Friend Forgot Their Set of Lights? Form a 'Bike Train' in the Night!

Most of us have been there one time or another: You are out cycling with a friend during daylight hours. You lose track of time and stay out too late. When you finally make your way home it is already growing dark, and one of you doesn't have lights on their bike. Maybe it's you who is caught out, maybe it's your friend - doesn't matter. Whoever it is, now feels dejected, as they are faced with a choice between risking their life cycling home in the dark versus feeling like an idiot and phoning to ask for a rescue. But wait! Because as long as one of you has a set of lights (at least one of which is removable) and is willing to chaperone the other home, there is another solution: you share your lights and form a "night train."

It is a fairly straightforward concept: One person gets the headlight and cycles in the front. The other gets the tail light and cycles at the back. You ride in as tight a procession as possible, never separate  and never change positions. In this manner, you essentially become a tandem bicycle, with one complete set of lights.

I forget when exactly it was that I tried this for the first time, but I remember being impressed with how well it worked. I kept my tail light on my own bike, and gave a speedy friend my powerful headlight, which was bright enough to keep his rear wheel visible enough for me to latch onto. We cycled home as one efficient, illuminated machine, and I got to practice my paceline skills in the dark!

Apparently the night train was once a not uncommon method of sharing lighting, to save both weight and money. One friend tells me stories of him and his father sharing lights in this manner, when they toured together in the 1970s with a set of what he describes with a shudder as "utterly brick like torches." According to another, they used to form "night trains" on club rides on a regular basis, until new rules put a stop to the practice.

Needless to say, sharing lighting is not as safe as each rider having their own set of powerful lights, and would be stressful to maintain over long distances. But in a pinch it does provide a solution. After all, not all of us are prepared for all eventualities 100% of the time. The "night train" is a useful emergency option to keep in one's arsenal.