The Perils of Fredosity #17: Rear View Mirrors
04-01-09, 05:59 PM
#1
Peloton Shelter Dog
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The Perils of Fredosity #17: Rear View Mirrors
Freds think they know a lot about road cycling, so inevitably, they become convinced they are absolutely correct, and these delusions become part and parcel of the Fred Gospel. Perhaps the most hazardous of all these silly notions is the idea that a rearview mirror on your bicycle or helmet will keep you safer. Au contraire mon petite Fredrique.
Mirrors let you see the car behind you. Maybe it's getting closer than you're comfortable with. What will you do with this information? Hyperspace to another planet? Ride your bicycle off the road and into a ditch on the off-chance that this will result in a less traumatic injury? Uh-huh.
This is the dangerous part about mirrors: they take your focus off the one thing you CAN control, i.e., your line on the bike, which should be straight, unwavering and as far to the right as possible. Try an experiment with your Fred friends. While riding down the road in a straight line @ 17 mph, ask one of them to turn their head to the left, as if they are about to check out the traffic behind them. Please note how 90% of the time, their bicycle will drift 1-3' leftward out into the lane. Your bicycle will go the way your head turns. You could make the argument that a mirror allows you to see the traffic behind you without turning your head, but I'd counter that this really doesn't deliver much useful information, and again, it distracts your focus from holding your line.
Discuss. As always Extra Credit for Creative Flame Throwing.
Mirrors let you see the car behind you. Maybe it's getting closer than you're comfortable with. What will you do with this information? Hyperspace to another planet? Ride your bicycle off the road and into a ditch on the off-chance that this will result in a less traumatic injury? Uh-huh.
This is the dangerous part about mirrors: they take your focus off the one thing you CAN control, i.e., your line on the bike, which should be straight, unwavering and as far to the right as possible. Try an experiment with your Fred friends. While riding down the road in a straight line @ 17 mph, ask one of them to turn their head to the left, as if they are about to check out the traffic behind them. Please note how 90% of the time, their bicycle will drift 1-3' leftward out into the lane. Your bicycle will go the way your head turns. You could make the argument that a mirror allows you to see the traffic behind you without turning your head, but I'd counter that this really doesn't deliver much useful information, and again, it distracts your focus from holding your line.
Discuss. As always Extra Credit for Creative Flame Throwing.
04-01-09, 06:02 PM
#3
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I sneak up on riders with rear view mirrors anyways. I don't think they use them. My theory is that they're going for the "intelligent cyclist" look. Almost a Theodore Roosevelt eyepiece look.
A rear view mirror and a Pearl Izumi "Screaming Yellow" jacket are big no-no's in my book.
A rear view mirror and a Pearl Izumi "Screaming Yellow" jacket are big no-no's in my book.
04-01-09, 06:02 PM
#4
Senior Member
:I'm gonna sit here and wait for the A&S crowd to get here. Should make for a good show.
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Cat 2 Track, Cat 3 Road.
"If you’re new enough [to racing] that you would ask such question, then i would hazard a guess that if you just made up a workout that sounded hard to do, and did it, you’d probably get faster." --the tiniest sprinter
04-01-09, 06:04 PM
#5
Peloton Shelter Dog
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I sneak up on riders with rear view mirrors anyways. I don't think they use them. My theory is that they're going for the "intelligent cyclist" look. Almost a Theodore Roosevelt eyepiece look.
A rear view mirror and a Pearl Izumi "Screaming Yellow" jacket are big no-no's in my book.
A rear view mirror and a Pearl Izumi "Screaming Yellow" jacket are big no-no's in my book.
04-01-09, 06:09 PM
#6
I ain't no newbie
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Briko helmet, Halt, mirror, seat bag. I may have Jelly Beans also.
04-01-09, 06:14 PM
#7
Peloton Shelter Dog
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It's a Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred World.
04-01-09, 06:23 PM
#8
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If you guys would have held out for another three minutes he would have responded to his own post...time and time again.
04-01-09, 06:28 PM
#9
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04-01-09, 06:28 PM
#10
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04-01-09, 06:30 PM
#12
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04-01-09, 06:32 PM
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WRT the fluorescent jacket, better Fred than dead. I've found that the mirror-using cyclists are the most high strung of them all. Really twitchy when you pass them.
04-01-09, 06:35 PM
#14
Peloton Shelter Dog
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04-01-09, 06:48 PM
#17
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04-01-09, 07:01 PM
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Freds think they know a lot about road cycling, so inevitably, they become convinced they are absolutely correct, and these delusions become part and parcel of the Fred Gospel. Perhaps the most hazardous of all these silly notions is the idea that a rearview mirror on your bicycle or helmet will keep you safer. Au contraire mon petite Fredrique.
Mirrors let you see the car behind you. Maybe it's getting closer than you're comfortable with. What will you do with this information? Hyperspace to another planet? Ride your bicycle off the road and into a ditch on the off-chance that this will result in a less traumatic injury? Uh-huh.
This is the dangerous part about mirrors: they take your focus off the one thing you CAN control, i.e., your line on the bike, which should be straight, unwavering and as far to the right as possible. Try an experiment with your Fred friends. While riding down the road in a straight line @ 17 mph, ask one of them to turn their head to the left, as if they are about to check out the traffic behind them. Please note how 90% of the time, their bicycle will drift 1-3' leftward out into the lane. Your bicycle will go the way your head turns. You could make the argument that a mirror allows you to see the traffic behind you without turning your head, but I'd counter that this really doesn't deliver much useful information, and again, it distracts your focus from holding your line.
Discuss. As always Extra Credit for Creative Flame Throwing.
Mirrors let you see the car behind you. Maybe it's getting closer than you're comfortable with. What will you do with this information? Hyperspace to another planet? Ride your bicycle off the road and into a ditch on the off-chance that this will result in a less traumatic injury? Uh-huh.
This is the dangerous part about mirrors: they take your focus off the one thing you CAN control, i.e., your line on the bike, which should be straight, unwavering and as far to the right as possible. Try an experiment with your Fred friends. While riding down the road in a straight line @ 17 mph, ask one of them to turn their head to the left, as if they are about to check out the traffic behind them. Please note how 90% of the time, their bicycle will drift 1-3' leftward out into the lane. Your bicycle will go the way your head turns. You could make the argument that a mirror allows you to see the traffic behind you without turning your head, but I'd counter that this really doesn't deliver much useful information, and again, it distracts your focus from holding your line.
Discuss. As always Extra Credit for Creative Flame Throwing.
Whether or not the can hold a line without drifting is once again a function of user error; they should learn to hold their line just as much as someone without should. That they haven't is laziness on their part, not the mirror's.
04-01-09, 07:03 PM
#19
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I think you're letting the mirrors off a little lightly there...
04-01-09, 07:12 PM
#20
Farmer tan
The only day I tried a mirror, I got honked an buzzed twice. Normally, that's a once per season thing.
04-01-09, 07:20 PM
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04-01-09, 07:22 PM
#23
stole your bike
Turning my head works pretty well for me and I can hold my line in the process so a mirror won't really add much other than not having to turn my head, since neck flexibility isn't an issue either I can't say I need one.
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04-01-09, 07:27 PM
#25
Senior Member
Handy for emergency roadside dental exams.
I ride a lot of small country roads and don't always keep as far to the right as possible. When I see a car approaching I'll peek in the mirror to see about avoiding three vehicles across.
When mirrors are outlawed only outlaws will have mirrors.
I ride a lot of small country roads and don't always keep as far to the right as possible. When I see a car approaching I'll peek in the mirror to see about avoiding three vehicles across.
When mirrors are outlawed only outlaws will have mirrors.