[JaredP91]

As I have a young child, I tend to do a lot of my riding at night in low visibility conditions. While this is ok on well lit roads, I am conscious that on roads without adequate street lighting I may not be visible to drivers.

I have front and rear lights on my bike, as well as wearing clothing with reflective sections. However, I wondered if anyone can recommend any good performance fit clothing that is hi-viz/reflective whilst still maintaining a close fit for fast riding? For example, I came across the Proviz jackets/gilets which offer fantastic reflectiveness, but they look to be very loose fitness.

Or, indeed, if there is anything else I could do to increase my visibility during low light rides?

Topic

[nopants]

A bit of reflective tape on

A bit of reflective tape on your helmet shows up very well in a lot of situations.

If you trim it to the helmet it is not conspicuous in daylight, and has the advantages of  360 degree visibility, no weight, you can’t forget to charge it, it’s cheap and you’re unlikely to leave it behind.

[OnYerBike]

Have you looked through the

Have you looked through the suggestions here: https://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/13-best-reflective-garments-and-accessories-214008 (NB – dhb now call some products “FLT” rather than Flashlight)? Something like the Sportful Vest might be a good option.

In my opinion, a good set of lights (or two) is far superior to any amount of reflectives. Many modern lights have a degree of side-visibility, although as David mentioned you can get a range of additional lights specifically for sideways lighting.

Reflectives are only really good when you are caught in the light’s beam, and there are many cases when you would want to be visible but aren’t in the beam. For example going around a corner, or if the car is pulling out of a side road. 

Bright/flourescent colours do nothing after dark. They might be of some help at dusk.

 

 

[David9694]

I used to do a night-time

I used to do a night-time commute. The Proviz “pix” jerseys are good for catching the light; the cheaper jackets and gilets aren’t breathable.

Get your lighting high – e.g. consider a front/ rear helmet light; clip a rear light in your jersey pocket and have handlebar end front /rear lights. You can get little yellow lights that clip in your spokes. I had one of those sides flashing orange lights for a time, but it got nicked, bizarrely. I was lit up like a Christmas tree!  
Consider a dynohub if you’re going to do this regularly.
I felt safer in pitch black, rather than dusk because the cars don’t know where the edge of the road is.

[Hirsute]

Sure but when there is a
Sure but when there is a height difference, then your lights will stick out before the headlights can hit anything reflective.
I’ve got some ankle bands which work well.

Not sure there is anything particularly tight fitting. You could try altura, but it depends on your shape and also I suspect the jackets are mostly aimed at commuter needs.

[Mungecrundle]

I recall either this
I recall either this controlled study or another very similar which concluded reflectives that capture biomechanical motion are the most conspicuous to other humans. They also have the advantage of not requiring batteries.

I found that reflective 3M stickies on the crank arms are very effective, cheap, aero and weigh practically nothing.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221770372_Using_reflective_clothing_to_enhance_the_conspicuity_of_bicyclists_at_nightsing reflective clothing to enhance the conspicuity of bicyclists at night

Article in Accident; analysis and prevention 45:726-30 · March 2012 with 231 Reads 

DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2011.09.038 · Source: PubMed

Joanne Wood

42.12Queensland University of Technology

Richard A Tyrrell

+ 2

Ralph Marszalek

Philippe Lacherez

29.58Queensland University of Technology

Abstract

Bicycling at night is more dangerous than in the daytime and poor conspicuity is likely to be a contributing factor. The use of reflective markings on a pedestrian’s major joints to facilitate the perception of biological motion has been shown to greatly enhance pedestrian conspicuity at night, but few corresponding data exist for bicyclists. Twelve younger and twelve older participants drove around a closed-road circuit at night and indicated when they first recognized a bicyclist who wore black clothing either alone, or together with a reflective bicycling vest, or a vest plus ankle and knee reflectors. The bicyclist pedalled in place on a bicycle that had either a static or flashing light, or no light on the handlebars. Bicyclist clothing significantly affected conspicuity; drivers responded to bicyclists wearing the vest plus ankle and knee reflectors at significantly longer distances than when the bicyclist wore the vest alone or black clothing without a vest. Older drivers responded to bicyclists less often and at shorter distances than younger drivers. The presence of a bicycle light, whether static or flashing, did not enhance the conspicuity of the bicyclist; this may result in bicyclists who use a bicycle light being overconfident of their own conspicuity at night. The implications of our findings are that ankle and knee markings are a simple and very effective approach for enhancing bicyclist conspicuity at night.

[brooksby]

Whilst I’d agree with what

Whilst I’d agree with what Pilot Pete has said about flashing and solid lights on your bike, and I’d recommend making sure you have reflective bits either on the pedals or on you shoes (the movement draws attention)…

I feel I ought to point at the great big elephant in the room:

You do know that motor vehicles have these huge bright lights mounted at the front, way more powerful than anything you could mount on your bike?  And supposedly these powerful vehicle-mounted lights are so that the driver can see where they are going…?

[Richard_pics]

I have some Altura Reflective

I have some Altura Reflective overshoes, which as your feet are generally always moving, they seem to catch drivers eyes well. That coupled with an Seesence ace rear light and flashing front led & Lezyne powerdrive front ive never had issues.

[Pilot Pete]

One flashing and one solid

One flashing and one solid red light to the rear. Strong but well angled white light on the front. Hi-viz doesn’t work at night. 3M or equivalent reflective material works, but has to have a light shone onto it to reflect it back. Low headlight beams won’t do this until quite close. Hi beams will.

Movement is what catches the eye (goes back to our hunter instincts). The human eye is very good at spotting movement in peripheral vision. A flashing light attracts the attention better than a steady light, but make sure the flashing light is not drowned out by the steady. I keep them separated to achieve this. The steady light is easier to judge distance to from behind, a flashing light is much harder.

The key though is attracting a driver’s attention to your presence before you have to rely on reflective materials to bounce light back. And of course you see numerous vehicles driving around in the dark with a headlight not working – so don’t rely on them to spot you in their headlights!

If you want to be effectively seen through the use of reflectives, they should be on the bits that are moving – your legs, but preferably you lower legs/ feet. Grabs the attention much better than a sash on a jacket etc, once again because of that movement.

Primarily though I think effective lighting is much better than reflective material as many can be seen a kilometer or so away, especially flashing, which you can never achieve with a reflective. Bright coloured clothing doesn’t make any difference in the dark so I’ve stopped worrying about that!

I have put retro-reflective tape down my mudguard and rear seat stays on my winter bike, just because you can’t really even see it (it’s black tape on a black bike) and thought it does no harm as, like most, I removed the nasty little plastic rear reflector that came with the bike!

PP

 

[Author]

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