prathmann

A disco ball is actually a very poor reflector. Only the tiny portion of it where the light hits a mirror perfectly perpendicular will reflect the light back at the source. OTOH, the entire surface area of reflectorized material made using the 'corner reflector' or glass bead principles reflects light back at the source.

wphamilton

The driver did see you, he just thinks he's special and other drivers won't.

FWIW ankle reflectors are the most effective at communicating "there is a bike there" to drivers. Because of movement, and because the movement is not "natural", it's less likely to be dismissed as background. Wheel reflectors are like that, but obviously aren't much use for drivers ahead or behind us.

genec

Just the strobe... the disco ball would be too annoying to keep spinning.

rachel120

What if I added a gear to the outside of the speed gears and a gear at the top of the pole and ran a chain? It'd spin from me pedaling. ;-)

genec

Oh man, that's worse than the old tire driven generators... and probably even uglier.

But innovative... so you get points.

Just be as bright as you can be, but keep in mind that some folks won't even see a flying cow coming right at them in broad daylight.

Take care, ride like you stole it!

mj0

From what I've seen while driving, ankle bands are the most noticeable. Even more than rear lights in most cases

noglider 

It's not distraction, it's the weird way in which vision works. When you turn your head to move your gaze from this direction to that direction, you don't actually see everything in between. It feels like you do. But you take several snapshots, and then your brain pastes them together. If there is something narrow between the snapshots, you don't see it unless you train yourself to look for them, i.e. take narrower snapshots.

rachel120

Not just vision. All of our senses take in fragmentary data and the brain fills in the gaps. Think about that when listening for traffic.

However now that I've had a couple of days to think this over, DO NOT do what I did. The guy's statement was scary, scary enough that I wanted to verify I was visible. It was also my first day back at work after FMLA leave so I was tired and not thinking things through. I got off the road and stopped at the first available place to check my equipment. Which happens to be a deserted field with the only business in screaming distance having closed a couple of hours earlier. I could have been walking into an ambush. Since that is where I can get on the bike path without stopping, I either should have not stopped until I hit civilization again, or I should have continued on the road just a few hundred feet farther to the next nearest place to get on the bike path and still not stopped.

flangehead

They may not fit your budget, but Glo Gloves are an effective way to get a lot of reflectivity onto your hands. They are commonly used by police at night when directing traffic. Only problem is they don't last forever; the picture shows current condition of mine. They've each got about a year of daily commuting on them and I'm getting close to buying a new pair. Google "gloglov" one word.

MikeyMK

People trust their eyes more than anything else. But they shouldn't. There's life experience here.

Hoopdriver

One very real issue is that in some environments (typically urban) there are so many other competing lights. We, as drivers, have become very adept at filtering out lights that don't fit the model for conventional significance. We scan for traffic signals and vehicle lights, but pay no attention to holiday lighting. Cyclists that claim to be lit up like a Christmas tree may be seen as one and thereby ignored.

For this reason, I am an advocate of solid lights rather than blinking and a set up with multiple lights with a bit of distance between so the driver can gauge closing speed. This better matches the expectation of what the driver would scan for. Subjectively, this seems to work for me but I believe there has been some research that supports.

rachel120

Judging from last night the local traffic is quite upset that I'm back on the road, and based on when the cars that honked at me did so (3 or 4 cars) no one apparently had any problem seeing me at a safe distance. So yeah, likely that guy wasn't paying attention. Or might have been lying to try to scare me off the road.

no motor?

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is clothing. Were you wearing something bright? That makes you look bigger than just the points of light reflecting back from your reflectors/lights. It sounds like you're doing everything else right.
These gloves are really reflective and work well for signaling in the dark, and are pretty comfortable too. They make me more visible from the front when my hands are on the handlebars too, quite a buy for $14.

rachel120

We'll not talk about my clothes. Beer budget and cheap stuff is dark. That's why I chose a bright backpack and duct taped the heck out of it. I figure since it covers my back from neck to waistband it really doesn't matter what color shirt or jacket I'm wearing.

prathmann

I agree. But I don't always want to worry about yet another clothing item to put on. So I've attached some 3M reflective tape around the lower edge of my cycling shoes. Besides being visible, this tape (or equiv. ankle band) also satisfies the California legal requirement of having either reflective pedals or reflective material on feet/ankles.
Most cycling shoes do have some kind of reflective tab but I've found most of these to be too small to provide enough visibility.

mcours2006

I got the same treatment today--three car horns for apparently just being out there. WTF? Lots of a-holes out this morning, that's for sure. Takes one to know one, I guess.

rachel120

The ones that get me are the oncoming traffic on the other side of the median. Do you really have to start holding your horn down when you see me and not let off until you pass me? How the heck am I causing you any problems whatsoever?

vol

I found that wheel lights that do not depend on the speed not only are very visible but also win compliments from others. I got compliments "I like your bike!" from taxi driver, old lady pedestrian, and small kid. What more could you hope for than taxi drivers' liking you? And the old lady crossing the street not being scared of you?

rachel120

I've been looking at wheel lights, but every time I find something I like a lot, I read the reviews and each time there's questionable reviews. It eats batteries alive, the lights stopped working after only a few weeks, inconsistency between the two sets purchased, other manufacturer flaws, etc. So far I'm not finding anything that I like and the bulk of previous purchasers liked.

vol

There are always negative reviews and there always picky or dumb users. Just don't buy those that cost a fortune. I only use it on one wheel, it's this. So far, so good. May have saved my life when I ran yellow light once on a busy street.

I've learned that items on Amazon that have too good reviews, like 99% 5 starred are most likely getting fake reviews.

rachel120

I did look at that one, because I remember the woman with the inconsistencies between the purple lights. Those manufacturing inconsistencies and the other top review about how the light on the daughter's bike just quit and replacing the batteries didn't fix it is what made me decide not to get them.

Paul Barnard

I drive into work each morning while it is still dark. On one stretch of the drive I encounter cyclists on a fairly regular basis. I rarely have trouble seeing them from behind. The faintest light registers. Heck, just yesterday I encountered a rider without a tail light at all and had no trouble seeing him. So yeah, if drivers aren't noticing you until they almost hit you, they need to be better engaged. But we all know that there is no shortage of partially engaged drivers, so what can we reasonably do to help them? I would argue that your strategy did exactly what it was supposed to. It drew the attention of a partially engaged driver before it was too late.

no motor?

Well if you get a chance to try gloves like the ones I recommended I think you'll be impressed. Several of us are using them and I'm still pleasantly surprised at the reactions I get when I signal with them after dark.

I also used lightweights on my spokes. I'm unsure how well they work, but I figure anything that makes me look bigger and more visible can't be bad.

dragoonO1

I have had that happen to me too. I guess that means they saw me on the road, so there's that.

khyricat

There is a guy who cycles in all weather before dark on my drive to the highway from my house (headed to Detroit- not gonna bike 42 miles or more if I skipped the highway route), who has a blinker on his bike AND on his hat. I'll be honest there are times I see the hat from the other side of the median in the winter and it reminds me that when I pull the U turn I'll have to watch for him, which is nice, but there are also times when I KNOW he'll be through the next light by the time I make that turn and get there, but the light is almost too bright and distracting from the traffic on my side I should be paying attention to (MI right- so I turn right out of my street, go down to the U turn, then turn left on the other side)... he's always going down the far side. I'm also VERY wary of him when it's SNOWING which I have seen him out in.. I can't imagine doing any bike in heavy snow.