Problems with my Take a Look Mirror
 

I've been trying to make the Take a Look Mirror work for me, partly because everybody seems to love it. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit onto my particular glasses frame. I've tried anchoring to my helmet visor, but then it's positioned too high in my visual field no matter which way I turn/adjust it. I find myself really straining to catch even a partial glimpse of what's going on over my shoulder. the mirror itself gives a clean image, except for some distortion where the connecting rod is inserted into it.

Is there anything else I can do to make this mirror work for me, or should I resign myself to looking for a handlebar mirror that doesn't shake or bounce like crazy? i haven't much luck with the cheaper ones....

A pic would help. You can bend the wire any way you want to help position the mirror appropriately. Here's a pic of how I bent the wire near the mount to position the mirror higher than it would be if left as it came from the store. Don't bend it where the brass tubing is.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=422230

I had a problem when I tried to use a mirror on my glasses frames -- my frames were intentionally flexible. I have to say that nobody I know uses a mirror on their glasses, the almost all use helmet mirrors with the occasional mirror on the handlebar

The Myrricle mirrors are amazing, and don't bounce at all.

Opposite here. Almost all that use mirrors use eyeglass mounted mirrors, or mirrors fixed to the bike. Helmets move, shift and bounce much more than glasses.

Personally, I find bike mounted mirrors nearly useless compared to to eyeglass (or helmet) mounted mirrors due to either very narrow field of view or demagnification and vibration. Eyeglass mounting provides a much wider, full scale, steady and steerable view. Helmet mounting is nearly as good.

Most of the mirrors I notice around here are mounted on the handlebars.

I happy with my Third Eye® Hardshell Helmet Mirror mounted on the left side of the visor. It's steady and provides a good field of vision. The only problem is that sometimes while I'm walking I'll glance up and to the left to keep aware of what's going on behind me. Well, the other problem for some people is dislike of mirrors and of visors.

I didn't realize it was OK to bend the wire. I'll try pointing mine in the opposite direction to what you did in the photo, to bring the mirror down closer to my eye. (Or actually I should do exactly the same, since the helmet-mounted variation has the retainers pointing upside-down.)

Never had much luck with the TALM I found it too heavy. On the other hand, the Third eye works well.

I have a Take-a-Look Mirror also, and just love it! They do come in different lengths too if that helps you any. The first one I purchased was the regular length shaft mirror. It was too short for me because it felt like I was nearly crossing my eyes trying to look sideways into the mirror. I then bought the longer length shaft, ( I believe it's about an inch or so longer ), that gets the mirror out in front of your head further. That did the trick for seeing the mirror more easily. They also have a helmet mounting kit if you prefer to mount the mirror on your helmet. I had a different mirror mounted on my helmet, but it always seemed to get knocked out of alignment too easily on the helmet. I find that mounting the Take-a-Look Mirror to my glasses suits me best. No vibrations/shaking of the mirror, and you can always see what's behind you. Steady as a rock. I have a Mirricle Mirror mounted on the handlebar, and it has too much vibration to see what's behind you except when a vehicle has its lights on. Of course high pressure tires are unforgiving as far as vibrations on all but the smoothest of road surfaces. You may be able to put some type of "heat shrink tubing" on your glasses temple piece that would allow you to fit the Take-a-Look Mirror to your glasses temple piece.

This mirror may not be for you. I love mine, but they're not for everyone.

I know a number of VERY experienced cyclists. They all use mirrors. But they all use DIFFERENT mirrors. There's no consistency in what is "best".
I tried one that glued to my helmet, it vibrated too much.
I tried one that clipped to my helmet, my helmet was tapered the wrong way where it needed to clip, so it wouldn't work.
I tried a couple of different ones that clip to glasses. I found one I like. Even with it, if you hit it while you're riding, you can knock it right off, so it takes an extra rubber band on it just to make sure that doesn't happen.
Anyway, sounds like maybe you're ready to try Mirror #2 now, so keep working on it and you'll find what's best for you.

THE TEAM TIGER EYE STORE

Helmet Mirror | HubBub Custom Online

I decided to try the Take a Look mirror. I got the regular and compact to try on my (prescription) glasses. Mounting is simple - I did bent it ever so slightly for a somewhat tighter grip to my glasses frame. Flipped it down and to the left (U.S. right side riding), put on my cap, helmet and made some micro adjustments so I could just see the edge of my helmet.

So far I've used it twice; yesterday and today, morning riding (after the low sun angle that blinds drivers during my westward uphill leg is about gone).

My ride is almost like a crit; square block - starts out eastward uphill, turn right / south - flat, turn right west - flat, turn right north - downhill, and right east again. All legs are bike lanes.

I've found the point where if I'm looking ahead I can turn left slightly, about 10 degrees, I can keep that head position and turn my eyes 10 deg right to see forward and turn my eyes again 10 deg left to see the cars coming up behind me on the left (and on the right, during some parts of the ride). I can even see further back when they change lanes over one when they see my lights. I'm always looking for their lane position and many are on the far left side to give me room. It was windy today, so I could see (and not hear) them roll over the lane marker bumps a few inches to give me room.

I get a steady picture of what's behind me with no shaking so far on the 2 rides. Kind of windy today (15-20 mph / 24.1 - 32.2 KPH) - mirror still steady.

One thing to note is where the sun is so you don't reflect it into your eyeballs.

I've found the head position and 10 deg slight turn to the left works on the tops, hoods, and drops. I kind of force myself into the drops during the downhill to keep flexibility, so I know it works in this position.

eta: After 5 days amazon didn't ship, so I complained. They upgraded shipping to overnight. The compact is just too small, so I requested a refund. They said refund initiated, keep the compact!