Night (well early morning) dark road ride on the Pilgrims

I now have the Bowman Pilgrims bike set up for winter / night riding. This morning I was up just after 4am so decided to go for a local road ride at 5am. I did not have a route in mind, I just headed out and made it up as I went along. It was not that cold in sheltered places but the strong wind made it feel real chilly on the exposed roads. After an hour there was light rain when coming down from Hedleyhope towards Cornsay, by the time I dropped down to Lanley Park it had dried up again.
It has been a while since I have done a 100% dark road ride and my mind was playing tricks with my speed, on the hills I felt like I was going at a snails pace and on the down hills it felt like I was at warp factor. I don't get that feeling so much when off roading in the dark just the road for some reason. At least there was very little traffic and pedestrians. I was surprised at just how many stretches of minor roads are lit all through the night, you do not notice when riding around the county's roads during daylight. I managed 25 miles and back before 7am. My camera also does not like the dark so the photos are of poor quality but here you go, more soon.

cockpit full this morning

out of Bearpark

and into proper darkness



view over Deerness Valley NOT

flash on

flash off

it was a canny climb out of East Hedleyhope onto the Tow Law road to Hedley hill

and nearly back home

Don't forget NECCL CX RD 4 is on today @ Ponteland - all the best to everyone going.