2012 FATBMX LOOKBACK: Riding in the dark. Heusden night trails jam. By BdJ

Dec 30, 2012

Written by Bart de Jong

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FATBMX 2012 REVIEW: DIRT NIGHT SESSION HEUSDEN. It gets dark early in the fall/winter over in the Netherlands. At 5pm it's too dark to see a thing. If you work till 17:00hrs that means you're stuck or you must have an indoor place near you where you can ride after work. Trail riders usually aren't that lucky because let's be honest, there aren't many dirt spots that have enough lights to ride at night. It was time for an experiment. How many lights would you need to make a dirt spot bright enough so you can ride?

Dimitris Araouzos took on the challenge and rented an generator for his trails in Heusden. He bought some lights and called all his friends to bring the big beamers. We showed up a little early to get at least some attempts in to make it through the pack at daylight. When it got nearly dark the lights were tested. It was obvious that more lights were needed. The run up was still pitch dark and if you weren't a local, you had a serious problem. But the trails in Heusden looked like they had received a Christmas decoration.

The curved wallride was well bright with the 1000Watts lamp pointed on it. But getting there was another thing.

The Helm Trails locals showed up, Sem and the boys from America, the Sugar Hills locals and a few curious people who were walking their dogs peeked in to see what was going on.

It rained quite a bit but the black sand can handle the rain. The TwinAir EZ-Up handled the rain and the fire took care of the cold. Fam. Henraat brought the BBQ and a few boxes of "Helmondse biefstukskes" and Dimitris had provided waters and Schultenbrau. The session was on as the little pump track was ridden all night by the Helm Trails locals. Sem and Dimitris were the only ones who pulled a "full pull" in the dark but Dennis Keunen, Max Cleuren, Dani and Tom van den Boogaard got stuck on the first line. Granted, it was dark, which made things dangerous if you didn't know where to go exactly.

The conclusion would be that you need A LOT of lights to make a dirt spot bright enough to ride it in the pitch dark.

Another conclusion is that you can have a good time anyways hanging out at the trails. It's the first time we've done this and it won't be the last. At least we now know what's needed if we want to do it again. Big props to Dimitris for setting it up. Call him up for a dirt session in Heusden, but make sure you go during the day.

BdJ