Wear Bright Clothing Please
 

After lunch opened up the sun roof to our clear sky and the Hot 80 degree day for a drive home the long way. It is a two lane paved road we use a lot for cycling. Scenery is good and now there is cell phone coverage for most of the road.

I saw several folks on a variety of bikes. Then came the shock. Despite being a cyclist and looking for bikes I missed one. Pure luck it didn't have a bad outcome.

This idiot, yes, idiot, was riding on the fog line dressed in olive drab pants, with a dingy blue T and a backpack that blended perfectly with the background. His bike was a dull rust color. All this I discovered after passing him from a rear overtake.

I was looking for bikers. I know what bikers look like. But he essentially was camouflaged.

Please wear bright clothing. It might save you.

Flashing lights can be helpful.

Anything to make yourself more visible works.

No offense, but if you hit someone who is right in front of you, it's not their fault. Perhaps you have reached "that time" in life. Please have your vision checked in its entirety, as in a full visual field and acuity test. Deteriorating vision has a way of sneaking up on us and no one wants to cause avoidable harm to others. Well, no good person does and all the people in this forum are good people, so there is no need to address the 0.001%.

Saw a roadie yesterday (as in daytime) with a bright white flashing front light. It was very effective. I looked in the mirror after we passed and he had a red rear light, but the batteries were obviously on their last legs and the light was not nearly as effective.

Harsh shadows can make a cyclist disappear from a motorist's sight irrespective of the brightness of the colour. Dirty windscreens and low-setting sun are two other problems that cyclists don't necessarily think about, but may need to be managed in picking either a route or the time of day to take that route.

What is the significance of there being good cell phone coverage?

Flashing lights ARE helpful. The brightest you can afford, on strobe mode.

Light and Motion Taz 1200 for the front: http://www.biketiresdirect.com/produ...FZPm7AodLwIAww

Dinotte 400R for the rear: http://store.dinottelighting.com/day...ount-p188.aspx

I have red T shirts, a red jersey and red headbands. I'm safety conscious.

Red has been indicated over a number of test over decades to be one of the worst colours, especially in shadows and in low light.

A quick search brought up this discussion:

http://www.ambulancevisibility.com/index.php?p=1_16

I would rethink your strategy and perhaps opt for bright yellow-green.

Interesting. I've been wrong since the '70s ?
You would think that green would be somewhat camo with the roadside foliage
but maybe I'll keep my eyes out for a tall man's green jersey with a horizontal
yellow stripe.....If there is one. I'll dig out my bright yellow T shirt out now.

Server for that link is down but I'll take your word for it.

The yellow-green is a colour in its own right, not a combination of a green with a yellow stripe. Just to clarify what is being discussed. It's now the predominant colour on roadside worksites in many places, having replaced orange.

Remember that a lot of people are red-green color blind as I am. Dark red and dark green in lower light look the same to me and for severe cases they all look grey.

Look at what color road construction workers wear and take your cues from that!

OK I don't think I'm quite ready for lime green just yet :twitchy:

I hardly ever get caught out towards dusk. Nashbar has a bright blue looking tall man's jersey I might check out. I'll look around and do some research.

For this thread just one factor why a lot of us use that road. Needed for the thread? Probably not.

For me, as a local, it is interesting because not that long ago there wasn't any in that area. I ride solo a lot and it is sort of nice, but not needed, to have cell coverage in case I get bumped by a moose, or have a mechanical I can't deal with, etc.

Just returned home from a good hard, hill ride. My rehab is coming along very well. Plus, it gave me an opportunity to think about your post. I decided I could answer in a couple ways:
-I could take it to my Optometrist and DMV and tell them their exams weren't very good. A person from Oregon gave me a vision test via the internet and although he couched it in "polite" terms told me I couldn't see.
-Or, I could suggest that maybe we have differing views on what is a close call and suggest you do the math on what distance/time is close for a car traveling 60mph overtaking a bike doing at most 8mph. I think any closer than a couple seconds is too close in traffic that fast.
-Or, I could remind the poster from Oregon that one of the most common excuses for incidents and accidents between bikes and motor vehicles is the motorist "not seeing" the cyclist and this situation fits that in spades.
-Or, I could just enjoy our heat wave and hard breathing and shaky legs and remember this IS the internet, home of questionable comments and just ignore the whole thing.

I decided to ignore it and enjoy the day and evening. Right now it is 2100 local; the sun is low in the northern sky, there is a light breeze and the mosquitoes are on the other side of the screen. Life is good.

Do cyclist follow the same advice with a car purchase?

Raise your hands, how many only drive a neon yellow car?

How many drive cars that are read or darker colors?

How many bikes weight 2000+ lbs and travel 55mph on flat roads?

Safety is always a concern when riding on the road, the OP's message is still a good one.

Doesn't matter what colour you wear-they will all get lost in the background somewhere. I have seen yellow get lost in a field of Brassica Napus (Oilseed Ra pe) Black can stand out very well in town situations with grey Concrete buildings but in general brighter colours do get noticed very well. Best I have seen is any combination of two contrasting co;lours and the 50+ jersey is a good example of this being red but a large expanse of white in the shield.

They're nice looking jerseys alright and I thought about that. I better go with a tall mans and they don't have one. Besides, I'm 60+.....How time flies.

Look at my avatar and you'll see I definitely wear hi-viz gear. I have two rear lights--a Radbot 1000(1W w/ reflector) on the seatstay and a Cygolite Hotshot(2W) on the seat bag. On the front, I actually have two lights as well--a MagicShine 808e(1000 lumens), low at night and blinking in the day, and a Cygolite Metro 300(always on Daylight flash). I constantly get comments about how bright and visible the lights are, especially during the day. I don't care if anyone thinks it's too much or if they think I look like a dork. I'd rather be a live dork than a dead/injured cool roadie.

I have blinking light at the front and rear of the bike , wear either Mapei team kit or a Giro D'italia pink jersey on every ride . No problem so far . I can not understand why cyclists are wearing black kit these days . It is hard to spot them in the traffic with cars around them .
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I remember seeing (but only when I was very close) a cyclist wearing camoflaged clothing while riding down a road with hedges both sides. It seems to me it's one thing to wear clothes that don't stand out all that well but wearing clothes specifically designed to not be seen is a new level in stupid.

That said I've been out wearing a fluorescent yellow jacket on a clear day and still had people apparently not see me.

Well worth repeating.

It's surprising how often bright orange can disappear against a sunset, bright yellow disappear against a field of oilseed, bright green disappear against rolling fields in different shades of green. My hi-vis vest is two-tone (yellow/orange) with reflective stripes, and I increasingly think that striking designs are likely to be better than a uniform mass of a single colour. Basically anything that will stand out whatever is behind it.

I read somewhere that white is best for daylight visibility and yellow for dusk/dark, but I still think the yellow/green is best overall.
Most in the UK, as far as I have noticed, prefer various shades of dull. I've rarely seen bright colo(u)rs on cyclists of any ilk.
You must be the exception, Stap.