tungsten

Recommend me a mirror. 4 my bike.

tungsten

never mind

FBinNY 

You got your nerve back already?

tungsten

No, one of these....

FBinNY 

I get it.

You originally didn't have the nerve to asl about mirrors.

Knowing how things can go on the forum, I understand.

Daniel4

How is the convexity?

I've through a lot of mirrors. Some of them are too convex. So much that you literally can't make out the shape of cars until they are already about to pass you.

tungsten

Yeah I ain't really used it in traffic per se as my fitness route avoids arterial routes and so I ain't even got the adjustment dialed.
Seems as though it might take me a bit to get used to how it images though.
Many year ago I had one of these.....

Loved it. Indispensible. Clarity of vision. Cats ass. Hells bells. etc.

Might get one of these....
...nothing to stop me from mounting it to a drop bar end.
Except......fashion.

rumrunn6

fwiw, when road riding, I use 2 mirrors. 1 on bars & 1 on glasses. they compliment ea. other nicely. neither, used alone, can do what 2 can do

Iride01 

fwiw, I've never used a mirror while cycling. I don't know why I need to know what is behind me since my mass and velocity aren't likely to kill anyone else passing me. Especially if they are in a car or truck. I also expect that any behind me will follow the rules of the road and know that I have the ultimate privilege over anything they do until they safely complete passing me. I'm not so naive to expect that everyone passing has half a brain or even cares me or my safety. But I also realize that if I was looking in the mirror, I wouldn't be able to identify those that were going to harm me until it is way too late to do anything about it.

I have many times had unsafe situations created when those I was overtaking that had mirrors decided to act in a unexpected manner. So if you use a mirror, make sure you first and foremost just ride predictably when being overtaken. Don't slow down suddenly and force me to jam on my brakes or have to pass you when conditions are not favorable for me to pass. Just because passing might be for you doesn't mean I can see around the blind curve we are on or feel confident that I can pass you before becoming a risk myself to oncoming traffic.

Believe me, I and others are unlikely to want to draft on you any longer than it takes to make the needed traffic checks and be in a safe place to pass you. I always will tell you what I'm doing whether it's passing or having to stay behind you if you just give me a chance before brake checking me.

Mtracer

Drivers are not trying to run you down. They're not trying to catch you by surprise at the last moment. You can easily spot the courteous drivers. They start to move over giving more room or even changing lanes well before they get to you. It's possible a driver could make a sudden move to put you in danger and therefore not give you a chance to do anything. Same can be said for walking down the sidewalk.

There are also drivers that can be weaving across lanes and into the shoulder. Also things like large trucks and trailers that may extend close or into the shoulder. Having a mirror allows me to see these types coming. If nothing else, I can move to the extreme right giving a few more feet of room. I don't want to ride continuously that far over as it risks other hazards. But it's nice to see a potential problem coming up on me and move over.

And there are times I need to move into the traffic lane. I can use a mirror, just like I do while driving and change lanes when it is safe to do so. I do not have the flexibility to turn my head and look.

Many people ride with and without mirrors. If you don't want to fine. But they provide additional situational awareness and that is always a good thing.

79pmooney

A little story. I was riding a road 20 miles west of Portland. Farm country Two lane road, no shoulder, just a 2" drop onto narrow gravel, then a ditch. Near no traffic and none ahead. Heard a truck coming up behind. No biggie but I looked in my mirror anyway. He was pulling a trailer much wider than his truck. He proceeded to pass me very close (to facilitate turning left into his farm but I had no knowledge of that as he was passing me). Because I had looked, I knew things were going to get very tight. I pulled over as close to the pavement edge as I dared (like 4"), then watched that trailer pass me by the same 4". (It was long. I got to thread that narrow path for quite a while. No way could I have done it with that look.)

Now, taking your approach would have been easier on my heart. My HR was sky high at the end of that pass. And with your approach, that trailer would had been a nice (if temporary) boost to my road speed.

JoeyBike

Many people can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Many people don't even use the mirrors in/on their cars even though there are AT LEAST two of them, often three. They don't us the mirrors because they CAN'T use them. Their brains just aren't built that way.

Let nature take it's course. Cyclists who can't figure out a mirror do not pose much of a danger to me. I don't sweat it. Like you, I wouldn't ride/drive without a mirror.
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Mtracer

While I understand personal choices, and like you said, whether a cyclists uses a mirror or not isn't likely going to affect me while riding.

To argue against the general use of mirrors is a bit daft, right up there with arguing against using helmets. I'm not saying it's been done in this thread, but I've seen others on BF that have. Some of the reasoning is as absurd as people decades ago arguing against using seat belts in cars because you might get trapped in a fiery wreck or drown in a submerged car. And that has likely happened but overall the use of seat belts has saved many more lives than it has cost. You can always come up with some negative aspect of doing anything, you just have to be reasonable when contrasting with the positives.

In this case, I'm a do-what-works-for-you kind of guy. I don't think anyone is wrong choosing to use or not use a mirror. They work well for me. Have they saved me, not that I know of. It's definitely helped me make decisions when to change lanes, take a lane etc. It definitely makes me more comfortable knowing what's overtaking me.

More on topic, to the OP I don't like handlebar mount mirrors because I find they vibrate too much to see clearly. Others love them. So, you'll just have to see how it works for you. I used the Take-A-Look (TAL) mirror clipped to my sunglasses, for several years. And while it's about the most geeky thing out there, it works really well. For most of this year, Ive been using the TriEye sunglasses with built in mirror. It doesn't give me quite as good a view as the TAL, but still works well. Plus it is more protected from getting bumped out of position. And, I'll say it, it looks much less geeky.

Alan K

You have obviously not bicycled in places like Dallas! 😉

13ollocks

I wouldn’t drive a car without a rear-view (pretty sure it’s a legal requirement regardless), so why on earth would I take to the public road on a slower, less visible, more vulnerable vehicle without a rear-view?🤔

Alan K

Good to possess a healthy sense of self-preservation! 😉👍

Iride01 

So far you are about the only one that seems to partly understand my post. Essentially all I posted was that I don't use mirrors and gave a few of my reasons. Yet some want to criticise and other's seem to feel additional need to justify their choice. I didn't attack anyone for making their choice. So why do other's attack me for my choice?

Seems to me that we should want to talk about the safety part of my post and address the few cyclist that seem to use their mirrors to either brake check other cyclist's that are overtaking them to pass. Or those with mirrors that do unpredictable things that the cyclist or motorist overtaking them can't predict.

I feel that I do have plenty of situational awareness. Few ever sneak up on me. I know when there is someone behind me. I generally know that a car is coming well before my Varia radar alerts me. Perhaps the 55 years of riding without them has tuned my senses so I pick up on clues others don't.

But it's not my intention to try and change the mind of those that use mirrors or wish to get them. I just want to make them aware of bad behavior from some that do use mirrors and ask them not to ever do that.

Alan K

Fora are interesting places to exchange ideas and information. But unlike discussions in person, they entirely rely on our written words, absent the intonation, body language, and other subtle hints of intentions. It is entirely possible that some of you can accurately present your intentions, but some of us, in final analysis do realize that there might be miscommunication. This probably also because a reader is free to assign a tone to your post depending on his or her temperament and mood at the time.

I have been riding bicycles for a decade longer than you, but I still cannot always rely on my general sense of surrounding without occasionally glancing - be it through a mirror on my helmet, on my bike or turning my head slightly to look back before passing another bicyclist or a pedestrian. Not all of my bicycles or helmets have mirrors but I remember to account for my limitations, and this includes my reduced hearing higher frequencies. Not so long ago a young man (in latex suit) passed me and quipped “you can’t hear can you!”. Apparently, he had new beep/tone thing on his bike to alert others, which wasn’t too loud and/or a bit beyond my hearing limit. Although, I was not going in the middle of the bike path, he had plenty of room to pass me, which he did. But he seemed very annoyed that I didn’t hear his beep thingy and moved over. I ended up saying to him that he was absolutely correct, but it still shouldn’t have prevented him from being civil.

It takes all kinds… the beauty of freedom is that everyone is perfectly entitled to theirs, unless yours begins to infringe on others.

FBinNY 

Count me among the millions who choose not to use a mirror. My road use includes everything from dense NYC traffic, to rural 2 lanes roads.

Since most of my daily riding is in steady flow, a mirror wouldn't serve me to alert me to anything, and on narrow roads EVERY single car would look like it might hit me until the last seconds, all a mirror would do is heighten tension over something I can't change anyway.

Please don't take this as an argument against them. This is just one of hundreds of decisions we each make daily. If you feel a mirror would help, buy and use one. If not, don't. Either way, there's no need to explain, rationalize, or proselytize. Just accept and respect that others may see things differently.

tungsten

I'm not so sure.....

Alan K

[QUOTE]Never argue with an idiot. He will only bring you down to his level and beat you with experience.”, George Carlin [/QUOTE]

I was wondering who said the above just the other day, thanks for posting. 👍

FBinNY 

[QUOTE=Alan K;23073481]I credited Carlin because that's where I first heard it, but actually, the credit belongs to Mark Twain who said, "never argue with stupid people......"

Alan K

Thanks for refreshing my memory… I had a vague recollection about Mark Twain but wasn’t entirely certain, It seems like something Mark Twain would say.
Had it been originally from our talented comedian, it would not be just the word idiot, it would precede by the f word. 😉

Polaris OBark

The Garmin Varia radar is $50 off currently.

Get that, and use the mirror (if you want) as a back-up or double-check.

The radar is worth every penny. It is like a whole ganglion, rather than a single nerve.