Lowcal

What do you guys think? would you go cycling at those kind of times? I was thinking about it because there is no wind, no traffic and no noise. Seems interesting to do.

Elvo

How else would you get home from a bar at 2 am?

learnmedia

If you are in greater Los Angeles you can join late night group rides. Google Midnight Rideazz and/or Wolfpack Hustle.

Drew Eckhardt 

Excellent time to ride intervals with no traffic, cooler air temperatures, and no wind. Especially in urban/suburban sprawl areas where getting an uninterrupted stretch of road during the daytime would take a lot of travel.

I like it _A LOT_.

Just use a very bright headlight to avoid running over crap at speed and to get cars to stop at cross-streets because they think a motorcycle is coming. And tail light to avoid being rear-ended.

jan nikolajsen 

On Saturday after midnight I did 3 back to back laps for our team at the 24 Hours of Moab race. Made me wonder if I shouldn't go out riding at night more often..

Velo Gator

Your avatar

pgjackson

Nothing good happens after midnight. Sure there's less traffic, but those cars on the road at that hour are probably coming back from a bar. In my opinion, not worth the risk.

d8168055

how is there no wind? from the cars? there is always wind in SoCal cuz.. the coast..

Kind of Blued

Get a bright blinking tail light too of course. My ideal setup is a medium-powered light on the bars to avoid potholes and debris, and the main, brighter light on my helmet. When I look at cars, they see me, when I'm cornering at high speed I can see where I'm going instead of where my bars are pointed, etc. When I look at something, I see it.

I'm WAY more visible in pitch darkness than I am at any other time cause of the contrast. Just consider the chance of there being more drunks out driving around.

Tons of fun.

Kind of Blued

First part is false, second part is a baseless wild guess, and my opinion is that riding at night is much safer than riding at any other time, assuming you have proper lighting. Objectively and scientifically, your presence is more visually apparent.

fishymamba

How are the Wolfpack Hustle rides in L.A.? I have always wanted to go on one.

kf9yr

I love to do late night rides in the summer. I live in Phoenix and it's a welcome change to ride without the sun beating down once in a while.

I use a bright headlight and blinky taillight and wind through the residential areas with very light traffic.

I don't think I'd do any commuting on any type of busy road at those times though but it depends on traffic where you live.

Good Luck!

jtwilson

I used to ride a lot 1-4am. It's my favorite time to ride. My paranoia was always what pgjackson mentioned - less cars but a higher probability of cars on the roads being drunk drivers. Nonetheless, I have few to no 'buzzings' late at night and the almost majority of cars I see are police vehicles - overall it seems safer in practice. I get a lot of waves from police officers at those hours. Some of the roads I can ride fast and free at those hours are heavy-traffic urban arteries that would be verging on plain-stupid to ride during the day. I use a 200 lumen headlight, and it works well enough for rides averaging 19-21mph. Extra caution must be taken for road conditions/debris, but you get better at that with time. If you ride a lot of fast technical descents, I would look into a higher power light, possibly helmet mounted. Also, I use a Planet Bike Super Flash on the rear and it has worked well.

dleccord

your avatar is hot.

pmt

I'm heading out on a group ride on Friday night that's 200k; we'll start at 1900 and probably finish about 0300 or so. Then some guys are going to rest a bit and go do an organized century.

AdelaaR

At night ... you should be sleeping ... to let your muscles recover from the previous ride and prep them for the next ride.

datlas 

I think it's great, especially in summer when it's cooler at night.

Just make sure you have adequate lighting and ride in safe/familiar areas.

DropDeadFred

because lower ground surface temperatures are cooler. It has an effect on the air which causes less wind...

daredevil

My commute used to take place at 4 AM and I absolutely loved it.

homebrewk

Seriously...

Nachoman

I'm in bed by 10:00 pm., so those hours are very unappealing to me.
I ride at sunrise and get the same benefits that you're referring to.

Nachoman

Of you're new avatar? Not impressed.

jdon

Night rides, especially mtb are awsome. 11pm-4am however, are my REM sleep times so no.

rkelley23

i guess it depends on where you live. some places might be fine but where i live i wouldn't do it, everyone here is a moron and there are sketchy bars everywhere where ****tards get wasted and drive on a daily basis. The police in my little city within a city just hang around and give dwi's like they are nothin

merlinextraligh

As for the first part, there is a whole lot of anecdotal evidence supporting it. As for the second part, you're delusional if you don't believe there are more drunks on the road after midnight than during the day.

Statistically the risk of being in a fatal bicycle crash, by mile ridden, is an order of magnitude higher at night: Half of all cycling fatalities occur at night, yet night riding accounts for a small fraction of miles ridden.

I understand that the aggreagate statistic is influenced by improperly illuminated riders, and drunk cyclists.

Nonetheless, given the overwhelming numbers, I prefer my chances riding in the daylight.