5 Essential Tips for Mountain Biking at Night (After 75+ Rides)

Spring and fall are the perfect times to extend rides after dusk. We’ve invested thousands into our bikes and gear, why not throw another few hundo in to unlock hours of extra rideable time? 

I love night riding and have tried quite a few different setups over ~75 rides. Here are five things I’ve learned about night riding:

You need bike-specific lights! Your camping headlamp or your commuter light WILL NOT CUT IT! It won't give you enough lumens (brightness) or have the right beam pattern to ride safely. It’s better than nothing in an emergency, but not good enough if you want to ride at a meaningful pace. Trail lights should have multiple lenses with a wider flood pattern AND a spotlight pattern.

More power on the bars than the head. If you have a brighter light on your head (in line with your eyes), you won't be able to see shadows behind objects and will lose depth perception. You want a brighter light on the bars for trail features and less brightness on your head for looking through corners. Plus, it’s much easier to run an externally wired battery pack on your bar/frame than on your helmet.

More Lumens = More Speed. I started with two, one-piece 850 lumen lights and could night ride at medium speeds. Then I upgraded to a Magicshine Alty1500, THEN a Magicshine Aquila Pro 4000, NOW I have a Magicshine Monteer 8000!!! With 4000 on the helmet and 8000 on the bars, I have unlocked the power of a thousand suns and it's full gas 24 hours a day!

Group night riding is amazing! I love leading group night rides for Kinetik Cycles! It’s so cool seeing lights bouncing through the otherwise dark forest. The combination of everyone’s lights makes the forest and trails come alive! Even with just one other person, you feel like you have the whole forest to yourself.

Choose trails you’re familiar with. That way, nothing should catch you out if it takes you an extra beat to process in lower lighting. I ride easier, familiar trails at night, like Burnaby Mountain. I rode Ladies Only for the first time in over a decade, alone, with lights. There were a few more black horizon lines that I was comfortable with, as I had no idea what was on the other side. Not fun, not safe.

Again, even “expensive” lights are a tiny percentage of what you’ve likely invested in the sport. So, if you need a push, the justification is that it increases the usable hours of said investment.