Time To Put Away The Lights                                            
By Sean Harris

   Sadly, Daylights Savings Time is just a few days away. For the last few months, most of my time in the saddle has included a lamp on my head, and a battery in my pocket. Here in the south, we're lucky to have mild winters and I do my best to take full advantage of the empty trails. But, it wasn't always that way.

    A little history... Back in college, several folks that I rode with starting riding at night and asked me to join them. I dismissed them as lunatics and went about my winter doing important things such as drinking beer and getting fat. Then, spring would roll around and I would once again find myself starting over compared to all those night-riding freaks. Fast forward to my first real job... a friend of mine bought a set of lights and did his best to convince me that I should join him. "No way!" I told him, I'm a responsible person, and would never consider doing such a thing. Besides, The Blair Witch Project was playing in the theatres at the time and I had no intention of running into her and having my teeth removed... Thankfully, my friend (who can be as tenacious as a bulldog on a piece of fresh meat) kept after me until one night, against my will, I strapped a set of his lights to my bike and went off in to the darkness. I have not been the same since.

   If I had to fashion a guess, I could honestly say that about 1/3 of my riding over the last seven years has been after sunset. Ever since that fateful night, I've been hopelessly devoted to riding in the dark. I road ride in the dark, I mountain bike in the dark, sometimes, I even leave my lights in the Jeep and go out with nothing but a smile and a full moon (get yer mind outta the gutter - this is a family web site...). You want an adrenaline rush? Go do your local trail at night with no lights. One of the biggest benefits of night riding is that I typically have the trails to myself. Granted. it's usually cold, often rainy, and always dark. Any one of those factors is enough to keep most thin-blooded folks at home - combine them, and it's nothing to go five or six rides without running into anyone but the fools I talk into coming out with me. No, I'm not a loner - but sometimes it's nice to have the place to myself. Another benefit is that come spring time, I'm no longer dusting the cobwebs off my bike(s) and trying to lose that winter 20 that is so easy to put on. While my buddies are bragging about how much whiskey they drank last week, I'm going on about how I matched my best daytime lap in the dark at the local trails last Tuesday night. It's easy to spot a biker vampire. Our bikes are covered with brackets to hold auxiliary lights, we often have a special helmet with a permanent light holder and reflective tape, and we're usually leading the pack at the first post-work group ride after the time change.