Who likes night rides?

Your avatar is a thing of beauty! :smile:

 

Not until you reach it, anyway!

 

I used to, but not anymore.

BZ

 

I think therapeutic is a good term for this (for me anyway). Since it's dark all around you (assuming that you are out of the city on a relatively quiet road) all of your senses are concentrating only on that small piece of the planet lit up by your headlights that is rapidly rushing by.

 

I enjoy night rides in cities on warm summer evenings. They seem so small when the streets are empty and all the lights are on. Night rides in the country aren't much fun with the fear of deer and other wild things out there, plus its hard to strafe turns when you can't see them.

 

Yeah, I was piggy backing on the side of a car. We kinda looked at eachother when we were side by side and kept the same pace. The extra visibility from the other car's headlights and super bright LED tail lights helped out.

Just glad the driver (female) knew not to turn on her brights.

Oh wait, was that a sexist comment? :hitit:

 

When I was 19, 20 or so, I'd take my 84 V65 Sabre out at night - 2, 3am. Twenty years later (married with two young boys), I'll ride at night, but I've noticed just recently that I've become a little unsettled at night. Big reason is that I share the road with New Orleans drivers who, generally, can't walk and chew gum at the same time (let alone drive three ton SUVs and talk on the phone at the same time). Just gotta keep from reaching the meditative state I used to reach tweny years ago on those 3am rides....

 

HIDs can always fix that problem with surprising results.

 

I love night riding but it was better back in WV. The turns are sharper the straights shorter.
I was just about home sick.
Also the people were off the road.

 

It was a dark and stormy night...
Great thread DerStuka! I have been thinking of night rides a lot recently because they are such a different experience. I began my love of night rides with the bicycle...road rides and mountain bike rides. I had a friend for a long time outside of Arivaca and the jeep roads were a hoot at night. Just me, my nightrider lights (one on the bars and one on the helmet to see into turns before I entered them), and the critters. I have had similar experiences with the critters: bats, big owls (truly silent wing flapping!), nighthawks sitting on the dirt roads that fly up at the last minute, mice, racoons, skunks, etc. And the coolest is the spiders THAT HAVE GLOWING EYES!!! Freaky! I love backpacking/camping and just spent the weekend solo-camping in the dark, moonless nights of the Chiricahua mountains at 9300 feet. Being alone with the STARS (the milky way is still out) and the meteors (saw a great one that streaked for a long time) is a very special thing.
When on the motorcycle, I find that night time riding gives a focus that is not quite there in the daylight. The machine seems even better engineered, the sounds of the motor sound more refined. The gauges seem so high-tech. Our society is afraid of the dark and we light up every corner and crevice that we can. (See the current National Geographic for the cover story on the dark.) The solitude, mystery and smells of the night are special. Don't be afraid of the dark (Robert Cray!)
I love night rides...maybe tonight!
(OH, and several times when camping my buddy thought I was an alien and he was freaked out. Musta been the 'shrooms...)

 

"shrooms? Why you naughty boys

 

...notice that I carefully implied that it was HIM munching them.
I refuse to implicate myself.

 

Shrooms. I have seen those do nasty things to someone who was a perfectly normal healthy person before. I don't think he ever did recover from them.

 

During summer I'll sometimes head out for a night ride. Much more comfortable than during the heat of day.

 

Yep! I can definitely appreciate riding at night. But down here, the closer we travel to 'Bayou Cajun Country', we have to be on the lookout for Nutria and Alligators crossing the rural highways, especially after dark.

Nutria: