suncruiser

Probably a dumb question, but I've been thinking about trying to find a tire for the bank of my bike with a red reflective sidewall. Do tires lime this exist? I see white reflex all the time, have white reflex on my front tire, Blackwall for a back tire.

CrankyOne

In the US and many countries you cannot have red lights or reflectors on the side or front of a vehicle. Must be white or yellow. Red is usually limited to rear facing surfaces only except for emergency vehicles.

I'm also not sure what purpose your red tyre would serve.

Darth Lefty 

I can think of some homebrew ways to try it but none of them sound very good. Dye, tinted paint

wschruba

Red sharpie on white reflective sidewall

CliffordK

I'm not sure that is entirely true.

One can have side-facing red rear lights. And, on a trailer with side lights, the last row is typically red.

I agree that the red/white distinction on a bike might not make that much difference.

It looks like Revolights are available now.
https://revolights.com/



There are other wheel and spoke lights that one should be able to choose red for rear and white for front.

CB HI

False. Many cars have wrap around tail lights that show red at the rear side of the car.

Bike Gremlin

Still considered rear. They go up to 5 cm to the sides on a several meters long car.

White for the front, red for the rear, orange for the sides is a standard. So you don't confuse the others about what part of the vehicle they are facing.

CrankyOne

@CliffordK, you're right. I'd forgotten about red on the sides towards the back. It appears to vary by state with some stating red is only allowed rearward of the center of the rear most wheel and some rearward of the front of the rearmost wheel. Most also defer to USDOT with a stricter standard rules except CA.

Still not sure about purpose. As a driver, when I see two white rings moving along it screams bicycle to me and I don't know that I've ever not known what direction they were traveling, even when stopped. Will red and white do the same or appear as some strange decoration?

CliffordK

I was thinking about this a bit more.

Bicycle lighting is one thing that DOT hasn't fully regulated for some reason. There is usually a requirement for lights, and some kind of a minimal candlepower. But, since they are often powered by batteries, the brightness can vary considerably. They are also local laws, and not federal regulations.

Blinking rear lights, and sometimes blinking front lights are pretty ubiquitous here in the USA. Blinking lights are illegal in parts of Europe. But, I think some countries also regulate lights much more, including requiring generators, or lights on some bikes 24 hours a day.

Perhaps it is time for the Federal DOT to start evaluating bicycle lighting. Also reflectors. I usually don't use spoke reflectors, but I'm happy with tire reflectors.

ThermionicScott 

You're really close to realizing why they haven't bothered regulating bicycle lighting yet. Reflectors are cheap, don't require any power, and don't change technology every year. A law that is simple and easy to enforce across the board trumps our conceptions of what might be "perfect."

Once the DOT decided what kind of lighting every bike should have, it'd be mandated, the cost of every bicycle would go up, and we'd all grumble about the stock crap we had to pay for when we upgrade. Not to mention that that cost increase would be regressive.

I think we're just fine as we are. Anyone who cares about their safety can make the changes they feel are appropriate.

CliffordK

Tire reflectors could be mandated. A bit difficult for the international marketplace, but many companies have already adopted them.

Schwalbe uses tire reflectors. I don't believe Continental does. However, I couldn't imagine Continental would give up the entire US marketplace. Of course grey market parts may get around that. What percent of the US tires are grey market?

Many people swap front/rear tires, so I'm not sure I'd go for red reflector tires... what about the next time they get mounted forward? Still, anything is better than nothing.

I'm not sure blinking lights are mentioned in any laws. I think they were adopted by the bicycle community both to save energy and to provide better contrast... and that was about 25 years ago.

I had a NightSun years ago. But, bright lights are really just now hitting the mainstream. So, it is time to start evaluating dimmers and directed beam lights. It is now possible to get bicycle lights that are brighter than auto high-beam lights.

There is also a growing number of users of cleated cycling specific shoes/pedals. WITHOUT REFLECTORS. It would be natural to reflectorize the shoes. Again, something the government could easily mandate.

CB HI

And can easily be seen from the side.

ThermionicScott 

Umm, I'm having trouble figuring out what you do and don't know. Continental makes some tires with reflective sidewalls. You don't have to go to the "grey market" to get them. Bikes are sold with reflectorized pedals, easy to satisfy the law there.

If you want to cover yourself in reflectors, you have every right to. You can even spray yourself with that glitter paint. The beauty of a free-ish country is that we don't all have to, just because you want to.

CliffordK

Ahh, so the Conti City Reflex tire does come with reflectors. But the very popular Gatorskins, Gator Hardshells, GP4S and GP4000 tire lines don't seem to come with the option. I'm seeing a couple of notes of "REFLEX", but I don't think it is on my tires, and it isn't visible in the photos in those ads.

Can you show me some clipless (cleated) pedals with reflectors? Preferably 170g or less.

ThermionicScott 

Before I respond in detail, are you envisioning that no pedals or tires without reflectors on them should even be sold? That we not be allowed a choice in the matter?

CliffordK

If the law requires you to have pedal reflectors.

Then should pedals without reflectors be sold?

But, I think shoe reflectors would naturally be better than pedal reflectors in many cases, so, perhaps either flat pedals with reflectors, or cycling shoes with reflectors and clipless pedals without reflectors.

I'm not sure there are any negatives of tire reflectors. A gram or two of weight?

There is an overlap between racing equipment and non-racing equipment. But, if 100% of the racers were required to use minimal safety equipment, then there would be little benefit of non-reflector tires.

fietsbob

In the late 80's early 90s in NL, I got a ring of reflective plastic tubing with a wire in it.
it laced in amongst the spokes , above the rim.

so while the reflective bands in sidewalls dimmed from brake use side effects this did not ..

IDK what happened to Them after Continental and Schwalbe began producing tires with the embedded ring

the market may have disappeared ..


Any color added is over the silver base and is a Filter , it only lets Red light wavelengths thru. and so by that is Dimmer .

Maybe a red tire with a silver reflective band exists IDK.




'/,

ThermionicScott 

There's the question -- are we talking about the law when it comes to selling bikes, or riding bikes? The laws for selling bikes are pretty straightforward. They come with front/rear reflectors and pedal reflectors, unless there are special allowances for high-performance bikes I don't know about. Many high-performance bicycles are never ridden at night anyway. What races do you have in mind where reflectors and lights would be remotely necessary?

CliffordK

What was that race with a 50 bike pileup at the start line? Red Hook in NY? It looked more like a football scrimmage line.



There are also the randonneur type races and long distance races which may incorporate periods of riding in the dark, sometimes on roads open to traffic.

While reflector tires may not help racing, I doubt they would hurt it either.

The reality is that many bicycles are multi-purpose. I think at least one person commented about riding to the start line of a race.

ThermionicScott 

As far as randonneuring and RAAM, they already have clear rules for those participants. People crashing on their way to or from a race are just free entertainment.

Bike Gremlin

Trying to "be right" by all costs? In spite of logic and common sense...

CliffordK

And the Red Hook races being run after dark and without brakes. For "entertainment" too?

CB HI

Are you looking in the mirror.

The side area of the lights are larger than any bicycle light the OP would likely use.

And you falsely claimed motor vehicles did not have red lights on the side, but then try to squirm away when shown to be wrong.

Bike Gremlin

Claiming that they don't have red lights and reflective red material on the sides. Red - rear. White - front. Yellow - sides.

Yes, a little red can be seen from the sides, but that's an analogy to claiming that trousers cover a man's stomach. They do by a small degree, but I'd say that shirt covers the torso, trousers cover legs.

ThermionicScott 

Absolutely! If a race wants participants to run brakes and lights, they can put it in the rules.