If you ride at night or during dusk or dawn (think about fall and winter here too!) you should probably be as reflective as possible. Cleaning the sidewalls of reflective tires occasionally is helpful too.

Schwalbe Marathons here too. I wouldn't necessarily get rid of non-reflective tires for the sake of buying reflective ones, but if I were buying a new set anyway I would definitely by reflective ones. They weigh no extra and even if they're not miraculous (they always look a little more dramatic in flash photos than in real life), they're definitely worth having.

I really like these too - I have them in 26 x 1.5? I think - first pair I got about 6-7000 miles, zero flats!! which was a nice change of pace, they ride nice too

My feeling on these is that, they're cute and fun, they certainly can't hurt, and they probably help -- just not very much.

All the pictures people are posting really don't signify -- reflective accents _always_ look awesome in a camera flash. Out in the real world, they never look as good. If you're right directly in the path of a car's headlights, they can look almost as good, but you can't always count on being directly in the path of a car's headlights -- especially from the side: by the time you're directly in front of a car that's coming at you from the side, either it's far enough away that you'll be out of its path before it can hurt you, or you're being T-boned before it's possible for the driver to react.

If you really want to be visible, you need active lighting, rather than passive, and I think this is extra true for being seen from the side. I run blinkies on the sides of my rear rack (as well as on the back of the rack and the helmet, of course):



Additionally, as others have said, tires do tend to get dirty fast, so unless you keep the sidewalls meticulously clean, they're even less effective than normal reflective accents.

Bottom line: I like that my tires have reflective sidewalls, but I would not go out of my way to buy tires with them; and I never trust them (or any other reflectors) to make me visible, I rely strictly on active lighting for that.

Its a great idea.. I've had them on my commuters several times. Think they were Michelin Transworld.. They offered good traction . My only disappointment was they did not seem to offer the endurance of Conti's.. . And when they don't endure for long distances I wonder how good is their resistance to flats.

side blinkies a good idea.

I like the idea of reflective sidewalls, and I was about to give it a go with a set of Pilot Cities, but I experienced a rash of flats from punctures/bubbles on the spoke side of the tube. Thought it might be from my tire spoons, but still had flats with newer/different brand of tubes and mounting by hand. I have fairly thick rim tape installed, that has given many miles of trouble free service on my Bontragers.
Frustrating to have the tire hold air fine the evening before and find the tube blown out the next morning. Needless to say, I have remounted the Bontragers, and back to finding a tires with full pressure in the mornings.

If you're a regular commuter and need new tires, buying a brand w/reflective sidewalls is an easy decision.

I ride on Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x35s.

You shouldn't stack your bales that high. sheesh. At least it's not the round kind, they outlawed those...

A reflective jersey would be cool. Not just a strip but the whole jersey.

Conti Top Contacts - as durable and flat resistant as Marathons, but lighter and better rolling.

I run specialized 700x32 with reflective sidewalls - that feature wasn't a must, but actually the tires came in at a good price anyway so it was a bonus.



Cheers

Jon

The Michelin City can be difficult to mount due to the steel bead design. It's possible that you may have pinched the tube during installation.

+1 - I run these in 700x32 on my T700. Love 'em.

I just installed a set of 700x32C Michelin Citys on my commuter. They have only about 200 miles, but so far I am happy with them. They ride well, they were easy to mount, and they look nice. They are heavier than the Kenda Kwests that they replaced, and I notice the difference when accelerating from a stop, but once I am up to speed the extra rotational mass makes no difference. My commute times are the same with the Michelins as with the lighter Kendas.

I do like the reflective sidewall, and got the Citys because of the reflective sidewall and the puncture resistance. The reflective sidewall can't hurt, but as someone else said, I'm not sure they are much help. Like other bike reflectors, the reflective sidewall is very directional. You need to be viewing from the angular position of the light source for the reflection to work. If you are slightly off in position the reflection is greatly reduced.

There's no downside to reflective sidewalls. My bicycle came with them from the dealer. My bike-geek friend actually marveled at them! (And she marvels at nothing bike-related that I own.)

What furballi said is probably true; I pinched the tube when trying to install my Pilot Citys. Since the are a b*tch to install I was not impressed, but I was much more careful when reinstalling the tire with the patched tube. So far no flats after a few hundred kilometers. Very sticky tires, too - even in the wet.

A wide variety of tires are available with reflective sidewalls. I've got Continental GP 4000s with reflective sidewalls on one of my bikes. They weigh no more than regular GP 4000s and actually cost less because they were on sale. Like others stated, the reflective sidewalls work as well or better than advertised, which is unusual for any product. Visibility to the sides can be hard to achieve on a road bike. The only potential drawback that I've found is that the sidewalls damage pretty easily, at least on my Contis. Mine have a lot of little scuffs and tears, apparently from riding over rough pavement, but they still reflect lights very well.

I'm running Specialized Armadillos with reflective sidewalls.

I have some Schwalbe Delta Cruisers on my old Raleigh 3-speed. While it isn't my main commuting machine, it sure gets a long well - and those reflective strips definitely do the job.

I wish my current tires had reflective sidewalls. the truth is if commute a lot and year round those reflective stripes are gonna get dirty and its hard to find your favorite tire with a reflective sidewall. if those tires suit you - great - otherwise you can reflective tape to the spokes in addition to any wheel reflectors you might have. I also added reflective tape to the bike frame. this is my winter commuter - so both commutes were in the dark. now that it is light out I don't need all that reflectivity. however my new passion is night riding cuz I have the free time and cuz the traffic is light! Oh I forgot these winter studded tires have reflective sidewalls but I took them off for the summer.

agree 100%,, btw is that the Bainbridge ferry?

I concur about the active lighting and I've been thinking about adding some. I added a 2nd rear strobe on left left drop bar. but I would add them up front for the fools approaching from side streets to see me as early as possible.

These make a huge difference in how well you are seen as unlike spoke mounted reflectors they have a very wide arc and because they are so out of the norm really get the attention of other road users.

I would never rely on a completely passive system for night riding, and I do more of that than most, and combine this with active lighting as well as reflective clothing.

These make a huge difference in how well you are seen as unlike spoke mounted reflectors they have a very wide arc and because they are so out of the norm really get the attention of other road users.

I would never rely on a completely passive system for night riding, and I do more of that than most, and combine this with active lighting as well as reflective clothing.