Originally Posted by
unterhausen
I use reflective gear and lights. Some of the riding I do requires it, but I feel uncomfortable without reflective gear even though I have lights. I was out in my car chasing a rider on a randonnee once, and was a little worried about catching him because I was worried about his visibility. When I caught him, his reflective gear was incredibly bright. His lights were also bright, but they are smaller.
I don't have reflective tape on any of my bikes any more. It probably shows up, but a reflective vest and ankle bands are much more visible. The reflective ankle bands moving up and down are pretty hard to ignore. I'm a believer in pedal reflectors too.
I agree, I only have tape on my helmet and I applied a strip of it around the circumference of the helmet where the hard shell meets the Styrofoam. And the tape doesn't work real good at all. I've actually had my wife in a driving rainstorm at night drive towards me, and I towards her, with my lights on and reflective vest, ankle straps etc. She saw the lights first from 3 blocks out, which is where I started from, then the reflective safety vest at about a block out, and the ankle bands about 1/2 block out, she never saw the helmet reflective tape I put on!
I don't use pedal reflectors, I already use ankle band reflectors, and my shoes have built in reflectors, I don't need anything else. But the up and down motion of a pedal, shoe or ankle band reflector does crab ones attention...as long as it's not down pouring rain at night. Serfas, and probably others, do make a active battery powered glowing ankle band that is better then the reflectors.