ladyraestewart

This morning driving through a heavily treed wooded area, I could have easily been the person who hit a cyclist from behind. I drive the speed limit and actually do watch for cyclists, this being a road I frequently ride myself. I saw the man in time to move over (two lanes in each direction and he was in the far right close to the curb) and there was not even a near miss or a moment of panic other than it was almost as if he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I should have seen him further back but didn't due to his clothing

As it turned out, the young man was wearing clothing that actually did blend in with the landscape. His bike was also a forest kind of green. I never would have believed how easily a person on a bike can actually blend into the background.

This definitely resolved my own question about what I wear when cycling. I sew and have been pondering make my own cycling gear or buying. I'm going to sew and make my gear in bright colors such as neon pink and very vibrant neon prints.

ItsJustMe

Lights in the daytime are good too. I run rear lights whenever the wheels are turning (bright enough to see in the daytime).

If I'm rolling through an area where there is significant chance of pullouts or left crosses, I also run my headlight on flash. Since being almost hit by a friend a few days ago at an intersection where there was hundreds of feet of visibility, I had a bright (500 lumen) headlight on and there was no distraction from lights or other vehicles, and he said "Man, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." I turn on a rapid strobe unless I'm on long rural stretches with no entrances.

A few days ago, a few days after starting this practice, I had a car driver in the oncoming lane pull into the left turn lane and start strobing her headlights at me, I'm sure she wanted me to turn off my lights, but I just waved. I achieved exactly what I wanted; she saw me. After last week's incident, I believe that there is no such thing as too visible, at least up until the point where you are setting shrubs on fire as your headlights pass over them.

Fasteryoufool

They're also useful at the Airport. Told my wife when she picked me up last that I'd be in yellow, and wore my Sugino cycling windbreaker. She spotted me right away.

Northwestrider

I like a light or two, even during the daylight hours in addition to brighter clothing.

badbradclark

This reminds me of a discussion recently about jersey design for a local bike event. There were some self-described "professional designers" who did not like the bright colors and busyness of the designs.

LesterOfPuppets

I love safety green shirts! They really work great in wooded areas.

johnny99

Bright colors do help. Blinker lights help even more.

Camilo

I like to make my own stuff too, but optic colors in cycling jackets, etc. are available in every bike store. In fact, it's almost impossible to find a decent cycling jacket in my town that isn't one of those obnoxious colors.

smasha

during the day: flouro and bright front & rear blinkies

during the night: reflectives and bright front & rear blinkies

an ANSI constriction vest is both flouro & reflective and cheap!

jputnam

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18245309

Conspicuity and Bicycle Crashes

Of 5653 eligible riders, 2469 (44%) completed the study questionnaire. Mean age was 44 years, 73% were male, and the average number of kilometers cycled per week in the preceding 12 months was 130. The annual incidence of crashes leading to injury that disrupted usual daily activities for at least 24 h was 0.5 per cyclist/year. About one-third of these crashes resulted in presentation to a health professional. The mean number of days absent from work attributable to bicycle crashes was 0.39 per cyclist/year. After adjustment for potential confounders and exposure (kilometers cycled per year), the rate of days off work from bicycle crash injury was substantially lower among riders who reported always wearing fluorescent colors (multivariate incidence rate ratio 0.23, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.59).

irwin7638

I think red blinking lights are the best thing a cyclist can use. Bright clothing is good, but motorists are trained to respond to flashing red lights. Just from casually watching the rear view,I would say people react 100 yards sooner when I use a flashy thing during the day.

Marc

sharrn

During the daytime I wear my Canari Eclipse II jacket(sleeves zip off if its too warm), It's bright greenish yellow. I also run my Niterider x2 duals on flash up front and one of my tail lights blinking as well. At night, same jacket, front lights not blinking obviously, but one solid and one blinking out back.

smasha

i hope you're not using red lights facing forward. it's illegal in most/all jurisdictions, for good reason.

where it's legal (probably most places outside of germany) i'd suggest white and/or amber blinky lights in the front.

KD5NRH

Yep; mine are yellow-green w/orange trim and nice big reflector strips. I don't usually wear one for daytime riding unless I'm running errands in clothes that don't stand out, but I do keep one in the panniers so I don't get caught out on an evening ride without it as the sun goes down. I caught them on sale at Wally World; 2 class III vests of a brand they weren't going to carry anymore for $5.

irwin7638

No, red is just for the rear. I do have blinking white on the front of my city bike.

Marc

Gharp23

After almost being hit numerous times, its now a dinotte 300 blinkey on the back(think ambulance bright love it ) and cygolite 250 on the front flashing during the day and on solid at night. I have a planetbike superflash as a backup in my bag and sometimes I'll clip it on my bag and use both. As far as clothing, usually just a red shirt. I might look into these others people have mentioned. I am a newbie to cycling but figured I should get it done right the first time.

jsdavis

I run my PDW red blinkie rear and PB white blinkie front in crazy strobe mode when I'm riding. In urban environment, the lighting changes repeatedly from bright to shadow so I figure it can't hurt my visibility. I don't wear bright clothes though...I have to wear my work clothes on my commute and have nowhere to stash riding gear or clothes at work.

RyanReasons

+1
The sun is low in the sky each morning and evening, so buildings, overpasses, fences, and hedges cast areas of long, deep shadow. A motorist traveling into these darker areas from bright sunlight may find it difficult to see into them clearly.

I always wear a "safety green" wind shell or jersey but an active light source is important as well. I use a solid red light bar in back and a white blinkie in front during daylight hours.

chrisb71

I also started wearing my reflective vest during the day if i don't have my yellow cycling jacket. I notice a huge difference when I drive between cyclists wearing bright colors during the day, and the typical black or brown that I see.

Reid Welch

I will post a picture soon.

Thoughts: am partially colorblind, myself (a common male trait),

and am often "surprised" by nearly invisible bicyclists.

I used to drive a black Model T Ford. It got creamed. I almost died.

So, visibility: I bike ride nowadays wearing a fluorescent lime safety T shirt.

Got mine, a 3-M brand, from the local The Home Depot for twenty bucks.

It's cool for Florida, and works well for me. A similar shirt in vest form is just as good.

I also made a self-powered "see me" light, always on when the bike is in motion
It flickers 12 white LEDs (flickers are good for grabbing attention of cars)

I do not wear a helmet...did for a short spell, but it takes the fun out of pleasure rides,

and there is a reasonable opinion: car drivers give you a wider berth if your head is bare,

and if you wear a fluorescent (lime is best they say) jersey,

cars really let you own the road. After all, bikes were on the road long before cars...

...a fluorescent shirt makes for assertion of road-rights, without being rude.


the automatic, magneto-powered "see me" flicker-light

https://www.reflectiveapparel.com/ind...mart&Itemid=38
(exampling a super-lightweight lime shirt with reflective material in the best form...I don't have this shirt, but would get it next time round)

Point: for red-green colorblind people, pink and orange do not really grab our eyes. Yellow-lime is the way to turn heads.
______________________________________________

A small sidebar story. Trek Lime.

I left The Home Depot this morning, exiting from the front sidewalk of the store,


into the parking lot exit lane. A GIANT SUV laid on its horn, as if I were interfering with its right of way.

A parking lot in our town is considered a people zone, not an SUV raceway. The lime green shirt

is as loud as a car horn, in a manner of speaking.

HONK!

: )

-----------

I made the video "ad lib", weeks ago, in about five minutes of shooting time all told.

The SUV incident really did happen this morning, and it happened exactly from the "no parking"

take-off spot. It's my usual departure point. The SUV was racing across the width of the storefront,

was far from me, but did not want to slow down. HONNNNNNNK.

: )

Reid Welch

Oh, I am stoked by this thread! Thank you, thread starter!

Gharp, I have a Cygolite 250 too, for about three months now. I love it. It is just so nearly perfect, a total joy.

Now, I happen to be red-green colorblind, and so are a fair number of anglo-type males on the road.

Red shirts don't grab my eye. Red blinkies at night, I do see, but not much in the daylight hours

(though high-powered ones are seen by myself in daylight) The flickering white front light idea

is, imo, the best general purpose daytime safety measure. Not many people want to wear a lime shirt,

but I don't mind. Shirt and flashing lights and a bare head (drivers think of the lawsuits).

Have ridden for fifty years now and not hit my head. I see almost all cyclists wearing hairnet helmets,

and not looking like they are having fun. I like to have a pleasure ride, you too!

PS: I took my time in deciding on a rear light. The helpful people at our local bike store, HighGear Cycling, here in Coconut Grove,

had both the Planet Bike Superflash (choose from red or "white", get the red...)

and the slightly cheaper, Planet Bike "seven". I opted for that one, and have also enjoyed it.

It's "just right" for night, bright, and can even blind drivers if it's not aimed just-so.

These are good products, Planet Bike and Cygolite, both. I know now

there are many other fine choices. I see them on the road,

in time to hail, "nice lights!"

jsdavis

Adding to my previous post, I run my blinkies on rechargeable Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries and 10 hours of run time costs something like 2cents for the electricity to recharge them.

Jamesw2

Don't think a bright colored clothing will help. Only for drivers that actually care if they hit someone or not.
I was riding with a road vest florescent yellow with reflective stripes and was hit by a pickup truck mirror. No kidding and in a construction zone.

ItsJustMe

I actually saw TWO other commuters this morning (this is seriously rare for me, I've only ever seen two other commuters on one ride once before in 5 years of riding) and one happened to have a pretty conventional 5 LED blinkie, I think it was a Cateye.

It was UTTERLY useless. Maybe the batteries were getting dead in it, I don't know. He was riding not much slower than I was and it took me a good 5 minutes to catch up and pass him. I was LOOKING to see if he had a blinkie, and I thought he didn't until I got within about 40 feet of him, and even then it wasn't eye catching, I could just tell that it was there when I was looking for it.

Utterly useless. IMO a blinkie has to DEMAND attention of people who aren't really paying attention.

This was about an hour after dawn FWIW.

Jamesw2

+1