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HEART OF DARKNESS
Ride the same trail in the dark and it comes alive with a much greater intensity and an increased level of difficulty. Plus nothing beats roaming the city at night on a bike with ten or so other riders... Winnipeg by the river at night is ... how shall I put it? 'Unique'. All kidding aside: It's truly a great cycling experience that one must experience once in order to crave it again

It's worth repeatng! You've gotta try it once. Riding in the dark with nothing but a bike-light to illuminate your way. It's a truly an invigorating and, if you'll forgive the pun,enlightening experience.

The thing about riding your bike on trails at night is you must come prepared. Sure, we know of some folks who make it an event to trail-ride sans-lights during a full moon... But if you have the right gear, you can run any night and have a blast.

The first thing you need is darkness... that's a tough one to come by way up north... with our summers staying lit until 10pm for a large portion of the season... It's only near August that we can start playing at a reasonable hour.

The next thing one needs is a lighting system. This is one area where you can't skimp. Buy a crap light, get crap lighting. The killer for a night ride is DBS (Dead-Battery Syndrome) it'll make you curse, it'll make you go blind, it'll make you wish you'd gotten a spare battery or maybe even a more basic back-up (then bring extra AA batteries) We have many options for the dude or dudette wishing to experience the uber-coolness of blasting down a trail at night. The one thing that happens all the time is that you do tend to stay out a little longer than you thought... always.

Keep in mind that unless you hit the high end of the price scale, most lights will work well for a 3 hour ride give or take 30 minutes. Turn the headlight off every time you stop and ride longer.

Then comes the rear-light. Happily while front lights vary in price from $30 to $900, rear lights are where you can cheap-out. as long as it's a blinking red LED light, it'll do.

Then, finally, there's the trail. Here's a tip: Don't ride city trails alone... and even in a group, stay close together. Nothing more tempting than a 115 pound girl on a $3000 bike to make even the most inebriated individual perk up. Gord's MTB Club hosts several night rides a summer and even a few out in Ingolf (the craziness never ends). The second tip has something to do with branches and how at night they seem to live lower down than in the day time... Odd, eh? Ask any of us who've ridden in the dark and we'll tell you stories of being yanked off our bikes by low-slung branches. Helmets, like common sense are absolutely de-rigeur.

Oh and there's one last thing... While good lights can run upwards of $400 for the cat's meow, you can certainly get a very good light under $200. And while this may not be true of most things, when it comes to lights it's a fact: You can never spend too much on a bike light. The more you can afford the better your experience will be.

Check back soon for more!