Night Rider Vibe

Light Test

It was dark, which qualified the evening as night. I've ridden in the night but only through street-lit town and for the quickest of blasts down one junction of the M27 and with evenings rapidly qualifying as night I guessed I had better get some time in before mornings do likewise.

I set off with the rain-proof beneath the jacket. It didn't feel cold. By reaching the A32 outreaches of Fareham I saw the air-temperature to be reading 12'C. I always see chilly as starting around 15'C (local warm early-spring day) and cold at anything below 10'C; so this was borderline with added wind chill. Chilly. I was brave but the memories of a snotty-nose and steamed visor came flooding back as my nose dripped and visor; well, it steamed.

About the lights

The dipped beam was very dipped; it's like everything in the twin-H4-bulbed lighting was concentrated on a wide beam about 15m in front of us, which is great at dawdling speeds of 30 to 40mph, but critically debilitating at anything close to full-on commute or numb-in-the-head throttle settings. High beam, however is excellent! It goes on and on and lights up everything from the front tyre to the Moon.

[There's a dit for ST1300 owners on the Web from Ridethatbike.com that compares the light image of a variety of headlight bulbs. It's worth a read if you have a Pan.]

The switch between each setting is a rocker just above the indicator slider and it's darn near impossible to move an opposable left thumb from white-knuckle grip to dip too quickly, making anticipation the key. This may come with practice but I found the balance between beams and on-coming cars interfered with optimum gear settings where the clutch operation had to be timed while beams weren't being switched.

Where full beam can be used the bike will go on to legal speed in great visibility; once a car approaches this changes to guidance by white line on the edge of the road - where provided - or by centre line - where this can be seen in the oncoming glare. Speed drops for safety. I think this is good - frustrating - but good.

The Hampshire Stalker

I was also wary of badgers and deer, which I felt I was stalking with a certainty of a kill; I see so many on these stretches and more further toward Warnford where a badger ripped off the front of the Alpha one night. It just trundled out and matched my lateral-to-the-right speed across the road trying to out-run it until it out-ran me: with an ear-assaulting shattering of bumper, fog-light, and bent metal and ripping radiator. The Alpha had taken off into the air with a 60mph impact. I am mindful of what would happen to Shadowfax! (I've noticed; badgers go left to right (opposite allowed, of course) while deer join the carriageway and then try to out-run you along the road. The latter is safer - you don't HAVE to race them and knocking them down suggests you've tried quite hard to catch them!)



Andy at Paragon Rider Training has been hit in the chest by a bat - some may say he deserves one to the head, but this was a bonafida flying mouse and it bruised him severely. I've also sen on one of those "Stop - Police" type shows a bloke who hit a pheasant at 60mph, taking it in the visor. It smashed through and laid him out cold so he was luckily relaxed as his bike careened into a deep ditch and broke some bones - painlessly until he awoke in hospital.

All these animal attacks were going through my mind in the dark contrast between headlamp and night. It made me a little nervy. Moths the size of dinner plates made bee-lines for the bike from the front (strange that bees don't do this, then?) and one managed to lodge it's impacted body inn the fold of my knee protector for later close examination in my living room - still twitching...

Reluctant Return

At Droxford I turned round and drifted back to the peninsular. I was having some fun - and we don't get to hook up together for a pointless ride, Shadowfax and I. Again, I missed the turning for home and chose instead to cruise through the town. It may have been for the joy of the ride or to stay out the house after a whole day with the kids, but it was now 15'C; balmy, and quiet at 10pm. A joy.

Vibes

By the beach I pulled over to turn on the iPod: a second experiment with this. The first was last week while visiting Jules at his new pad not far from where we live. I had put on the noise-occluding earphones and put some Aerosmith through them. I found it far too distracting and with no immediate access to controls other than a click switch dangling somewhere beneath the helmet area to add a pause I found it disconcerting.

Just now though, I turned on some gentle Enya vibes at moderate volume. I could still hear the engine notes and wind noise but had a "just-right" amount of music filtering in. Sweet. I may try this on the commute; perhaps some Podcasts, or something. I've played most of my 400-odd CDs during the commute in the cars and need something new.