Mindlessly looking for my "Take a Look" mirror when walking
 

While walking through a parking lot during my lunch break, I caught myself mindlessly looking for my "Take a Look" mirror a few times. I missed that ability to get a glimpse behind me without having to turn around.

Anybody else experience something like this with a bike or bike accessory that you've really come to depend on?

I wish I had a power meter for hiking.

I've done the same. :roflmao2:

Yep.

Though yesterday I was biking home in the rain, didn't see a vine hanging down over the path. Whapped me in the face, and I noticed my take a look mirror was no longer there. Stopped and spent 5 minutes looking for it. Could not find it.

I will not be able to "take a look" walking OR biking till I get a new one (:

Yes. Every so often.

Yep, I do that too.

Why don't you wear it while walking?

Yup, though reluctant to admit it.


BTW, I had gotten through a ride where I work and threw it in my helmet as I was walking through the parking lot. Of course it slipped through the vents and I didn't notice it was missing until the next day. I asked one of our admins if anybody had found anything like it (I didn't know where I lost it). She said she saw something like it in the parking lot. It had been run over flat by a car or truck, but it freaking still worked fine! Some of the gray backing paint had been scraped off, so it would reflect forward too. So I put some tape over it and still use it today after a couple of years.


I had been riding the prairie path with it a year or two earlier in the fall and knocked it off. It took me forever to find it in the leaves and pebbles since where it doesn't reflect back the surroundings, it is about the same color. I eventually found it - maybe 1/2 hour looking.


Ah we have seen a lot of miles together and as you say, it becomes an unnatural second nature,

Ditto, although in my case it's the Mirrycle handlebar mirror. I have one that I've swapped between two bikes. Feels nekkid when I ride the bike without the mirror. And an old neck injury makes it difficult to peer over my shoulder.

To make it easier I'm going to try a helmet mounted mirror, which I've avoided for years. I like the Mirrycle on the flat bar hybrid, which has relatively narrow bars. But it feels too wide on the other bike with wider riser bars when on the local MUP and in group rides. I recently hooked a fellow cyclist in a group ride when we converged on a narrow MUP path from different ramps. No harm done, but the slight clash with the handlebar mirror made me reconsider trying a helmet mounted mirror instead.

I also usually attach a Lowepro padded lens pouch across the handlebar via a wide Velcro strap. Handy for my phone, external USB battery, compact camera or other doodads I want handy, but don't want to carry in a pocket. Occasionally I've had both pouches on one bike and none on the other, which feels odd. I used to carry those pouches on a belt while walking so after many years of use I'm accustomed to them always being with me.

Yep. Love love love my take a look. Rode for years without a mirror now after just a couple months with it I can't imaging cycling without it.

Thanks. I thought it was just me.

Just got the Take a Look mirror (original size) this afternoon. I probably shouldn't have taken a night ride as my maiden voyage. Badly misjudged an approaching truck's speed and was so distracted by the differences between the Take a Look and Mirrycle that I nearly ran into the back of the truck when it slowed suddenly for a stop -- and the truck had signaled. My bad, not the driver's. No harm done but uncomfortable.

I'll need to wear the Take a Look around the house for awhile and try again during the day. But my immediate impression reminds me of why I preferred handlebar or wrist mounted wide angle mirrors 30 years ago, and again last year when I resumed riding. Maybe I'll get accustomed to it, but the proximity to the eye, blind spot and need to pivot my head around to approximate the field of view of the Mirrycle are uncomfortable at the moment.

You're not alone. I also find myself in the supermarket pushing the shopping cart with my hands parallel to the sides of the handle as if I'm "on the hoods".

Probably not quite unique, but this is the first time I've seen such a statement on BF.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mc9000 (Post 19060873)

While walking through a parking lot duringmy lunch break, I caught myself mindlessly looking for my "Take aLook" mirror a few times. I missed that ability to get a glimpse behind me without having to turn around.

Anybody else experience something like this with a bike or bike accessory thatyou've really come to depend on?

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I have done that too with my (two) Take –a-Looks. Just this past week I went out for a ride, after being off the bike for a week, and realized I forgot my mirror. I decided to complete the 12 miles without it but still occasionally glanced upwards looking for the phantom mirror.

Once a local radio talk show host was remote broadcasting outdoors from Fenway Park, the Red Sox baseball stadium. I stopped from my bike ride and as I was facing them, he was chatting with his sidekick and ogling a couple young ladies in short shorts. I got the host's attention, and pointed to my Take-a-Look as I could see the ladies too but less obviously.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MAK (Post 19063568)

You're not alone. I also find myself in the supermarket pushing the shopping cart with my hands parallel to the sides of the handle as if I'm "on the hoods".

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I have given “finger waves” myself while pushing a shopping cart.

Have used glasses- or helmet-mounted mirrors since about 1980 and first remember looking for the non-existent mirror not long after, while walking on a sidewalk in downtown Atlanta, where I lived. Seems to be triggered by walking where there is visible or audible traffic nearby.

I do this all the time. I don't have to worry about losing my Take A Look because I zip-tied mine to the side of my helmet; Much better than hooking it on my glasses.

The mirror is still hanging on the vine.

I constantly find myself looking down and left when walking, especially when crossing busy intersections and parking lots. How did I go so many years without a mirror on my handlebar?

I find that when driving after a long ride, I get the sensation to reach down for a shifter when I go to pass the first time. Pretty strange at 75mph.

I need to get a mirror but haven't really looked yet.

Yep, happens to me all the time.

This too. :)

I saw an old coot standing in line at the bank the other day, just wearing street cloths, and his rear view mirror attached to his glasses.
I have to say he looked quite odd.
.

Where it gets bad is when you walk down an aisle and someone's in front of you, and you holler "On your left!" as you walk by.

Back in the 1970s, I had a mirror that spring-clipped to my sunglasses. It disappeared decades ago. I STILL glance up to where it once rode sometimes.

I "check" my take a look all the time. miss being able to see behind me sometimes. :thumb: