The Midnight Ride of ...



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Philbert

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Hi all... We're in the midst of a brief but breathtakingly beautiful bit of "indian summer" here in
mid Michigan with temps in the 70s today and still in the 60s right now. The sky is cloudless and
the moon nearly full - it's time for a night ride!!

I live on paved roads out in the country and have a pleasant 7 mile loop I can ride from home. Went
out tonight - wonderful! Once my eyes acclimated, the moonlight was plenty to ride by. The moonlight
casts a silvery glow over everything and the colors wash out into something that resembles a
Japanese watercolor. Saw lots of deer in the fields (and in the road!). The local farmers are
harvesting now and the deer are all spooked - they're every where around here. Only saw 3 cars.

I have two LED blinkers that are very conspicuous at night, but I don't have a headlight. More to be
sure that I'm seen than to see with, I improvised a headlight that works surprisingly well. I
consists of a 6V "lantern"-type flashight attached under the boom of my R42 with a few cable ties.
It's not light and definitely not pretty, but it works better than I thought it would. It has a
halogen bulb and is quite bright on a fresh battery - It illuminates reflective road signs nicely at
500 feet. The beam pattern is a little narrow, with a pronounced hot spot, but not too bad overall.
It's also not rechargeable. Even so, do the math: The flashlight cost $7, the cable ties cost next
to nothing, and battery is about $5 - cheap. I figure I could go through 20 batteries before I start
to approach the cost of a sophisitcated light system. I'll eventually get a real light system, but
for the occasional night ride of short duration, it's fine. (Even so, I must confess that I lust
after the NiteRider HID Blowtorch - Wow! But man, it costs almost as much as my bike did! Yikes!)

If you get a chance to ride in the moonlight somewhere quiet, do it - it's magic...
 
It's good to see a poetic soul on here. One of the wonders of my new TE is that it lets me see the
fall colors. You've inspired me to go looking for a safe country-side-nite-ride area. Thanks!

"Philbert" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Hi all... We're in the midst of a brief but breathtakingly beautiful bit
of
> "indian summer" here in mid Michigan with temps in the 70s today and still in the 60s right now.
> The sky is cloudless and the moon nearly full -
it's
> time for a night ride!!
>
> I live on paved roads out in the country and have a pleasant 7 mile loop I can ride from home.
> Went out tonight - wonderful! Once my eyes
acclimated,
> the moonlight was plenty to ride by. The moonlight casts a silvery glow over everything and the
> colors wash out into something that resembles a Japanese watercolor. Saw lots of deer in the
> fields (and in the road!). The local farmers are harvesting now and the deer are all spooked -
they're
> every where around here. Only saw 3 cars.
>
> I have two LED blinkers that are very conspicuous at night, but I don't
have
> a headlight. More to be sure that I'm seen than to see with, I improvised
a
> headlight that works surprisingly well. I consists of a 6V "lantern"-type flashight attached under
> the boom of my R42 with a few cable ties. It's
not
> light and definitely not pretty, but it works better than I thought it would. It has a halogen
> bulb and is quite bright on a fresh battery - It illuminates reflective road signs nicely at 500
> feet. The beam pattern is
a
> little narrow, with a pronounced hot spot, but not too bad overall. It's also not rechargeable.
> Even so, do the math: The flashlight cost $7, the cable ties cost next to nothing, and battery is
> about $5 - cheap. I
figure
> I could go through 20 batteries before I start to approach the cost of a sophisitcated light
> system. I'll eventually get a real light system, but for the occasional night ride of short
> duration, it's fine. (Even so, I
must
> confess that I lust after the NiteRider HID Blowtorch - Wow! But man, it costs almost as much as
> my bike did! Yikes!)
>
> If you get a chance to ride in the moonlight somewhere quiet, do it - it's magic...
 
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