Glow in the dark paint?
 

I keep my bike in my office during the day and will soon be biking home (about 1/2 hour) after dark. Has anyone tried using glow in the dark paint on their bike for visibility?

Jeff

or tape it is not very bright. you need power or good reflective tape.

I would think reflective PAINT would be the coolest!!

No. Coolest would be a thousand lazers piercing the night sky, setting trees on fire as you pass them.

it does not work all that well. I used some on a trailer and it took a lot and was not even close to waht tape does.

I use red reflective tape from Walmart auto. dept.

glow in the dark paint is 100% worthless as a safety mechanism.

even the best and brightest glow in the dark paint you can get
from united nuclear, leave bike in sun all day it will definitely give
off a glow for 6 or 7 hours at night...this glow is pretty faint and
you still will be essentially invisible.

there is 'unobtainable' radioactive paint that does provide a glow, but
it isn't for sale as the problem of fire+cancer causing alpha emitters has
not been solved

The glowinc company claims their brightest paint is 33,000 mcd/m^2, which google translates to 33 lux. This isn't bright enough to notice?

I was thinking of reflective tape as well, but after reading lots of people saying that reflectors aren't too good I thought it might be good to have another system.

33 lux compared to shining a headlight right back at a car? hmmm...

probably better if you use some diamond grade or high intensity reflective tape and a tail light.

glowinc paint is great. You will definitely be noticed but only by pedestrians and others who stop to admire your bike while it is parked. Not nearly bright enough for safety on any level. Too bad.

Not as an alternative to tape, in addition to tape.

But it sounds like 33 lux is just to dim to be worth the time.

check out the commutiing forum....search for reflective or stealth reflective.

I have reflective pinstripe on my commutter utily and used a light coat of reflective paint over the frame (I repainted the frame).... the reflective paint came from an auto store. It actually works ok in that the whole frame reflects. The amount of reflectiveness per sqare inch is less intense than reflective tape, but on the whole it adds to the visibilyt.

jim

rigth. the type of light goes completely unnoticed if the eye is in motion
and 100% washed out and invisible to any driver who has been
using headlights.

I got 4 oz of europium paint and it is a fine 'novelty', but
that is it