[ktache]

Quick one.

During daylight in heavy mist and fog, should I wear my Respro reversible ankle bands with the colourful fluorescent yellow/green side out or the 3M reflective side showing?

Which would be the more noticeable to you, the more aware cyclist drivers?

 

Topic

[Captain Badger]

Rekrab wrote:

Rekrab wrote:

How much do you spend on batteries? Or time spent charging all those lights?

Not much. The headlight is USB you get about 2h on full beam, 4 on half, (which is ample light for road riding). I personally don’t spend any time charging it, not counting the plugging it in. The others various; Knog frog knockoffs from halfords on the lid, a cheap pendant and a Wilko flasher on the ruck sack, a topeak blinker on the bike – they’re all CR2032s except for the Wilk blinker which is AAA. Can’t remember when I last changed the batteries – they last well and multipack batteries from £ shop cost, well, £ a pack

[EddyBerckx]

In fog, wouldn’t dark colours

In fog, wouldn’t dark colours contrast better than light coloured fluorescents?

In any case, I’d always use strong lights front and rear for what it’s worth.

[Rekrab]

How much do you spend on
How much do you spend on batteries? Or time spent charging all those lights?

[Captain Badger]

Cycloid wrote:

It would be interesting to know the colour of the car.

Black and dark coloured cars have significantly more “accidents” than light cars.

It could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black

The problem is that I never think of the right put down in a confrontation situation

I didn’t see it cos it wasn’t wearing hi viz….

re put downs, I know I’m the same, but in this case my laughter expressed a thousand words I think.

[Captain Badger]

wycombewheeler wrote:

 

not forgetting – i couldn’t see him, his hi vis blended in with the low sun

Not to mention – “Where were his pedal reflectors, eh? ‘Bout time cyclists had to obey the law like motorists do!”

[Captain Badger]

Cycloid wrote:

Simple Rule:-

Drivers decide what you SHOULD have been wearing AFTER the collision

“If only he had been wearing a hi-viz jacket M’Lud”

Jeez ain’t that the truth!

[Cycloid]

It would be interesting to

It would be interesting to know the colour of the car.

Black and dark coloured cars have significantly more “accidents” than light cars.

It could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black

The problem is that I never think of the right put down in a confrontation situation

[wycombewheeler]

Cycloid wrote:

Simple Rule:-

Drivers decide what you SHOULD have been wearing AFTER the collision

“If only he had been wearing a hi-viz jacket M’Lud”

not forgetting – i couldn’t see him, his hi vis blended in with the low sun

[jh2727]

hirsute wrote:

Given the vast majority would have lights, I would go for the reflective side.

The vast majority will have lights, but will any of them be turned on and will all of them be working?

It was pretty foggy on on Thursday, but many drivers didn’t have any lights on – although… when I got to work and cleared the mist off my specs, it turned out it was a lot less foggy than I thought.

Anyway, the answer to Ktache’s question is ofcourse… by an extra pair and wear flourescent and one reflective.

[ktache]

The Forum is not dead.

The Forum is not dead.

I think that in mist I will go for the flouresent and then go for the 3M retroreflective in the heavy fog.

[Cycloid]

Simple Rule:-

Simple Rule:-

Drivers decide what you SHOULD have been wearing AFTER the collision

“If only he had been wearing a hi-viz jacket M’Lud”

[Captain Badger]

Some fluro visible. 3M picks

Some fluro visible. 3M picks up light and throws it directly back to it’s source. If their lights aren’t on you (eg when tehy are emerging from a side road so looking at at 90o to the direction of their lights) it’s just grey. So a mix of viz and 3M is best, as well as being lit up like a xmas tree

As a point of interest (starts to fill his pipe a whilst preparing to tell his oh so intersting story) I have a grey 3M camo style jacket I picked up from Evans.

Was wearing it a couple of weeks ago after dark, with a hi-viz rucksack cover, 4 flashing reds on my back (one on my lid, 2 on the rucksack, 1 on the bike) a flashing white on the front of my lid and a billion candle power torch on my bars when I got reprimanded for my grey jacket by a driver at some traffic lights.

 

[HoarseMann]

side lights and front fogs…

side lights and front fogs… but only because you at least needed the side lights on for them to work! (I changed my ways a long time ago )

[Cycloid]

A difficut call – it depends

A difficut call – it depends upon how bad the fog is.

Good front and rear lights pointing towards drivers come first on my list. Don’t worry about dazzling drivers, you probably won’t manage it.

Reflectives (correctly called retro-reflectives) reflect light back in the direction it came from, ie back towards the vehicle’s lights. In thick fog a proportion of the light  (say 50%) emitted from a cars lights is absorbed by the fog before it hits your reflectors, then the same proportion is absorbed when it is reflected back to the driver. Your reflectors may then be only 25% efficient. Don’t trust your life to reflectors in thick fog.

Hi viz (fluorescent) colours need  ambient  light which contains the wavelwngths that cause the fluorescence effect to be present. Hi-viz yellow needs Ultra violet – blue light to work well, this may not be present in thick fog. Hi Viz orange uses longer wavelength light in the visible part of the spectrum and may be a better bet. Don’t trust your life to H Viz in thick fog.

My view is in fog, use a lot of everything and hope for the best. Also this is probably one of the few times when it is a good idea to ride in the gutter.

[Sriracha]

There is also a bunch of
There is also a bunch of drivers who drive around long after dark oblivious to having no rear lights on – due to the incomprehensible EU decision to make DLRs front-only.

[Author]

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