Night Riding Lights | What You Need To Know For Mountain Biking At Night

Mountain bike riding at night can be an exciting way to keep riding through the dark winter months, or is a great way to get out for a lap in the morning before the sun rises! What lights should you buy? How many lumens do you need? Should you look for a helmet or handlebar-mounted option?
BRIGHTER IS BETTER, RIGHT? This is everything you need to know about riding MTB at night!

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[paulsack]

If you are facing traffic, please lower the angle of the light, so it faces the street 3m infront of you. These LEDs are pretty blinding for other riders.

[just]

A bar light also adds contrast so you can see little trail details better. With only a helmet light, because your eyes and the light are so close together, the shadows are diminished from your perspective. A light with more offset from your eyes, like a bar mount, really bumps up the perceived detail of the trail.

[WillKalman]

And don't use *only* a helmet light because your eyes are aligned with the light and you will see no shadows and thus no trail texture or features. You will run right into rocks or into ruts because you never saw them. I did it once when my bar-mounted light failed and it was terrifying!

[MagnusThornberg]

All depends on the speed you are going. 2000 lumen maybe neccecery when you are a pro. When climbing I use 240 lumen and it's bright enough. When going down I bump it up to 780 lum and that's good enough. I only use one light on the helmet. When doing XC riding you don't need as much. When fatbiking in the winter the speed is so low that 240lum seems spot on.

[sumsaudi]

i prefer night riding, because its safer. everybody is home instead of outside, so you have the streets and trails all to yourself. riding XC trails at night is so much fun. climbing hills is noticeably easier, and it's just nice and quiet outside. it's so underrated.

[stevetaylor]

You forget to mention the most important reason for having a helmet light, is if you ever crash offroad in the dark woods.!

Your handlebar light may go one way and you go the other way sailing headfirst into the scary dark, completely blind. With a headlight, you stand a better chance of not slamming your face into a tree stump.

[darkm]

Been doing fine night riding solo on local XC trails with just a 800 lumen Garmin helmet light. I have a bar light but usually don't bother to set it up. Just one light trains me to always look ahead even when tired and it probably makes me faster in the daytime when I can get lazy. I love the tunnel vision and feeling of speed riding at night.

[daniellawrence]

NiteRider Lumina Dual 1800 Rechargeable for bike and the 850 for your helmet. No wires, three settings of brightness. Best set up.

[gmck]

Well worth having rear lights too, as almost all rides involve road sections. Exposure do the TraceR that will mount under the saddle so it doesn't interfere with the dropper and won't be blocked by the rear tyre. The saddle mount also works pretty well on a helmet.

[Rab_Cee]

Darkness setting in across Scotland at 4pm lights are a must have. i cant believe how fun it is to ride trails at night. Shadows that look like big holes wen its just a bump on the trail n crazy animals running into your light making you shit yourself

[CraigDuka]

Night riding feels like you're going so much faster as well. Good fun.

[TheWebstaff]

Helmet light.
Can be as bright as you want of you get a Nestling one with a battery extension cable.
And you don't have the weight of the battery on your head.
We all right that setup in our weekly group now and have done for over three years..

[aaronlucan]

2 lights helps me with depth perception, I attribute that to the light coming from 2 angles being similar to the binocular effect, but I have no idea if there is any truth to that. A helmet mounted light is a must if you ride anywhere with nocturnal orb weavers, as the light reflects off the webs in front of your face. A bar mounted light won't illuminate webs at head height well enough, and this can result in a spider the size or a child's hand on your face.

[tim__sadler]

Got me some crazy powerful Lupine lights and really loving the nightriding this year. Great with buddies, but equally makes local trails feel new on your own.

[roc_cycles]

GMBN Tech a.k.a. Doddy's channel to get away from the other present ers

[LordLlurch]

What you need to know number one: does the terrain owner allow night riding? In the Netherlands, 99% of the trails do not allow any riding between sunset and sunrise, because of the wildlife. So no lights needed.

[irvsstella]

OVERKILL!!!
I used to have the old BLT system with dual lights, on many an occasion I was flashed by long distance truckers for dazzling them.
I'm now running a Blackburn 800 for commute and a Nestling 5000lm Cree x2 for forest work. You'll definitely see me coming!!!

[roilev]

Great video, Doddy, and sound advices. My night riding started with my commute in the autumn and winter, through the park paths. Then my flashlight collection got bigger and stronger and I ventured into serious offroading and MTBing in the night. I understand that you are sponsored by Exposure, but my experience with all-in-one flashlights bigger than 400 lumen is negative. Having such a heavy weight on the handlebar affects my bike handling and is a recipe for disaster - it is much easier to break the mount of a heavier flashlight. Same for the helmet light, my neck just can't handle a heavy flashlight on it. Yes, it is more cumbersome to have cables and mounts for the battery too, but it is much neater solution. And since I ride with a backpack during the night (no issues with overheating) it is easy to store the helmet light's battery in the backpack. But the greatest benefit is that I can carry extra batteries. And when time comes, replace just the batteries but keep the LED.
For the handlebar flashlight, I found the GoPro-type of mount the most secure and convenient. I have two - one as a top headset spacer, and another one in the Garmin-GoPro combo in-front mount that bolts at the stem.
My other advice is to avoid flashlights with more than one diode but prefer a more powerful diode instead. It is easier to provide better illumination with a single diode, and it is usually easier on the battery for the same lumens.

[leebridgwater]

Make sure your hat has a centre channel to attach the light too. Quite a few helmets don't have the central channel

[DarwinHorvath]

I'd recommend the Blackburn Dayblazer series