Originally Posted by turbo1889

What's the problem boys? At least in what I've read so far all of the "safety" gear the OP refuses to use are not required items. Now if he wanted to run total night-ninja with no lights or reflectors at all after dark or in inclement weather then that would be an actual problem and clearly codified as such in the mutual agreed to by society rules of the road.

No one is required to use optional additional "safety" gear. If he don't want too, that's his loss.






-----------------------------------------------------------

Now if we are just doing a thread on the pros. and cons. of such items then my personal $0.02 on some of the things so far discussed would be:

----- A few really good lights are much better then a whole bunch of pathetic little wimpy ones (and a lot easier to maintain and keep fresh batteries).

----- Currently I'm in the process of updating all my lighting systems on my bikes to 12.8v 4-cell LiFePO4 battery pack powered systems running full on 12v automotive LED lights especially those nice big 4" round and 6-6.5" oval bright LED truck tail-lights that are bright enough to meet commercial motor-vehicle standards and those powerful rotating strobes in red and amber like they put on top of plow trucks and such.

----- Cameras are a good idea but can be a pain, I haven't made the leap to start running a camera(s) myself but am very close to it. I know for sure that one thing that I really don't want to do is mount a big Go-Pro or similar big ugly thing to my helmet, to the bike not a problem but anything on the helmet is going to need to be small and tight.

----- Mirrors can be helpful but should never be relied upon, learn to turn your head and use your ears and at night track shadow arc angles from approaching headlights from behind as well since mirrors don't show the big picture.

----- I never could get used to helmet mirrors myself and handle-bar mirrors where the angle changes when the bars are turned aren't ideal for me. I prefer a hard frame mounted mirror which on a normal upright bike I mount a mirror on a short arm sticking out a little less then the handlebars to the left of the head tube at just the right angle to show what is behind me with my pumping left leg in the edge of the view. Gives me the most stable and consistent rear view mirror for me.




--------------------------------------------------

Also, to the person claiming that bikes don't need mirrors because they don't back up and that is what mirrors on cars are for (backing up). People who just look in the mirror when they back up a car are being dangerous and scare me. The only reason you only use the mirrors when backing up is if your backing up a vehicle where he can't turn around and look and even then you are extremely careful doing so and many times with a large truck you actually get out of the truck and do a walk around before backing up when you have to use only your mirrors to do so and if you don't you will be liable if you back over someone and hurt or kill them.

This coming from someone who actually often drives 2-5 ton, 6-10 wheel, short trucks and other large vehicles. In fact I'm usually either on a bike or driving a truck (a real truck not one of those little light duty pickup trucks) and driving a light car is the minority after those other two.