Moonlight ride

Just got back from a 2-hour moonlight ride. All suited up ready for a
night ride, I had no juice in my battery. I'd been cycling my battery
for my headlight, and forgot to recharge it. And since I don't have a
hub-dynamo(!) I went out to my shed to rummage around for an old bar
mounted light. I couldn't find that light, but I noticed it was quite
light out with the almost full moon high overhead. So I figured, what
the hay, I'll give it a go. I've gone skiing often with no light under
a full-moon, but with the white snow, there is much more reflected
light. No snow this year (yet).

As soon as I rolled away from the houses and all their lights, my eyes
adjusted to the moonlight and I cruised along in the cool blue light.
I stuck to tractor roads and some wider forest trails, so as not to
have to deal with low hanging branches. The trees have no leaves, and
since the moon was almost directly overhead, the conifers didn't block
the light either. I couldn't see any contour, only more or less where
the road or trail went. This encouraged a very fluid style where I
floated over bumps, branches, and holes. I just went loose and let the
bumps come and go. That was quite a bit different from riding when one
can see and anticipate bumps. More specifically different from when
one is startled by an unseen bump. In this case all the bumps were
unseen, so I was never startled!

If the clear weather holds out, I'll be out for more in the next few
days leading up to a full moon. Good fun.

Joseph

On Mar 17, 5:15*pm, "
wrote:
Just got back from a 2-hour moonlight ride. All suited up ready for a
night ride, I had no juice in my battery. I'd been cycling my battery
for my headlight, and forgot to recharge it. And since I don't have a
hub-dynamo(!) I went out to my shed to rummage around for an old bar
mounted light. I couldn't find that light, but I noticed it was quite
light out with the almost full moon high overhead. So I figured, what
the hay, I'll give it a go. I've gone skiing often with no light under
a full-moon, but with the white snow, there is much more reflected
light. No snow this year (yet).

As soon as I rolled away from the houses and all their lights, my eyes
adjusted to the moonlight and I cruised along in the cool blue light.
I stuck to tractor roads and some wider forest trails, so as not to
have to deal with low hanging branches. The trees have no leaves, and
since the moon was almost directly overhead, the conifers didn't block
the light either. I couldn't see any contour, only more or less where
the road or trail went. This encouraged a very fluid style where I
floated over bumps, branches, and holes. I just went loose and let the
bumps come and go. That was quite a bit different from riding when one
can see and anticipate bumps. More specifically different from when
one is startled by an unseen bump. In this case all the bumps were
unseen, so I was never startled!

If the clear weather holds out, I'll be out for more in the next few
days leading up to a full moon. Good fun.

Joseph

I love riding by moonlight, especially in the snow. The snow covering
the trails helps with the smoothness factor, but even without snow
it's a great way to ride. Sounds like you had a good ride, thanks for
the report.