In search of the ultimate mirror that has these qualities:

Bar mounted
Strong, won't break easily
Doesn't require frequent adjustment, holds its position well


My current one just broke in twine and when it wasn't broken into pieces, I was constantly fiddling with it to get the angle right



Suggestions?

These are the reasons I use a glasses mounted mirror. The ability to view a wide area behind you with small head movements is the principal advantage.

I have a CycleAware Reflex mirror on all my helmets.
Most bar mounted mirrors don't stay put. On my commuter bike I have a Rhode Gear mirror (no longer manufactured) that I picked up at a yard sale. Works great.

The glasses or helment-mounted Take a Look is, by far, the best.


Here's a website review of a bunch of different styles of mirrors:
https://www.icebike.org/Equipment/cyclingmirrors.htm

Take a Look all the way. Forget about bar mounted mirrors.

Question (thread hijack): What's a good place to mount a mirror on a set of drop bars without interfering with hand positions? I'm kinda stumped.

Also, I have a similar dilemna to the OP. All mirrors I've seen change positions too much.

What is the problem with the take a look? It has no vibration... the ONLY issue I have is that it doesn't work if I wear a large backpack. I cannot imagine having to look down at a mirror when I can see it in my peripheral vision.

Attached is a glimpse of my mirror in a close to its ultimate arrangement. It allows me to see directions directly behind me, maintains steady orientation, does not suffer from vibration, does not get knocked even at moderately crowded rack, does threaten me with poking my eye and works even when I am in a rain cape.

Sounds like exactly what the OP wants. The glimpse is nice. Make, model and source would be nicer.

This mirror did not cut it for even 1 round trip commute. Mirror keeps popping out of the socket at the slightest tap. How are you keeping that mirror in it's socket?

This has been a project mirror out of a 5"x4" convex military salvage mirror from Ebay. It has been mounted using handlebar bits and pieces accumulated over time with this kind of project in mind. My best prior commercial mirror was:

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...slisearch=true

Compared to the project mirror, it has been inconveniently smaller, with more limited and inconvenient mounting options e.g. making it covered by a cape during rain. It could be further knocked out of position around a parking rack.

The metal frames on my glasses are skinny: the temple piece is 2mm tall x 1 mm thick. Do you Take A Look users think it would mount securely on that type of glasses frame? Thx!

The Take a Look is designed to fit most glasses, but yours might be too small.

However, each Take a Look comes with a plastic piece that you can mount on your helmet, allowing the mirror to be helmet-mounted instead of on your glasses. I've not tried that myself, but I know that others have.

I use the Mountain MirrCycle (I think that's what it's called). It's been great for me. It stays where I put it and doesn't adjust spontaneously even when I'm bouncing along off road. It is, as far as I know, only for flat bars.

I don't like helmet or glasses mounted mirrors because they get in my way.

I can't stand bar mounted mirrors. Glasses mount are OK but not for me; my glasses are extremely lightweight so a mirror on it bounces horribly at the slightest bump, and the major thing is that I can forget to put it on.
I now use helmet mount; I NEVER forget it and it gives me a LOT more wide angle vision than any bar mount will. I'm not sure how a helmet mount mirror can get in the way; it doesn't block any view, and I've never had it hit anything, not sure what it could hit up there.

I broke down an orderd a glasses mount mirror today. My wife complains i don't keep a close enough eye on her when she's behind me. I try, but she seems to think I should check a lot more often than I do. Maybe this Fred mirror will help keep my marriage spinning along.

I took a spill on ice last winter and broke my 25 year old Mirricycle (top of the brake mount). While trying to find a replacement, I ordered a Take a Look. Nice mirror, but mounting either on the helmet or on my glasses wouldn't work for me because I can no longer focus that close.

To test this out, hold a finger about 2 inches directly in front of the left temple of your glasses. If you can focus on your finger and then back to the distance, no problem. If, like me, you can't focus on your finger _at all_, forget about a glasses mount mirror, and on my helmet at least, the distance difference was negligible so it probably won't work as a helmet mount either.

Another "old" guy,

Jeff

That contradicts basic optics. For a flat mirror, the image is just as far away from the mirror as the real object. That's why we speak about mirror reflection. Your eye focuses on an image in identical fashion as on a real object.

For me, the glass/helmet mount mirrors, Take-a-Look in particular, have fallen into a domain of a joke as being cumbersome and unstable and with viewed area covered by a shoulder to the near completion.

Can anyone tell me if the 'Take-a-Look' mirror is suitable for use in countries that drive on the left-hand side of the road? I live in Australia myself and we drive (ride) on the left as they do in the U.K. So i'm presuming that the mirror would have to mount on the right-hand temple frame of my glasses.

[QUOTE=Scott176]Can anyone tell me if the 'Take-a-Look' mirror is suitable for use in countries that drive on the left-hand side of the road?/QUOTE]

That sold in the US is for the left side of head only.

I use a Blackburn road mirror on my road bike (attaches around the brake lever with velcro) and a Blackburn mountain mirror on, you guessed it, my MTB. I have to readjust the mirror every now and then, but not enough to be annoying to me. I have Tiagra STI brifters and I noticed the road mirror can sometimes prevent the shifter from coming all the way back to the left after a shift (this can prevent you from downshifting the chainrings), it's easily fixed by twisting the mirror mount clockwise.

I am very nearsighted with strong astigmatism and wear eyeglass lenses made of high refractive index material (things are slightly out of focus unless you look through the center of the lens). The result is I can't focus on anything very close to my eyes, a helmet mounted mirror would have to be about one foot away from my head in order for me to see anything in it.

Uh, that makes no sense. It's a flat mirror. You're not looking at the mirror you're looking at the objects reflecting in the mirror. If that object is 20 feet away then you need to focus at 20 feet, not at 2 inches.

My helmet mirror is about 3 inches from my eye, and with my glasses on I can't focus closer than about 20 inches anymore. I have no problem looking in the mirror.

In general your eyes will be focused at near infinity when looking ahead, and same when you're looking in the mirror.

Again, this makes no sense. I can't focus on anything closer than about 2 feet, and my helmet mirror is 3 inches away with no problem.

For drop bars, someone makes a mirror that mounts as a bar end plug (italian road bike mirror)... never used it though. Seems like it would be out of the way... but wouldn't give as much visibility as the head mounted ones.... would be good for the occasional look, and bikepaths. Very unobtrusive. It doesn't seem like it would vibrate excessively, and wouldn't get knocked on things (maybe knees).

https://cgi.ebay.com/Italian-ROAD-BIK...QQcmdZViewItem

I use the Third Eye bar end mirror on my road bikes and am quite happy with it. https://www.3rd-eye.com/(09).htm

I remove the bar end plug and screw it into the left side of my drop bars. It works a lot better for me than the Blackburn mirror that strapped around the brake hoods. That one was always coming out of position.