Cycling at Night: Skills, Tips, and Recommended Headlights for Night Riding

Written by:

Jim Rutberg

CTS Pro Endurance Coach

Updated On

October 27, 2025

With Daylight Savings Time ending this weekend, we’ll be rolling the clocks back an hour and ushering in the months of earlier sunsets. Commuters will spend more time riding home in the dark. For mountain bikers and gravel and road riders, it’s a great opportunity to clip on some lights and enjoy cycling at night! Whether you’re riding in the woods, on a quiet gravel road, or down the bike path, here are some tips for having a great time cycling at night.

Invest in two headlights and one tail light

Gone are the days of weak 200 lumen (amount of light emitted) lights, massive batteries, and short run times. These days I use a 1200-lumen USB-rechargeable light that only weighs a few ounces, and you can go into the woods with lights that pump out more than 2000 lumens!

I recommend a handlebar light and a helmet light for cycling at night. The handlebar light gives you a steady beam in front of you. The helmet light points wherever you look, which can be very helpful for spotting turns, reading signs, or making sure a person or car sees you. If you need to choose one over the other I recommend the helmet light. And a red blinker on the back is a good idea day or night on any bike.

Scroll down for product recommendations from CTS Coaches.

Dress for falling temperatures

It might be reasonably warm when you leave your house, but the temperature will drop the entire time you’re cycling at night. Carry a layer to put on, or start with zippers somewhat open. If you’re too warm early and soak all your layers in sweat, you may get very cold later. Here are more resources for cold-weather cycling.

Manage your batteries

Most lights have various light levels, and the brighter the setting the shorter the run time. You don’t need your highest light level to ride slowly uphill, so notch it down to a lower level. Use the high beams for fast and technical areas. Also plan your rides to be at least 25% shorter than the expected run time of your batteries. If you have two hours of battery life, plan a 90-minute ride so you have some insurance against a flat tire, mechanical, getting lost, or some other delay.

Tell someone where you’re going

Better still, tell someone where you’re going and ride with a buddy or group. Even with great lights and plenty of practice, the risks and consequences of crashing at night are higher. You don’t want to spend a cold night on the ground out there by yourself.

Blink!

Sounds stupid, right? But really, in the dark it takes more focus to figure out the terrain in front of you and some people seem to get sucked into their own light beam. You don’t have much context from peripheral vision, and the world outside of your personal light beam seems to disappear. It’s easy to get tunnel vision. Brighter lights sometimes make this worse because the contrast between the bright beam and surrounding darkness is so stark. Super bright lights can also sometimes wash out terrain features, ironically making it more difficult to judge if something is a rock or a dip.

Headlights create a cone of light in front of you, and the cone is brightest in the middle. If you’re starting to get tunnel vision, stop staring right into the middle of your light beam or point it further out in front of you to get more dispersion. Look around the edges and get more context of the world around you.

Ride moderate terrain when cycling at night

When you’re a beginner at cycling at night, ride on easier terrain. Your local trails will look very different at night, with shadows and blind spots and rocks you never noticed before. Whether you’re riding a gravel bike on a path or a mountain bike in the woods, try to go with the flow. Be loose on the bike so you can respond to unexpected bumps or slips with some body English. Be careful about outrunning your lights, or going so fast you can’t react to what’s in front of you by the time you see it.

Stop and listen

The quiet is one of the most enjoyable aspects of cycling at night. Don’t be in such a hurry that you miss the chance to stand still for a while and just listen to the quiet. We spend so much time surrounded by so much noise that silence is refreshing and restorative.

Remember there’s a huge flashlight on your head!

Seriously, it’s painfully bright to anyone you’re looking at.

However, that flashlight on your head can be useful for getting a driver’s attention if you are cycling at night on roads or crossing roads during your night ride. Although blinding drivers is not advisable, people are pretty good at noticing when you spotlight their car. People also notice lights that move, particularly when they move like people or animals. Scanning, sweeping, and spotlighting with your headlamp can help you get home safe.

Eat light when you get home

When you get home from cycling at night, don’t gorge on a huge meal. Eat something smaller, with a balance of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Some athletes struggle to sleep soon after a big meal. Some people try to eat minimally after an evening workout (indoors or outdoors) or fast entirely. That’s probably not the best choice if you plan on riding the following day. If you are trying to execute a moderate ride with low carbohydrate availability in the morning, you could eat a light meal that’s weighted more to protein and high water content and high fiber content vegetables (broccoli, peppers, salad) instead of grain or starch sources of carbohydrate (pasta, rice, potatoes).

What Our Coaches Use: Headlight Product Recommendations

CTS has no partnership or financial relationships with any of the products mentioned below. The links included are not affiliate links, meaning we don’t make a dime if you visit their websites or purchase their products. We simply asked our professional coaches what products they use themselves and why.

Josh Whitmore (CTS Coach & Owner of MTB Skills Factory)
Product: Lupine Lights, Blika and Pico
Bar/Helmet/Both: Both on MTB

Why I recommend it: Highest quality weatherproof modular system out there with different size batteries available depending on how much run time you need.

Additional Tips for Cycling at Night: On the mountain bike, it’s amazing to have a light on both the handlebar and on the helmet. Put your brighter light on the handlebar. This allows you to have more of a flood light effect from the handlebar and more of a spotlight effect from the helmet that is more easily pointed. The difference in shadows cast by both lights offers more contrast in shapes that you are looking at on the trail and therefor better brain recognition of what you are actually riding over.

Reid Beloni
Product: Outbound Lighting Trail Evo
Bar/Helmet/Both: Bar for road/gravel. Both on MTB.

Why I recommend it: Outbound makes a great light package. I like the self contained battery and light. The battery life is great, and adjustable between a flash modes for car visibility all the way up to 2200 lumens for proper night rides. Their mount is proprietary so get a couple mounts to make it easier swapping between bikes.

Additional Tips for Cycling at Night: Most of my night rides are rides that carry into the night. On the road the low sun at dawn and dusk is way more dangerous than once it’s actually dark. Be careful of which direction you are riding during those times. Ideally, have the sun on your back, so cars behind you can see you and you can see oncoming cars. Just beware that oncoming and turning traffic may be blinded by the sun.

Clayton Feldman
Product: Nite Rider Pro 4200, Pro 2200, and Lumina Pro 1400. Rear Omega 330
Bar/Helmet/Both: Both on MTB, bar only on Road and Gravel

Why I recommend it: I wanted the highest Lumens I could get. Now I could probably get away with less, but the fact that it is there is a comfort.

Additional Tips for Cycling at Night: When I heard about people doing night MTB rides I thought they were crazy, and given that specific group, they might have been. However, there are plenty of sane athletes who need more outdoor riding time. There is a calm focus to riding at night that is very special. Flying down a trail or gravel road with only your headlights is the closest I can get to what it felt like to ride a bike as a kid. If you are on the fence about it, get the lights and give it a try. While you might not ride every night, the cool evenings in the fall are the best for going and enjoying more time in the saddle.

Kevin Todd
Product: Outbound Lighting Trail Evo and Portal combo
Bar/Helmet/Both: Both: Trail Evo on bar and Portal on Helmet

Why I recommend it: A combined 3000 lumens should say it all! This setup is particularly effective for navigating technical terrain while cycling at night, as the helmet light allows for better sighting of obstacles in your direct line of sight, while the handlebar light provides a broad, consistent beam. The lights offer multiple brightness settings, which I find very useful for conserving battery life and adapting to different conditions. There’s also an adaptive mode that starts at the brightest setting and gradually dims as your eyes adjust to the darkness. This feature is perfect for your typical 2 to 2.5-hour rides, as it optimizes visibility throughout the entire duration.

Additional Tips for Cycling at Night: My biggest piece of advice for night riding is to always ensure your lights have a full charge before heading out. I’ve been on far too many group rides where someone’s battery ran out mid-ride. It doesn’t matter how good your lights are if they won’t turn on!

Adam Pulford
Product: Lupine Lights: SL AX (bar) & Blika (helmet)
Bar/Helmet/Both: Both
Why I recommend it: Big lumens, robust mounts, handlebar dimming ability. All the light you could want on the MTB with bar and helmet set up. Blika versatile for other headlamp needs like climbing, hiking, camping, etc. Well built stuff, lasts forever.