Any good bicycle mirrors?
Originally Posted by
79pmooney
For those advocating "just look over your shoulder" - that 's advocating riding with less information. The over the should look takes far longer. That is time when you are not seeing anything in front of you. Might work fine for years. Might work fine on the open road, but when there is a lot of traffic, esp a vehicle right next to you, that advice can be suspect….
When I saw this thread, as a staunch mirror advocate, I was going to refrain from posting to this thread because everybody has an opinion about their mirrors. But I’m glad you wrote this reply to the naysayers. They are akin to the anti-helmet crowd. Why deter someone from perhaps a useless practice, though intuititively a safe one? As you note, it may be environmentally relative; I cite my experiences in heavy urban traffic, and going fast downhill on poor pavement with upcoming traffic.
Last year I wrote a post (with no reply) as to what are the real
downsides sides of a rearview mirror? I came up with:
- You might poke your eye out, with an eyeglass or helmet mirror
- You might spend too much time trying to use the mirror, distracting you from the road
- Maybe you’ll have a blind spot with an eyeglass or helmet mirror
- dorkiness, though non-cyclists who have seen my two eyeglass mounted mirrors have exclaimed “cool.”
Those are the detriments I can recall; there may have been one more. So in deciding to use a mirror, those are the factors against, IMO.