Night riding convert



C

Cathy Kearns

Guest
Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
bike home.

Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
husband. :). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.
 
Cathy Kearns wrote:
> Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
> little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
> bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
> night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
> gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
> home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
> rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
> matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
> back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
> the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
> we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
> bike home.
>
> Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
> on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
> so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
> lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
> home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
> husband. :). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
> the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
> she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.
>
>
Night riding IS enjoyable. My commute home is often after dark and after
most of the street traffic is gone. I think that my rides at this time
are my favorite.

Ken
--
Messengers and mountain bikers share a common chromosome. ~James Bethea
 
"Ken C. M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Cathy Kearns wrote:

>> Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like
>> riding
>> on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It
>> was
>> so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to
>> buy
>> lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and
>> ride
>> home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
>> husband. :). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest
>> of
>> the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
>> she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.
>>
>>
> Night riding IS enjoyable. My commute home is often after dark and after
> most of the street traffic is gone. I think that my rides at this time are
> my favorite.

I call it ghosting. It always seems calmer and more serene. Obviously I
don't hit the mtb trails. I either wind my way through suburban streets or
go on out the country roads.

Some things to note:

Islands in the Street. I am building up a mental database of all of the cul
de sacs in town. Some have these little grass 'islands' in the bulb of the
cul de sac, sometimes with a light standard, shrubs, even a park bench.
Usually they are circular but some or of unusual shapes. A few other streets
that are not c de s's still have these odd 'islands' appearing in the street
for no particular reason.

Example:

http://www.google.ca/maphp?hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=43.549372,-80.26607&spn=0.004774,0.009484&om=0

My goal is to identify each and every one of them in town. I've tried to
conjecture a time frame based on the age of the houses for this phenomena.
Very old 'war built' areas don't seem to have them. Estimating the ages of
other areas is difficult. I was about to say that the 'island' fad was a
1960's era thing though I've now found some newer developments that have
them. I suspect it is a characteristic of more upscale communities. Or maybe
it is a local thing?

I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
bulb?

Another thing to note is how different things look by day and by night. Try
this: Ride through an area at night you have not gone through in daylight.
Then go back the next day. So many little details of the scenery will jump
out at you.

Night critters: While squirrels, ducks, chipmunks and geese rule the day;
cats, bats, rabbits and skunks come out at night. I know they are around
but I never see raccoons on night rides. Cats will sit in the middle of the
road watching you until you get too close, bats will swarm around street
lights, rabbits will attempt to freeze or bolt, skunks are just arrogant. I
guess raccoons are there too, just discreet. I only see the roadkill on the
country roads.
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>
> I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
> bulb?

Oh yeah, in spades.

<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=timber+trails+ct,+gilberts,+il&ie=UTF8
&ll=42.080611,-88.370762&spn=0.007963,0.021565&t=k&om=1>
OR
<http://tinyurl.com/nvx9e>

They're only a feature in the newer developments around here, all of which tout
themselves as being "upper-class" in one way or another. [1]


[1] Despite having large percentages of town homes, er, "carriage homes".

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_ [email protected]
(_)/ (_)
 
On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:23:10 GMT, "Cathy Kearns"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
>little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
>bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
>night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
>gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
>home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
>rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
>matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
>back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
>the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
>we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
>bike home.
>
>Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
>on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
>so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
>lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
>home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
>husband. :). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
>the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
>she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.
>

The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
sandstorm.
 
recycled-one <[email protected]> wrote:

> I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
> bulb?

Not around here, perhaps partly because once a week they all feature a
line of garbage cans right down the middle, and since under our local
government each house has at least three cans....
I'm glad the through streets aren't the same way.


Bill


--------------------------------------------------------------
| They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little |
| temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. |
| --Benjamin Franklin |
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
"recycled-one" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> I call it ghosting. It always seems calmer and more serene. Obviously I
> don't hit the mtb trails. I either wind my way through suburban streets or
> go on out the country roads.
>
> Another thing to note is how different things look by day and by night.
Try
> this: Ride through an area at night you have not gone through in daylight.
> Then go back the next day. So many little details of the scenery will jump
> out at you.

This ride is one I've done millions of times in the daylight, and could
probably do with my eyes closed, which is a good thing. Even with my light,
if I didn't know when the bike path winds, or where the turn was (30 yards
after the bridge) I would have missed them. Apparently you need to know
where they are to point your light at them. Some things are really
different, I took one cut -thru that goes from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac that
I knew was skinny, but I can ride through no problem in the daylight. At
night the sides looked to close, and I ended up walking it at the end. As I
near my house usually ride through the high school, down an straight alley
that goes through the back side of the school, but I got halfway down and
found they had just repaved one area, and still had cones up. I then cut
thru the outdoor corridors, as motion detectors turned on and off. It was
like a ride at Disneyland.
>
> Night critters: While squirrels, ducks, chipmunks and geese rule the day;
> cats, bats, rabbits and skunks come out at night. I know they are around
> but I never see raccoons on night rides. Cats will sit in the middle of
the
> road watching you until you get too close, bats will swarm around street
> lights, rabbits will attempt to freeze or bolt, skunks are just arrogant.
I
> guess raccoons are there too, just discreet. I only see the roadkill on
the
> country roads.

Despite being a rural area with much wild life (directions include go
through the park with the donkeys...) I didn't see any skunks, cats, or
bats. Which now that I think about it, was very weird.
 
R Brickston wrote:
> The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
> We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
> reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
> sandstorm.

But there's less traffic. And with lights the bike is a lot more
noticable than during the day, with all the other drivers and traffic
and sun glare. And it's peaceful and fun and you don't sweat so much
and need no sunscreen.

One of the nicest comments I ever heard was, "I can really see you
--your lights are great!" I was sporting a megawatt h-bar lamp, a front
firefly blinkie, a red rear blinkie, and the usual bike with the 1"
green Reflexite sewn on the perimeter of my commuter baskets. The
rolling UFO look.

Glad you found out, OP!

--Karen D.
 
On 28 Jul 2006 14:37:38 -0700, "Veloise" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>R Brickston wrote:
>> The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
>> We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
>> reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
>> sandstorm.
>
>But there's less traffic. And with lights the bike is a lot more
>noticable than during the day, with all the other drivers and traffic
>and sun glare. And it's peaceful and fun and you don't sweat so much
>and need no sunscreen.
>
>One of the nicest comments I ever heard was, "I can really see you
>--your lights are great!" I was sporting a megawatt h-bar lamp, a front
>firefly blinkie, a red rear blinkie, and the usual bike with the 1"
>green Reflexite sewn on the perimeter of my commuter baskets. The
>rolling UFO look.
>
>Glad you found out, OP!
>
>--Karen D.

I'm with you, I night ride several times a week.
 
"recycled-one" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> I know they are around but I never see raccoons on night rides.

They probably are around. In the Cook County (IL) Forest Preserves, there
are picnic groves with open barrels for trash. In the evening after dark,
there are raccoons all over these. If you have a spot nearby like this, see
if you can find any raccoons there.

Over short distances, raccoons can show decent speed (>= 15 miles per hour).
 
I've always beed a night rider. Starlight is all you
need. People that ride during the day in the kind
of heat we've been having are insane.

-Eric B
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"recycled-one" <[email protected]> writes:

> Another thing to note is how different things look by day and by night.

You can say that again.

> Try
> this: Ride through an area at night you have not gone through in daylight.
> Then go back the next day. So many little details of the scenery will jump
> out at you.

Or the other way around -- at night it can be pretty easy to get turned
around on a route that's familiar by day.

I've got a tiny li'l pet peeve about street signs that are only discernable
from cars, or not discernable at all in the dark. Or they're missing
altogether.

> Night critters: While squirrels, ducks, chipmunks and geese rule the day;
> cats, bats, rabbits and skunks come out at night. I know they are around
> but I never see raccoons on night rides. Cats will sit in the middle of the
> road watching you until you get too close,

Sometimes while riding down back access lanes, I see groups of cats where
each one is sitting on his/her own fencepost. It's kind of like running
the gauntlet as they all stare indignantly at me for intruding into their
union meeting.

> bats will swarm around street
> lights,

That's where the bugs congregate. That's also where you can
actually /see/ the bats.

> rabbits will attempt to freeze or bolt, skunks are just arrogant. I
> guess raccoons are there too, just discreet.

IME it's the raccoons who are arrogant; they'll just amble along
across your line and give you a Fabrizio Mazzoleni dirty look, if
they acknowledge your presence at all. Skunks OTOH are quite social
and friendly, like Pepe LePeu. Skunks are greatly attracted to
salty stuff, same as porcupines. That's why they find human shoes
so intriguing. The older the shoes, the more intriguing. So if
as you step out your basement door at night, and a skunk comes up
and starts impunitously clambering all over your shoes, he's not
being arrogant -- he just can't help it. Just don't make any
sudden movements or loud noises. Skunks require a certain degree
of diplomacy.

I only see the roadkill on the
> country roads.

Every June I see lots of run-over crows on the city streets.
That makes me sad, because they were just trying to protect
their now-bereaved broods.

Speaking of crows and death, I've got a lovely cemetery nearby
to shortcut through. It's not eerie or scary at all at night,
as long as you stay away from the Great War (WW I) area and
aren't on freaky psychotropic drugs. Otherwise it's a very
peaceful, relaxing and meditative space to be in.

My first cycle-commute to the place where I'm now working
(I'm on the night shift) made such a memorable impression
on me. I still recall with great detail the violet, Van Gogh
sky replete with the Charles-Laughton's-face (per his performance
in the film version of: "Hobson's Choice") full moon overseeing me.

The best thing about riding at night is that you can hear
yourself think.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca
 
[email protected] wrote:
> I've always beed a night rider. Starlight is all you
> need. People that ride during the day in the kind
> of heat we've been having are insane.
>
> -Eric B

It was plenty warm this past week. 92 one day, when I decided to go on
a 10 mile ride. I went through a lot of water. Good exercise, though.
 
[email protected] wrote:
> I've always beed a night rider. Starlight is all you
> need. People that ride during the day in the kind
> of heat we've been having are insane.
>
> -Eric B

People who ride in the daylight are also riding by starlight. After all
that ole Sol of ours *IS* a star albeit a pretty close one. VBG

I love riding the rail-trails around here, especially when the moon is
near full or is full. There is a section of one trail where fireflies
simply abound, there are myriads of t hem.

Peter
 
Sir Ridesalot wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > I've always beed a night rider. Starlight is all you
> > need. People that ride during the day in the kind
> > of heat we've been having are insane.
> >
> > -Eric B
>
> People who ride in the daylight are also riding by starlight. After all
> that ole Sol of ours *IS* a star albeit a pretty close one. VBG
>
> I love riding the rail-trails around here, especially when the moon is
> near full or is full. There is a section of one trail where fireflies
> simply abound, there are myriads of t hem.
>
> Peter

Addendum

I meant to mention that on my night riding bicycle I have mounted two
amber blinking lights on the front and two red blinking lights on the
rear.rear.

These are those multiple light LED types with about six different
possible flashing patterns.

The bicycle is a mountain bike converted to drop bars and the front
blinking lights are mounted one on each fork blade just below the brake
pivots.

The two rear bliking lights are mounted on my rear trunk bag. I like to
have two independent rear lights just in case one malfunctions. Being
in the rear a malfunctioning light would not be noticed by the rider.
These lights can be bought at Zehrs food stores for @$3.00 CDN.

I turn all 4 of these on when I get on the road. I also have a
steady-beam headlight for trail riding when it is too dark there to
ride safely at other than walking speed.

Night riding *IS* very invigorating yet peaceful.

Peter
 
Mike Kruger wrote:
> "recycled-one" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> I know they are around but I never see raccoons on night rides.
>
> They probably are around. In the Cook County (IL) Forest Preserves, there
> are picnic groves with open barrels for trash. In the evening after dark,
> there are raccoons all over these. If you have a spot nearby like this, see
> if you can find any raccoons there.
>
> Over short distances, raccoons can show decent speed (>= 15 miles per hour).
>
>
I have parked near cans in the forest preserves and waited and sometimes
had baby raccoons come up for a handout. I am from Illinois first,
California is an accident. Once the babies got used to me the mother
would sometimes come up close but not too close and try to steal the
food from her kids. No manners. Back in 1962 when there were more of them.
Bill Baka
 
trino wrote:
> ...
>> Starlight is all you
>> need.
>
> So romantic
>
>
Good eyes. I can ride by starlight but seem to hit all the potholes. The
road in general is obvious even with a quarter moon, but those holes
always get me if I try to go fast. Nice slow night rides.
Bill Baka
 
On 2006-07-29, Sir Ridesalot <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Sir Ridesalot wrote:
>> [email protected] wrote:
>> > I've always beed a night rider. Starlight is all you
>> > need. People that ride during the day in the kind
>> > of heat we've been having are insane.
>> >
>> > -Eric B
>>
>> People who ride in the daylight are also riding by starlight. After all
>> that ole Sol of ours *IS* a star albeit a pretty close one. VBG
>>
>> I love riding the rail-trails around here, especially when the moon is
>> near full or is full. There is a section of one trail where fireflies
>> simply abound, there are myriads of t hem.
>>
>> Peter
>
> Addendum
>
> I meant to mention that on my night riding bicycle I have mounted two
> amber blinking lights on the front and two red blinking lights on the
> rear.rear.
>
> These are those multiple light LED types with about six different
> possible flashing patterns.
>
> The bicycle is a mountain bike converted to drop bars and the front
> blinking lights are mounted one on each fork blade just below the brake
> pivots.
>
> The two rear bliking lights are mounted on my rear trunk bag. I like to
> have two independent rear lights just in case one malfunctions. Being
> in the rear a malfunctioning light would not be noticed by the rider.
> These lights can be bought at Zehrs food stores for @$3.00 CDN.
>
> I turn all 4 of these on when I get on the road. I also have a
> steady-beam headlight for trail riding when it is too dark there to
> ride safely at other than walking speed.
>
> Night riding *IS* very invigorating yet peaceful.
>
> Peter
>
One thing I'd like to add. Have a spare or 2-bulb light. Thursday night
was the first time I needed an extra when #1 burnt out. There was no
moonlight and it would have been a dangerous ride home on the trail. For
me one headlight isn't enough.
 
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