GlennR

And looking "Pro" is the most important thing.

A reflective vest is easy to use at night and won't upset the balance of your wheels.

I-Like-To-Bike

B-b-b-but the "Pros" don't ride at night, do they? And they have no use for such weighty objects like lights, reflectors or reflective gear. All "Pro" wannabes should remove those useless reflectors before someone mistakes them for being one of those dreadful "Freds" we hear so much about on BF.

GlennR

Yup... reflectors, spoke protector and valve stem caps, i've done all of that because I like the way it looks without them. But i'm only a poser because I don't have a power meter and all Pros have one.

Personally, do whatever you like. The only one you have to please is your wife and yourself... in that order.

Looigi

If wheel balance is a concern, you can add an identical reflector 180 degrees from the first to restore balance.

indyfabz

Not looking like a Fred is the important thing. There is a middle ground.

In any event, my night riding is in the city, which has tight intersections. If a motorist's head lights are close enough to illuminate wheel reflectors it's probably too late to avoid a collision.

T Stew

I recently learned what a dork disk is, and I really could care less either way except that on the old vintage bikes they are often pretty grimy. I have no idea what a Fred is though. I have never removed a reflector, but most of my bikes didn't come with them anyhow. If ones travels puts them on roads during night time I would think some amount of reflectors would be a good idea, whether it is tape or wheel reflectors, etc. Active lighting is good, yes, but not foolproof and often only directed ahead and behind with not much visibility at angles. Vehicles even with more lighting still require the use of reflectors too.

Retro Grouch 

[Insert smart a** comment of your choice.]

JonathanGennick 

I take them off, but most of my bikes are mountain bikes. I'm afraid I can't pedal fast enough to notice any out-of-balance conditions.

I do have a city bike on order. Haven't considered yet what to do on that one. Reflective tape is appealing because it won't come lose and fall off like a plastic reflector might.

One neighbor who rides a lot at night wants reflectors, and I am trying to sell him on tape instead because he rides the same bike on singletrack as on pavement.

CroMo Mike 

My wife doesn't ride. If she don't play the game, she can't make the rules. And what are these "reflector" things of which you speak?

KD5NRH

Something comes to mind for me, though; when driving at night, nothing screams "bike" like the odd sawtooth movement of wheel reflectors. With lots of tape, or reflective sidewalls, all a driver will see of the wheels is a couple of bright circles.

I wonder if it would be better to put reflector tape only on half the rim, or opposed quarters, or black out part of a reflective sidewall to get that distinctive movement back.

techsensei

I have reflectors (and lights, rack, fenders, etc) on my commuter, because I need it to do everything, and I ride it in all conditions. Weight or looks is not a factor; practicality is. My good bikes are reflector-free; aesthetics is important to me on my "Ferraris."

Tim_Iowa

Exactly. For safety at night, you need two things: Visibility and Identification.

Visibility is accomplished by just about any combination of reflectors and lights = "I see something"

Identification is tougher to accomplish.
A single, steady tail light can be mistaken for a motorcycle or a car with one tail light, leading to a mis-conception of the speed differential involved.
A single, blinking tail light can be disorienting and hard to judge the distance.
Multiple lights may be extra visible, but it takes a quick thought process by the driver to say "Hmm, that looks like a UFO but is probably a bike".

Whereas, pedal and wheel reflectors give a very distinct visual signature that says "I'm a bicyclist". Pedal reflectors are easily identified by a following car, and wheel reflectors are easily identified by crossing traffic. It's the unique movement that makes them so easy to identify, even at far distances.

A combination of reflectors and lights seems like the best solution, because I don't believe that lights alone are sufficient to easily identify you as a cyclist.

I ride often at night, so my bikes have both reflectors and lights. I will add wheel reflectors to a commuter bike if it doesn't have them, or I'll use reflective straws that go on the spokes.
I've also added pedal reflectors if my pedals can easily accept them. If the pedals can't fit reflectors easily, I'll add a stripe of orange reflective tape to the pedal bodies.

dcwldct

I take them off road bikes but have left them on anything else. On a road bike they do exude freddness. I don't want to be that guy at a new ride who people assume is incapable of holding a line .

Does it ultimately matter? No. I just don't ride at night enough to need them (not that they help: Cycle Sense: Why Reflectors Don't Work), they're easy to take off, and I'm not opposed to bonus cool points.

techsensei

Sorry, but those are all excuses. I'm not saying bikes should rely on reflectors alone; bikes ridden at night should have definitely have lights. But to say that reflectors don't work, or that bikes don't need reflectors is ridiculous. They absolutely work, most especially wheel reflectors.

Paul Barnard

Wheel reflectors work in perpendicular encounters. What are some perpendicular crossing scenarios where a cyclist would enter into the light field of a vehicle's headlights and remain there for long enough for the vehicle driver to react?

GerryinHouston

Lots of prospective roadkill in BF I guess that's Darwinian selection.

Better dead than Fred...

Note to self. If you ever hit a cyclist at night, take a photo of his reflectorless wheels for Hizzonor.

'With all due respect for the roadkill suh, he chose to make hisself less visible by removing the wheel reflectors.'

As far as I am concerned:

Hi viz yellow, lots of reflective stripes (even my Specialized gloves have them, for the turn signal). Oh yes! ...and a giant Chinese made bell, a mirror and blinking lights.

Better Fred than dead!

PS: For the engineering minded worrying about upsetting the balance of the wheel:

Q: What do you do about the eccentric weight of the valve stem and the reinforcement around it? Remove them?

My A: I counterbalance it with the wheel reflector!

techsensei

Too many variables to account for. I just know that from my perspective when I am driving, I have seen bikes with wheel reflectors; I was alerted to a bicycle on the road. Isn't that a good thing?

KD5NRH

Well, unless you have headlasers on your car, there should be a lot of side scatter to the right. (in right drive countries, at least) Generally less so to the left, but still some. I've seen and recognized the wheel reflectors of crossing cyclists within 30-45 degrees to the right of the direction of travel of my car. I'd say I was at least no less aware of their presence and direction of travel than if they'd been wearing hi-viz in daytime.

How much difference that makes depends mostly on their behavior; if they run a stop sign or red light directly in front of a car, it still may not be enough time to react, but it won't be because a driver hasn't had ample indication of their presence, what type of object they are, and their travel direction.

deapee

I take them off...and the dork disc too. If you want reflective surfaces, get some tape.

fietsbob

buy tires with a reflective band on the side wall (you need to keep it scrubbed clean)
and then there will be a distinct ring to shine when cars are coming from the sides .

KD5NRH

It also assumes poor design and maintenance; if a bike has the rear reflector mount bent and the junky stock aimed at the sky, why would you think that owner would maintain a rear light any better? As for design, I tend to use aftermarket stuff anyway; rear CatEye reflector plus all the trim on my panniers, seat bag, etc. Previous bike had a stick-on 1.5x4" trailer reflector on the back of the rack. Side visibility is reflective sidewalls and mixed color reflective tape on the rims, (yellow/white on the front, yellow/red on the back) white reflective sidewalls, plus a few bits of tape on the forks, top tube and chainstays. Then there's red reflective tape on the back of my helmet and yellow iron-on reflective on my gloves and on the hi-viz shirts I usually ride in. All this is backing up the RadBot1000, (which has its own reflector built in) Radian head/tail lights, and a tac light in a handlebar mount. And more or less by accident, the little flashing "Z" on the forward-facing side of my current mirror. (When I remember to turn it on, at least.)

My goal is to have any judge hearing a motorist claim they didn't see me, immediately ratchet that driver's credibility down to the used car dealer level or lower.

techsensei

I'd have no problem with a "dork disc" if someone actually made a good one. The indestructible ones went away when the cassette hub took over. That's the problem with (current) spoke protectors; they always break or they are never secure to begin with.

FullGas

there are numerous options to provide visibility to a bike / rider.

spoke reflectors are way, way down on that list.

American Euchre

You can actually feel the weight of a reflector on your bike? Most road wheels weigh 7+ pounds for the pair (up to 10 pounds or more for mountain bike wheels with off road tires), including cassette, yet you feel a 1 oz reflector throws the wheel out of balance?

bargeon

If your concern is that balance is affected by the weight of the reflector and you take them off, won't the valve stem then cause a balance problem?

As some one earlier suggested, leave one reflector on the opposite side from the valve stem. That is assuming that they are approximately equal in weight. You could test this with one of those cool little digital scales. Then the question becomes: if the stem and a single reflector are not identical in weight, how much difference in weight would cause concern? I suppose you could add something to the reflector or maybe shave a little off to adjust.