Night riding convert

Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
bike home.

Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
husband. :-). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.

Cathy Kearns wrote:
Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
bike home.

Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
husband. :-). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.


Night riding IS enjoyable. My commute home is often after dark and after
most of the street traffic is gone. I think that my rides at this time
are my favorite.

Ken
--
Messengers and mountain bikers share a common chromosome. ~James Bethea

"Ken C. M." wrote in message
...
Cathy Kearns wrote:

Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like
riding
on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It
was
so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to
buy
lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and
ride
home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
husband. :-). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest
of
the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.


Night riding IS enjoyable. My commute home is often after dark and after
most of the street traffic is gone. I think that my rides at this time are
my favorite.

I call it ghosting. It always seems calmer and more serene. Obviously I
don't hit the mtb trails. I either wind my way through suburban streets or
go on out the country roads.

Some things to note:

Islands in the Street. I am building up a mental database of all of the cul
de sacs in town. Some have these little grass 'islands' in the bulb of the
cul de sac, sometimes with a light standard, shrubs, even a park bench.
Usually they are circular but some or of unusual shapes. A few other streets
that are not c de s's still have these odd 'islands' appearing in the street
for no particular reason.

Example:

http://www.google.ca/maphp?hl=en&q=&...,0.009484&om=0

My goal is to identify each and every one of them in town. I've tried to
conjecture a time frame based on the age of the houses for this phenomena.
Very old 'war built' areas don't seem to have them. Estimating the ages of
other areas is difficult. I was about to say that the 'island' fad was a
1960's era thing though I've now found some newer developments that have
them. I suspect it is a characteristic of more upscale communities. Or maybe
it is a local thing?

I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
bulb?

Another thing to note is how different things look by day and by night. Try
this: Ride through an area at night you have not gone through in daylight.
Then go back the next day. So many little details of the scenery will jump
out at you.

Night critters: While squirrels, ducks, chipmunks and geese rule the day;
cats, bats, rabbits and skunks come out at night. I know they are around
but I never see raccoons on night rides. Cats will sit in the middle of the
road watching you until you get too close, bats will swarm around street
lights, rabbits will attempt to freeze or bolt, skunks are just arrogant. I
guess raccoons are there too, just discreet. I only see the roadkill on the
country roads.

You forgot the famous city coyotes.

In article , says...

I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
bulb?

Oh yeah, in spades.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...,+il&ie =UTF8
&ll=42.080611,-88.370762&spn=0.007963,0.021565&t=k&om=1
OR
http://tinyurl.com/nvx9e

They're only a feature in the newer developments around here, all of which tout
themselves as being "upper-class" in one way or another. [1]


[1] Despite having large percentages of town homes, er, "carriage homes".

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:23:10 GMT, "Cathy Kearns"
wrote:

Every year I like to attend a WTA tennis tourney at Stanford University, a
little less than six miles away by bike path. In the past I've taken my
bike for the day sessions, come home, showered then driven back for the
night sessions. Despite getting free parking passes, every year the parking
gets less and less convienent, and I often miss the later day matches to get
home in time to get back, which is just silly. So this year on Monday I
rode my bike, and rode home, but only got to see the first set of the night
matches before darkness set in. Tuesday I drove in the morning, but walking
back through the eucliptus strewn dirt lots at 10:30pm reinforced my hate of
the parking situation. For Thursday, since my husband was coming late, and
we only had one parking pass, I decided I would buy some lights and ride my
bike home.

Whoah, you folks have been holding out on me. There is nothing like riding
on a deserted bike path through the calm dark night under the stars. It was
so good I took a detour to get in a few more miles. So today I'm off to buy
lights for my husband's bike, and we can both hit the night session and ride
home together. Not only am I a convert, I'm now attempting to recruit my
husband. :-). I'm thinking of date nights in Palo Alto through the rest of
the summer. Maybe while I'm at it I should buy lights for my daughter so
she can ride in the dark with us when she returns from camp.


The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
sandstorm.

recycled-one wrote:

I ask rbm'ers: Do the cul de sacs in your area have lawn 'islands' in the
bulb?

Not around here, perhaps partly because once a week they all feature a
line of garbage cans right down the middle, and since under our local
government each house has at least three cans....
I'm glad the through streets aren't the same way.


Bill


--------------------------------------------------------------
| They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little |
| temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. |
| --Benjamin Franklin |
--------------------------------------------------------------

"recycled-one" wrote in message
...

I call it ghosting. It always seems calmer and more serene. Obviously I
don't hit the mtb trails. I either wind my way through suburban streets or
go on out the country roads.

Another thing to note is how different things look by day and by night.
Try
this: Ride through an area at night you have not gone through in daylight.
Then go back the next day. So many little details of the scenery will jump
out at you.

This ride is one I've done millions of times in the daylight, and could
probably do with my eyes closed, which is a good thing. Even with my light,
if I didn't know when the bike path winds, or where the turn was (30 yards
after the bridge) I would have missed them. Apparently you need to know
where they are to point your light at them. Some things are really
different, I took one cut -thru that goes from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac that
I knew was skinny, but I can ride through no problem in the daylight. At
night the sides looked to close, and I ended up walking it at the end. As I
near my house usually ride through the high school, down an straight alley
that goes through the back side of the school, but I got halfway down and
found they had just repaved one area, and still had cones up. I then cut
thru the outdoor corridors, as motion detectors turned on and off. It was
like a ride at Disneyland.

Night critters: While squirrels, ducks, chipmunks and geese rule the day;
cats, bats, rabbits and skunks come out at night. I know they are around
but I never see raccoons on night rides. Cats will sit in the middle of
the
road watching you until you get too close, bats will swarm around street
lights, rabbits will attempt to freeze or bolt, skunks are just arrogant.
I
guess raccoons are there too, just discreet. I only see the roadkill on
the
country roads.

Despite being a rural area with much wild life (directions include go
through the park with the donkeys...) I didn't see any skunks, cats, or
bats. Which now that I think about it, was very weird.

R Brickston wrote:
The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
sandstorm.

But there's less traffic. And with lights the bike is a lot more
noticable than during the day, with all the other drivers and traffic
and sun glare. And it's peaceful and fun and you don't sweat so much
and need no sunscreen.

One of the nicest comments I ever heard was, "I can really see you
--your lights are great!" I was sporting a megawatt h-bar lamp, a front
firefly blinkie, a red rear blinkie, and the usual bike with the 1"
green Reflexite sewn on the perimeter of my commuter baskets. The
rolling UFO look.

Glad you found out, OP!

--Karen D.

On 28 Jul 2006 14:37:38 -0700, "Veloise"
wrote:

R Brickston wrote:
The cooler temps are great for the daily ride and you use less water.
We have to worry about deer and the few riders with no lights or
reflectors. Last night the gnats were do bad it was like being in a
sandstorm.

But there's less traffic. And with lights the bike is a lot more
noticable than during the day, with all the other drivers and traffic
and sun glare. And it's peaceful and fun and you don't sweat so much
and need no sunscreen.

One of the nicest comments I ever heard was, "I can really see you
--your lights are great!" I was sporting a megawatt h-bar lamp, a front
firefly blinkie, a red rear blinkie, and the usual bike with the 1"
green Reflexite sewn on the perimeter of my commuter baskets. The
rolling UFO look.

Glad you found out, OP!

--Karen D.

I'm with you, I night ride several times a week.