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| The bottle config has been sussed out. More on that later... |
Sunday I had to play guitar at church and then I waited until the evening to ride. Why? Because I needed to get some night riding done to wrap up a review on some lights for RidingGravel.com. I also was able to load up the BMC MCD as I would be riding it at Gravel Worlds. So, it was a double-purposed ride. Besides, it's been awhile since I've been out riding in the night.
So, after the evening meal I got ready to do a bit of a ride out South of town to see the lay of the land at night by bicycle. Fortunately the weather had straightened out and there wasn't much wind at all. In fact, it was almost perfect out. Almost except for the clouds of gnats! Flying protein snacks are not my favorite thing. I had to remind myself not to be a mouth-breather.
The added bags on the bike are Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bags. I've used those a lot over the last ten plus years and - in fact- the one on the left side here is about one of the first Chaff Bags available. I got that about ten years ago. The other side, the left one, is like the newer ones which you can get you hand all the way into. I'll use the right one primarily as a water bottle cage. The left one will carry nutrition. The idea is to not have a top tube bag, (other than the gas tank style bag), and not have a saddle bag.
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| I got treated to a really spectacular Sunset. |
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| This was where I had to finally turn on the lights. |
Once I got out into the country I was relieved of having to keep breathing through my nose exclusively. The bugs were still around in large numbers, but at least they were aiming for my lights and not my head! Getting my lights sorted was fun. I had three lights and three tail lights to check out during the ride.
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| Testing......one....two...three! |
Well, it wasn't much of a long ride, but I did have a bit of a surprise at one point. I heard a dog, and well, I wasn't too concerned, but I did scan for the mutt and was expecting to see it converging on my path. You know- dogs are experts at that. And so, when I saw a large mutt taking a rather different line that would put him way off from converging on me, I was a bit confused.
Then I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog, and white-ish in color, jetting across the road and I realized the dog had taken no notice of me, but was on the chase behind this unidentified animal. Whatever the dog was chasing, it was an expert climber because it went through the ditch and straight up the utility pole that was there lightning fast. It was rather startling.
The dog, a German Shepherd, saw me then and I told him, "Good boy! You treed that animal! Good boy!" and the dog acted like I was its master and cowered and looked for affection from me, then took off to see that the varmint didn't escape. I simply rode away. That was a lot easier than I was expecting!
I heard a few deer running alongside the bike path on the way back in and I even came across another night-cyclist! Sometimes these shorter trips are the most interesting ones! Especially when they take you into the night.
2 comments:
@GuitarTed Speaking of riding at night, what are your thoughts on dynamo hubs/lights?
@Daniel - Well, they are awesome nowadays. But..... You have a dedicated bike, typically, (although I have known of some folks with multiple bike set-ups and used one wheel), so you have to commit to that bike as your 'night bike', if you know what I mean. I know that you can set up multiple bikes with hub dynamo lighting, but we're talking thousands of dollars here.
I can take a $100.00 1000 Lumen light and move it to an infinite number of bikes, theoretically, so the value isn't in owning a self-contained set up on one specific bike, not in terms of raw dollars and versatility in bike choice. Plus, I can tailor my needs by using any level of light output the unit offers. I have daytime flash settings all the way up to blinding brightness.
But that isn't necessarily the appeal here, in terms of dynamo hub lighting. For instance, I can ride my Ti Muk anytime, anywhere, and never have to think about lights because they are always on and going when it gets dark. Plus with the stand-by capacitor, I have lights on for up to five minutes when standing still, thus taking away the "you have to be moving" argument.
I never have to charge lights for my Ti Muk, or have to move lights over and fuss with mounts, or buy extra mounts for it. I have a pretty much bomb-proof set up, so I don't have to worry about broken mounts or breaking a head unit. My dynamo doesn't have a Lithium-Ion battery that will, someday, die.
So, as you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages. Pick your lights according to what makes sense to you and your needs.
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