road riding at night but that's not really scary! Seems to go quicker with less distractions/views. I've done a bit of off road riding at night and thought it was a bit overrated but then I dont exactly have the most interesting trails locally.