Surly Bikes
Do you ever wish you had more time in the day to go for a bike ride? I am not talking about commuting. I am talking about thrashing like Cru Jones in Rad on his paper route but with big boy tires, or even taking your bike out for a nice ride with no destination and no hurry. With a busy job and home life, you have to make the most of your time. For most people, riding during the day is ideal but riding at night is almost more fun. Not only do you feel like you are riding at warp speed, you’re also experiencing something in your sleep. Darkness… if you don’t use lights, your eyes will adjust to the point where you see silhouettes of everywhere you need to go or should not go. If you are a tweaker like me, those silhouettes can trip you out. No worries. If you take your time and trust your instincts you will have no problems. Depends on how technical the terrain is I guess. When you go back and ride the same spot in daylight, you will be able to ride it with your eyes closed. If you have friends they will be amazed. I don’t have many friends and I amaze myself. That counts.
Where I live, I have a nice variety of nighttime riding scenarios. I often ride them all in one night. My bike of choice is the Krampus. I can go for a night ride that starts at my house, winds through neighborhood streets, through the dark park, past the old barn, through the moonlit cornfield, down the gravel road, past the lit gas station, under the overpass, just past the ski hill, onto the dark, creepy single track. I’m telling you. This is a super fun way to ride. There are no rules. Your bike will go wherever you want it to go. I do sometimes take a blinking light that keeps me from getting hit by cars from behind on the busier streets, or if I want to take cool pictures of orbs. Once I hit the dirt I turn them off. This full moon picture was taken in a plowed field south of somewhere on my Krampus. I set the camera on a rock, opened up the shutter speed, set the timer, then rode around in circles. If you don’t ride a lot at night, especially off-road, I highly recommend it.
Be safe if you want too and have fun.
About Wood
Andy Wood is a nifty height, five feet twenty inches. In his spare time, he farms and harvests fat beats on his high tech home computer. He hails originally from Durango, Colorado, where he rode mountain bikes and skied cross country, both of which he still does. He is Surly’s art director, and as such is responsible for balancing Surly’s more pragmatic pursuits, like the use of charts, with pathologically creepy and weird shit, like abandoned dolls. He is one of the three Andys who work here and is a founding member of Andyland.