DIY helmet mirror?
 

Some time back in a thread about mirrors, somebody posted a really cool DIY mirror they made with thick wire for the strut, and a small mirror from I forget what source.

In anticipation of eventually losing my Take-a-look (I've already lost one, this is my second), can that inventor please post pics again so I can see the details? I'd like to make a handful of them actually, my son wants his own helmet mirror, I could make one for everybody in the family.

Chuck Harris sat in a chair with a spoke and a pair of pliers .. and DIY'd Thousands..

In case you meant these.

I epoxied a little plastic knob on the mirror to hold the wire (also epoxied) but I don't think it's strictly necessary. Maybe makes it easier to adjust. Just twist some small gauge wire and epoxy to the mirror.

I bought the mirrors at JoAnn's Craft, waiting for my wife to find whatever it is she buys there. $2 for a pack of them.

Hmmm, those pics don't seem familiar, and I recognize you for all the various DIY projects you put out there (thanks for all those too!) but this is helpful. I was wondering how to connect the wire to the mirror securely.

I think the other one I remember seeing had the wire wrapped around the helmet visor (which is more secure than the take-a-look visor clip, which always falls off when I bump it). Pack of mirrors at JoAnne's though, that's a good tip. Closer to me is Michaels, I wonder if they would have that.

Gosh you can buy good ones for around $10

Here's what I did to secure my Take-A-Look mirror:

• I cut a plastic card (discontinued grocery store discount card) to fit a niche in the styrofoam padding inside my helmet.
• Zip tied the mirror stem clip to the card.
• Zip tied the card in two places inside the helmet.

Very secure, provides just enough adjustment to tilt the stem up and down as needed. So far it's held through my one crash since using the mirror (held up better than my ribs, which are still healing). And I've snagged the mirror several times without losing it.

Only thing left to do is pad the edges and rounded corner of the mirror itself. I'm not entirely comfortable with that hard-edged mirror so close to my eyes. I'm not sure whether foam taped to the back would work. I've also considered that liquid dipping rubber.

Black Mini Bike Bicycle Cycling Rearview Safe Helmet Vision Reflector Mirror CL | eBay
$3 or so with postage
You can shorten the mirror shaft by cutting the wire at the helmet end... I usually use tape to help hold the base to the helmet.

I've got one of these on all my helmets. I don't use the adhesive backing that comes with it, but use a couple of small zip ties to fasten the arm to the base of the helmet with a bit of epoxy to keep it from rotating under the weight of the mirror. A bit tricky to get the view angle correct, but once it's done it works great.

Or I could make 5 or more for under $10...

That's a good tip, I don't know why I didn't do my usual eBay check. I just ordered this one, which doesn't use velcro, but a clip like a take-a-look. Sometimes I secure my take-a-look with a twist-tie. I don't leave it on permanent though, there are some times I want to take it off.

Link?

The one I bought in the early 80's, that clipped to the edge of a Bell Biker helmet, was really excellent. I don't remember the brand; perhaps CyclePro. It was just a piece of wire and a round lucite mirror. I stopped using it when I could no longer get a helmet that it fit. But after trying out all the mirrors then on the market (10-20 years ago) I gave up on the new junk I figured out a way to zip tie my old one to my helmet liner, and I continued to use it until the lucite mirror fell off and I never found it again. Since then I've been using a Take-A-Look mirror, which appears to be the best thing on the market now, but (though much more expensive) it's nowhere near as good as the cheap one I had in the 80's.

I'm going to see what they have at JoAnn Fabrics!

Yeh you did say "helmet" and not glasses mirror.

I eventually wound up coating the back side, around the stub and wire, with JB weld. I don't recall if I needed that to secure the wire, or if it just looked better, but from my image date it's held up for two years.

I do recommend the twisted wire btw, over anything stiff like a spoke or plastic rod. If you do crash it will bend out of the way without poking or scratching you, and there are no pivots to wear out.

Yeah, all the helmets in my household have visors, so that makes things a little easier.

Also saw this third eye mirror, which gave me the idea for a product I would call the "Brown Eye" -- a tiny webcam you attach to your butt, which streams video to a smartphone on your bars. I'm calling Prior Art right here and now!

I did try something similar in 2012 http://www.bikeforums.net/13961121-post383.html but just using a backup camera and it wasn't very satisfactory, so I'm happy to recognize your prior art claim, if you'll build it. I'd suggest you to put the streaming webcam on the back of the helmet though.

That post also shows my back-hand mirror and velcro clipless, which also went on my "fail" scrap-heap.

Haha, not surprising you tried it out already, with all the experimenting you do! But if it's on the helmet, it doesn't make sense to call it "Brown Eye", and in this case, the name has to drive the product...

Take-a-look mirror $12.77 at amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AO7ETQ...ing=UTF8&psc=1

adjusts in any direction and very well made.

Yeah, thanks, that's what I'm currently using. I've got a few years of use out of it, which isn't bad, but it has reached the point where it won't stay in adjustment. A gust of wind can turn it, and it jiggles loose and starts flopping around. Easy enough to fix (reach up and squeeze it together again) but if I'm riding in traffic and suddenly my mirror isn't where I need it, it's useless. I need the thing to stay in adjustment. I have to replace it soon, and would prefer something better.

Having gotten a pretty cut up face from a Take-A-Look years back, I won't allow unprotected wire to be intentionally mounted on my face anymore. Once I thought about it, the idea of putting stiff wire right next to my eye is actually pretty terrifying.

I use a Cycleaware Reflex now, which has a round, protected mirror on a breakaway ball mount mounted onto Gumby type wire, and the whole thing is on a breakaway ball mount.

I have had mine for arounf 5 years i think. It was even run over by a car and flattened in a parking lot; the paint on the non mirror side was scraped off so I put a reflective sticker over it. I once dropped it on a gravel trail in the fall and had a heck of a time finding it (the mirror makes it stealthy in rocks an leaves). The rubber ends for glasses disintegrated, so I replaced them with heat-shrink.

Is it coming loose at the attachment point to the helmet? Or the 2-dof hinge at the mirror? Sometimes my clip for the helmet visor is not too strong, because the middle prong has made a deep indent in the visor plastic, so I put the clip on the 'other' way, with the outer prongs and the middle prong all switching to the other side of the plastic. That way the curve helps stiffen the connection. Also additionally secure with a twist-tie, twisting extra to cinch it all up.

It's the mirror end; the wire inserted into the lucite mirror, by which it attaches to the rest of the metal structure, just won't stay tight. Typically it gets loose because the mirror is working its way off the wire, so you tighten it by pushing the wire back in. But I've done that so many times that that trick isn't working any more.

But you make a good point; all I need to do is do something to the wire to increase friction. I'll try putting a dent in it with a wire cutter, or maybe bend it a tiny bit. That should get me through....

Inspired by this thread I looked on eBay, and saw this:

Bike Bicycle Cycling Riding Mirror Helmet Mount Rearview Rear View Eyeglass CO | eBay

I couldn't resist. I ordered two. I'll report back in a month or two (shipping from China has been getting faster, but it can still take for ever).

Yeah, that's the same as what I ordered one of as well.

Not to hijack the thread, but I have this for sale on the forum.
http://www.bikeforums.net/sale/10997...et-mirror.html

If there are any interested people, make me an offer. Send a PM or email.

Very clever, but where is the chloroplast? (seriously, very clever!)