Maintaining progress....

[Thesius]

In the dark with no street lighting or cats eyes.

Hi guys and gals

I have recently undertaken some volunteer work that requires me to ride on unfamiliar roads in the early hours.

This would not be an issue if cats eyes or street lighting illuminated the highway. Unfortunately many of the roads are nice and twisty (would be a lot of fun during the day) country roads that do not have any illumination.

Does anyone have any tips for riding / driving in these conditions, safety is paramount so at the minute I have just been riding at a speed I feel most comfortable with.

cheers

[ScoobyChris]

Ultimately speed has to be dictated by what you can see (so that you can stop in the distance you can see is clear). For better progress on unlit roads, unfamiliar or not, better lighting seems to be the only real option

Chris

[gdaybruce]

It can be easier to make progress at night becuase firstly, there is less traffic and secondly, you can often see oncoming headlights where in daylight the approaching vehicle would be hidden from view.

Nevertheless, as has been said, visibility is critical so:

- make sure your lights are clean and properly adjusted,
- consider upgrading them: high performance bulbs such as Phillips Extreme are fully legal but can make a real improvement,
- don't forget to use main beam. I'm constantly amazed at how many drivers never seem to switch from dipped headlights!

[Thesius]

Thanks guys, the headlights on the Pan arent that bad.

upgrading them isnt really an option

Will just have to be careful and take it steady I guess.

[waremark]

Take advantage of the light from other road users. If there is someone to follow, taking advantage of the light from his vehicle may help you make more progress safely.

[Thesius]

waremark said:

Take advantage of the light from other road users. If there is someone to follow, taking advantage of the light from his vehicle may help you make more progress safely.

thanks, being on a bike means I can position myself to open my view around the vhicle in front so I have been doing this and using the vehicle infronts headlights. This also helps the vehicle infront see me in their wing mirror so they know I am there.

I have also been using the headlights of vehicles coming towards me, not only as a warning of something coming the other way but as the vehicle approaches from the distance it ilumintes the road in its path, this helps to get a view of the dead ground between my vehicle and the approaching vehicle.

When I say I am backing off the pace I only mean by 5 or 10 mph, just enough to give myself a little more time to identify the road ahead and digest what is happening.

[waremark]

It sounds like you are doing all the correct things. Just remember you have to be able to deal with unlit and unexpected hazards as well as lit ones!

[SVS]

Hi Thesius, are you a 'blood runner' volunteer then? If so, are you required to do IAM/RoSPA?

The Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs make a significant difference. I've used them on a couple of bikes, with a noticable improvement. Available in H7 and H4 sizes; I'm guessing you want H7 on a Pan ... ?

www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=192

Though I generally ride less progressively at night - not least because you can't see the road surface so easily. You know how vital that can be on a bike

Cheers

[Thesius]

Hi SVS

I was trying not to mention it but Yes, I have recently started to volunteer as a blood runner.

It does depend on your local group but for our group you dont have to have an advanced riding qualification if you wish to use your own bike. If you wish to use the dedicated bikes that are liviried you will need an IAM, RoSPA or equivilant bike qualification.

I have done the IAM bike test so ride the dedicated ST1300's. I think they do have the uprated headlights as the headlights are very good for a bike.

We do have to undertake route training so the routes are not completely unknown to us. So another option is to spend some time reriding the routes in the daylight every couple of months to improve familiarity and check road surfaces etc.

One of the reasons for the thread was that I was out one evening recently and I was considering my road positioning at night compared to the day. As has been said, ultimately being able to stop in the distance we can see to be clear is very important which is why we position for vision. However, if our vision is already reduced by the night sky and we have an advanced warning by way of headlights coming towards us, should this effect our riding and our road positioning. This was one of the reasons for riding towards the off side of a car but keeping a decent distance behind it, it allowed me to open up my vision around the car and to use the cars headlights to improve my forward vision.

any thoughts?

[SVS]

Hi there,

Very well done for being a blood runner - you're doing a really worthwhile service.

Thesius said:

One of the reasons for the thread was that I was out one evening recently and I was considering my road positioning at night compared to the day ... This was one of the reasons for riding towards the off side of a car but keeping a decent distance behind it, it allowed me to open up my vision around the car and to use the cars headlights to improve my forward vision.

Seems smart to me. Do you mean you maintain this position on right-hand bends too?

Until recently, I used to have a winter commute in the dark on rural roads. Although I'd still position towards the nearside for right-handers, I didn't position as close to the nearside as in the day. I think this is because it's harder to use your peripheral vision to guauge the nearside when it's dark.

Also, I found the benefits of "extreme" positioning for vision were limited in the dark. Whereas the concentration to maintain my position right on the nearside was distracting from looking ahead. Though perhaps this merely reflected an imperfection in my riding!

[Thesius]

SVS said:

Hi there,

Very well done for being a blood runner - you're doing a really worthwhile service.

Thank you, its a very well run charity and all the people involved make it a joy to be a part of.

Thesius said:

One of the reasons for the thread was that I was out one evening recently and I was considering my road positioning at night compared to the day ... This was one of the reasons for riding towards the off side of a car but keeping a decent distance behind it, it allowed me to open up my vision around the car and to use the cars headlights to improve my forward vision.

SVS said:

Seems smart to me. Do you mean you maintain this position on right-hand bends too?

Until recently, I used to have a winter commute in the dark on rural roads. Although I'd still position towards the nearside for right-handers, I didn't position as close to the nearside as in the day. I think this is because it's harder to use your peripheral vision to guauge the nearside when it's dark.

I found even when following another vehicle at night I would still move towards the near side for a right hander but as you say not to an extreme. If we consider there being 5 positions (for a bike) in a carriageway 1, being the gutter and 5, being left of center with 3, being the middle of the carriage way. I would move to position 2 for a right hander, this would hopefully give me a safer position for unseen obstacles such as pot holes, man hole covers etc but will still give me a view past the vehicle in front so still gives me the advantage of using their headlights to gain more vision.

SVS said:

Also, I found the benefits of "extreme" positioning for vision were limited in the dark. Whereas the concentration to maintain my position right on the nearside was distracting from looking ahead. Though perhaps this merely reflected an imperfection in my riding!

I was taught (rightly or wrongly) and generaly pass this on to my car associates, that it is only worth positioning for vision if we gain an advantage from it. At 20mph we arent necessarily gaining new vision as quickly so the need to position for vision becomes less than traveling at 60mph when that new vision is more important. I have started applying this to my night riding as well, only moving to the extreme if there is an advantage to be gained from doing so, if there isnt I would move to position 2 instead as I personaly feel safer if I have room to move should something come into vision.

[matty_doh]

As silly as it may sound, a sat nav system that shows the general shape of the road is worth its weight in gold in that sort of situation.

While they're not 100%, they at least give some idea of what the road is doing ahead - I've yet to find a corner that is drastically different to the one on the sat nav.

I realise it won't be much good on the bike as the bike sat navs I've seen are well out of your line of sight and leave you looking away from the road, but it may be worth a try in the car.