4 Tips For Road Riding In The Dark | Cycling At Night

If you’re riding at night, whether on lit roads in town, unlit roads, or off-road, it’s important to be properly prepared.

There’s the obvious, such as lights, but there are other steps you can take to make riding at night safer and more comfortable.

1. Use appropriate lights
If riding on unlit lanes, you’ll need a front light powerful enough to illuminate the road. In some countries, there’s a legal requirement during the hours of darkness [sunset to sunrise] to have a front white light and a rear red light.

The lights you need for cycling to work in town are very different from those you need to ride on unlit country lanes or off-road. If there’s decent street lighting on your route, it’s all about making sure you’re seen by other road users, while on dark roads or pitch-black trails you the lights have to illuminate the road or trail ahead of you.

So, whereas a lower power flash might work as a front light in town, you’ll need a much more powerful front light for a mountain bike ride or country lane – anything from 400 to 800 lumens on the road and even more off-road, depending on where you’re riding and how fast you’re going. In all cases, you should have a red rear light.

2. Install a safety flag pole and wind light wire on the pole and wheels
Bike safety flags work well because they elevate above the bike, and their bright colors and dramatic movements draw attention.

Install a bike flag pole that can keep you safe while riding. A tall bright safety flag can let the vehicle maximize notice you.

You can also wind the light wire on the flag pole and wheels to make your bike obviously.

3. Don’t dazzle oncoming vehicles
Some high-powered front lights have brighter beams than car headlights. Some road-specific lights – such as those that comply with Germany’s StVZO light regulations – have a beam pattern shaped to avoid dazzling other road users.

If you’ve got an off-road-ready front light, it’s a good idea to dial down its brightness or switch to a flashing

4. Have backup lights
Running two lights enables you to have one steady and one flashing. It also gives you a backup option should your main light fail. 
Make sure you’ve fully charged your lights before heading off at night and select a light mode that should give you the burn time to comfortably complete your journey. Remember, claimed run times from manufacturers aren’t always accurate.

It’s useful to have a second front and rear light, so you can run both on a lower power setting than your main lights to up battery life. That way you won’t be left in the dark if one does stop working.

There are many benefits of cycling at night. I hope that you know about the benefits of cycling and similarly you will get some extra advantages.

• You will face less traffic.
• Less sound will make you feel better in the busiest city.
• Relax cycling will give you more flexibility and a healthy mind.
• Low light reflection can make you feel comfortable at night.
• The weather and outer atmosphere remain clear at night, and so you will sweat more.

I hope that you have known about cycling at night and the benefits also. It would help if you kept in mind that accidents take place at night comparatively than the daylight. So, you should be careful while riding at night. As a beginner, you should not ride late at night. Again, you need to drive very carefully to avoid accidents.

Always try to give safety the priority as your life means a lot than the adventure to ride at night. Except for the accidental issues, you can have a nice ride at night, which may increase your mind refreshment. It would be best if you also abode by the traffic rules while riding and traffic lights at night too.