BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

For fairness, compare that to a bike that's painted white in the first place, or one that actually has those crappy CPSC-approved spoke reflectors on it.

mind=blown.

I always wanted a mirror in my trunk in order to blind tail-gators... assuming they would hold up, they'd be pretty sweet on a bike wheel too!

As for the OP, I think my imagination could go quite wild with that Scotchlight 680 vinyl...

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/18/scotchlite-680-black.html video of OP bike

Lyle, good reflective vinyl is actually extremely bright. That picture doesn't do it justice.

I have some ScotchLite in stock for a line of reflective bicycle graphics that I have been working on for too long.

@headloss: I wouldn't know anything about it, but I have heard of someone who put small H1 fog lights in the reverse light housing of his car with an independent switch to turn them on. This same person also put windshield washer squirters under the spoiler of another car.

Oh, I know it's bright, but it's no fair to set up a comparison under the best possible lighting conditions (that is, with the light directly next to the eye) with the worst possible point of comparison. You might not have noticed the Scotchlite stripes on my bike (cranks, fork and headtube - pretty much the only place it's going to do any good). I like the stuff and have used it for years, but I wouldn't overstate its value this way.

Try this for an interesting test. Put somebody on that bike on the road riding along. Now drive towards them from the front in a pickup truck preparing for a left turn. Do you see them before you turn? Now try it with the left headlight out. Now do it again, with the truck overtaking the cyclist from the rear.

Speaking of light testing, I want to do some fair experiments. Anybody here have access to a good spot lightmeter and want to help me?

lyle - depending what you need, I've got a bunch of lightmeters.