Originally Posted by scole999

I own www.colebrothers.com I have been experimenting with different tapes and reflective glass beads on helmets, frames and rims and in going through the forums on bike safey came across some questions that people have had that I knew the answer to. The problem I am working on now is why it takes a motorist so long to identify a bike on the road even when there is some reflective tape on the bike. My theory is that the human brain requires more data to identify something than what it is being given. In other words, in the daytime a bike is instantly recognized because you can see all of it and the shape is recognized. At night all you see sometimes are two dots in the distance. I am working on some ideas with reflective paint that make the entire bike visible. I have a picture of my last experiment at www.colebrothers.com/biketape at the bottom of the page. That is a picture of about three ounces of glass beads sprinkled over wet clear coat. You can see how much of a difference it makes. With the entire bike reflective and reflective tape on the helmet a motorist should be able to identify a bike at night as well as in the daytime.