one of my most favorite types of rides is the night ride - without lights. on this particular day i had set out in the late afternoon to attend an important meeting with jim and jess at the 'ship and a little dinner before polo with the grass-game boys. it was a very nice day in southern alberta, feeling quite a lot like a mid-summers day and i didnt plan on the light going away so quickly after polo - so there i was, on my way home, in the dark, with not a reflective bit on me. upon realizing i was too vulnerable on the roads i quickly made my way to the bow river pathway and started heading west. riding without lights is a little unnerving at first as it takes a little while for the night vision to kick in - but once it has - riding through the night air sans batteries is really fun and hyper-real.
you need to ride "light" as its hard to see all the little surface imperfections and you need to "hear forward" to try and be ready for those you may meet (i almost hit a couple jogging, they didnt have lights either). other than that, just relax, embrace your inner ninja and enjoy the quiet evening, the whirrr of your machine, the very real feeling of flying that only comes from riding at night.
