asmallsol

Has anyone ever done a custom paint job on a bike using 3m night luminescent paint or some other kind of variant to make the bike more visible at night? If you guys aren't exactly clear on what I am talking about, alot of running shoes and some hi-visiblity athletic cloths will have few strips of a silverish looking film on them. When light strikes them in the dark, they are highly reflective and provide great visiblity. Road signs/markers and construction barrels use similar technology. Could this be feisible on a road bike?

iNewton

It certainly could be done. But it'd be much, much cheaper to simply slap on some reflective tape at strategic places.

asmallsol

ah yes, that is the material I was thinking about. I was thinking of pick up a nude carbon bike later this summer, and make a design similar to the trek's Project One Dart paint scheme. I think that I could make it much more visible without making it look dorky/Fredish

SingleSpeeDemon

Someone on fgg.com did a Colnago with that type of paint. I'll find it.

SingleSpeeDemon

Here it is.

asmallsol

I guess that is kinda similar, however, his discription is more of a photo-luminessent paint (aka glow in the dark)

Does any one have a decent size picture of a nude black frame + fork, shot perpendicular of the wheel base?

ken cummings

Yes I have and you mean retroreflective paint, right. 3M used to make a reflective bead paste that was thinned with Xylene solvent and sprayed on with the coarsest sprayed nozzle you had. I coated the shell of my recumbent with in in the 1980s. Caused a few UFO reports. A camera crew from Denvers' PBS Channel 6 could not tape it as it bounced too much light back at the camera. Some ten years ago I called 3M safety products and found they did not make it any more. I was told that someone in Texas still made it. You could rig your own by getting some of the reflective beads Highway departments dust onto white paint stripes to make them reflective. You can buy reflective films in many colors and cover the frame tubes with it.

I had a friend in a coal mine cover his safety helmet with true luminescent paint. Very feeble light and it faded quickly. We all found that the reflective stickers equipment companies gave out were far more effective in improving visibility.

Godwin

I recently got a ton of reflective tape from ebay and have been playing with it on my commuter.



I call him my undercover fred.

aikigreg

I've actually been hoping to find a paint that was hi-viz yellow or green and reflective or pghoto-luminescent for my commuter. I want that sucker to glow big, day or night! It's so stressful to ride the roads here.

DocRay

I would use this idea...

jonathanrules

lol you guys are relentless