emman123

looking at the great tapes available nowadays:

https://www.colebrothers.com/v98/index.html

what would be most useful for bike conspicuity in nighttime as well as broad daylight, lime yellow, orange
or the mighty 'Solas' tape or other patterns available?

what do you think?

chasm54

Look at the study referenced in this thread. One of the most important things you can do to increase your night-time visibility is wear reflective bands on knees and ankles.

10 Wheels

Yellow or Blue.

emman123

nice thanks for the suggestions! I'm wondering if silver(SOLAS) is any good during the day? its the most reflective material for nighttime, but maybe in the sunlight it doesnt do much? anyone tried it in the morning?

fietsbob

Any color other than silver is applied over the reflective base, so, as a filter, reflects less light.

I have a patch of SOLAS tape on the back of my rain Cape.. when not raining my Carhartt parka has more
effective surface area of its stripes..

The ends of my Ortlieb bags also have a bonded in patch .. I commute with front panniers..
(& hub-dynamo, active, head and taillights, )

I'd say the angle of reflection is largely 180 degrees, back at the source , at a right angle to the surface.

a domed, curved, prismatic lens reflector would be square to the light from sources,
at various angles ,, just by by not being flat.. or applied to a not-flat surface, if tape..

chasm54

SOLAS is great stuff, good in any low-light conditions. But in full daylight passive lighting is less effective, obviously.

emman123

Chasm54, yes of course its less effective in daylight but is SOLAS visible at all during daylight (enabling some form of reflectivity) or better go with the lime color for daylight??

Fietsbob, I didnt understand what you were trying to say here: "I have a patch of SOLAS tape on the back of my rain Cape.. when not raining my Carhartt parka has more
effective surface area of its stripes.."

do you mean the SOLAS portion of it is the actual effective part of the cape?

chasm54

SOLAS is visible, yes. What I was trying to say was that any form of reflective material is going to be of limited utility in daylight. others may correct me, but I'm not sure the colour matters much.

HvPnyrs

Agree with this^^^^

If approaching traffics headlights are even on during daylight, Would most likely be less powerful daytime running lights. This combined with Much Much higher ambient light levels, Would not expect much improvement in visiblility.

fietsbob

It is an adhesive patch , I got the cape and they included but did not install the stuff..
I use just a small 2x2 patch, on the back.. to see how long it would stick.

still considering just adding a sewn on rim of reflective stuff all around the hem of the cape ..

have pedals with big reflectors ,Ergon, and active hub-Dynamo lights + the patches on the panniers.

parka is a roadside workers safety gear ,Neon lime.. the cape is yellow.

still look like a rolling traffic cone, so weird gets noticed..

Looigi

These and many other reflective materials are retro-reflective. That is they reflect light back toward the source, which is great when what you want to be seen by is also providing illumination, like the headlights on cars. During the day, they reflect sunlight back toward the sun, which isn't that useful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector

Bright fluorescent materials scatter/emit light in all directions when illuminated by the sun.

Machka 

Hi-vis clothing is quite visible during the day ... more so than reflective stuff. If you want to be more visible during the day, get hi-vis yellow jackets, vests, and jerseys.


However, I do think that jacket manufacturers need to become more aware of what is visible and what's not in the way of reflective stripes. What is not visible are little dabs of reflective material in odd places like on the shoulders, under the arms, etc. What would be visible, if a jacket manufacturer would actually do it, would be a broad band of reflective material located right across the butt ... right across the bit that sticks out the back.

fietsbob

got a less Neon Lime, more tweedy check, Showers Pass Portland Jacket ,
they do sew a strip of reflective material on the back hem.

for less conspicuous occasions it has snaps and folds inside.