Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Embrace winter on your bike

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The sun may be setting earlier and the air may be getting colder but that doesn’t mean you’re relegated to only riding indoors or on weekends. Winter isn’t a season to be fought tooth and nail; it’s another season just like summer, spring, and autumn, and there’s no reason it can’t be as enjoyable with the right approach.

Bring your own sun

Dealing with the darkness is the easiest of the problems to fix: get some lights! Granted, riding at night isn’t always the smartest or safest thing to do on heavily trafficked roads but you might be surprised by just how much fun it can be on dirt.

Twenty years ago, my work and class schedule meant I did the vast majority of my trail riding in darkness. As did many of my riding buddies at the time, I used a then state-of-the-art single Niterider 15-watt halogen lamp to light the way. The output was laughably feeble by modern standards, the beam pattern sucked, the bulbs would occasionally blow out, and the 90-minute run time prompted me to carry two battery packs.

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In contrast, today’s LED lighting technology has become incredibly advanced with higher outputs, longer run times, lower weights, and better beam patterns than ever before. Sure, many top-end models are obscenely expensive (and insanely bright) but keep in mind that a much more reasonably priced model might suit your needs just fine.

For example, Bontrager’s Ion 700 R costs just £90 / US$120 / €115 but packs 700 lumens into a compact body that weighs less than 150g. Claimed run time is a reasonable 105 minutes on the highest setting, too, giving you plenty of time to play outside and wash away the stresses of the day.

Bundle up

Go fat

Keep it fun

Gear up for your best winter ever

You can read more at BikeRadar.com



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