Night riding

I've just done my first properly-dark night ride and boy is it different!  This might sound obvious, but cycling on country lanes on a cloudy moon-less night is a very different kettle of fish to daylight riding.

I've got fairly good lights, but the toss-up between pointing the front one at the ground to see where I'm going and pointing it horizontally so cars can see me is fairly crucial.  With the compromise I've currently got I get a good view of the road about 4 or 5 metres in front of me, which gives me about 1 second notice of potholes.

I can't really see anything on the road further out than that, which means I really have to concentrate if I don't want to end up in one of the many ruts, holes and general rough patches found around the Cambridgeshire country roads.

The other nagging concern is always "has the car coming up behind me actually seen me yet?".  Even with a highly reflective vest and a good rear light there's always a worry that the driver hasn't seen me and therefore won't give me enough clearance when they go past.  Thankfully there isn't actually that much traffic around in the evenings though.

Anyway, I'm hoping that the streets of London are better lit than the roads around here!