Okay, my bike retroreflectivity project is finally finished, with the recent addition of yellow rim tape and red rear rack tape. Definitely inspired by K'Tesh. Below are photos.
The bicycle is a Dynamic RunAbout 7 chainless bike (hybrid/comfort bike style) with Ortlieb backroller classic panniers and Bar Mitts installed.
The tape used is Reflexite - blue and white on bike body and helmet, red on rear rack and helmet, and fluorescent yellow on the rims. I cut the tape to size and did peel-n-stick. Goal was safety over good looks. The bike has 1,000 miles on it, I love it and won't be selling it, so I made it mine with the tape. (Actually, if it was ever stolen, it would be such a pain to get the tape off, plus it is a shaft-drive bike and registered serial number... what a headache for thieves...)
Camera: a crappy Nikon for the nighttime shots with flash on (also, I left my two taillights and two headlights off for the photos because they were making the camera's flash not operate).
Here is a side view at night:
Here is a rear view in dark garage, next to my wife's mountain bike (which has no reflective tape):
Here is a front view, in the dark, with my helmet on the driveway next to it:
Here is the bike in daytime:
Here is a closeup of the yellow rim tape and blue tape on front fork:
Here is a closeup of the white and blue tape on the body:
Finally, here is the helmet in daytime:
It was a lot of work to cut all the pieces and get them as right as possible, particularly the red on the rack and the yellow on the rims. For the yellow on the rims, I peeled off one of the AlexRims manufacturer stickers and used it as a rough template to get the curvature right. If I had it all to do over again, I would skip a lot of the red on the rack - it is too hard to get it on there right, and it tends to peel up a little on tight curved surfaces.
Overall, I feel that the tape has enhanced my nighttime safety. I always run two headlights and two taillights, day and night, too.
It was interesting to me to see how much the Ortliebs added to my nighttime rear and front visibility...