Very comfortable within my limits (see below). No push back from family on safety grounds, though they do occasionally think I’m nuts.
Tips:
Urban environment (commuting in London) I found standard setup of front and rear lights and hi vis kit to be insufficient. Quite a few close calls with drivers not seeing me from the side or from an angle where one of my lights was partially blocked by something. Ended up with a commuter setup which also included spoke lights and a helmet light that flashed white in front and red behind. Looked a bit like a christmas tree but at least nobody could say they didn’t see me
There are roads I’ll avoid at certain times. Certain fast roads late at night drivers just seem to be tired or distracted and not really looking out for bikes
Don’t like riding fast descents or roads where I know there are potholes in the dark. Even with a 1000 lumen light (I have one as well) things come up on you fast in the dark. So if I’m training I stick to fairly flat roads that I know to be in good condition
If it’s wet or cold then I double down on this - hard to spot oil spills or icy patches at the best of times, so if I go out in those conditions (I often don’t!) then I’ll be very particular about the roads I ride
Good call on the Varia, I wouldn’t ride without it at night
I don’t mind commuting in the dark but I sometimes have waited until it was pitch dark rather than twilight and a low setting sun. In the pitch dark I find my lights are more visible. Ive sometimes did fast group rides in the dark too but it tends to be on roads I know well. If its a solo ride its tends to be relaxed and taking everything in.
I’m lucky to have bike lanes most of my commuting miles which are dark from October to March here. Only danger is the dark coated walkers with a dark dog on a dark lead!
I know this is a little off topic but as summer comes, riding through the night is probably my favourite type of riding. If you haven’t tried it, do give it a go!
Id argue youre more visible with lights in the dark than in the day. Ill start at 5a sometimes if I have a little later start at work, and im doin the first hour-ish in the dark. I have 1100lm floodlight on the bars, 800 spot light on my helmet and a blinkie thingie out back
Now MTB on the other hand…night riding is my absolute favorite! I use a L&M Seca 3600 on the bars, same headlight as the road and its damn near daylight! Easily have 2.5-3hrs of battery light on the bars and if I plan on going long, ill bring a 2nd helmet light to swap out when needed.
For at least half the year I’m doing at least part, and often all, of every ride in the dark, since I ride early in the morning, and that’s before sunrise through winter.
No problems with it, but I’m mindful of which roads I’m riding on (just as I am during the day).
Where I live riding in the dark means riding on roads with little-to-no-traffic, which is definitely a big plus. Route choice might be important, though. With good lights, a Vario radar and bright clothes, you should be fine. I probably wouldn’t send it down descents you don’t know very well, but even here, lights work quite well.
I rode a bit in the Dark this summer when I did 2 hour rides in the evening and the last part was in the dark, and 3 years back when I commuted 25k each way, but most of that was riding on bycicle tracks and only few spots on the road. I would say in addition to bright clothes I would prefer clothes with reflectiv elements that will stand out way more then just bright clothing.
Whether riding in the dark or the light (night or day), I would rather be seen on two wheels than be seen in a wheelchair or not seen at all, so I make sure I am visible for the time of day with whatever I need to be visible on me and the bike.
I ride some nights at 10/11pm for 3-4 hours if I am training for a long race to feel that lonely period and uncomfortable period when the brain is telling the body this is not normal. The traffic here can be varied depending upon what night I ride, weekday or weekend night.
We do a weekly Wednesday ride that starts at 1745 through the year, which means starting when it is light, sunset and dark through the seasons as well as cold, warm or wet.
There is also a twice weekly 5am ride which has similar conditions as above through the seasons. Both rides are 90 minutes/around 36km, and both are in urban city type environments.
The difference is the traffic I find is calmer and more attentative in the afternoon/early evening and that the early morning traffic is more distracted. I feel safer to ride at night than the mornings.
In my element riding in the dark, it’s a magical time to be out on the bike. On long distance brevets you’ll often ride through the entire night from sunset to sunrise.
Ive had two scary encounters with drivers amazingly missing a plethora of lights but on the whole I’d agree with you and riding at night is ace and you’re more visible.
Perhaps lights actually saved me in one of them however. I was riding along along a dark country road away from light pollution, when I spotted two head lights on a longer drive way barrelling straight towards the place I’d be in a few seconds. That gave me just enough time to steady my self as the driver pulled straight out. Hopefully they finally noticed my lights and instead of hitting me turned their wheel parallel to me and stopped (or maybe the heard me and my few choice F words). The flashing light was actually very bright but its in sync (or out of ) with the frame rates and the brighter steady light is brighter than it looks on the vid letting me do an ok pace. With the choice F words if you watch the video you maybe want to turn the volume off FV58 AOG SMIDSY - YouTube
In second event I was at the back of a 6man paceline. Everyone had really bright lights and a the stupidly bright Magic Shine 3000 or 4000 lights were used by a few. When a driver also came barrelling out of a side road. The front of the pack slammed on his brakes and being at the rear me and a few others came down. He apologised profusely as the driver disappeared but my response to him was no apology needed, if you hadn’t slammed on the brakes you’d be dead and I probably would have still come down at best or hit the car too :-0
My wife and I had a productive discussion about this that ended with her driving the car around while I rode the bike so she could feel comfortable with how visible I was. I also walked her through the various defensive riding techniques I do, well-explained by other replies in this thread.
Funnily enough I was riding home through the woods with eyes glinting in the trees from the deer that live there when an advert interrupted my podcast.
Advert was for a horror audiobook and started from silence with a wolf howl/growl. I think I set quite a few PBs getting out to the path!
Over active imagination aside, riding in the dark is pretty fun with decent lighting. In the countryside I feel pretty safe since it’s properly dark my flashing lights stand out more.
City riding if I have a helmet lamp and I feel unseen I try to look at nearby road signs/furniture as they’re often reflective so are really noticeable. I hope this then makes people aware I’m here.
in order to fit in an outside ride on weekends without disrupting family plans i’m up at 4:30on saturdays to get out for a 5ish ride. I’ve come to prefer riding at this time just from the lack of overtakes by cars. i can usually get through an hour and a half ride with maybe 5 or so cars passing me from behind (central masschusetts). i used to ride occasionally on friday afternoon after leaving work early but i don’t feel comfortable doing that anymore thanks to the sheer amount of traffic at that time. for me it’s an odds thing. fewer cars means fewer chances for mishaps. and from the smell of it most of the drivers i encounter in the wee hours are on at least their first cigarette so whatever that’s worth. Add to that because there are less cars on the road those that do overtake tend to give more space thanks to less or no oncoming traffic. There will always be assholes to look out for and that doesn’t matter what time of day you ride. One morning ride had a close overtake from a dump truck and that was mid summer when the sun had been up for a while so plenty of light to see me didn’t seem to matter. i have my niterider lumina micro 900 which casts plenty of light ahead of me and the offset blink pattern of my bontrager flare does a good job lighting up my rear.
It’s almost never about visibility, and almost always about whether the driver gives a toss. All you have to do is visit countries where attitudes are more pleasant towards cyclists. You’ll see different better behaviours from drivers in exactly the same situations you might encounter back home (wherever home is)
The final straw for me was when my bike light caught in the eyes of pack of animal lurking in the woods ahead at the same time hearing the most terrifying howling noise. My conscious mind knew that the glowing eyes were only deer and the noise was barn owl, but my subconscious said otherwise, the adrenaline kicked in, and I probably set a new power best in the time it to took to get out of the woods.
Choose a helmet mounted light if you haven’t already. You get the control of where to point the light, use as a supplement to a bar mounted light for best results. When I commuted year round, that was my move - my only concern in full dark was impaired drivers.
) with the frame rates and the brighter steady light is brighter than it looks on the vid letting me do an ok pace. With the choice F words if you watch the video you maybe want to turn the volume off 
