High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).
I thought I could use a hi-vis belt attached to the top of the seat,
plainly visible from the rear.
My question is: what colour or specification of hi-vis belt should I
use for daylight riding?

Steve

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:00:16 -0700 (PDT), Steveal
wrote:

I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).

It's not about being visible, it's about being perceived. In my
experience simply riding a recumbent is enough to get you well and
truly noticed. In fact, I had an *awful* lot of people tell me how
dangerous it must be because they are sure lots of people less
observant than them would never have seen me. Almost nobody says they
have seen me riding my Brom!

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/
"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken
Newsgroup may contain nuts.

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

Thanks for your views.

Steve


On Jul 11, 11:04*pm, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:00:16 -0700 (PDT), Steveal

wrote:
I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).

It's not about being visible, it's about being perceived. *In my
experience simply riding a recumbent is enough to get you well and
truly noticed. *In fact, I had an *awful* lot of people tell me how
dangerous it must be because they are sure lots of people less
observant than them would never have seen me. *Almost nobody says they
have seen me riding my Brom!

Guy
--http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc|http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/
"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken
Newsgroup may contain nuts.

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

Steveal wrote:
I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).

May I suggest a puple spandex jumpsuit with silver sequins and orange
socks (add sandals for added effect). Nobody's going to fail to notice
you wearing that!

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

Thanks, that's really funny. I'll keep my eyes open for some 'puple'
gear.

Steve


On Jul 11, 11:21*pm, Pip Ryder wrote:
Steveal wrote:
I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).

May I suggest a puple spandex jumpsuit with silver sequins and orange
socks (add sandals for added effect). Nobody's going to fail to notice
you wearing that!

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

On 11 July, 23:00, Steveal wrote:
I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).
I thought I could use a hi-vis belt attached to the top of the seat,
plainly visible from the rear.
My question is: what colour or specification of hi-vis belt should I
use for daylight riding?

Seriously, you're only really interested in being seen by drivers
coming from behind you, and if you have a black seat no-onw behind you
will be able to see your belt no matter what colour it is. A brightly
coloured tail fairing on the trike, however, would make you
significantly more visible:

http://www.recumbentblog.com/2009/07...-tail-fairing/
http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/tail...udatailbox.htm

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

On 11/07/2009 23:00, Steveal wrote:
I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).
I thought I could use a hi-vis belt attached to the top of the seat,
plainly visible from the rear.

Have you thought about a hi-vis rucksack cover draped over the back of
the seat?

My local council was giving them away a few months ago. I acquired one
for use during the winter, when I'm likely to be riding at twilight. I
see no real benefit to using it in broad daylight.

--
Danny Colyer http://www.redpedals.co.uk
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
“If two men on a job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they
disagree all the time, then both are useless.” - Darryl F. Zanuck

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

To clarify what I'm intending, imagine a hi-vis belt wrapped around
the top of the seat in the picture below:

http://www.ice.hpv.co.uk/images/trik...s/t_2008_b.jpg

Steve

On Jul 12, 12:00*am, Simon Brooke wrote:
On 11 July, 23:00, Steveal wrote:

I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).
I thought I could use a hi-vis belt attached to the top of the seat,
plainly visible from the rear.
My question is: what colour or specification of hi-vis belt should I
use for daylight riding?

Seriously, you're only really interested in being seen by drivers
coming from behind you, and if you have a black seat no-onw behind you
will be able to see your belt no matter what colour it is. A brightly
coloured tail fairing on the trike, however, would make you
significantly more visible:

http://www.recumbentblog.com/2009/07...udatailbox.htm

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:00:16 -0700 (PDT)
Steveal wrote:

I do all my riding in daylight on a recumbent trike. I'm interested to
make it more visible, as I realise that I tend to wear darkish
clothing and the trike has a black mesh seat (although I do have the
supplied hi-vis flag).

Is black invisible in daylight? Against a typical street scene I'd have
thought it would stand out as well as anything else, and better than
bright fluorescents if shops have sale signs in the windows.

I thought I could use a hi-vis belt attached to the top of the seat,
plainly visible from the rear.
My question is: what colour or specification of hi-vis belt should I
use for daylight riding?

Something like this
http://www.partydomain.co.uk/d-comme...oduct4196.html
would probably attract more attention.

High Visibility Gear for Daylight
 

Phil W Lee wrote:

A few of those childrens coloured windmills on poles (one on the
cap/helmet) should ensure reasonable visibility, and even if they
don't it seems unlikely that any driver will willing admit to SMIDSY.

How about this. He should attach the following signs to the back of his
recumbant.

PETROL: 90p

and

FREE PARKING

No car driver ever misses signs like those!