At first, I wasn't sure what the OP meant by "safety vest." I was picturing something with armour or inflatable crash cushions. After reading I see we're talking about reflective vests. I ride for fun on the weekends and M-F every day in all weather to work. I wear a reflective vest sometimes on the weekends and always to and from work. I couldn't give a flying f#@$ what anyone thinks about what I'm wearing.
So as I have gotten older I have become much more safety conscious and now wear a safety vest day or night. The other weekend I went on a Toys for Tots ride. I overheard some “********” comment to his buddy about my ***** equipment. I just wondered who wears a safety vest not living on a military base where they are required. I find it makes me more noticeable than when I don’t wear one.
Where I work it has gotten allot more common (vest's/coat's/hat's/umbrella's ...) over 50% of the people wear something.
Nothing wrong with them, especially with all the distractions we have (excuses we use).
Society as a hole wants to blame anyone but our self's for our screw ups.
Bottom line "The more visible you are the better your chances are".
I few years ago I replaced my old leather coat with one with reflective material (every little bit helps).
If you're looking to be more visible I've found a noticeable difference in a few options:
Helmet color. Bright white stands out the best, so does hi-viz but that dims overtime. Silver/grey is the worst and becomes like urban camo when looking out of the corner of your eye.
Reflective tape: Hi-viz is for day time, reflective tape is for all the time. Retro-reflective tape is not created equal. Look into Orafol Reflexite V98. It works well enough to reflect during the day light. It's like a headlight reflecting back, seriously, look into this stuff. The white stuff is 25 times more reflective and brighter than black reflective tape.
Amazon sells V92, which is harder, V98 stretches well so it's great for helmets. http://www.colebrothers.com/ sells it.
With the combination of a White full face helmet and this tape I've noticed a considerable and notable difference in how much people pull out in front of me.
Lastly, get something for your brake lights like a VoloMod. This got me in all honesty about 6' extra of space between me and the car behind me. Day or night time, stopped or moving. I've swapped bikes to one without it, road the same area again, and yeah, 6 extra feet. It gets people off your rear.
1)On, no brakes
2)Stopped with brakes used
3)Slowing without brakes (engine braking)
4)Slowing with brakes
5)Rapid stopping without brakes (engine braking)
6)Rapid stopping with brakes
7)back to Rapid Stopping without brakes
With all that being said, I've still seen people crash into the back of 10' snow plows that have the whole backside covered with reflective tape. Or had people pull in front of me at the last second when driving a giant bright red F600 truck.
Just assume they are actually trying to kill you and you won't be surprised.
But as far as me? Psalms 91 baby. Nothing saves like Jesus.
Wow that’s some great information right there. Thanks so much. Custom Dynamics just came out with their magic strobe for rear lights for 2018 bikes. It’s like a Clark Grizwald Christmas when you hit the brakes with that strobe connected.
I live within three miles of Langley Field King Street gate, so there are numerous reflection equipment people around. So I started a few years back, on any long ride.
I have done it long enough to know, it is like night and day difference in the almost what were they looking at near misses you get.
In fact, I have never had one with the bright yellow protective vest. So many without, just about have give up on biking at my age. (Still have RIPSAW but I now have a 4X4 Wrangler that never has the top on it).
Hard to tell what people are thinking when they say stuff about what you wear or present yourself. I have had comments even about my full face Shoie.
I just have thick skin and know they or being funny. If they insist on really being an ***-hole, next trip out, I run over them with the Wrangler.? Haa
Last edited by Jackie Paper; 12-18-2017 at 09:35 AM.
I don't wear a safety vest, per se. But, I put a rather large reflective sticker on the back of my full face helmet, several reflective patches on my black leather vest and upgraded the lighting to LED on the bike, especially the back. Just hope that helps make me more visible on the few occasions that I do ride at night.
12-17-2017, 10:59 PM
