I use a Third Eye mirror and would never ride a bike without it. It is to me as important as a helmet. I have neck issues and little flexibility but even if I did not I would still want a mirror. Sometimes only looking back is what is needed but I never understood the Roadie thing against mirrors. Maybe that has gone away in recent years.

I added a Varia last month, works well especially when in the low traffic areas I ride. It gives an early enough warning that I can glance at my mirror and see the vehicle, usually just as it becomes visible.

My flat handlebar bike has a bar end mirror. I tried helmet and glasses mounted mirrors and could not get comfortable using them.

I'd like to see a pro sprinter use a mirror. It would allow him to scan his competitors behind him. Yes, it would be very unpopular with fans and fellow competitors. There would be calls to UCI to ban them. But formally banning mirrors brings up another issue - UCI stating formally to the world that they are banning an item that if copied (and everything a winner uses gets copied) will save lives.

Ben

I tried a glasses mount mirror and couldn't get used to having it in the corner of my eye (must be me; I also turn off the compass in the mirror of my car!).
I have tried myriad bar end mirrors.
The Italian ones are too small for my old eyes, aside from the fact that you have to get them lined up just right when you wrap the bars.
I liked the Sprintech and Zefel Cyclops mirrors, but found that the mounts break.
I have come back to the Mirrycle; I use the one for flat bars but leave out one section of the mount. It has been very durable, is large enough that I can see what is coming from a useful distance, and can keep track of the people I am riding with on the rare occasions when I am ahead.

Have been using Take-a-Look mounted on helmet visor for several years. Have used helmet- or glasses-mounted mirrors for several decades.

I like the Third Eye Foam helmet mirror. The shaft has an I beam cross section that reduces vibration.

That sounds attractive. I use the long-arm version of Take-A-Look, and I sometimes think about trying the short-arm version because I get some vibration some times that makes it hard to resolve at a distance whether that's a car or not.

buy a helmet mounted mirror and and a bar mounted mirror. Use them and see which works best for you, or use both

It's a good design. I've tried some others an they are circular in cross section and cantilevered out far enough to vibrate quite a bit. The Third Eye is a little shorter, and that I-beam cross section eliminates a lot of it.

With my new helmet, I had to use two layers of velcro tape to put it in the best place, and even at that, the vibration is still well managed.

Here is how I mounted it. I dunno if you can see the I-beam construction there. It has two ball joints ... one at the mount and one at the mirror.

Thanks, nice picture. I see what you did there. You score at least a MacGuyver for the double layering, nice work.

Several up-votes for the take a look mirror. I'm adding one more for it. The downside is that for me I need to clip it onto a visor on the helmet. Many helmets don't have a visor so that could be an issue. Aside from that it takes about a ride or 2 to get used to it. I found that my eyes wanted to focus past it the first few times if that makes sense. After that it's great and I don't leave home without it.

I use the clearviewmicromirror.com. It is a helmet mount with a small mirror on a very short stem. It took me 30 minutes to get it properly adjusted and comfortable using it. This is my first mirror so my learning curve was probably steeper than most rider's.The company is a small Mm and Pop, maybe even just Pop, but product support was very good. The web site is a little old school.

I too use a Take-a-Look mirror. I tried using it on my helmet visor but the mirror fell off when riding over rough asphalt. How do you keep you mirror on the visor? I do like the Take-a-Look mirror on my eyeglasses or sunglasses ear piece.

Cheers

Have not lost one while riding but did lose one recently in the process of driving from Indy to Gulf Shores, AL. May be in car somewhere well hidden. Local bike shop had a replacement for the lost mirror.
I have used electrical tape to semi-secure to black visor but only sure attachment I have found is to drill holes in visor and use 1 or 2 small zip ties.

Thanks. I'll try that.

Cheers

For many years I used Take a look mirrors and similar helmet and glasses mounted mirrors. A few years ago I switched to the Italian bike mirror an all of my bikes and never regretted the switch. They are made out of glass and very clear and unobtrusive. Took a while to get used to bar mounted mirror after using a glass mounted mirror.

Somewhere on Bike Forums I've posted photos of how I secure the Take-A-Look mirror to my helmets.

• I use one of those plastic discount cards from a grocery store and cut it to fit the recesses in the softer EPS foam inside the helmet. This will serve the same purpose as the earpieces on eyeglasses -- something for the three grabbers on the mirror stem to hold onto.
• Then I'll punch a hole in the plastic card. That's the zip ties to go through so nothing slips off.
• I use one zip tie to secure the mirror to the card, with the zip tie going through the punched hole.
• I use a second zip tie to secure the card (again, through a punched hole) to the helmet, on the inside, going through a vent.
• This leaves enough wiggle room to adjust the angle of the mirror stalk/stem up and down a bit. I'll snug up the zip tie to hold the tension so I don't have to keep adjusting the mirror.

It's simpler to make that it sounds. Takes only a few minutes.

For now I have one Take-A-Look attached to my Bell Formula MIPS. The second is loose so I mount it to whatever sunglasses or safety glasses I plan to wear. That's for use with my POC commuter helmet or my aero helmet. I wear the POC on my hybrid, which has bar-end shifters so there's no handy place to mount a mirror on the bike.

The aero helmet lacks vents for mounting, and a permanently attached mirror would defeat the purpose of an aero helmet. The aero helmet and jersey are usually good for an extra 1 mph on my workout routes, especially on windy days. But depending on traffic I may wear glasses with the mirror on days when I'm using the aero helmet. When I reach my usual workout routes with 2 to 6 mile time trial segments, I'll stick the mirror in my jersey pocket and just wear the sunglasses or use the aero helmet's magnet mounted visor. If my neck flexibility was better I wouldn't bother with this setup, but it helps me with navigating traffic until I reach my workout segments. There isn't much traffic there so I only need the bar-end mirror.

This is how I mounted the mirror to my visor. Drilled three holes and two zip ties. Used construction silicon to secure the visor to mitigate vibration.
Not for everybody but it works for me, Frank.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miele Man

I too use a Take-a-Look mirror. I tried using it on my helmet visor but the mirror fell off when riding over rough asphalt. How do you keep you mirror on the visor?

I do like the Take-a-Look mirror on my eyeglasses or sunglasses ear piece.

Cheers

I too prefer an eyeglass mount for my Take-a-Look. Just a few minutes ago I posted:For winter riding I wear goggles over my prescription eyeglasses, but not those with an elastic band that would not support my mirror:

This is exactly what I use on my road bike.

Best regards

yet another +1 for 'tale-a-look' mirror

In addition, I find to Garmin Vario radar unit to be of assistance https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/601468 added benefit of being on sale at the moment

Very creative -congrats!
Best regards

I have tried both eyeglass and helmet mounted mirrors and both of them worked great. My preference was a helmet mounted mirror. As my mileage increased and I was doing longer and longer rides, I added clamp on aerobars on my road bike to help relieve some of the shoulder stiffness I was getting. As soon as I would get on the aerobars, those mirrors became useless. They're great if you always ride upright or in a fixed position as the adjustment doesn't vary much. Once I went aero, all I could see with my helmet mirror was tree tops and sky. To see what was behind me, I had to get back to the hoods.

At 73, my neck doesn't turn around like it used to so looking over my shoulder isn't an option. After trying several types of mirrors, the one I finally settled on was the CycleAware bar end mirror. It's adjusted so that I can easily see behind me while riding on the hoods or a quick look over my arm, while on the aerobars. However, for my last birthday, last October, the wife got me a Garmin Varia rear radar, just prior to my cross state ride. I now use it whenever I'm on any street and use my mirror primarily to see which lane a vehicle is in when on a multi-lane road. As nice as mirrors are, there's not a mirror on the market that notifies you of a vehicle(s) approaching 153 yards away. It's paired with my Wahoo Bolt and the LEDs on the computer help with visual notifications along with the audio notification you get when a vehicle is detected. My radar is like my American Express card; I don't leave home without it.

I have two I use.
Round plastic(Third Eye?) and Take-a-look

I prefer the Take-a-look. Bought it 35 years ago to use while rowing and then tried it for road riding.

The Third Eye is now In my boat bag but I never go out for a bike ride without the TAL attached to my glasses.

I've tried several, & never got the hang of it.

Hard to see enough to be useful, & distracting. My son got me one that straps to your arm but maybe my eyesight is not good enough.

I do like being in a group with mirror-users- they call out the cars, and know when you are coming up.