How to light the whole helmet?
 

After yesterday's screaming near miss, I'm seeking a helmet that lights when you put it on...the whole helmet, all the way around. Sounds funny but, I'm thinking a lit helmet would increase side and front viz.

Anyone know where to get one of those?

The fun way to do it would be with EL wire. If you're handy with a wirestripper and soldering gun, you could outline a whole helmet with EL wire or EL tape. It would be lightweight, takes little juice to power it, and would be very bright.

Another option is flat-mount LEDs. Again, handy with a soldering iron is a big requirement.

It'd be something like this: http://www.tron-sector.com/images/silvahelmetsm.jpg

Now if you could only find the cycle that goes with it... :D

Oh, I hadn't heard of EL wire before, that would be fun to use.

Following DScott's design:

If the helmet lid were see through, I could probably slide a net of Christmas Tree lights/12V underneath. :D

I have two of these
http://images.mec.ca/media/Images/Pr...9830584001.jpg

and this as well
http://images.mec.ca/media/Images/Pr...9830603265.jpg

on the back and top of my helmet. They work great for rear vivability. I was out for a night ride with friends and saw how easy it was to see them over cars and suvs with this setup. Next is getting a white one on the front. Works great for aiming at pedestians who are too eager to jaywalk inbetween cars at night.

There's a commuter who has three blinkie strapped to his helmet: one on each side and the rear. Looks like a freaky UFO or a very slow moving night frisbee. You'll get noticed mostly for the WTF factor.

OK. So what is this?http://images.mec.ca/media/Images/Pr...9830584001.jpg
I think I rode for a while last night with someone who was using a white one pointed to the front. It seemed very effective, but he couldn't remember either a product name or a brand name.
AHA! - Found it!! http://tinyurl.com/3auead

Mask it with reflective tape...

Sorry, forgot the link. Turtle Light from MEC.

Thats the idea. All three run in blinkie mode. Here's the setup I have
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...y/IMG_8767.jpg

I have the same setup at Pyze guy. 2 rear red turtle blinkies on the sides of my helmet pointing back, and 1 on the top on my helmet pointing forward. I am less than thrilled with the setup of the front light as it tends to point up in the air quite a bit, but for around 10 dollars for the whole setup, I can't think of any reason to not do this. It means I can never get caught without lights because I always ride with my helmet.

Techincally I have the same setup as you, since it was the spit ride I was remembering it form.

cool!

Looks like some kind of bizzare Kermit-mech!

...only in the commuting forum. I'd go for reflective tape, And the blinkies lower down in the usual spots.

Blinkies are better than tape. And lights that are higher can be seen by drivers over the roofs of other cars. After riding with Shiz and seeing how easy it was to see him I had a friend in his car give me his opinion one night. Blinkie and tape on bike vs. blinkies on helmet. Blinkies on top were much easier to see was his verdict.

I've got Scotchlite tape on my helmet now, but I think I'm going to order some of this stuff, too.

http://www.identi-tape.com/phosphor.htm

See this page at nashbar: the DiNotte Ultra 3. At $150 it's out of my price range, but believe me, I wish I had one. It provides front and rear lighting but, unfortunately, no side lighting. What I also want is a jacket made of hi-visibility mesh (so it can be worn in hot weather or over a coat in cold weather) which has reflective striping and LEDs on the front, back, and arms. My current hi-viz vest doesn't cover my arms or sides, and isn't very visible from some directions.

Here is a neat reflective concept
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c...t_1930_6459712

haha. That would be upside down using the proper hand signal for stopping.

I'm picturing more of a Diana Ross stop motion.

I actually do that all the time. When a dork is about to turn in front of me from a sidestreet I give them a big old open palm punch to the face and it usually works in stopping them. I even considered attaching a light to my left hand.

You screwed up royally.. now I gotta post the whole pic.
http://www.tronguy.net/TRONcostume/portrait.jpg

I'm not a big fan of Illuminite clothing in general, but I have one of their helmet covers for my snowy commutes and it really does show up pretty good when hit with headlights.

Ugh. Male camel toe.