Check Your Bike During The Day

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve set up your bike in the past, before a night ride it’s important that you do a extensive check that your bike is set up and ready before you set off.

While you might be pressing go  on your Strava after the sun has gone down, do yourself a favour and still do all the necessary checks in the afternoon sunshine. From tyres, to brakes, to gears, there’s no part of the bike that is any easier to change and mend in the dark.

As well as the bike, make sure you are prepared before the ride. Pack light layers for the change in temperature after the sun sets, as well as tools and spares. Most importantly, check that your lights and phone are both charged up enough to last your whole ride.

Know Your Route (And Let Someone Know Where You’re Heading

Exploring on your bike and riding somewhere new is always great fun, but when you’re riding in the dark it’s best to know where you’re heading and the route you plan on taking. There’s nothing fun about being lost on a dark country road with no phone battery and no idea which direction to choose.

Planning your route doesn’t mean that you have to lose all the adventure from the ride, if you’re planning a long ride through the night, choose markers along the way such as pubs or villages, so you can easily return to the last marker if necessary. On shorter rides, look up the route online first to plan for any issues it might bring along the way such as poorly surfaced roads and ones that are likely to have lots of potholes.

We all use our phones as maps nowadays, but they’re not foolproof. Many night rides can take you out of signal reach, so it’s always best to download the route to your phone before you set off. All electrical GPS devices share one common issue, they can run out of power, there’s nothing wrong with taking a trusty old paper map in your pocket, to be as safe as possible.

Ride With A Group

Night riding is a fantastic group activity. Not only is it a unique and different social date to plan after work, having a group to ride with also gives that boost and motivation we all sometimes need to get out on the bike, when the sun has gone down.

Riding in a group is also good for ensuring a safe ride. Going out with four other people means that you have five times the phone battery and five times the mechanical knowledge, than if you were out on the road alone.

Put together a gang of friends who like to train and take turns creating the route each week for your night riding. You can gain a lot of unexpected experience from riding trails and routes that you wouldn’t usually pick for yourself.

Wear Reflectives

While lights are obviously the most important thing needed for riding at night, reflective clothing is an equally important saety measure to invest in. Most brands now offer some reflective option in their  apparel range, so none of us have any excuse. The choices for reflective clothing have also gotten much better in the past couple of years, with the likes of the Sugoi Zap and Proviz Reflect 360 offering full 360-degree reflectivity.

Reflectors don’t have to be restrained to just your jacket either. The up-and-down motion from pedalling can catch the eye of the motorist more than a large reflective stripe across the back, so think about reflective pedals, overshoes or ankle bands to help you stand out as well.

Consider making your bike as reflective as you, by adding some reflective tape to your bike, you can make sure that you’re always visible, even if you’ve forgotten your reflective clothing.

Special thanks to Canyon for lending us the amazing women’s road bikes to shoot this feature. Check out their range of world class road bikes for women and fall in love…