mechBgon

You can get much better wide-angle performance from prismatic reflective tape than from plastic cube-corner reflectors, because the plastic reflector relies on the difference in refraction between plastic and air (total internal reflectance), which fails beyond certain angles. Prismatic tape also uses cube-corner reflectors, but with a mirrored surface that reflects regardless of the angle of incidence.

Or, to boil that fancy talk down into simple photos...

Example 1: note how the DOT plastic reflectors barely show, while the reflective tape is doing great at this angle. The TrimBrite tape is low-end glass-bead tape, while the DOT stuff shown here is mid-range prismatic Class 2 tape from Peterson Manufacturing:




Example 2: from my Cateye LD560 write-up, a comparison between reflective tape and CPSC multi-directonal plastic reflectors at a ~45-degree angle:


^ control shot



For those who'd like prismatic tape, 3M Diamond Grade is top-notch for applying to flat surfaces, Reflexite V82 is great for single-axis curves. For multi-axis curves, cut Reflexite into 1cm strips. If you have fenders, they're a great place to slap on the V82 treatment.

Sorry, I linked to the middle of it, try 6 minutes into this... a scary 7-lane 45mph highway in rainy darkness, with strip mall lighting for a distraction. It takes some punch to really show up here. I think a steady dyno taillight with a reflector would make you a last-second discovery here.



Anyway, going back to the original topic, I've been behind people with SuperFlashes and other decent blinkies, and behind one or two with a B&M dyno taillight like yours, and find that the blinkes grab my attention even when I'm not looking for them... like, from blocks away. So my empirical finding is that despite the small surface area, they're effective.