Night Riding

[Tyris]

Have spent 95% during the day? Anybody enjoy night riding? Any tips. Want to make a 100o mile trip next summer and interstate 80 seems the best route but thinking driving at night for part of it when traffic isn't so heavy might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

 

[Chasinsparks]

I like it

I like riding at night, my suggestion if you have not already done it get LED Head and foglights. A world of difference nice to see the whole picture and what might be lurking on the edge of road (deer) with the stock lights I felt I was struggling to see.

Have spent 95% during the day? Anybody enjoy night riding? Any tips. Want to make a 100o mile trip next summer and interstate 80 seems the best route but thinking driving at night for part of it when traffic isn't so heavy might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

 

[RinconRyder]

Have spent 95% during the day? Anybody enjoy night riding? Any tips. Want to make a 100o mile trip next summer and interstate 80 seems the best route but thinking driving at night for part of it when traffic isn't so heavy might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

Depends upon your riding experience, eyesight and route. Interstates are definitely safer at night than rural two lanes or any highway with intersections. Interstates are fenced so less chance of critters wandering into traffic. Requires a level of attention managing other traffic and crap in the road (potholes, tar snakes and frost heaves).

Nighttime usually brings on a decreased level of attention due to lack of sleep (you and other drivers) and lack of things to look at to relieve boredom. More drunks on the road especially following bar closing time. Rain, fog, or high winds at night can be decidedly more dangerous than during daytime and I would not travel at night with the possibility of ice or snow. Most of the other traffic on Interstates at night will be trucks (buffeting, water splash etc.) and rest areas will fill up with idling trucks reducing your options to pull off and rest your eyes or catch a nap.

I've been across the country multiple times on I-80, I-70, I-10 and I-5 from Seattle to Phoenix. I've driven both cars and bikes non-stop from Phoenix to NYC, Richmond to Chicago, Phoenix to Orange, TX (and then to middle FL the next day) and from NYC to Northern CA. I have spent as much as 18 consecutive hours on a bike (middle NE to Phoenix) but am too old to do that again. The eyes are still good but they won't stay open as long as years ago and I find nighttime boring and too dangerous for me to drive long distances at night. Plus, you miss seeing the countryside in large part.

Just my two cents.

 

[Peter Aawen]

I enjoy ryding at night, and if I'm just getting from here to there, I actually prefer & plan for travelling at night rather than during daylight hours - especially if I hafta quickly cover the long distances between our Capital cities, which is usually the case unless I'm specifically out there touring to see that bit of scenery.... and besides, for a lot of Australia, once you've seen the first couple of hundred miles or so of roadside scenery, you aren't gonna be missing much! We tend to have lots of interesting places scattered all over the place, but separated by at least a couple of hundred miles of same old same old in every direction, so I've travelled 10's if not 100's of thousands of miles on my Spyder &/or other 'bikes at night time!

Best mod to make your night-time Spyder ryding safer & less stressful - fit a set of spread beam driving lights up high on your Spyder, alongside or above your mirrors is good if you can!! Here in Aus we have access to Pogo's 4-eyes mod, but which lets us run all 4 main lights at the same time (you'd call them your mains & your fogs) - for the Aus/Eu spec Spyders this feature of running both Hi & Lo beam at the same time is good, but adding spread beam driving lights at or above the light source level of your hi beam is bloody brilliant for night time ryding, even (marginally??) better than converting your lights to LED's! Aside from converting your main beams to LED's, adding extra lights any lower than your main beams might marginally increase your chances of being seen by others at a distance, but it won't really add distance or do all that much for what you can see & react to out at the limits of your lighting.... :dontknow:

And don't forget to start any night-time ryding well rested. Starting a long haul when you are already tired or exhausted is not a smart move! :lecturef_smilie:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Have spent 95% during the day? Anybody enjoy night riding? Any tips. Want to make a 100o mile trip next summer and interstate 80 seems the best route but thinking driving at night for part of it when traffic isn't so heavy might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

What part of I-80 are you planning on riding? Much of it, especially in Iowa and Nebraska, is paralleled by the old highway it replaced. Most of the old road is in great shape, almost as fast to travel as I-80 and within sight of it, and virtually NO trucks and very light other traffic. You can drive it in the daytime, enjoy the scenery, and have a stress free ride! Even in much of Wyoming you can travel the old road, have better scenery, hit the major towns, and not contend with truck traffic! Same in Idaho.

I suggest you study Google maps really close. If you are not under a tight time schedule so great you have no other choice, or just love traveling on an Interstate, stay off of I-80. If time is critical and destination not, then consider shortening your travel distance and enjoy the hell out of the scenery. If you're coming out west consider returning on I-70. Drive in the night and early evening or early morning. You'll see enough of Kansas in the daylight to more than make up for what you miss at night. It's all much the same! Now watch Patti, aka PrairieSpyder, come back and diss me for that comment!!! :roflblack:

Another thing to consider. Truck traffic on I-80 and I-70 is heavy day and night. The fewer trucks you'll encounter during the night won't offset, IMO, the added hazard of passing them, or vice versa, in the dark. And it gets damn dark in the plains states and the West.

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Interstates are fenced so less chance of critters wandering into traffic.

Not necessarily. Many, many miles of Interstate are in the wide open. Two lane roads are more likely to be fenced. But it really makes little difference. The critters you need to watch out for are mostly immune to fences. They jump over them, or go through them, or under them. Only in areas of extremely heavy wild game movement do you see fences that are somewhat critter tight and those lead into critter crossings, either over or under the highway.

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Best mod to make your night-time Spyder ryding safer & less stressful - fit a set of spread beam driving lights up high on your Spyder, alongside or above your mirrors is good if you can!!

Not an option over here! They are illegal!

 

[Peter Aawen]

Not an option over here! They are illegal!

Wow!! :yikes:

And here in Aus, we look at many of the absolutely verboten mods that you get away with there that are simply too dangerous here because of the inherently dangerous engineering issues they entail, and yet something that can clearly increase your ability to see & be seen & therefore your safety is declared illegal!!! :shocked: Beggars belief, doesn't it?!? That different 'government authorities' can be so at odds about what's safe & what's not?!? :dontknow:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Wow!! :yikes:

And here in Aus, we look at many of the absolutely verboten mods that you get away with there that are simply too dangerous here because of the inherently dangerous engineering issues they entail, and yet something that can clearly increase your ability to see & be seen & therefore your safety is declared illegal!!! :shocked: Beggars belief, doesn't it?!? That different 'government authorities' can be so at odds about what's safe & what's not?!? :dontknow:

The reason, I'm sure, for not allowing more than 2 high beam lamps on a vehicle is because so much of our driving involves meeting oncoming cars. We don't have the miles of uninhabited, and thus almost no traffic, land you have there. Years ago I saw vehicles in Sweden with a light bar with 4, 6, or more, high intensity lights on them. But they have long dark nights, scarce traffic on many roads, and lots of large animals such as moose and elk wandering along the highways. It's a matter of safety of the driver vs. blinding oncoming drivers, or drivers in front, which is not safe.

I'm going to make a wild ass guess that probably no more than 0.001% of ALL the miles driven at night in the US are driven without meeting an oncoming car, if even that much. You will meet, or be behind, another vehicle at least every few miles even on the Interstates across the wide open lands of Nevada, Kansas, Wyoming, and Texas.

So how many miles or hours can you drive across Aussie open land at night without seeing another car? All night maybe? But not here!

 

[ARtraveler]

You could move to Alaska. It does not get totally dark from June to August. That's prime time for motorcycles and spyders. When its dark out before 10:00 PM--its getting to cold to ride at night. We are now down to 30's at night and dark at 8:00 PM. :thumbup:

 

[PistonBlown]

Love night riding, particularly in the early hours on back roads when there's nothing else on the roads. Can go hours without seeing another vehicle here.

Often head out 1 or 2 in the morning and then stop in the middle of nowhere to boil up a coffee just as the suns beginning to rise. Puts a whole new perspective on the day.

A couple of tips:

• Make sure your visor is in very good condition, any scratches can cause 'starring' of lights.
• If you have pin-lock in your visor some people say they also cause starring of lights. My experience is the effect is minor and more than offset by not having your visor mist up - which is more likely to happen at night with the colder air temps.
• Its colder than the day Sounds obvious but sometimes with the wind chill it's surprisingly cold even in summer.
• Here there are only a few 24 hour garages so you have to plan where you stop carefully. Not sure if that's a problem in the states.

 

[Peteoz]

The reason, I'm sure, for not allowing more than 2 high beam lamps on a vehicle is because so much of our driving involves meeting oncoming cars. We don't have the miles of uninhabited, and thus almost no traffic, land you have there. Years ago I saw vehicles in Sweden with a light bar with 4, 6, or more, high intensity lights on them. But they have long dark nights, scarce traffic on many roads, and lots of large animals such as moose and elk wandering along the highways. It's a matter of safety of the driver vs. blinding oncoming drivers, or drivers in front, which is not safe.

I'm going to make a wild ass guess that probably no more than 0.001% of ALL the miles driven at night in the US are driven without meeting an oncoming car, if even that much. You will meet, or be behind, another vehicle at least every few miles even on the Interstates across the wide open lands of Nevada, Kansas, Wyoming, and Texas.

So how many miles or hours can you drive across Aussie open land at night without seeing another car? All night maybe? But not here!

Too many assumptions there, Idaho.

You would be lucky if you could drive for 30 seconds without having to dip your high beam/driving lights for oncoming traffic anywhere on the freeways between the capital cities. The trouble is, it's sooooo black for that 30 seconds you need great lighting in case of bounding Roos, wandering Wombats etc.

The same applies to the major back roads, except there it might be a minute of two.

Drivers and riders out here are very considerate of the impact their high beams/driving lights would have on oncoming traffic, so lights are dipped as soon as an oncoming vehicle is detected. You just don't get oncoming traffic using their high beams when approaching you unless they have lost concentration.

There are, of course, two lane highways in the outback where you would only see another car every 15/30 minutes or so, but because Roos can jump a long way in one bound, and they are in plague proportions in the outback, most people other than interstate trucks don't travel on those roads at night if they can avoid it.

So no, a lack of oncoming traffic is not the reason we are allowed to use light bars with our high beams.

Pete

 

[RinconRyder]

Not necessarily. Many, many miles of Interstate are in the wide open. Two lane roads are more likely to be fenced. But it really makes little difference. The critters you need to watch out for are mostly immune to fences. They jump over them, or go through them, or under them. Only in areas of extremely heavy wild game movement do you see fences that are somewhat critter tight and those lead into critter crossings, either over or under the highway.

I have driven virtually every Interstate highway in the country except New England close to the coast and don't recall any unfenced sections. That doesn't mean there aren't any but I sure don't remember them. Critters can gain access to the I-states through on and off ramps though. And large birds like eagles or vultures are always a threat and very difficult, if not impossible to see, at night.

Here in the West most two-lanes are fenced if they abut wildlife areas and most have cattle guards but our deer and smaller critters, including big birds, don't seem fazed by them and it is common to crest a hill or corner to find big game standing in the road and blinded by headlights. I am always amazed at the number of blinking eyes from wild critters alongside highways at night and hoping they don't get spooked and cross the road in front of me at the last minute.

And a critter doesn't need to be very large to cause trouble. I have been knocked off my bike when a coyote ran in between the front wheel and the frame of my bike years ago.

 

[DGoebel]

+1 what Chaisinsparks says, get the TricLED or equivalent LED's in both headlights and if you have stock fog lights, makes a world of difference riding at night.
When my farkle budget can afford it, I'll add TricLED's fender mounted driving LED lights, they point where your tires point and add a much brighter beam patch on the road, even with both LED Head and Foglights.
I've done a SS1K with over 6 hours in the dark and never felt like I was outdriving my lights (3+ hours of that was on I-90 and I-35).

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Not necessarily. Many, many miles of Interstate are in the wide open.

I have driven virtually every Interstate highway in the country except New England close to the coast and don't recall any unfenced sections.

After looking for several minutes on Google Street View I have to admit your memory is better than mine! :banghead:

But I will still argue that when it comes to deer and antelope, nearly all the fences along the Interstates are only a minor hindrance, not a barrier.

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Too many assumptions there, Idaho.

Not too many, just one, that I thought I knew what I was talking about! pps: pps: pps: pps:

Thanks for setting me straight!

But I did see light bars on pickup trucks in Sweden, and Sweden does have long nights in the winter!

 

[Peteoz]

Not too many, just one, that I thought I knew what I was talking about! pps: pps: pps: pps:

Thanks for setting me straight!

But I did see light bars on pickup trucks in Sweden, and Sweden does have long nights in the winter!

Hahahaha.....well, maybe ONE too many assumptions, Idaho.

What you were were saying did make perfect sense though. I think it's because they can't have one rule for one group of drivers and one for the others, so the fact that some drivers on night drives through the outback need serious, high set lighting, they have left that as the general rule. I could be wrong though

Pete

 

[Peter Aawen]

...... I think it's because they can't have one rule for one group of drivers and one for the others, so the fact that some drivers on night drives through the outback need serious, high set lighting, they have left that as the general rule. I could be wrong though

Pete

I doubt that you're wrong - there were calls for & moves afoot to ban the high set lighting, largely arising from the population centres along the Eastern Coastline & the South Eastern States, but then when the stats & info about the animal collision risks during night time driving in ALL the 'non-city' areas was added to the outcry from the more remote centres & the transport industry where driving long distances at night is the norm & animal strikes are pretty much unavoidable, the whole thing was dropped & high set lighting remains legal & very very useful!! :thumbup:

 

[RinconRyder]

But I will still argue that when it comes to deer and antelope, nearly all the fences along the Interstates are only a minor hindrance, not a barrier.

I have found that recaps off big trucks are much more of a hazard than critters on Interstates out here in the West. One reason I don't ride bikes or trikes after dark (where lighting is an issue) is because they tend to blend in to the darkness until the last minute.

Even riding my Genesis, which has the world's greatest headlights, can be a challenge because you cannot drive very far with the brights on due to oncoming traffic.

But mostly, unless you are just driving to make time to your destination, riding at night is boring. Nothing to see along the way.

 

[Trailboss]

A couple of tricks

Have spent 95% during the day? Anybody enjoy night riding? Any tips. Want to make a 100o mile trip next summer and interstate 80 seems the best route but thinking driving at night for part of it when traffic isn't so heavy might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

Stop every hour for 5-10 minutes. Stay about 300 feet behind an 18 wheeler. Make sure your headlight and driving/fog lights aren't blinding him (18 wh). Let the 18 wh hit whatever wanders into the road before you do.