Got motivated and put in a three hour ride this evening, half of it in the dark. I’ve never owned or used a proper “cycling” light, and felt a bit out on the limb dropping $350 based on company rep, my research, and Adam’s rec.

At this point I think things between me and my latest toy will turn out very nicely.

I’m running it solo as a helmet light. I liked how zipties felt better than the provided velcro straps. That’s some Rim Ride mud.

For my inaugural (purposive) night ride, I chose 305 and beyond. Prudent I thought because it’s easy to bail to the pavement if something mechanical goes awry. Not so prudent from the learning curve standpoint; 305 is the best single trail in Prescott because it is constantly twisting and rolling. The longest linear bit is I think the last (and longest) climb. Going down it also entails more net descending than climbing, ergo plenty of speed. It was a good test.

Before that, I had to aimlessly involve my plan for beyond 305, and after deciding that Smith ravine didn’t sound any fun, I elected to explore east, up FS road 30. Eventually I want to put together a route between Walker Rd and 169, for PMC purposes. The stretch of road I saw this evening is a third of that, and a good bit of diversity it’ll add, in the form of a 4×4 road strewn with babyheads for a mile or so. Once you top out that rock layer, at around 6400′, the riding is quite pleasent, and as I strapped on the light and turned around, I could see the lights of Mayer of in the valley.

Aforementioned rocky descent, being perhaps my second least favorite terrain to ride, was not the wisest choice to break myself in to the new light. It seemed like I couldn’t pay attention to my front wheel and 10′ ahead at the same time, and was constantly running into things. In truth, I was descending only marginally slower than would be typical, if substantially less smoothly. Whether that’s due to being tense, the light, or simple unfamiliarity is probably best answered “yes.” I did make it back to 305 in good order, stopping several times to readjust the angle.

The readjusting continued on the trail, it took a while to hit the sweet spot that would let me look forward as well as down without feeling awkward. Once I did, I was able to start to unwind and get used to the light, and enjoy very familiar terrain.

By the last segments of trail, the only reason I had not forgotten the light was me dwelling on how cool it was to be punching it on the short climbs and tight turns on a starry night with a bright moon. To confirm my good feelings, after I jumped off a bit before the end to cool down spinning pavement, the first car (and only) dimmed it’s lights while I was still around a corner. Bright.

Other thoughts:
-Princeton Tec (and other companies from my knowledge) need to design a mounting system and would be interchangeable and adjustable like the current one, but sit closer to the helmet. The light itself is light for what it is, but putting it two inches above the helmet on a lever makes it feel a bit heavier. I did notice that, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. The height also makes it more likely to snag trees.
-The helmet mount is obligatory, no way a bar mount would’ve cut it this evening.
-The locking cord connections are great, it made it easy to keep the battery in the pack, yet remove my helmet, detach the cord, and put everything away.
-The weird cycling (looooongshortshortshort) flash mode seems unusable unless one wants to become a self-induced epileptic.
-Bright is bright, medium seems like an unacceptable drop off for the small gain in burn time, low is good for reading maps and making a sandwich.
-I’m going to put my Corona commuter LED back on the bars, and see if the two sources fill in my depth perception better. I could dodge rocks, it was the swells and potholes in the road that seemed invisible.
-I need clear lensed prescription glasses. Oakley has discontinued my fav Wiretap frames, so time to snap up another set, now.

I’ll be putting in LOTS more night riding, I’m glad I got the light when I did.

Besides playing in the dark, the day was a success in the relaxing and acting like a normal human on the weekend department. Drank coffee and watched This Week, fetched M from the party (something for which I do not have endurance), bought her breakfast (our local hang has wonderful buckwheat waffles, and when you get them with banana and mango you get a whole ripe banana and a whole sliced mango), then went for a Sunday drive to see the sights and appraise the areas real estate. We investigated Deering Ranch Estates, the weird subdivision-in-the-forest in which I got lost yesterday. For the last three years I’ve been trying to convince M that A-frame houses can be wonderful and not ugly, and I found one yesterday (for sale) that proves this to be true. Nice wood and two story windows facing south. A mere 430k. Otherwise, M took a nap to catch up on sleep stolen by alcohol, we watched The Usual Suspects (M had never seen, and predicted the identity of Kaiser Shouze waaay too early, I’m not good at that sort of thing, and basically don’t do it), and I sat around and read a book. Productive in the unproductive sense. I even did some dishes a while ago.

Back into the week.