Dive into the thrill of night riding with Tom and Todd as they share over 65 years of combined motorcycling experience to light up your adventures in the dark. From heated grips that battle the cold to lighting upgrades that ensure visibility and safety, Episode 011 of Best Motorcycle Roads is your guide to navigating the unseen hours with confidence. 🌙🏍️ Watch Now:

➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXvLseCFoWU

Stay Ahead of Every Curve:

Sign up for our BMR Rider Alerts and join the crew that never misses a beat on the latest rides, tips, and motorcycle stories.

[Sign Up Here] ➡️ https://bestmotorcycleroads.com/rideralert/

Featured in This Episode:

- Heated Grips: Your answer to cold night rides.

- Lighting Upgrades: Shine bright for safety and visibility.

Subscribe for Unforgettable Journeys:

Join our community for more episodes filled with tips, tales, and the passion of the open road.

➡️ [Subscribe Now]  @BestMotorcycleRoads 

Engage with Us:

Explore how you can ride alongside us or support Best Motorcycle Roads through our various channels and content. ➡️ [Learn More] https://bestmotorcycleroads.com/podcast/

Connect & Share Your Journey:

Find us on social media and share your night riding experiences or ask your burning motorcycle questions.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bestmotorcycleroads/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/motorcycleroadsandtrips

Question of the Episode:

What's your top tip or must-have gear for motorcycle night riding? Drop your insights in the comments below!

Disclaimer: This video is a journey through the night, powered by our passion and experience. Some product links may be affiliate links, which help support the channel at no extra cost to you.

⏰ Timecodes ⏰

0:00 - Teaser & Introduction

1:12 - The Toolkit: Gear for Night Riding

8:26 - Ride Wise: Safety and Planning Tips

14:04 - Mile Marker: The Iron Butt Challenge

19:03 - Roadside Q&A: Balancing Thrill with Practicality

21:08 - The Last Mile: Reflecting on Sport Touring Bikes and Night Riding

#ridingtips #bestmotorcycleroads #motorcycleadventures #podcast #motorcyclejourneys

About This Episode:

In Episode 011, Tom and Todd navigate the challenges and beauty of motorcycle night riding. From the essential gear to keep you warm and visible to tips on planning for long-distance travel under the moonlight, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Whether you're tackling the Iron Butt challenge or simply enjoying the serenity of the night, we've got you covered.

Essential Tips for Motorcycle Night Riding | Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast - Episode 011 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXvLseCFoWU

Transcript:

(00:40) from essential prep to Unforgettable Roots we've got you covered before we Kickstart today's Journey we ask you to sign up for our BMR Rider alerts it's our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR crew today we'll put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips we call the toolkit today we'll talk about heated grips and lighting upgrades um heated grips and as

(01:41) some aftermarket grips and I think they're almost too big I think they actually eliminate some of the heat so at some point I may try to tweak those but uh no heated grips are just comfortable it's it's a nice to have not a have to have um but I've never had them my car has a heated steering wheel it's like that but yeah for the bike um so yeah and then lighting upgrades we're talking about writing at night and you definitely want if you're going to do significant writing at night you

(02:41) is always a good thing for me um we ride some back roads out here and and there's just Critters and there's things and then other cars come and it's hard to see everybody at night and um so adding those those upgrades LED lights in the front are really good at night and then you couple that on the bonuses during raining times it's a no-brainer for me and there's a lot of great small lights you can add on that add a lot of light for not a lot of price and they're inconspicuous they're not so crazy no

(03:41) just bought back from from Nashville Tennessee I wrote it back four out of the seven hours was in the rain and it was never in my life have I ever experienced this on a motorcycle where people were pulling over because I was running you know in the in the in the fast lane and they would just pull over because they they could see you you know you really were being seen more and anytime that you can be seen more on the motorcycle is better now the particular lights that I have they have covers on them so I was running yellow lights in

(04:39) covers or the lights or something and man there were negative yeah I was a little shocked at that so what what's going on so what's going on is I want to put those Baker air wings on my on my bike for you and I both like to adjust the the wind a little bit where they mount is underneath the mirror which is where my current big big honk and LED lights are mounted right now so I thought you know before I do just kind of go on my own and do what I want to do I'm going to just ask so I went to two different uh forums out there and the

(05:35) it was like when the gold wings kind of revamped in the early 2000s the modular lights for a very short time were something people had on brand new motorcycles meaning they flashed right your your lights flashed I don't love that like I think that's a little much it's too much but uh that's what people say well you want lights that blink and modulate I'm like no I'm just I just just have lights and the ones that I have you can turn them down get intense and and dimmer yeah they went off I was

(06:34) going to mount on the engine so it'll drop them down to what I would call maybe like knee height and I think those will actually be even even better oh yeah I got you better check your state and local laws you got to you can only have lights that are 26 and 12 inches off the ground it's like okay I'm just thinking like I've been pulled over a number of times for a number of things never once did they measure my li height so no and I don't think if I'm riding a motorcycle at night they're going to worry too much so

(07:32) up with that when you hit that light the first time it gives you like a triple blink and then stays on boy is that handy um especially riding at night so yeah my my bike has some of those as well that were add-ons Y and uh it's really nice it does they do flash they're up high they're kind of on the uh passengers like elbow area like on those uh armrests and yeah they I think I'm never behind myself but I know they flash they do a little repetition yeah and then they yeah but it catches your

(08:26) liked uh no I ride a Goldwing and I've had it for 10 years or more but I've always really liked maybe 12 years I've always liked sport touring bikes yeah and so I thought let's let's talk about sport touring bikes and honestly I started looking them up they're not making SP Sport Touring bikes anymore or what they call Sport Touring bikes now are more like an adventure bike what call yeah either Adventure or standard or a standard one of the two yeah and they're not really making one um like

(09:31) that was only the St well the St did that um I I didn't realize they're not making sport touring bikes like that anymore they're really not at BMW sort of we were doing a little research you know BMW has a couple models that I would definitely consider sport T but yeah even the ones that you had pulled up I'm like I don't that's not a sport touring bike no they don't look like what I remember I don't think they have a sport touring bike they have some crazy great breaks but none of them are

(10:24) 7 gallon fuel tank really comfortable um the first bike I think to have the adjustable uh windshield with your thumb um man um really really crazy I think 300 at least 300 miles to a tank if not more great bike and then the KA the Kawasaki concour um those bikes were really kind of the really like aggressive sport touring I mean everyone it was a detuned ninja 14 you know but you know that bike unfortunately never had had it had cruise control I might actually still own that bike today didn't a lot of those foran started to take on get the you know have have uh

(11:34) had a lip the Lamar lip up and those were really really helpful um and man you could just sit down in there and really just not get much yeah much wind or anything so yeah yeah it's too bad those are gone I mean if I had found one cheap uh might just buy one just to have just for storage purposes I just I think I where going put that yeah I don't have room now but I have to get rid of a car but yeah um and just at we're talking writing at night here too and a little a couple other things I thought in the ridewise

(12:43) in your luggage or you're not going to see the thing you're looking for so just another like things you don't necessarily always think of when you're riding at night get used to your controls too because again there's no back lit on the controls so that's one of the weird things for me when I started doing a little bit more night riding especially on some of these gold wings there's a lot of buttons there are and I know that I've hit the like the kill switch Yeah uh by mistake and you

(13:35) like you know I'll just put my thumb not look at the handlebars put my thumb on one of the switches that I think is is what it is and yeah you know and then it's wrong so but yeah cor right the next segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment so today we' want to talk about um the Iron Butt I guess um and the reason why I brought this up is cuz pretty much have to ride at night if you're riding in an iron Association ride and what is that it's a group of people that have set up some

(14:40) you and it's pretty unofficial then you send your receipts in and then they they verify it so so I really wanted to try it and it was April um so the start of the season for the LD riders or the longdistance rider is really in April these people ride everywhere all the time every other year they have the Iron Butt Rally and that is usually where a bunch of riders start riding they'll ride for 11 days they'll do at least a thousand miles a day for 11 days by the time they get all done they'll be

(15:43) really got us I what I would say in trouble was one so the official rides will allow you to have a certain bit more fuel so a lot of the longdistance Riders will add a fuel tank we didn't do that we didn't have an extra fuel tank but we were riding um in at that time the Conqueror would get about 180 m per tank I think it would get a little more but like safely so you'd ride 180 mi get gas what I would have liked to do is really just straddle get gas and keep moving the the gentleman I was with like

(16:44) sleep for 3 hours um I'm not sure I I think it was probably worth it I shouldn't say it's not worth it because it was definitely good to get a little sleep but it was a little bit short yeah and then you come out to the bike and you realize hey good news there's frost on the motorcyc it's April in Ohio right well and it's night so then you know this is more night ring so just again good lights the concur had good lights I had auxiliary lights on it um and you just got to be um you know night riding you have to be

(17:44) outside too besides the wind and that kind of stuff there's always reflective tape on correct good on rain on rain gear and really shows up well at night so um you know if you're not wearing your rain gear it's nice to have a jack at least it has some tape on it or some I'm really glad you said that cuz if you go and look you can buy black tape that's actually reflective so it's black tape but at night it reflects and so if you look at a lot of little Nicks and crannies on your motorcycle that have

(18:39) seen them too is they have the reflective lights on the sides of the rims of the motorcycles and those reflect a lot um so yeah anything you can do to be seen at night is always good and then getting those ditches and and areas up ahead just for people Mo other vehicles and critters um it's a good thing yeah for sure the podcast can be found on best motorcycl roads.

(19:34) bit before I think a kind of knowing the Comfort level and the rider experience you know if you're not riding all the time even though I know Mike doesn't quite Rite quite as much as all of us do he likes a little bit more stops than when we do you know he loves that I don't know if it's because of his fuel or come his backside that he likes the uh the I was thinking it was fuel but disguising so but no I mean I think it's trying to make sure you know I think we've talked about before nothing will

(20:41) miles in two days and we really do have to ride some miles though yeah and some you know what we've talked about this coming in the Midwest and we're riding out you want to eat up some miles at first twoo so yeah you just got to balance it yeah that's a good point exactly now is the last mile it's our way to close the episode with just our reflections of the day and Todd might cry rering this but go ahead and reflect the loss of the sport touring bikes and the thing is I've never owned one but I've always wanted one I mean I

(21:39) interest me in the least um I did have an aftermarket seat oh did you uh I don't care about getting a patch or a medal or an award or anything like that for it's that's not my idea of of fun or an enjoyable that was just the most minimal one I I know cuz I'm thinking more what we should probably do is the 50cc coast to coast in 50 hours yeah no I thought you were talking about 50 cc scooter ride or something well you can do it but you have to pick the right route okay no 50 cc Coast to Coast Coast

(22:45) be prepared with the right gear and the right lights um you know there are less cars on the roads at that time I mean there's more Critters but there's Critters I mean I hit a deer during the day at 2:30 in the afternoon so so really I mean honestly I think it's just fun to ride all the time but when you're writing be prepared when you're prepared you know be prepared before you start writing so for me it's fun and yeah I'm a little sad about the sport terine thing too but then I'll turn the heated