Its ingenious because I've been putting these on my bikes for ~15 years. Now someone has a kickstarter to make money off this simple idea. And, they are charging $40 for what you can pick up for about $12 at an auto parts store.

simple concept: tape some 3M reflective tape to your rim for a cheap light and effective reflector.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...isi?ref=82tviv

Still its a good idea, although I like the home brew method myself.

I too have done many rims up with the reflective wheel treatment. The trick is taking the time and effort to trim the tape to fit nicely, for a clean look. Tape can be had in black too, (reflects white) so on black rims it is difficult to even notice in the day time.

I have "Lightweights" reflective tape on every other spoke of my commuter, from a package I bought about 10 years ago. Guess it's innovative to stick them on the rim instead of the spokes.

I've been using the Lightweights for years, they work great.

I've just been putting 3M Scotchlite tape on my rims, like a chump.

This is a good idea for disk brakes, but I'd be concerned that they'd affect the performance of rim brakes. The kickstarter does have rim brake reflectors available.

If your wheels are dirty, which they are most of the time from December to March, they do work very well.

There is another cool alternative (also compatible with rim and sic brakes)

This video shows a fancy DIY version


Or you can pay $70 for the professional kickstarter version at https://norilights.com

Back in 1988, while on tour in the Netherlands I picked up a ring reflector for my wheels..

A tube of reflective plastic with a wire ring running through it that you laced in among your spokes.

Because it was a little bit higher than the rims, or the reflex bands now coming on German tire brands,

it stayed cleaner to work better, longer, without getting road muck on it..





.....

If the rim has any V at all between the brake tracks, it works fine. Just trim it to fit only the part your brakes don't touch.

Doesn't take a lot of reflector area when it's got that much movement to catch attention.

Exactly.

Probably find these for free

I have rim brakes, and my 3M tape works fine on my rims, but yeah, if you have rim brakes and low profile box rims, putting the tape on your spokes is probably better.

Dirt: my rims don't get dirty and dingy (even with rim brakes) like my tires do.

That black 3M tape is invisible on my rims, but is so dark when a light is shined on it. It reflects about as brightly as a license plate. So yeah, it glows, but it is pretty dim.

Do they not sell retroreflective tape in stores in Europe? I mean, the Kickstarter filled really quickly with people willing to pay $20 for about 80¢ worth of 3M tape.

With my road bike, if you lift it up in the air the tires will spin until these reflectors are at the bottom. They add spinning weight and un-balance the wheel. We can argue to the death if the effects can be felt or not but I understand why people take them off. I did too because they were making spokes ping on dirt surfaces and because I always have ankle reflectors on in the dark.

There's plenty of micro-prismatic tape available online. I had good luck putting it on a stroller, on my hitch rack, and on my commuter bike (cranks and fenders). Really bright stuff, and you can get all kinds of colors, I only use white, yellow, and red

This stuff's a bit thicker so doesn't bend as well, DOT trailer tape is better for bendy surfaces
https://www.amazon.com/White-Micro-P...prismatic+tape

5 yards!

10 feet of trailer tape for 7 bucks:
https://www.amazon.com/CZC-AUTO-2Inc...+trailer&psc=1

Honestly, I don't know why manufacturers don't do this instead of the reflectors. Less weight, more reflective...

Add another on the opposite spoke. More reflectivity and perfectly balanced. And free and simple.

Bbbut, I DON'T want to add more weight to my bike, especially if it's spinning weight!

Besides, kickstarter - so it must be revolutionary.

To be honest, I’m just jealous that someone figured out how to sell 20 cent stickers for $20.

Yeah; shattered all over the sides of the road. The plastic they're made out of degrades in a few years, but the plastic the attachment bit for most of them is made of degrades pretty badly within a year or two.

i have tape to do this very thing. I bought from Amazon but I have not done it yet. I don't want to mess up my pretty black wheels.

$5 worth of 3M reflective black tape....

The black makes it nearly invisible in daylight on a black rim. (1st photo. Front wheel. You can see it because the room light is reflecting off it. But outside, it's invisible. )

In the dark it shines. It's not as brilliantly white as white or silver reflective tape (see the white reflective strip embedded in the tire when photo taken with camera flash on) but it's noticeable.

As you can see I put all the extra all over my black helmet. Again, invisible on the black helmet in daylight, slights like a light bulb in the dark.

All for $5 worth of raw materials and a pair of scissors.

But hey, if someone can figure out how to sell that for $40....more power to you!

That's millennial entrepreneurs (and consumers) for you. If it doesn't already exist on an app or with a few clicks, then they have no idea about it. If it exists but requires simple cutting with scissors, they will pay a heft premium to avoid any and all effort.

I work in a WeWork, and I see these people all the time. "Disruptors" and entrepreneurs that don't know the first thing about business, and wouldn't know an original idea if it slapped them in the face.

The magic words are "conspicuity tape".

If you don't like Amazon, this site has a mind-boggling variety.

keep washing those tire sidewall rings..

Uh Oh. I better cut off the tube valves that poke through the holes in my bicycle's wheel rims because my wheels spin until those nasty unbalancing valves end up on the bottom. Oh the horror!