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Trek-Segafredo to race in hi-vis to deliver rider safety message

New training kit designed to support ‘the ABCs of Awareness’

Trek-Segafredo are to race tomorrow’s Japan Cup criterium in new high visibility team kit as part of a safety message regarding the importance of being seen. They say the special edition kit and Project One bikes are a reminder to all cyclists of the importance of wearing colours that contrast with the environment.

After the completion of the Japan Cup, the fluoro outfit will be used as standard training kit.

 

 

The team has been conducting an ongoing safety study about rider visibility in partnership with students at Clemson University’s Perceptual Awareness department. This has given rise to “the ABCs of Awareness.”

The team’s recommendations to improve visibility are as follows:

  • Always on (ride with lights, day and night)
  • Biomotion (highlight the body’s moving parts)
  • Contrast (fluorescent during daylight, reflective in low-light conditions).

Trek-Segafredo also cite a 2015 study conducted at Denmark’s Aalborg University which concluded that a rider wearing fluorescent in daylight could decrease the risk of an incident by as much as 53 per cent.

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27 comments

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Stumps | 7 years ago
0 likes

just wondering if all these tests saying helmets are not worth tuppence are carried out on people or are just testers hitting them with a hammer so to speak.
if they are tested on people do they let them scrape their heads along the ground to see what concrete does with and without a helmet ?
Just playing devil's advocate here not saying either side is right or wrong.

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gunswick | 7 years ago
1 like

Hi viz kit is easier to see, end of. Even at night, because when headlights or street lights hit it, its then hiz viz again, if you black kit then headlights won't help much and only reflective.

There is a reason the SAS and ninja's wear dark colours and not high viz yellow etc....

I use daytime running lights always on my bike. Bontrager flare for the rear, cateye 300 on hyper constant on the front (always on but with a pulse every second). These are GOOD lights and they do make a big difference.

I have a yellow helmet and the yellow gabba and yellow perfetto , they look good and are much noticeable on the road. They have reflectives on the rear. My helmet has two cateye helmet lights on as well so that my head gets spotted above other vehicles etc.

I also have yellow gloves so my hand signals stand out. They too have reflective bits on them.

Do not wear dark gear, you look like a ninja and cannot be seen so easily.

I think Trek's new gear looks really good! And totally sensible to avoid your team getting run over in training.

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Simon E replied to gunswick | 7 years ago
1 like
gunswick wrote:

Hi viz kit is easier to see, end of.

Unhelpful post. Please try again.

Most people arguing against hi-viz or a helmet are really arguing against compulsion and coercion, whether that is by statute, so-called 'road safety' campaigns or by peer pressure from sheeple.

Every time someone tells me it's "obvious" that a helmet is safer I wonder why the research contradicting this bold statement is so blatantly ignored.

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Leviathan | 7 years ago
2 likes

Dear GCJ, road.cc used to be a classier place, but any controversial subject brings out  Binary Bollox like Python. Personally I am pro-helmet, but anti hi-viz. How can that be; well if you hit your head you hit your head and any protection is worth while and better than a visit to the hospital or morgue. I used to do white water kayaking and hit my head several times, but was never injured. The idea that you would wear a helmet is taken for granted in most sports. If is am pootling to shops I don't wear one, but most of the time I am not pootling. The likes of Python think an aura of invincibility will protect his head.

Meanwhile I don't wear Hiviz. Sometimes I wear yellow, orange, light blue, white depending on my mood or what is clean. It is my choice. If i wear a helmet it should not effect a drivers behaviour, but the idea that we should normalize hi-viz and force anyone in other colours, or god-forbid day clothes off the road or into a subculture of wrongdoers with red light runners is bound to alienate people and drive ordinary riders off the road. My inner David Mitchell boils when I see children in playgrounds wearing hiviz tabards, that they might think this is a natural state of anxiety.

I also wear black proudly, just look at my lights.

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Prosper0 | 7 years ago
2 likes

Boring, disingenuous safety klaxon. I hope everyone realises the real point of this exercise is for commercial PR and to sell their new yellow kit and Flare bike lights. At least I hope people weren't born yesterday..

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Beecho | 7 years ago
4 likes

Four times I've been knocked off, all in daylight, all when dressed like a traffic cone. If they ain't looking, they ain't looking. Still, I keep commuting in garish colours, but not the ubiquitous yellow hi-viz. You are all individuals!

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EddyBerckx | 7 years ago
0 likes

Horrible kit. Horrible...

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alansmurphy | 7 years ago
1 like

Mention of decent lights, is it me or has light pollution got worse in the last few years. .

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robike | 7 years ago
0 likes

Cars need hi-vis!  Police, ambulance, fire etc vehicle use it - why not everyone else?  The worst car colour is one of the most popular - the silvery grey that blends in with dry tarmac.

Or

Black cars with working lights are legal at night -- so are similarly turned out bikes.

Around here the police will be out in two weeks time, after the clocks change, to issue FPNS to unlit students -- they then let them off if they go down the police station and show a reciept for lights.

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Canyon48 | 7 years ago
1 like

Trek-Segafredo vs Shimano Neutral Service car  17

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brooksby | 7 years ago
1 like

I hate those daylight running lights. They might make your Nissan cash cow stand out, but it makes everything else so much harder (including just cars which don't have DRL).

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Carton | 7 years ago
1 like

So much empty marketing. 

If they really belived in high-viz, they should at the very least stop selling a black short, mainly black jersey, pitch black jacket standard team kit, ASAP.  You know, the kits their fans are currently being sold. Yet they're still putting lives at risk for their own financial gain, according to the literature they've now decided to selflessly trump up.

Alas, from the brand that brought you Lance Armstrong's relentess pursuit of the "slightest smidge" in technological advancements ...

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A2thaJ | 7 years ago
1 like

Besides... any issues i've had whilst out on my bike... the driver has always seen me... they just want to do a close pass.

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A2thaJ | 7 years ago
1 like

So Tinkoff exit and someone else thinks of nabbing the eye catching background for their advertisement/brand?

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bikerdavecycling | 7 years ago
6 likes

I hate this make yourself in to a light house approach. I do actually wear bright colours 90% of the time but I wonder where it'll start become 'victim blaming' in courts post crashes where a driver's lawyer argues, "well, he was wearing dark blue, how possibly could my driver have used his eyes to look". Even more so with the lights thing. I hate all new cars have daytime running lights. It's already making cars, pedestrians and cyclists without lights less noticeable. And the newer/posher for car, the brighter their stupid daytime lights. This 'war' for brighter and brighter lights will only end when I've got the actual sun strapped to my handlebars/front of my car.

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STATO | 7 years ago
2 likes

Almost pointless given their racer body position. All anyone behind will see is arse of some black shorts and yellow (not reflective) heels.

 

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WillRod | 7 years ago
1 like

There is always a debate over high-viz and also helmets.

But it is great that a racing team is using its publicity for promoting safety. While all-black castelli does look snazzy, it might not be the best idea for a night ride in the rain.

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Bez replied to WillRod | 7 years ago
2 likes
WillRod wrote:

While all-black castelli does look snazzy, it might not be the best idea for a night ride in the rain.

That's kind of why lights and reflectors exist, along with laws about using them.

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WillRod replied to Bez | 7 years ago
0 likes
Bez wrote:
WillRod wrote:

While all-black castelli does look snazzy, it might not be the best idea for a night ride in the rain.

That's kind of why lights and reflectors exist, along with laws about using them.

A 20 lumen rear light and a 1" square reflector are othing compared to a rider wearing luminous yellow. The power of a cars headlights quickly overpowers many bike lights. A decent bike light does work, but so few riders seem to have them.

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orderodonata replied to WillRod | 7 years ago
0 likes
WillRod wrote:
Bez wrote:
WillRod wrote:

While all-black castelli does look snazzy, it might not be the best idea for a night ride in the rain.

That's kind of why lights and reflectors exist, along with laws about using them.

A 20 lumen rear light and a 1" square reflector are othing compared to a rider wearing luminous yellow. The power of a cars headlights quickly overpowers many bike lights. A decent bike light does work, but so few riders seem to have them.

It's not actually luminous (it's not glow in the dark), it's fluorescent. Fluoro stuff only really works with UV light, as present in sunlight. Car headlights don't work that well on fluoro clothing, but hi-viz (reflectives) is great at getting for noticed at night in car or bike lights.

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Simon E replied to WillRod | 7 years ago
0 likes
WillRod wrote:

A 20 lumen rear light and a 1" square reflector are othing compared to a rider wearing luminous yellow. The power of a cars headlights quickly overpowers many bike lights. A decent bike light does work, but so few riders seem to have them.

So how do all the riders without 'decent' lights survive each night-time commute? And how come drivers can spot (and angrily tweet about) the people without lights?

Dayglo yellow and orange clothing is most effective in overcast daylight or near-dusk. They don't work the same at night or under street lighting but even fairly weedy bike lights do (though 20 lumens is not weedy). Pedal and spoke reflectors or scotchlite tape on clothing are very effective.

I'd ban DRLs and compulsory daylight headlights (as on most motorcylces since ca. 2004) with immediate effect.

But why are Trek trying to communicate a safety message to cycling fans? Aren't they (we) already 'aware' of road cyclists? Preaching to the choir. Zzzzzz...

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J90 replied to WillRod | 7 years ago
0 likes
WillRod wrote:

There is always a debate over high-viz and also helmets.

But it is great that a racing team is using its publicity for promoting safety. While all-black castelli does look snazzy, it might not be the best idea for a night ride in the rain.

It doesn't matter what colour you're wearing when it's pitch black, you can't see it anyway, it matters how reflective your kit is. My jacket is black but it's got huge patches of reflective material, so it's better than most. My overshoes have huge reflective strips too.

Though if they can't see your lights well before any sort of reflection, then you need better lights.

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Ducci | 7 years ago
2 likes

Oh dear, release the Bez 

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ped | 7 years ago
3 likes

They cite a study, eh? Well we can all do that: 

" … raised odds ratio of collision crash involvement for those using conspicuity aids"

Source: The use of conspicuity aids by cyclists and the risk of crashes involving other road users: a population based case-control study (http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12855/)

Anyway, I do like the kit and now know about it, so I guess that their marketing has done its job.  3

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oldstrath replied to ped | 7 years ago
1 like
ped wrote:

They cite a study, eh? Well we can all do that: 

" … raised odds ratio of collision crash involvement for those using conspicuity aids"

Source: The use of conspicuity aids by cyclists and the risk of crashes involving other road users: a population based case-control study (http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12855/)

Anyway, I do like the kit and now know about it, so I guess that their marketing has done its job.  3

 

The odds ratio was not significant, and thery may not have accounted properly for underlying risks, so not terribly persuasive evidence. 

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Dan S replied to oldstrath | 7 years ago
1 like
oldstrath wrote:
ped wrote:

They cite a study, eh? Well we can all do that: 

" … raised odds ratio of collision crash involvement for those using conspicuity aids"

Source: The use of conspicuity aids by cyclists and the risk of crashes involving other road users: a population based case-control study (http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12855/)

Anyway, I do like the kit and now know about it, so I guess that their marketing has done its job.  3

 

The odds ratio was not significant, and thery may not have accounted properly for underlying risks, so not terribly persuasive evidence. 

And the authors note that their study was relatively small (making it less persuasive) and that it is at odds with the "large body of evidence" showing increased visibility.

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only1redders | 7 years ago
0 likes

Fluoro ≠ High-viz necessarily, but an admirable gesture

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