Cycling enthusiasts, are you ready to take on the night? 🌙 Join us in this informative video as we guide you through the essential tips and gear you need to cycle safely after dark. Whether you’re a commuter or a late-night adventurer, knowing how to cycle at night properly is crucial for your safety and visibility.
In this video, we cover:
🔦 Proper lighting techniques to make sure you’re seen by others on the road.
🚲 Reflective gear and clothing to enhance your visibility.
🔊 Safety tips for navigating roads and trails at night.
🛠️ Essential bike modifications for nighttime cycling.
💡 Our top recommendations for bike lights and accessories.
Stay tuned as we shed light on everything you need to know to keep your nighttime cycling adventures safe and enjoyable. Don’t forget to hit that like button, subscribe to our channel, and share this video with fellow cyclists who love riding after dark. Let’s make nighttime cycling a breeze! 🚴♀️🚴♂️💫
Hello and my name’s Rory from the bike pakist in this video we’re going to be speaking to you about how to cycle at night properly so when I first started Ultra cycling and bike packing I had no clue how to ride at night and looking back I
Got really lucky that I didn’t get myself in an accident I never wore the right clothing I didn’t have a good lighting setup and I just didn’t know how to ride roads at night in this video today we’re going to be telling you how to do all that so learning how to cycle
At night is so important it’s about safety it’s about confidence and it’s about having fun now I know how to do it properly I actually really enjoy night rides and in the summer it’s not rare to see me out at 2: 3 in the morning just
Going for a spin in this video today we’re going to be telling you everything you need to know about night cycling we’re going to be talking about the clothes you should be wearing lighting setups how to ride the road at night mental challenges from cycling at night
And how to adapt to becoming a great night rider let’s go so let’s start with clothing what should you be wearing when cycling at night so I’m really particular about what I wear on the bike I want to make sure I’m looking cool but I’m also seen
And very safe so here’s what I tend to use when it comes to night riding so the first thing is my jacket this is a double-sided jacket from plumi it’s really nice high visibility with some reflective elements on not only that it’s really warm and you can’t really
Miss me wearing that but it doesn’t stop there if it does get a little bit too warm I actually have a hiis Gile as well I like to wear this if it’s a very warm night and the jacket’s getting a little bit too hot for me I’ll Chuck a Gile on
On top of whatever I’m wearing under to make sure I can signal as well I’m a big fan of wearing high viz gloves cuz obviously you need to tell people that you’re turning left right so gloves are a great way to make sure that your hand is actually seen these are from Fox
They’re really good they’ve got nice reflective elements on got them off Amazon for about 10 quid they’re really comfortable and really warm as well and finally shoes yep I have high V shoes you don’t necessarily have to go down the route of buying a whole new pair of
Shoes you could actually just use shoe covers instead but I really like these they stand out and especially from the side cuz your foot’s going in more rotations than how the bike’s moving it just looks really cool and makes you really stand out so although it may seem
Like a lot that’s everything I wear when night riding and you can really see me when it gets dark so next we have lighting lighting is such a big part of not only being seen but being able to know where you’re going yourself so I actually have four
Lights in total when it comes to my bike I have I have one main front light this is a catti vol 1700 it’s fantastic I would recommend always being above 800 lumens the reason I say this is because you’re not always going to be on full
Power so half would be 400 and then a low setting would be about 150 which is really the minimum you can get away with I did many years riding with a volt 400 which was only 400 lumens and it just wasn’t enough I upgraded to the 1700 and
This thing is incredibly bright and it is just a fantastic light which can last you know 12 15 hours on a low setting which is still very bright on top of that I actually keep a spare front light too so in case of a very rare emergency
That that light breaks I actually have a small keychain light lasts for roughly two or 3 hours but it’s just going to get me out of an emergency and it’s great if I have a puncher in the dark I I’ve got a small light that I can use to
Really help me find all the little bits of fln or anything that might be causing me any problems when it comes to rear lights I typically have two on the bike so I actually use a small light like so this is my main light I have this on
Either flashing or constant then I have another light on the back this one’s USB this one’s battery powered this I tend to have on flashing or constant as long as I’ve got one constant and one flashing then I’m pretty happy but I always have two rear lights cuz the
Thing with a rear light is if it stops working and you don’t know you’re really vulnerable so you need to make sure you do have a backup at all times there are many other lights you can use such as helmet lights and even on drop bars you
Get little drop bar bar end lights I highly recommend investing good money into your front and rear lights and then anything extra think about later in time hi guys so we’re about halfway through the video if you’re enjoying it make sure to subscribe to the channel it
Really helps me and it means I can make more content for you so another thing that I wanted to speak about in this video and right it about in the article which goes along with it is How to cycle on roads at night so the first thing to mention is
Route selection so years ago I would always be like oh I want to be on busy well lit roads at night because I just feels safer when I’ve actually had way more close calls on those roads than I actually have on the really quiet Back Road surprisingly when you are on these
Busier lit roads you can get lost to drivers just in the background and it does sometimes to me feel a little bit more dangerous on the back roads where there’s really no Street lighting and you’re in the middle of nowhere you’re generally in a much quieter environment
When cars do come close they can see you because you are the only thing lit up you’ve got all your high viz on you’ve got all your lights on you can really be seen so it depends on what you want and what route you’re going but I highly
Recommend taking a look at your route at night time and thinking do I want to be on the busier lit roads or do I want to be on the nice quiet back roads so alongside root Choice a few other really important things are to descend slowly
You don’t have the vision you have in the day so you have to make sure that when you’re going down here real fast you know what’s in front of you and you’re able to stop so I highly recommend just descending much slower although your lights could be fantastic
You just never know what’s around the corner and animals love to run out in the road at night trust me I’ve nearly hit so many on top of that you really need to be alert you know although you might be tired it’s nighttime nocturnally our bodies want to switch
Off you really do have to be in the game make sure that you’re alert if you need to have a coffee have a coffee before you go out you’ve just got to be on the ball cuz potholes can come up so quickly and things can just happen so much
Faster at night so always be alert another very important thing is Road positioning so when I ride in the day I’m like 30 to 60 cm off the side of the pavement when I ride at night providing there’s no cars around I will actually sit in the center of the lane I’m in
This is because it just gives me a few more options to get out if something runs out in the middle of the road in case there’s a pothole when a car does come I pull right back into that nice tight little place by the pavement but when there’s nothing else around I will
Sit in the center cuz you’ve just got so much more availability to avoid Things I think it’s also really important to speak about the mental challenges of night riding so when I first started I found it so scary if I’m honest I was petrified is there a ghost coming out of that Cemetery our Werewolves in the UK you know I just
Bricked every ride and it took me a long time to build up that confidence but before you know it you just realize that you are the scariest thing out on the roads at night the majority of the time another really big challenge for me when
It comes to night riding is the way time passes so I can be riding for what feels like two hours Check mgin and it’s been like 20 minutes I don’t know why this happens it’s something I’ve always found and many other bike Packers that I speak to agree with me maybe because there’s
Less going on around maybe because you want to be in bed maybe because you’re that crazy that you’re out riding at 2: in the morning I don’t know for some reason time just seems to pass really slowly and because of this it just makes me so much more
Tired so how do you adapt to riding at night when I first started I went out at 8:00 p.m. and just went all the way through the night it was an awful experience and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone there are three ways I would recommend though firstly going out when
It’s dark and going into the Sunrise it’s a really good way of being able to ride at night knowing that within an hour half an hour it’s going to be light giv you that confidence to just get used to it another way you can do it is ride
In the evening so just say it gets dark at 8:00 at night go out at 7:00 then ride into the darkness for half an hour just to ease yourself into how it feels and finally the last way to do it is ride the nights with some friends so a
Really good way of building that confidence is to go out with someone just as crazy as you who wants to learn how to night ride having someone there with you is just going to give you so much more confidence and it just makes it so much Easier so thanks taking the time to watch this video if you’ve got any helpful hints and tips for anyone wanting to cycle at night drop them in the comments below and before you go make sure to subscribe to the bike Packers Channel and we’ll catch up soon stay cool Guys
2 Comments
I was almost hit head on by a careless driver passing another car. I went off into the gravel and almost lost control. Ride at your own risk.
I love riding at night, but overall it can be a little more scary. I guess the one tip that comes to my mind is make sure your lights are pointed correctly, don't want to be blinding drivers while not having much light actually on the road.