- [Neil] The winter nights are starting to draw in,
so those sunset rides and post work blasts
might be a thing of the past.
However, with winter comes night riding
so don't put away your bike just yet.
With help from my friends at Exposure,
we'll talk you through some of the kit
you might need to consider buying.
Plus, we'll give you some top tips on how to get the most
out of your night riding.
(reggae beat music)
Riding around in pitch black woods,
with just a couple of lights to see where you're going,
is a completely new experience.
And even riding trails you know like the back of your hand,
is completely different at night, and loads of fun.
Right, over to Dotty to talk through some of the features
you need to look for when buying lights.
- [Dotty] For riding off roads,
you really need some decent, quality lights.
Now, before we get into that,
let's just talk a little bit about the basics.
So, you're gonna need to be referring to the lumens,
that's the output brightness of a light.
Right in front of me, I have a candle here
that is roughly equivalent to 13 lumens.
Now, your average soft commuter based lights,
even those little small compact LEDs you get
that you can charge up from your computer,
they're gonna be somewhere around 200 lumens,
occasionally up to about 500.
Now, really for off road use,
you definitely need something 1000 and upwards
at the very least.
- The first time you go for a ride with your lights,
it's definitely worth taking a set of Allen keys with you
so you can adjust the angle of these lights.
The one on my head, it's super simple,
easy to do it just by hand, move it around.
I'm trying to get that as far as my eye line,
that does take maybe a couple of attempts
to get that perfect.
On the front light, actually to me
that looks like it's pointing down a little bit,
but on this light, it's got super wide beams
that really lights up the trail way ahead of me,
but also in front of my front wheel.
A different light with a less wide beam,
you need to really work the angle so you can see the trail,
see exactly what's coming.
- Yeah okay, cheers Neil.
So, let's look at the types of light you're gonna need
before you go night riding.
Okay so, this particular light here,
this is from Exposure, it's called a Diablo.
Now, at four chap, this is kicking out 1500 lumens,
so this will certainly do the job off road.
However, you need to think about
how you're gonna use your light.
Now some people will tell you
that it's best to have them on your handlebars.
Some people will tell you
it's best to have them on your head.
Now, they're kind of both right
but for different applications.
If you're just riding A to B,
putting them on your handlebars is the best position,
because you're gonna have consistent light,
looking in the direction of where you're riding.
If you're riding aggressively off road,
as soon as you go around blind turns,
you're not gonna have any light,
if it's just on the handlebars.
And the same goes for crests,
if you're going into a big hole for example,
you're gonna have a long period of time
where you're not gonna be able to see anything
until your light basically lights up
what's in front of you again.
Now, the general rule of thumb with serious night riding,
and be able to see everything the whole time,
is by having a twin set up.
That means having lights on your bars,
and lights on your head.
Now again, there's different schools of thought on this
but the one that we found most effective,
is by having a slightly less powerful light on your head,
and having the big, main beam on your bars.
Now, reason for that is
you only really need to be glancing around turns
on tight terrain, or glancing over the edge
of a big hole, occasionally.
For most of your riding, the handlebar light
is gonna give you that real big, flood beam,
enabling you to see down the trail.
So, let's actually see
how this takes effect out on the trail.
We're gonna check out proper light set up.
- So, I've got my Exposure Six Pack on the bar,
it's all built in, no separate battery,
and it's up to 4750 lumens, so it's super powerful.
It's got hight, medium, and low,
but also 10 different settings for all those,
so you can really choose how powerful your light is.
So if you're riding is maybe more mellow,
you'll spin the legs out.
You're gonna have it a little bit lower,
and it's gonna last that bit longer.
Also, really important to know your burn time.
So, luckily on the back of this,
I've got a really accurate reading
so it gives me two hours, 34 at the moment on high,
eight 36 on medium,
and 20 hours and 38 are left on this, on the low setting.
But even with the most powerful light on the bar,
it's really important to have one on your head as well.
Situations like this, I've got a steep downhill,
obviously my light is looking at the horizon.
With the one on my head,
I can see where exactly where I'm going.
(reggae beat music)
- So as Neil explained, the ideal setup really,
is by having two sets of lights on your bike.
You have your main beam on your handlebars,
and you have a much smaller, lighter light on your head.
Of course, you don't want a big, heavy light on your helmet,
'cause it's gonna effect how your helmet fits.
- Because of the size of the light,
the battery inside it can only kick out that much power
for a certain amount of time.
So think about this as more of an assistance light,
and you want to be using this conservatively.
I would never use this when I'm riding to the trails,
I'd only kick it on
for those moments when you really want to attack
that aggressive terrain.
For the handlebars though,
you can have something a lot bigger.
So, this is the Exposure Six Pack.
This particular one, has something called Reflex Technology
built into it.
It determines when you're riding slow, IE uphill,
it'll kick it down into a low beam, to save power.
Meaning, you don't have to take hands off the bars
to do this.
And it also senses with a setarometer inside,
when you pick up speed,
so it kicks out the full beam when you're going faster,
and it's vibrating and it's picking that up.
It's a really intelligent light,
and for high off road performers, it's absolutely amazing.
But of course,
there are many options available on the market
at all sorts of price points.
Now, with the huge handlebar mounter Six Pack,
obviously it kicks out 4750 lumens
and it has the reflex technology to manage that.
The Exposure Diablo, is far smaller
but it also has a little secret weapon hidden up its pocket,
and it's called Tap technology.
Now, when you select this mode,
and when it's on your helmet,
you can simply tap the helmet, or tap the light itself
to change modes.
Now, this is ideal for conserving battery
when you're out on the trails
because sometimes it can be a faff
if you're wearing big, thick winter gloves,
and you're trying to select the mode
just before you dive into a technical section of trail.
When you got Tap Technology on,
you can have it on the lowest setting,
and literally tap your head, full power, hit the trail,
tap again, and it dips it right down again.
Now this is also a really good feature
if you choose to run a helmet light,
if you're running in traffic,
so you don't blind other drivers,
so you can actually be quite sensible
about the way you approach night riding.
Now of course, Exposure lights are certainly not cheap,
but you certainly do get what you pay for.
You get a two year, no quibbles warranty with these,
and the quality of the construction of these
is second to none.
So they actually use it to make lights for underwater
for diving and stuff like that.
So it's pretty cool, they've got this technology available
for mountain bikers.
Of course, a little scour online,
and you're gonna be about to find
what appear to be bargain lights,
which might work very well, for a short time,
and that might serve a purpose for you.
But also can I remind you, that they're electrical products,
and with batteries and stuff,
you need to be safe with this sort of thing,
and we have heard some horror stories about some
bargain, basement priced lights out there.
I know what I'd rather run.
(reggae beat music)
- Whew right Dotty, you've got a kit
and that is blinding light.
- Sorry.
- What about the ride?
Where are we going?
- I'm thinking local woods is best.
You don't want to go too far,
in case you do run out of lights.
- Yeah.
- And you never quite know what's gonna happen
on a night ride, anyway.
- I don't want anything too gnarly, as well.
- Yeah.
- 'cause even with the best lights,
you're not gonna be able to see into the shadows.
- Yeah.
- Let's keep it a bit mellow.
- That's pretty important to remember, actually.
Wherever you ride, even if it you know it,
like the back of your hand, it's totally different at night.
- Oh, absolutely.
- You definitely need to factor that in when night riding.
You also need to make sure that someone knows
how long you're gonna be gone for,
how long you expect it to be,
'cause nasty things happen in the woods at night.
(reggae beat music)
- As with any mountain bike ride,
it's really important to be prepared
and carry enough kit with you, for the eventualities of
punctures, broken chains, anything that can go wrong.
Bearing in mind, that you're on limited time
when you're out night riding,
it's really important to make sure you do carry
at least the bare minimum.
I always carry water on my bike.
I always carry a motor tool,
which is a part of my bottle cage here.
It's tucked away, so I never forget that.
And actually these days,
I've become quite addicted to running
one of the Enduro straps,
with an inner tube, CO2 cartridge, and a tire lever.
In my pocket, I keep the little adapter.
And I'll actually take a compact bag with me,
with some gloves, a beanie,
and all important little rear light
to make sure I'm safe to get to and from those trails.
But one tip is,
make sure that when you do get to the trails,
take it off,
'cause firstly, they'll bounce off and you could lose it.
And secondly, if you've got a friend riding behind you,
you'll ruin their night vision,
so just keep that for the road sections.
- Any other good tips for riding at night, Dotty?
Compared to day?
- Yeah.
Well actually, I wear glasses always when I ride.
- Yeah.
- But especially at night,
'cause there's always low branches and stuff
that scratch me in the face.
So, look after your eyes, pretty much.
- Well, I haven't seen any low branches, Dotty.
I'm too tall.
Also, it's likely to be colder, isn't it?
So, I normally go for rides at night that are fun,
rather than physical, so I like to really layer up.
I've got my trousers, base layer under that,
and I have a coat on tonight.
- That's a good point, actually.
We're both wearing dark clothes,
because we've chosen to drive here to these woods,
and we ride and then get back in our cars.
If you're riding anywhere near traffic,
make sure you've got reflective clothing on.
- That's definitely a good idea
to go out with other people as well.
So if you haven't got any buddies to go out with,
I'm sure a local tressant,
there's local riding groups,
who probably go out for night rids as well.
- Which is also a good thing,
because you'll be sharing light with everyone.
So if you can't afford
to get some really good lights outright,
you can go out and sort of mix in between two riders
who've got a bit more light spread.
Could break in your sensation of night riding, I think.
- Convince your mates to buy the expensive ones.
- Yeah.
Oh, dude.
We're playing that.
- Oh, it's a moth.
It's wicked fun, being out in the woods at night.
It's completely different riding in the daytime.
If you want to see a video actually,
day versus night, clock over here for that one.
- If you want to find out exactly what not to do
when you're out night riding,
click down there.
- Hit that sub button, and give us a thumbs up
if you love riding at night.