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Tips for Night Riding and Choosing the Best Lights
The days may be getting cooler and shorter, but that should’t be an excuse to stop riding over the winter months. Riding at night is a great way to get out on a winter's night and keep training and fitness levels up through the winter. It can also totally change a riders perspective on a trail that they may know really well in the daytime.
Two trails that are great for both winter riding and night riding are the Redwoods trails in Waikari and the Big Easy at Signal Hill. These tracks hold up the best in muddy, wet winter conditions and they drain relatively well so are not as slippery. They are also fun and relatively cruisy for a wide range of abilities. Even if you are an advanced rider, riding these tracks at night is still exciting as the darkness adds a completely new and fun dimension to it!
Of course riding at night means you do need to take into account some extra safety precautions. Tracks can feel really different in the dark and nightlights can reflect off features such as rocks and roots differently, making it hard to get a true sense of their location and size.
If you are new to night riding, it’s important to slow down and get used to the feeling of riding through the dark. You cannot see as far ahead as you can in the daylight and this can affect your perception and spacial awareness. Even if you are an experienced rider, tracks that you know well during the day can feel very different at night time!
It’s essential to be prepared when heading out for a night ride and lights are an absolute must, as well as your usual safety gear like a helmet, good gloves and knee pads. Reflective clothing is also a good idea, especially if you are riding on roads to and from the trails. Reflective clothing or accessories make you much more visible to other road users.
It’s also a good idea to bring extra layers of clothing, as temperatures drop in the evening time. If you are stopping for a break before your descent you can cool down quickly and its hard to warm back up. Carrying a spare light or battery pack, first aid kit, spare inner tube, and pump etc is always good practice too - just in case!
When it comes to kitting yourself out with lights, we recommend a helmet mounted light. This gives you maximum vision and allows you to see around corners better than just solely a bar mounted one. The ideal light set up is to run a handle bar mounted light and a helmet mounted light, but this can be quite a hit on the budget, so if you are just running one always go helmet mounted first!
When it comes to choosing a light, lumens (or brightness) is the most important factor. Specific night riding lights are much brighter, with lumens ranging from around 800-2,500. The higher the lumens, the brighter and more powerful the lights will be. Some brands of night lights will also have a 2-cell or 4-cell battery option, with 4-cell having a longer lasting battery charge allowing you to go on longer rides.
Night lights range in price from around $125 up to $700, so there is something to fit with every budget. At Bike Otago we range a few different brands and one of our favourites is Zero. This is a brand we have been working with for years, and they have two main options: A 900 lumen light for $125 or a 1,800 lumen light for $169. Both of these options come with handle bar and helmet mounts and a wall plug-in charger.
We also stock Gemini which is is our more premium brand with prices starting at $249. They offer a few models at various lumens and battery cell options. A popular model that we range is the Gemini "Duo" model which offers dual LED's of 1,500 lumens and is an exceptionally lightweight night light at 68 grams. It also comes with a handlebar mount, head strap mount, helmet mount and wireless control unit (mounted to the handlebars).There is a 2-cell and 4-cell battery option, and we have the 4-cell option in store. The total cost is for this is $375.
If you need help setting up your bike for night riding, then come into Bike Otago and have a chat to our staff. They will be able to find the lighting system that’s best for you and meets your budget.
Ladies Who Love to Ride - The Signal Hill Sessions
Our very popular Ladies Who Love to Ride Group is a group of women who meet up on a Tuesday evening at 6.30pm to ride the trails around Dunedin. While there is an emphasis on beginners, these rides are perfect for any level of riding experience. Not only is it a great way to experience some of the trails Dunedin has to offer, it’s also a great way to make new friends and meet other like-minded women!
From now until Christmas, we will be holding our Ladies Riding Group at Signal Hill. These Signal Hill Sessions are designed to help our beginners gain confidence in riding down the Big Easy. By experiencing the track over a few weeks, beginners will learn the skills and confidence necessary to move on to other more trickier tracks around Dunedin. Of course, our more experienced riders are still welcome to these sessions, and will be able to venture out to try some different trails like the Mrs. if they wish.
It’s always best to be prepared when riding, so we suggest you bring the following items along to our Ladies Rides each week:
- Water
- Light snacks (eg. bliss balls) to eat beforehand or during the ride
- A wind/waterproof jacket (great for when we are coming down the hills or for any pesky rain!)
- A first aid kit
- A sense of adventure and a positive attitude!
We also recommend you check out these fantastic 101 MTB Skills videos from Liv. Each video is based around a different topic such as cornering or starting again on a steep hill. They are great learning for beginners and also a handy refresher for more experienced riders.
For our last ride of the year, we will be having a special Christmas ride evening where we ride up Signal Hill, then on to Emersons via the Cycleway for some festive fun. This ride will be held on Tuesday the 19th of December, and we will meet at 6.30pm.
If you have any questions about our Ladies Who Love to Ride Group or need assistance with equipment or bikes, then please get in touch with us here at Bike Otago. We are always happy to help!
NORCO Bicycles have arrived
Why NORCO? Its simple... top quality, great pricing and an excellent range. The brand, from BC Canada, has a long and awesome history, being known around the world for producing some of the best mountain bikes. They also have always sponsored many of the top riders. Currently NZ's top DH rider, Sam 'Blinky' Blenkensop is on their factory DH team.
A key reason we are offering these bikes is that we believe they are better bikes and better value then the other brands on offer. If you do the comparisons, our standard pricing will usually beat the discounted pricing of other brands when you compare quality and spec. Top that off with the awesome service we can provide and we hope the decision on your next bike will be an easy one.
Here is an overview of the range we are stocking. We can also get other models depending on availability. We will have a demobike Fluid 7.2 available in Medium very soon too!
NORCO STORM 7.1 - Our Price $999
If you are after a simple hardtail, the important things to consider is finding a nice light frame, good geometry, a decent fork and quality components. This bike ticks all the boxes.
NORCO FLUID 7.2 - Our price $2800
The fluid range has 120mm travel front and rear. These are bikes designed for general trails such as Nicols, Redwoods and the easier tracks on Signal Hill. This bike has an air fork, and all round good components. Its what we would consider a solid entry level bike to get you out riding and enjoying the trails.
NORCO FLUID 7.1 - Our price $3300
The same chasis as above, but with higher spec components. This bike features Fox front and rear suspension and has slightly better gears, brakes etc. We are going to be building one of these up as a demo really soon incase you want to try one out.
NORCO SIGHT 7.2 - Our price $3700
The NORCO Sight frames have 140mm rear travel and 150 front travel, making these an ideal entry level enduro / all mountain rigs. The 7.2 has a good level Sektor fork and a KS lev dropper, which we really rate. The Monarch rear shock is really good too. This bike would be more then capable to compete in the Urge 3 Peaks Enduro, or any other enduro's around the area. Be warned, we might try and convince you to switch out the front setup for a single ring !
NORCO SIGHT 7.1 - Our price $4500
Using the same chasis as above, the 7.1 gets an upgrade to a Rockshox Reverb post, Pike fork and SRAM GXP 1x11 (dedicated single setup) drive chain. This bike really is a good race ready enduro bike. There's bugger all we would recommend changing and we are a fussy bunch!
There are many more models in the NORCO range, including the bigger travel Range bikes and also all the carbon models. We might be getting some of these in later, but for now if you are interested in anything else, please just call us (03 4777396) and we can see what's available and what the price would be like.
Moustache Samedi 27/9 FS Ti
In addition to long weekend rides, a talking point around the shop this week has been the Moustache Samedi 27/9 FS Ti.
Moustache bikes are some of the nicest electric bikes we've seen and worked on and their take on a mountain bike is no exception! From the hydroforming and frame construction to the proven Bosch electrics, the quality of these is second to none!
A quick ride around the block and the most obvious differences to other electric bikes would have to be the handing of the bike and the power and responsiveness of the electrics. With the additional weight of the motor and battery being centrally mounted, the handling is very neutral - not too dissimilar to your standard trail bike. However, with pedal assist on turbo mode (naturally!) within 1/8th of a pedal stroke, the motor kicks in and the bike comes alive! The Bosch Centre Drive system also allows the rider to make full use of the bikes gearing leaving hills no chance!
Whether these will be a game-changer or not, remains to be seen. Sure, they'll never replace the traditional bikes we know and love but expect to see more and more of these on the trails in the coming years.
This particular bike has been sold to a customer but if you're at all interested in an electric mountain bike feel free to come in for a chat and we can talk you through the options available.
Happy riding!
His & Hers Yeti ASRc's
Among this weeks custom bike builds, a noticeable stand-out would have to be this pair of Yeti ASRc's! Both rocking far from standard builds, these things look amazing!
His: A large size turq frame with Rock Shox Reba fork, SRAM X01 drivetrain, XT brakes and Thomson cockpit.
Hand built by Jeremy - a drool-worthy wheelset consisting of ENVE 50/50 rims laced to the reliable Hope Pro 2 Evo's
Hers: A small ASRc Beti frame with matching Fox 32 fork. The Beti's are generally sold as a complete bike but our customer wanted to change a few things. Not a problem, we said! A Shimano XT 2x11 drivetrain, XT brakes and Thomson cockpit all rolling on a set of the beautifully light Stans Valor carbon wheels.
All built up - an absolute demon of a bike!
These two look so good together!
This weeks bike builds
We've had a few very nice bike builds on the go this week!
Early in the week our new mechanic Jeremy got stuck into building up our Niner WFO frame. Kitted out with a solid build including a Rockshox Pike RCT3 160mm up front, Stans Flow EX wheelset, topped off with the ever so popular XT M8000 1 x 11 drivetrain and brakes. If you're a fan of 29" wheels and need a long legged trail bike, then the WFO definitely fits the bill! This is now on display in the shop so come on down and take a look!
Next up was a Yeti ASRc! Built also as a display bike, this one sports a tasteful build of Sram X01 drivetrain with Shimano XT Brakes, Fox suspension, rolling on Stans ZTR Valor Carbon Wheels. An absolute weapon for rough XC races or as a lightweight trail bike.
One of the most anticipated builds this year would have to have been Calum Booth's Santa Cruz V10. The V10 frame itself is an absolute thing of beauty and was even shipped with Fox's latest generation X2 rear shock! Joel had the pleasure of putting this one together, which made the rest of us quite jealous!
Calum decided to go for SRAMs X01 DH 7 Speed Groupset, which meant a little time waiting but it was well worth it! With a Rockshox Boxxer World Cup up front, SRAM Guide RSC Brakes, and the solid and reliable Stans Flow EX rims on Hope Pro2 Evo Hubs, this thing is an absolute weapon! We wish Calum all the best for the coming season!
To round off the week, we've got and Ibis Mojo HD3 being built right now! A gorgeous frame sporting Fox's new X2 air shock. We'll have more details of this build up in the next few days.
Happy Riding!
Bike Otago Garage Sale
With the new workshop set-up and running at full pace we need to clear out some old stock to make some space before summer hits!
Come and check out the new workshop, meet the team, talk bikes and grab yourself some bargins.
10 - 80% off everything instore
If you're short a few parts for that winter project or just like ogling at bike parts, chances are we've got what you NEED.
Urge 3 Peaks Enduro set for 28-29 November
We have set the date and the course plans are beginning to take shape. For now, mark 28-29th November on the calendar and if you live up North or over the ditch, maybe think about booking flights now! Its going to be awesome again, that we can promise :)
New Leatt neck braces in stock now
If you ride downhill and you don't use a neck brace, we think you're nuts. If you're on the fence about it, watch this video (1:55).
The Yeti SB5-C is here
Two beautiful Yeti SB5-C builds, one with Race XO1 build ,the other with Pro X01 R60 build kit. The turq one is Kashi's and it will double up as our demo bike...
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