My first Night Ride - Nov 6-2007

Spring ahead and Fall back.... Each year the time changes, and for the winter riding season when the time rolls back an hour, it leaves very little daylight to ride after a working day is complete. Sunday after our ride at NRT, I payed close attention to what time the sun set and at around 5:20 or so, it's pretty dark outside so you can imagine what it would be like within the trees.

I called up Bike Cycles to see if the had any MiNewts in stock, and they did, so I headed over to purchase one. When I got there, all they had were the MiNewt X2 which mounts on your bars, so I decided to demo one for my first night ride.

I learned one thing real quick last night on my first lap, if you are only going to run one light, put it on your helmet, NOT your bars... I was really impressed with how well the MiNewt worked. Riding at night was a totally new experience for me in biking, and a lot of fun. Before I realized it, I had already pedaled ten miles.

Im going to head back over to my buddies at Bike Cycles and pick up one that will mount on my helmet, probably the SolMate to use for this year. If I get to use it alot, next year I will upgrade to one of the bigh 600+ lumens lights...

If you haven't tried night riding, call your LBS and barrow a light, and give it a try, you won't regret it.

See ya in the woods...

Return to NRT - Nov 4-07

Nine a.m. came early for me after drinking with my wife, and a friend I haven't seen in 19 years the night before.


However, the fun we had at NRT just a week before was still fresh in my mind, along with the fact that my wife was coming along with her SLR to take pictures. Yes, we are some vain riders, let's face it, we all drool over the pictures in decline, mtb action, dirt rag and the like, so when we see pictures of ourselves it gives us what we need to feed our egos.

Most of the same riders attended, (Myself, Josh, Randy, Brandon) and this week we had some new guys Tony, Wayne, Austin, and Bennett. Josh and Brandon went straight to the playground with my wife and camera following behind. The rest of us, hit the trail to start logging some miles on the smooth flowing single track.




My goal was to get in 20 miles, but I ran out of time and only got in 13, which was still a good day's riding for me. I also did the drop that Stu was hitting the week before, which was so much fun, that I had to do it three more times.




A few of the DEC guys were out riding, which is always nice to talk with them, but the cool thing this weekend there were four Marines there riding their 20" bikes, hitting the jumps...INSANE! Only one was wearing a helmet, and one bailed hard face first, and got messed up pretty good...



I don't know if I will head back this weekend for a third straight weekend or not, with gas topping $3 a gallon here, road trips may have to be reserved for once a month or so...

See ya in the woods....