It is for sure without a doubt, that biking at night is daring. There are times when night riding is almost impossible for many reasons.
Or you have felt its fun biking at night and you want to take an adventurous journey at it, but at the same time terrified by the dangers.
This article is here, to take you on insightful 10 safety tips to staying on top of your game and to feel way comfier while night biking.
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10 Important Safety Tips for Biking At Night
Get Suitable Lights
Biking at night slims down your chances of visibility to other road riders. Your ability to also see things at night are reduced. Consequently, why you need to get the most appropriate light while riding at night. This majorly helps to enhance your vision and that of others while biking. Ensure to get a handlebar light, front light, a helmet light and rear light.
With the handlebar light and front light playing as a front liner, shining light to the front road and increasing your visibility to approaching movement. The rear light working behind scenes, increasing visibilities from behind and the helmet light working more for you, helping you see things ahead clearly.
In our bids at getting enough lights, we should also avoid the overtly shining of lights at approaching riders, as this could be very dangerous.
Put on a Helmet
There are times when riders guard down while biking at night resulting often to road crashes. Imagine such crashes with head hitting hard on the floor without a helmet on. Very scary right? Yeah, it is.
But it is not as bad as that, if necessary precautions are taken, such as wearing a helmet. In the US, over 6000 riders have been reported to suffer head injuries, due to their refusal for the use of a helmet. Wearing a helmet is one sure way at reducing head injuries from crashes and fatalities.
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To further enhance the use of helmets as safety precautions, a reflective type of it is also important. This helps in enhancing visibility while biking at night.
It is also necessary to obey traffic laws and stay in the safe lane. The effectiveness of the helmet makes it illegal to go night riding, when not properly used. This warrants fines when caught by the right bodies.
Avoid Listening to Music
We at most times listening to our favorite song, get so lost in the energy of the song, thereby losing our focus. And you cannot afford to be distracted while biking at night.
Staying alert to know the things happening around such as vehicles coming behind is very vital for cyclists at night. Music affects our sense of balance and control. In addition to the already slimmed vision, listening to music while riding is very risky.
Use Reflective Gears
Asides the use of effective lights, there are other ways to enhance visibilities while riding. The use of reflective gears akin to the lights ensues safety biking at night.
Wear reflective clothing such as the reflective safety vests, wristbands, ankle bands, shoes, gloves, sleeves and pedals. It is legally required to have red reflectors at the rare and white at the front.
The use of reflective on pedals makes biking at night unique and evident, due to the conspicuous oblique movement of the pedals.
In addition to the safety precautions for biking at night, reflective clothing adds to the beauty of a bike. This overall beauty boosts the confidence of most riders and allows them to stay more in charge. This makes biking at night safer.
Know your Roads
The night is occupied with enough dangers and dangerous people. Setting out at night without knowing your routes, makes things way worse. It is dark enough at night, thereby making it easy to get lost.
Having a close intimacy with your road makes biking at night less of havoc; most especially when you are going mountain biking.
Even at perfectly knowing your routes, It’s a good idea to stay alert. This is because routes at night look way more different from what it looks like during the day. So it is easier getting confused, hence the caution.
Do not Ride Alone
Lone riding gives a partial picture of a boring ride. It is fun riding with friends, siblings, family members and colleagues with the same commute route.
Asides the fun part, biking at night in groups makes spotting riders easier. It is also very easy to attack a lone rider compared to, when there are more riders biking together at night. So for safety purposes, do not ride alone.
Tell Someone About your Night Cycling
This is more or less the closest remedy to biking alone at night. If you ever have to ride alone, then tell someone about your routes and journey’s end.
Tell someone about how long you intend staying out. This helps for security reasons, tracking out every possible place you could be at any time. Then ensure to have your phone on while riding by yourself, so as to make reaching you very easy.
Follow Traffic Laws Promptly
It is very easy to feel invisible riding bikes, due to its small structure and light components compared to other riding structures.
More so, It is easy for cyclists to manoeuvre their ways through traffics. Doing this you can flout traffic rules and pose serious danger at your safety.
Additionally, It is very easy to flout traffic rules while biking at night due to less flow of traffic or when in a hurry. This is usually the major cause of road accidents, therefore always obey traffic laws for your safety and other commuters safety.
Ensure your Bike is Good and Reliable
Do you imagine how terrifying it is to have to stay alone in the woodlands fixing tires or repairing brakes at night? You wouldn’t want to give thought to that.
It is better to stay safe and stay ahead of such danger exposures. You should check if the bike is at its best condition before riding, by checking the tires, brakes and every other necessary thing.
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Keep your Bike Safe
It is easier to get bikes stolen at night. Most bikes get stolen at night, when not properly locked or kept. After night biking it is expedient of you to ensure the safety of your bike.
With the use of bolt cutters to cut through chains, makes it unsafe to just chain a bike. It is now safer to store your bike in a strong and protected bike locker.
The U locker and a cable combo also make your bike secured at night, if properly protected. Regardless the price of a U locker, it is worth going for.
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Is Biking At Night Dangerous?
Biking at night is definitely way more dangerous than riding during the day. There are more fatalities at night caused by so many reasons.
Blurred visions at night and other lurking dangers at night makes biking at night dangerous. But this does not mean, there are no dangers riding during the day.
In fact, there are as more danger during the day as the night. The only difference is the ease of making mistakes at night.
However, if you obey traffic laws and follow the safety tips mentioned here, you can be in charge of your biking at night as much as during the day.
Is Biking Illegal At Night?
Most cyclists are faced with the question of whether night biking is legal or not. They, therefore, restrict their biking experience to just during the day. This may in a way make cyclists feel unfulfilled because they think their desire to ride at night is curbed lawfully.
Fortunately, night riding is very much legal. All cyclists are allowed to ride at night as long they are doing it right. It only becomes illegal, when the cyclist breaches against the safety tips and when they don’t obey traffic laws. Any cyclist found guilty of this offence will be duly fined and punished.
It is, therefore, necessary to follow precautions by obeying the traffic rules, using appropriate light, wear reflective clothing and stay alert to enjoy a free hitched night biking.