Harold74

The last year or so has been the only period of my adult life where I've done a considerable amount of cycling (for me). I'm doing four to five fast rides a week of about 40 minutes each. These rides take place around an asphalt paved trail network that loops around a nearby lake. it's pretty sweet. I'm doing these rides on various road bikes with various kinds of tires including 35 mm Schwalbe Marathon Racers, 28 mm Continental Sports, and 23 mm Specialized Armadillo's. I've been doing all of my rides during daylight hours, usually well after sunrise.

I'm considering adjusting my training regimen to do some early morning riding, both just before sunrise and just after. Not having done this before, my question is this: are there any early morning, special safety concerns that I should be aware of? I don't have to worry about cars and I've got pretty good kit with respect to lights etc. My concerns primarily relate to traction:

1) The pavement being wet with dew etc.

2) My rims (rim brakes) being wet with dew etc.

3) As fall approaches, the presence of ice that may melt away quickly after sunrise but be present at earlier times. I ride in the Canadian prairies where winter is very real.

To some extent, I'll just get out there and see but, as much as possible, I'd like to know what to expect. I don't want to lose traction on a corner, shave the skin off of half of my body, and then find out "of course you wiped out, nobody rides before sunup for reasons X, Y, and Z".

My general impression is that training early is quite common but I simply have no experience with it myself.

Troul 

it really is a ymmv. I personally avoid paved trails in the wet/cold as they're not well kept & the pavement is in dire need of maintenance (repaving, water runoff control, habitual debris accumulation) .
Plan on you MPH to drop & time to increase should you choose to ride earlier in the mornings.

WhyFi

No real issues, just get out there and feel it out.

Oh, but be sure to wear eye protection if you don't already - it can be really buggy at dusk and dawn. And lights - have some lights, so that you can see and so that others can see you.

Reflector Guy

Depends on your local weather I would think.

Where I live, the pavement really isn't ever wet unless it has rained. I am sure there is some unique combination of humidity + temperature where it could happen though.

I've been to Florida a couple times where I'd step out of the motel at 6AM and everything is soaking wet... The pavement, the cars, everything. And it never rained a drop. Other visits are dry though, so it depends obviously.

10 Wheels

You need some Super Bright Lights to see the road hazards.

mschwett 

some of my dusk rides are on MUPs and personally i prefer to stay on roadside bike lanes whenever it's extremely wet (often intense fog and wind around here) because most road surfaces have more friction on my ****** tires. riding on smooth wet concrete in the wind is a no go for me, especially if there is a chance of dogs or humans.

lights, lights, lights. and gloves of course, hoods especially get very slippery in the mist.

ironwood

Wet pavement shouldn't be a problem; in fact, you might be faster on wet pavement.

One problem with early morning rides is that a bright sun , low on the horizon, can blind a driver. Another safety problem might be drunk drivers coming home after a night of drinking.

Harold74

Thanks for all of the insight guys.

With regard to lights, I've got a Bontrager Ion that kicks out some serious lumens. One of the benefits of my having ridden the pathway in question many times (50+ now), in my opinion, is that it offers me few surprises in terms of terrain, points of congestions, and points of incoming pedestrian / cyclist flow.

With regard to vehicular traffic, there will be none on these pathways.

Bugs is an interesting wrinkle that I'd not previously considered.

jaxgtr

Can confirm....live in Florida.. When I commuted to work, I generally left at 2 to 3 am, however most of the moisture on the road was from sprinklers. Or if it rain late into the night.

jaxgtr

Yea I have one of the Ion 700's, very bright. I ingested many a bug during my commutes...., but I look at it as extra protein

terrymorse 

Deer and other wild animals are on the move at dawn and dusk. They can be quite the hazard.

I’ve had several close calls with deer.

CAT7RDR

Small critters like raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, cats and coyotes would be my concern.

randallr

I've been riding early morning for 5 years and find it pretty safe due to low traffic volume. I do have lights.

noimagination

I rode 4:30 - 6:30 am for more than a year. This was on roads, not on a trail or MUP.

- Get a light that attaches to your helmet, so you can direct a light to where you're going. Going into corners, it is hard to see road debris that might cause your wheel to wash out with a handlebar mounted light. With a helmet light you can look into the corner and give yourself a greater chance to see debris in a corner.

- Even with the best lights, you simply cannot see as well as in daylight. I washed out twice in corners in the dark, even with a helmet mounted light. Black rocks on blacktop are hard to see in the dark. And, if you're on a descent, you can easily outrun your lights (more accurately, you can be going too fast to react to hazards your light shows you). So, the risk of a crash is simply greater when riding in the dark. Try to do aerobic workouts when it's dark, and save LT threshold and sprint workouts for daylight hours. And do your best to keep your speed down on descents.

- Animals are a concern, I saw lots (at least squirrels are asleep, but deer are a big worry, then there's skunk/fox/possum/rabbit), and I'm sure there were lots I didn't see. Never hit one, but if you're on a MUP with vegetation close to the path then I would think that would be a greater concern.

(edit: formatting)

wolfchild

Ride according to the road and weather conditions...When pavement is wet, when there are leaves on the ground slow down, when the roads are slippery slow down, don't corner aggressively. When the temps start to fall below freezing , it's guaranteed that there will be ice during early morning. If you plan on riding in below freezing temps, the best thing to do is to invest in studded tires, don't take chances on ice without proper winter tires.

Harold74

I'll be doing no riding in freezing temperatures, or the morning after freezing temperatures. Leaves.... another fine point.

canklecat

You can buy studded winter tires for those rides in icy conditions.

I've had pretty good luck with wider tires with diamond/file pattern tread at lower pressure on our rare winter days with slippery roads. So far the only time I've slipped on an icy patch and fallen was riding a road bike with slick tires. No problems so far on my hybrids with 700x40 or wider tires with aggressive tread. But we don't get enough winter days with icy roads in my part of Texas to warrant studded tires. If conditions are that bad I just don't ride.

Lazyass

I ride as soon as it's light enough to not need a headlight. My only concern is going east facing the rising sun and having drivers coming up behind me blinded by it. I try to plan my routes to where I'm not riding that direction until the sun is up more. I also always wear a cotton cycling cap under my helmet and flip the visor down so I'm not blinded.

And I used to never have a tail light. A couple of years ago some guy came up behind me and yelled out of his window that he could hardly see me. So I bought a super bright Lezyne Zecto Max 250 and with that I notice that cars tend to not pass me so close anymore.

Clyde1820

Not a lot of precautions one can take, for that sort of traction problem, other than: don't do it; or, come with proper tires for that situation. (Winter-type tires, studded, etc.)

For years, I lived in a place that had fairly mild temperatures all year 'round, including for the winter months. But, being a humid place, it would often be frosty on the road and trail surfaces for a few hours each morning, until things melted off. Lovely time to ride, but very risky from the standpoint of grip and the chance of laying down the bike in a corner or with a quick maneuver. Alder trees dump these "berries" (soft seed packets, I think) onto the roadway by the tens of thousands, in season, and on dewy mornings could present just as much a threat as frosty or icy pavement. Took some doing, to keep upright.

Only "antidote" to that problem I ever found was: good wide, knobby-type tires that gave a bit more grip, and avoiding the frosty-surfaced MUPs and paved areas until the frosty layer had disappeared. Never did have to do studded tires, where I was, as the frosty stuff would dissipate before too long. Though, dawn and the following hour or two was often the most-challenging time. We'd ride more slowly, on trails that weren't paved most of the time, and save the paved stuff for the warmer hours (or for when it was hard-frozen or snowed over, being a level of grip that could be better-anticipated than the sketchy frosty-layer type surfaces).

If I were to have to use such surfaces, during the months where frosty-surface problems were commonplace, I'd probably want a winter-oriented, or even studded, tire. About the only other thing I could ever do, to reduce the risk of slipping on questionable surfaces, was to slow down. (Don't live in that area, any longer. These days, where I now live, it's a dry or rained-on surface most of the year, else it's frozen over and/or snowed-on; so, grip tends to be far more predictable. The sketchy, frosted-over surfaces don't happen very frequently, I'm happy to say.)

Milton Keynes

My daily rides are early in the morning (usually starting at 5:30 AM) and the main concern for me is lighting. I'm not riding trails but on streets, so of course I have to worry about a little bit of traffic. Bright headlight is a must, and bright taillights also. I also have two lights on each wheel for side-to-side visibility. And to top it off I also have reflective tape placed strategically on my bike.

kahn

Years ago, the then teenager was doing a lot of biking in the evening and I mentioned a light. He said he did not need one as the street lights were sufficient. I pointed out that it was not for him to see but so that cars would SEE HIM!!!! It was nice of that driver to give you that info.

Clyde1820

I do the same. A couple of taillights (pulsing/flashing at different rates, on brightest settings), along with the strategically-placed reflective "conspicuity" tape on the bike. Generally speaking, I get people giving me a wide berth, when they pass. I'm all for that.

Of course, I don't do studded tires and dislike the frosty, slippery coatings that roadways can occasionally get. I'm in the SUV (with winter-capable tires), on such days, if I'm headed somewhere. The bike can stay parked; and I can stay uninjured.

Milton Keynes

I have one bright taillight under the seat and a taillight on each seat stay. I usually have the one under the seat on full time and the other two blinking. They blink out of sync so I think that that helps get a bit of attention, since part of the time they're flashing together and part of the time they're flashing at opposite times. I have red reflective tape on each seat stay so that it can be seen from the back or the side. Then a strip of white reflective tape around the top of the downtube, and strips near the top and bottom of each side of the fork. I also have red reflective tape on the back of my helmet. I think between all the lights & reflective tape I'm pretty visible, Or at least I've been passed many times by cars in the dark and not been run over yet.

Koyote

Sounds like you're lit up like a firetruck. Unfortunately, it's necessary.

I typically run two bright taillights - one steady, one blinking, spread as far from one another as possible - one on seatpost, one down low on seatstay. And I like jerseys with reflective bits on back.

Milton Keynes

And that's not counting the wheel lights, two on each wheel. Green and multicolor in front, red and multicolor in back. I figured I probably needed a little help with side-to-side visibility. Oh and my current tires also have a reflective sidewall. And with all that, I still ride as if they can't see me.