Tonight is the night! We’ll be going out to do the Fall Equinox Celebration Ride. If you are new, this is an intentional nighttime ride. Lights and reflective equipment are required. (That means a good strong headlight, a strong flashing taillight, a reflective sash or vest, and reflective ankle bands. More on that in a bit.) Of course we’re requiring helmets too.
We’ll rally at the Fredrick Brown Amphitheater, in Peachtree City. Ride time is 7:30 PM (sharp).
Sunset will be at 7:38 P.M., and Civil Twilight will end at 8:03 P.M. After that it will be dark.
Our ride will cover somewhere between 40 and 45 miles, which means we are going to be doing most of it in the dark. Pace will be a comfortable touring speed. We plan to keep the group together, but we’d like to be done by 10:30 to 11:00.
The Route: As usual, I’m keeping my cards close to my vest, but I’ll divulge this much. There will be hills, but no monsters. (Churchill has expressed a concern. Churchill, you may tell your servant that we will not be traveling on Rockaway Road.) The terrain is generally fairly gentle. I think I can predict, with a high degree of confidence, that we will put most of you on roads you haven’t seen before.
Now, here’s a suggestion: The requirements for these rides represent our considered opinion and experience concerning the minimum equipment for safe night riding. Is there a maximum? That’s a question that could be debated endlessly. Obviously, at some point, the sheer mass of additional equipment would be so great as to prevent the cyclist from moving. But that said, there is room for consideration.
What is essential, and what can fail? Good reflective gear is essential. Bouncing a car’s lights back at the driver is a great way to be seen. Hence we require vests and ankle bands. At first blush, it would seem that these reflective pieces are not prone to failure. They require no batteries. There are no moving parts. But…
On closer examination, there are two types of reflective clothing. One uses a process that makes cloth extremely reflective. Scotch, has a trademark on this process, and there are others who market similar types of reflective gear. The other common reflective part uses a multi-layer vinyl material. And the two do not work in quite the same fashion.
The reflectivized cloth material actually is much more visible, but… It loses most of its reflectivity when it gets wet. On the other hand, the layered vinyl material is a bit less reflective, but it retains almost all of its reflectivity when wet. I guess you put your money on a number there.
As for lights... Here’s a handy concept. Lights have been known to fail. The bulbs burn out. Batteries have a lifetime, and are notorious for not giving a lot of warning before failure. It’s really not a bad idea to have a backup light. We’re not talking about a light that comes on when you go into reverse here. Instead, the concept is the same as skydivers having a “reserve chute.” It’s a pretty good idea to have some kind of emergency second light. After all, finding oneself in the dark, a long way from home, is a truly uncomfortable situation. With today’s ultra-bright compact LED type lights, a second one is pretty easy to carry.
Tomorrow: A brief report on tonight’s ride, and a few tantalizing details about next month’s Mid-Fall Celebration Night Ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment