andrelam

+1 Wearing bright clothing can not prevent you from getting hurt, just like wearing a helmet does not guarantee that I won't sustain massive head injuries if a car hits me with high enough speed. However, I want to make sure that I am as visible as possible so that even a slightly inattentive driver will notice me because I stand out so much from my surroundings. On a recent ride I saw a rider coming up the road on the opposite side nearly 1/3 of a mile out during my morning commute. He was wearing a vi-vis coat and it made him stand out very clearly. Only after I noticed that rider did I see a rider in front of me that was about 1/10 of a mile ahead of me, but they were wearing black and dark brown and were passing through an area with large trees over head. The cyclist in dark cloths was hard to see and I am always on the lookout for fellow cyclists.

I mostly wear yellow in the summer. I know that hi-vis lime yellow is a bit more visible, but I like the look of regular yellow a bit better even if it is not quite a visible. I also have two orange shirts but try to only wear them on very sunny days. I've noticed that orange tends to look dark like brown in the shade much easier than a nice bright yellow. White is supposed to be an excellent hi-contrast color. I've read that white cars for instance are the most visible. However I don't want yellowing armpits from all the sweating I do... therefore Yellow is bright, but doesn't look dirty either. For riding at dusk and dawn, and night time, I will wear an ANSI Class II rated vest to ensure that I have the brightest most visible clothing possible.

As far as the link between Yellow and Lance... The Maillot Jaune has been around since 1913 so yellow and the Tour de France have been linked for a long time. For a fun, I'd still like to buy the Crash Test Dummy jersey from Love to Depal:

http://www.love2pedal.com/Items/Item...20with%20Socks

Happy riding... in bright clothing,
André