Night Riding Questions

[Ken Moss]

I've had some questions on gear, so I thought I'd share my thoughts here. Feel free to ask more questions below.

>
>Reflective vest or sash - which style do you prefer? Is there a particular brand/model you really like?
>

-If it's cold I want a vest, and it's usually cold here at night. Even in July/August, if we're in the mountains it is surprisingly cold. For hot weather night riding, (so in the valleys in July/August), I want a sash.
One issue is where to store the vest during the day when you're not using it, the reflective material is bulky. My *favorite* reflective vest is the RUSA Voler vest that has been available for a group purchase a few times, but those are pricey.
They usually open a group order about once a year: https://www.voler.com/custom/ordering/li/46531/

Reflective ankle bands are also required.

>
>Some conflicting verbiage on lights - does rear red light have to be solid or can it blink?
>

-One solid rear light is required
(https://rusa.org/pages/rulesForRiders Article 10: At least one of the rear lights must be in a steady (rather than flashing) mode.)
Blinky lights are really hard to ride behind at night, so lights should only be solid at night in a group. For solo night riding, I think one solid and one flashing light is fine, but I usually just run my rear lights solid at night, and blinky during the day.
Most randonneurs like to mount two rear lights and only run one, so if the battery dies they can just switch on the other one.

For this next 300k, faster riders should finish before dark, but lighting gear is still required at check-in, so that if there are issues you can still safely finish the ride after dark.

>
>So with checkpoints as you are using Strava files now is there any requirement to actually stop at each checkpoint?  Or can you continue on and, say, stop at a restaurant down the road instead?
>

-With electronic verification, stopping at each control is not required (but if the route goes off the main road to a control, you're still required to follow the route and ride right past the control location). So getting resupply at another location is fine.

-Ken

[Don Bennett]

> Reflective ankle bands are also required.

As someone who has been a support driver for many long brevets, ankle bands are amazing!

Drivers may not know what they are seeing at first, but the crazy yellow stripes moving up and down certainly get their attention.

Don

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[Ken Moss]

My favorite ankle bands are Leg Shields:

https://www.amazon.com/Leg-Shield-Reflective-Ankle-Bands/dp/B00L0H4GJ8

Their store also has a sash that looks really great.

I was on a night-time brevet with a group of about 10, and David Hilton's ankle bands were 10x brighter than anybody else's, so I asked him about it and these are the ankle bands he was wearing.

They are neoprene, so they get clammy in hot weather (which I don't like), but if you wear them loose then it's OK.

[Matthew Bell]

Don, I wear my ankle bands when I think there might be a possibility of night or low-light riding, even if it's not a RUSA event.  

I agree... ankle bands ARE amazing.

Matt Bell

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