It took me a while (weeks) to figure out my helmet mirror, but once I did I realized how much more effective they can be. I found (and this sounds counter-intuitive) that if I mounted the mirror so that it was closer to my eye. I moved the mount point to the rear of my helmet to effectively reduce the arm length, but not so much that I lost the angle necessary to see around my helmet. My old eyes won't focus on anything that's less than 2 feet away, but I have no issue looking at the distance reflected off a mirror only 2" away.