Reverence: Daylight Saving Time
Not too many people espouse the virtues of Daylight Saving Time, much less chose to write about it every bloody year. But Daylight Saving Time is my favorite day of the year, no question. Better than Christmas, Sinterklaas, or my birthday. Combined. The reason is simple: Daylight Saving is the day of the year when it becomes feasible to once again ride after work without headlights.
To be a Cyclist is to be a student of sacrifice; everything is given for the sake of becoming better at our chosen craft. We risk life and limb when we set ourselves upon the streets to take flight amongst the motor traffic like a gazelle amongst the lions. In winter, we often do this with the further risk of darkness, limiting our range of vision and our visibility to drivers who are much more likely to be texting than I care to imagine.
While there are some liberating aspects to riding and training at night, Daylight Saving Time frees us from the grip of darkness and affords us the opportunity train once again in afternoon daylight without requiring excessive amounts of Calendar Tetris in order to sneak out of the office while the sun still hangs above the horizon. From Sunday onward, it is Open Season on training and the path towards summertime fitness opens up before us.
Most crucially, Daylight Saving Time means the days lengthen enough to once again allow the afternoon training rides to become the karmic neutralizer of the daily grind. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
DST is the beginning of the manic summer cycling season, especially for those who live to the north. Even Hell of the North becomes A Pleasant Cruise Through Cobbles.
Typo, though- “we often do with with the further risk of”. with with. with with with?
Well said. I’ve always thought of first-lightless-ride-to-work as the Cycling Solstice. Which isn’t cosmologically accurate, but it makes me smile.
Aaargh! Another couple of weeks to wait the UK….. Can’t wait though, love it, feels like summer is on the way.
… Unless you are trying to ride before work…
Yes!
While everyone is whining about losing an hour of sleep, I’m practically giddy to see sunlight at 7pm. Mid-March through April is my favorite time of the year to ride, partly because the crisp air feels and tastes good, but also because after a winter spent mostly on the wind trainer and battling what is probably low-grade seasonal affective disorder, it feels like I am rediscovering something every time I go out for one of those long early-season rides. DST helps me shake the winter blues.
Still got a few weeks till the change in Europe (including the UK), but already enjoying not needing lights for my commuting. A much happier time of year
Yes! yes! yes! Im so done with winter in the North Woods.
The time change was a welcome surprise this year. In celebration I took a 3 hour ride down unfamiliar roads and still needed my lights to get home. It was magnificent.
@il muro di manayunk
This.
The start of British Summer Time is when our club midweek winter turbo sessions end and we get outside for a few hours after work. It’s only then that we realise once again that the turbo is OK but it is no substitute for a midweek chaingang. Roll on Monday 30 March
First time out in two months due to uninterrupted snow-covered roads and mind-numbing sub-zero temps. How wonderful! Right up until half a km from home when I glanced down and realized I was flatting on my rear wheel. At that instant I ran into a small patch of ice and tumbled (laughing mind you) into the 6 foot high snow bank bordering the road! After dusting off the snow, and not feeling like changing the flat where there was no safe place to do so, I shouldered my whip and walked the short distance home…it was so worth it.
Bollocks that! I ride in the morning and the last thing I need is more darkness when I am riding and more sun when I am trying to get to sleep.
here in nor-cal road squid season is in full effect.
it’s always nice to start see the sun in the morning, and especially in the evening, however there is a downside. For those of us who commute the roads Have been free of fair-weather cyclists (FWC), making the journey safer and faster. As spring arrives, we suddenly find our route blocked by FWCs, ear-buds in place, creaking along on a bike that hasn’t seen any maintenance since being dumped in the back garden last october. They never look behind them before pulling out in front of you, never signal and I even met some who actually get off and WALK in central London – where the maximum gradient you’ll ever find is around 5%!
Why doesn’t the UK Gov’t put the clocks forward earlier? We’ve got nearly another 3 weeks of dark evenings. I never could understand the logic that puts the clocks back 7 weeks before the winter solstice but doesn’t set them forward until 13 weeks after?
Woo hoo, can’t wait, especially now that things are warming up a bit. Didn’t bother with a coat this morning for the first time this year, just my suit jacket.
Think I’ll buy a tandem on the bike to work scheme and start riding down to the station with my son. It’ll be good training riding it home in the evening without him.
I personally love riding to work in the morning in the pre-dawn hours, and it’s also fun riding in nasty weather (sometimes). Still it is still a great feeling to get to enjoy the weather turning to spring and be able to put away the winter bike for a while.
@1860
Too true #9 is showing clear signs of needing a well earned total strip down and rebuild.
@Teocalli
My winter bike is a 20 yr old mountain bike cro-moly frame with conti top winter tires and mudguards… talk to me about wear…. its more resistance trainer than bike, but I still love it.
Can’t wait for long summer evening rides. Plus, i’m starting a new job (a secondment really) where I will have a 1 hr ride there and back, twice a week. So it’ll be nice to do that in the light.
I replaced the whole drive train on my commuter bike a week ago, before I found out about this. I must be psychic.
No need for lights in the morning in Dublin now. Close to dropping them in the PM.
Now we see who trained through the VVinter and who will suck wheels in the early season!
Daylight savings is rubbish. It finally starts to get light in the mornings, then they wind the clocks forward and you’re in the dark again. Plus it’s hotter for longer in the evening.
luckily we’ve (the sane people) have voted it out several times.
stuffs up the cows too.
@Puffy
Yes
@Rom
I’ve never quite understood how the clock change upsets the cows. They spend to much time looking at the village clock or something?
Tuesday Night Worlds…..
@VeloSix
Our annual Wednesday Night Worlds is coming — a local qualifying series.
Holy fack, I need a karmic equalizer this week!
While the light for training rides is awesome, I have to say that I’m even more pumped to avoid having to cyclocommute home in the dark. Not very fun. Even when I can’t leave on time, plenty of light. It’s awesome! Started my new job in October, so things seem a lot better with DST.
Yeehaw!!
DST – originally postulated by Ben Franklin (an otherwise intelligent chap) to save candles. This makes it more archaic than wood hoops and less practical. Recent studies demonstrate that it doesn’t save energy and just generally fucks with people’s live. Good summary on the general fuckery here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/03/time-to-kill-daylight-saving/387175/
Fuck changing the clocks twice a year – fuck it into a dark place where it shall never see the light of day again.
I have an opinion on this.
Yes, the Tuesday Night World Championships commence tonight! As a friend observed, “today is like the first day of school”. And there will be some schooling tonight…
Here’s what I don’t get about the whole bit:
Daylight savings runs from March-November, approximately 8 months. “Standard” time from November-March, approximately 4 months.
How the fuck can the “standard” last for half as long?
There’s your thought to ponder for the day.
My commute has far less traffic in morning than the afternoon, so I’m ok with the dark in the morning.
@DeKerr
Changing the clocks? That’s your beef? Been guzzling the Anti-V, have we? All but my oven clock are connected to the interwebs and set themselves.
That said, I upgraded my router this weekend and had to reconnect all my devices to the network with my strong password. That blew the big one because many are Apple TV’s and I have to enter the password via a remote.
I had understood it was actually devised to keep people at the retail stores for longer and help boost the economy.
Apparently so!
@KW
I think there is a statistic for London along the lines of 3 Million people commute into London every morning and 2.8 Million commute out in the evening. Sweeny Todd is alive and well…………
@Teocalli
Ha! Love it. Lies, damn lies, and statistics… I do like the number crunching that goes along with it though.
@frank
Alas, there is nothing the interwebs can do for my circadian rhythm (and I feel your pain with the Apple remote). Also, trying to get a 6 year old out the door for her regular routine an hour earlier than her internal clock is expecting makes holding the uphill wheel of the 130lb (60kg) guy I sometimes ride with seem… less challenging.
There’s no better way (that I’ve found) to test an assertion than to try to explain it to a 5-6 year old and see if they grasp the concept or rationale behind it. DST does not hold up.
Riding your bike fast however… she’s totally grasped that concept.
@Margarito Roten
…one of us is not as dumb as all of us…
@Nate
A-Merckx, I f’ing hate DST as life has handed me the need to ride early in the day. Luckily, there are less drunks and crazies on the road at that time (Sunday mornings notwithstanding).
Spell check – Daylight Saving Time, not Savings Time. Had my first commute this morning in about 6 weeks due to the fucking sub zero temps. T’was dark, it t’was, but that 36F felt pretty damn good. And I could tell it’s been 6 weeks. Turbo time just ain’t the same. The V feels so good.
How’s the training going Frank? Guns of Navarone rippling? The Welli-minati have had a summer season of long rides and are now engaging in after work intensity sessions up and down burg sized hills. Should be a force to be reckoned with.. There has to be a bonus from living on the upside down side of the world – not to mention crisp tan lines
@Rigid
Yeah, my training has been perfect assuming my goal is to spend a lot of time at the back of the bunch.
Thank god!
I have had major seasonal affective disorder this winter. it has been unbearable. Still rode through as much cold and crappy weather as I could. By the end of last season early fall I was so sick of the mountain bike so I have been riding the road bike exclusively. My MTB still sits in pieces from last season. The winter funk needs to be broken, dam it too hell, bring on the lingering light of the DST sun!
We should just stay on Daylight Savings Time year round… period.
@PeakInTwoYears
We had such a great winter though – although on the OP you might have had more rain/clouds. Over here on the proper side of the sound its been amazeballs. I normally need the skiing to get me through the SAD; this year there has been no sign.
@frank
No, quite true about this winter. I was only speaking generally. This year has been inconSEEVable.
Herself and I rode Hurricane Ridge on Sunday. Finished the climb in the equivalent of summer kit, jersey bulging monstrously with warmers, etc., etc. (all of which was nice for the descent).
@The Pressure
Funny – on the morning to commute on Monday – now again in darkness due to DST – I came across a bit of road where I assume a wife threw her husband out for presumably being a giant twat and dumped all his shit on the curb.
That’s all fine, but the consequence was the black metal hard-drive that was laying in the bike lane which I hit squarely at about 40kmph. It had gone unnoticed between the headlight cone and my distraction at the mess.
Both tires flatted instantly, ruined. Walk the 5km home? Not a chance, I rode home on the flat tires. This is why I love tubulars. I mean, it wasn’t a smooth ride, and it was a little sketchy on the dodgy bits of pavement, but it worked out just fine, the $300 in tires notwithstanding.
@PeakInTwoYears
I’m glad that’s why the jersey was bulging monstrously.
@Rom
In Seattle, its a fleeting inconvenience – Sun will be up at 5am by May and won’t set until about 11 in July.
As for falling asleep, that’s why Merckx gave us curtains and alcohol.
@Teocalli
If anything, you’d think it would aide in their meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order.
@camo
WTF?
@1860
This is what I love about Seattle. This is my “winter bike”
@Ron
There is some mental wear and tear that comes with arriving at work in the dark and leaving in the dark. By bike. In wet clothes. It also makes you feel like a truly committed disciple. But the sunlight – at least on the ride home – is a welcome companion.
@DeKerr
Did you find that, or did you read it from a quote by Einstein?
@John
Never knew that. Thanks.