Jim from Boston

In my above-cited justification of wearing two eyeglass mounted Take-a-Look mirrors, I had added an addendum. I was guiding a visitor through the narrow mean streets of Boston:

JanMM

Have used Take a Look mirrors mounted on helmet visor for several years but have been using various helmet- or glasses-mounted mirrors since at least 1981. With a few bar-mounted mirrors, too, over the years but not for quite a while.
I've been riding recumbent bikes for more than a decade and have no choice but to use a mirror.

InTheRain

I have a bar end mirror that extends out. It's a regular mirror... not a concave lens and it's fairly good sized. I spend most of my time on the tops of my drop bars and leave my mirror adjusted for that riding position. I started using this mirror a year after starting commuting by bike. I initially used the the "take-a-look" mirror... hated it. I believe the mirror I use is made by blackburn.

https://www.amazon.com/Blackburn-Mul.../dp/B000BNZ0NI

I liked the mirror so much on my commutes that I added one to my road bike. I've been using the mirrors for nearly 10 years now. I couldn't imagine riding now without one, anymore than driving my car without mirrors.

canklecat

Yup. I need mirrors. Old neck injury limits mobility. Mirrycles on the bars, Take-A-Look on the helmet.

The helmet mirror took a lot of getting used to. About a month before it was comfortable. Now it's intuitive.

Machka 

I've been riding with a mirror for decades.

bruce19

I use the Italian Road bike mirror......Buy Italian Road Bike Mirror now from AVT.Bike

Initially I found it convenient. Since I broke my neck and now have limited ROM, it's absolutely necessary.

BobbyG

Canon Canonet

jackrippah

Starting in '76, commuting 15 years in downtown Boston and Cambridge (MA) and then til now in Hawaii have always used an Original Mirrycle Mirror. I've tried other forms but none worked as well for me. I would not leave home without one.

JanMM

Yep -that's the one. G-III 17.

2 Piece

my glasses mounted "take a look" mirror is the only safety piece of equipment I will not leave home without.

jmiked

I've been back riding bikes for about 7 years. Since taking it up again, I've always used two mirrors, helmet-mounted and bar-end mounted (flat). I very, very rarely ride on streets, but if I did I'd use two bar-end mirrors.

Flip Flop Rider

mirrors yes

79pmooney

I rode many years without mirrors. Started to about 20 years ago, Quicky found I could make better choices, especially regarding right-hand hazards I was approaching since I could quickly and accurately assess the traffic behind me.

I use helmet visor mirrors. I wear prescription glasses and pretty much consider the lenses and frames sacred. No way am I hanging something on them. I move around far too much on the bike for any stationary mirror attached to it to be useful. But a helmet mirror is always right where I want it and always there when I am riding and never any other time. Easy.

I do have one gripe. Not with the mirrors but with the mirror and helmet manufacturers. (If you are in the industry, take notes.) Why cannot the manufactures of helmet mirrors and helmet manufacturers talk to each other? Make a standard mount! Perhaps just a little recess in the visor or helmet rim that a corresponding fixture that the mirror companies would provide to create a rock solid mount for that mirror detachable by (for example) two screws and nuts.

I know for a fact this can be done easily. I make fiberglass mounts for my helmets and drill two holes in the visor. Been doing it for years. My mounts last several helmets, so as long as I am using one model, it is 15 minutes work to switch the mount from one helmet to the next. But when I upgrade helmets, I have to make yet another custom mount. I have the fiberglassing skills and materials but still, it requires cutting out a suitable piece of sheet aluminum, shaping it, glassing it (usually requiring at least two go-rounds to glass both sides), trimming the glass, drilling the holes in both the mount and visor (carefully; these are matched holes on a curved surface). I then sand and paint them.

American industry came up with the concept of mass production 100 years ago. Standards came into place to make it feasible. Why, why are we still mickey mousing helmet mirrors in 2017 for bicycles that have been around in current form 120 years and helmets that have been around 40 and mirrors 30? Why?

Ben

Bob Ross

Whoa, I really like the headlights on that rig!

10 Wheels

Two Dinottes on Strobe
One high up on the right top.
Other low on the left side

10 Wheels

I change the lights all the time. Have Two trikes

OldsCOOL

No mirrors.

Daspydyr 

Thank you for a helpful thread.

Biker395 

That reminds me of this ... I can't be the only one!

10 Wheels

I had six bikes, then crashed, decided to never crash again, went to trike riding.

Biker395 

I may join you someday.

And I've had neighbors comment on me being "lit up like a Christmas tree" at night. That's just what I want to hear.

canklecat

And that looks like the correct lens hood for the Canonet, either squared off or with vents to minimize blocking the rangefinder window. I've found exactly one of those in 30 years, at a camera show several years ago. Turned around and resold it to a collector that same day!

ddub

No mirrors, but I do use the Garmin Varia coupled with the 820 computer. It is great and works even in a group ride.

canklecat

The Take-A-Look was a bit tricky to mount to my satisfaction. It didn't hold well to my safety glasses and I switch between various pairs of sunglasses. I use only reading glasses so I didn't need it to mount to those. Helmet mounting works better for me, but it took a little experimenting to find a good solution.

I trimmed an obsolete grocery discount card to fit a niche in the Bell Solar helmet styrofoam liner. Zip tied the Take-A-Look to the card, then zip tied the card to the helmet. Works great, used it this way for almost a year. The rig has just enough friction to keep the thing in place, while giving just enough to avoid damage when I've dropped the helmet, or dropped the bike while the helmet was hanging from the handlebar.

Rowan

The mirror you linked to is sold under several different brand names, and I like using them a lot.

jppe, the issue with your mirror appears to be that it is too small. You might need one like the Blackburn/Rhode Gear/Zefal one. I have a small, rectangular Zefal mirror on my rando bike, and it really needs to be replaced. A test is trying to see Machka several hundred metres/yards behind me, and often I can't discern her with the small mirror. With the larger one on my touring bike, the issue isn't so acute. For her part, Machka uses the bigger mirrors; we both feel a bit naked when not riding with mirrors.

I have been using mirrors on and off (more on than off) for years. They help in judging placement of vehicles behind me when coming up to difficult pinch points or road surfaces, plus driver behaviour, plus picking gaps in traffic to turn across the road, to merge, or to overtake. I also am rarely startled by another cyclist coming up behind or beside me.