:Light bulb

March 4th, 2012 | No Comments » |

OK, so I have been a little slow of the mark. For some reason ‘the darkness’ this year came quicker than expected and when you combine that with wet mornings, getting out before the traffic hit was getting harder and harder.

Finally last week, after a bout of ever increasing frustration, I grabbed some lights (my last set were stolen along with my bike a few years back). Nothing fancy, slick or techno, just a fairly cheap 2W LED for the front and 2x 0.5W for the rear. Plenty bright for letting people know I’m there, which they seem to do very well - I looked into them and nearly went blind!

So this morning out the door I went before 6 and set off in the dark. The ride was nothing special, other than being one of those rides you have after being off the bike for a week and a bit, where you feel and ride a lot stronger than you actually are. But riding the same route was a lot more interesting in the dark, especially with the streets a little wet. Not sure why but it’s probably one of those things where ‘what you don’t see’ being more interesting than what you do.

Anyway, when I got back home I realised that riding in the dark is a little bit like swimming in the rain, ie. when it’s dark, it’s dark, so 5am is really no different than 6. So in my quest to get a good ride in on quiet, empty, Sydney streets, I realised I might as well get up a little earlier and have the place almost all to myself.

5.20am on the road sounds pretty good, it’ll be dead quiet AND I’ll beat the commuters, car and bike, in both directions. Best of both worlds!

 

Tags:cycling

Share the love...?

Tweet

Leave a Reply...

You must be logged in to post a comment.