Altura NightVision Jacket

GregP

In spite of the dissing their bibs got in CW a few weeks ago, I'm a huge fan of Altura kit - my panniers from somewhere towards the end of last century are possibly one of my favourite posessions.

Anyway. The NightVision jacket. Its available in yellow or black. Black, for all love? For a jacket aimed squarely at the commuter? Am I missing something?

Jen J

GregP wrote:

In spite of the dissing their bibs got in CW a few weeks ago, I'm a huge fan of Altura kit - my panniers from somewhere towards the end of last century are possibly one of my favourite posessions.

Anyway. The NightVision jacket. Its available in yellow or black. Black, for all love? For a jacket aimed squarely at the commuter? Am I missing something?

What are you doing over here? I'll tell the others you're cheating on them...

But yes a NightVision jacket in black seems odd.

linsen

Well as a big fan of black clothing I have bought one of these in .......

yellow.

If you are in pitch darkness is the flouro bits which reflect and the base colour is not that relevant. The reason I have it in yellow is because most of the time I want to be noticed in half-light, or daylight. It's brilliantly obnoxious

However, the lettering is already coming off one of the sleeves...

GregP

Bad news about the bits coming off, linsen, but yes - my commute is mostly in half-light when black makes almost zero sense regardless of how many reflective doobries it has.

My current autumnweight jacket is white with reflective bits of dubious efficacy (its a TriUK jobby, as it goes). Whether it needs replacing is moot.

always_tyred

The black ones look way better if you peel off all the reflective.

lost_in_thought

I've got a yellow one and a black one.

In the dark or daylight I don't really think it makes that much difference, but in the half-light I agree that the yellow one is a better option.

Saying that, almost none of my cycling is in half-light, so I tend to wear the black one. :oops:

Kieran_Burns

As someone at work said "I don't care how stupid you THINK you look in all the reflective gear. I can SEE you and that's what counts"

Reflective piping is all well and good, but I have 6 square foot of day glo yellow in the car headlights when I cycle at night / dusk. I'll stick with my Yellow Nightvision I think.

always_tyred

I'm always being admonished for wearing non-yellow cycle gear. On my commute I tend to wear yellow no matter what the weather, because its the time when people are dozy/angry/distracted. Cycling at other times I'm more "fashionable" and I get told off for it.

Don't kid yourself; black/blue reflective jackets are concessions to fashion - they sell, so manufacturers make them.

There are nice accident stats for cars as a function of their colour. It will be no different for cyclists. Red and blue are bad, I imagine that matt black isn't much bettter. Yellow is the most visible in all circumstances.

don_don

Does anyone have one of the latest Night Vision jackets, and if so, what do you think of it? My old Nevis is pretty good but Isn't very breathable. I'm wondering whether to upgrade.

marcba

How does that jacket fit ?
Is it tighter or larger than Gore Bike Wear clothes (with that brand, I wear L jackets, and I wonder which size I need for Altura Jackets).

lost_in_thought

don_don wrote:

Does anyone have one of the latest Night Vision jackets, and if so, what do you think of it? My old Nevis is pretty good but Isn't very breathable. I'm wondering whether to upgrade.

Night vision = boil in the bag unless you have both vents unzipped. Definitely waterproof though!

They're all I have in the way of cycling jackets, but don't know that they'd be an upgrade if your only complaint is a lack of breatheability.

GregP

Reflective piping is all well and good, but I have 6 square foot of day glo yellow in the car headlights when I cycle at night / dusk. I'll stick with my Yellow Nightvision I think.

Don't kid yourself; black/blue reflective jackets are concessions to fashion

Thanks, guys. This was my thinking, but I wanted a second opinion. I was expecting C+ to say 'black commuting jacket - don't be daft', and when they didn't I wondered if I was M the P.

So we are back to don_don's question, after a fashion. Is the yellow night vision *the* commuting jacket, assuming don_don's non breathable Nevis and my dubiously reflective and manifestly not windproof TriUK need replacing?

Kieran_Burns

lost_in_thought wrote:

don_don wrote:

Does anyone have one of the latest Night Vision jackets, and if so, what do you think of it? My old Nevis is pretty good but Isn't very breathable. I'm wondering whether to upgrade.

Night vision = boil in the bag unless you have both vents unzipped. Definitely waterproof though!

They're all I have in the way of cycling jackets, but don't know that they'd be an upgrade if your only complaint is a lack of breatheability.

I'm utterly embarrassed to say I never noticed these until they were mentioned last week! :oops:

The arms appear long when you are off the bike but a perfect length when on. Very comfortable, VERY dry, and immensely boil in the bag (unless you realise you have vents.... :oops: )

Neck up they deflect the cold air from your face, last week on a -3 morning I was perfectly fine with the jacket and just a wicking base layer, but then I do produce a hell of a lot of heat (what with this somewhat stocky frame of mine)

always_tyred

The nevis does have armpit vents and a double ended zip. If you absolutely have to, you can go to "batman" mode and get some ventilation.

don_don

lost_in_thought wrote:

don_don wrote:

Does anyone have one of the latest Night Vision jackets, and if so, what do you think of it? My old Nevis is pretty good but Isn't very breathable. I'm wondering whether to upgrade.

Night vision = boil in the bag unless you have both vents unzipped. Definitely waterproof though!

They're all I have in the way of cycling jackets, but don't know that they'd be an upgrade if your only complaint is a lack of breatheability.

Thanks LiT, sounds just like my Nevis so I'll probably stick with that.

Mine is the yellow version, for all the reasons mentioned above. I try not to wear dark coloured gear on the commute. Having said that though, I do also have a RaceFace Aquanot jacket which is dark blue/grey. However, its got so much reflective piping on it that it lights up like a Christmas tree in car headlights. I am sure I get more room from passing cars because of it. Its even more boil in the bag than the Nevis though

pst88

Well I have the black Nightvision jacket and got hit by a car last week. She claimed not to have seen me so maybe yellow is the way forward.

always_tyred

pst88 wrote:

Well I have the black Nightvision jacket and got hit by a car last week. She claimed not to have seen me so maybe yellow is the way forward.

In fairness to black nightvision jackets, she's not going to admit to having seen you and driven into you anyway.

But it is a good point that hasn't been made - reflective only works when a beam of light is directed at it. It doesn't work therefore when you are approaching a car about to come from a side road.

secretsam

Thing is, I can't help thinking of our former poster Mr BentMikey's point about urban camouflage - in London, 50% of cyclists wear some form of dayglo yellow jacket, so how effective is it? I quite like the black NV, but it does somewhat defeat the object.

Me? I've got a red North Face jacket which wasn't cycling specific, and has 0 reflective bits. The reason being I wanted something I could wear off the bike as well as on it.

Next time I'll get a proper cycling jacket, as a) I feel I need some more visibility and b) the North Face is sh1t, doesn't fit in the right places and has bl00dy zips that CONSTANTLY SNAG on it.

Question: why don't they do a red NV jacket? Red is very visible, especially in day time.

always_tyred

SecretSam wrote:

Thing is, I can't help thinking of our former poster Mr BentMikey's point about urban camouflage - in London, 50% of cyclists wear some form of dayglo yellow jacket, so how effective is it?

The world according to BentMikey. Didn't he go on to do some audio recordings with Ricky Gervais?

As I recall, he was of the belief that helmets made you less safe by offering protection, so it is of no surprise that he would believe that being more visible also made you more difficult to see.

If we lived in a predominantly dayglo world, then black would be the best colour. Since our cities are predominantly grey, I'd argue otherwise.

biondino

I would be delighted to wear fluorescent pink, say, or green, or anything that was bright but didn't make me blend into a sea of identikit commuters. I still think a bright colour is a good idea, but maybe a host of different bright colours might be best of all. With reflective piping, deffo.

Actually, the more I think about this the more I want a fluoro pink jacket. Can anyone recommend one?

linsen

biondino wrote:

I would be delighted to wear fluorescent pink, say, or green, or anything that was bright but didn't make me blend into a sea of identikit commuters. I still think a bright colour is a good idea, but maybe a host of different bright colours might be best of all. With reflective piping, deffo.

Actually, the more I think about this the more I want a fluoro pink jacket. Can anyone recommend one?

Yes, yes, get a pink jacket! No idea where from though....
Being that I'm not a London traveller, I am very visible round my way - I am one of the only cyclists regularly using the roads rather than footpaths, and in a vast minority with lights and hi-viz!

PaulRide

I used to have a fluo pink and yellow Peter Storm pertex cycling jacket. Like a battenberg on acid. It had yellow and orange reflective strips.

I got such a load of abuse from riders on the Dunwich Dyname a few years back (one of the wet rides) that I ditched it.

biondino

I would totally have worn it with even more pride.

PaulRide

Yes, I probably should have done. Let me see if I can dig out a photo to show the full horror. You can reconsider at that stage.

always_tyred

I don't get the argument that lots of people all wearing the same colour is going to encourage motorists not to see you.

If I'm in a car and I look to pull out and see a sea of yellow, am I more or less likely to pull out than if I see a single dot of yellow?

I actually think that the main reason we don't get seen is because cyclists are not instantly recognised as vehicles. I'm sure there have been studies on object recognition in regard to motorcyclists vs. cars. i.e. drivers are tuned in to spotting other cars and trucks and vans out of the corner of their eye and responding accordingly, and are tuned into ignoring vast quanitites of other information, such as lamp posts. Unfortunately because we aren't so common, we aren't recognised or treated as traffic - I mean, how often have you been alone on a road and had someone wait until you were right there before they pulled out?

On that basis, I would have thought that the more "signatures" of being a cyclist that a cyclist exhibits, the more likely they are to be recognised as such - e.g. helmet, yellow jacket, blinking lights.

Surf-Matt

I've got the dark grey one. It can (just about) be worn as a light "normal" jacket which I find very handy. A fluro yellow jacket looks a bit odd on a walk. That's what my radioactive death glow hi vis vest I wear over the top is for

philbill1973

biondino wrote:

Actually, the more I think about this the more I want a fluoro pink jacket. Can anyone recommend one?

Ask and you shall receive, http://www.hivis.net/278/High-Visibilit ... nk/froogle .

Or how about, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PINK-HI-VIS-PRINT ... m153.l1262 , custom printed as well !

I wear orange myself, get it free from work.

Jen J

philbill1973 wrote:

biondino wrote:

Actually, the more I think about this the more I want a fluoro pink jacket. Can anyone recommend one?

Ask and you shall receive, http://www.hivis.net/278/High-Visibilit ... nk/froogle .

I wear orange myself.

Blondie, you do realise you will have to wear this now? Richmond Park? 10am? This Sunday?

linsen

Even I'd come for a ride to see that!

biondino

Thanks philbill, but what I really wanted was a high quality windproof winter jacket rather than a tabard. I am absolutely loving my Descente Element Windproof jacket and would love it even more if it were pink.

ansbaradigeidfran

linsen wrote:

biondino wrote:

I would be delighted to wear fluorescent pink, say, or green, or anything that was bright but didn't make me blend into a sea of identikit commuters. I still think a bright colour is a good idea, but maybe a host of different bright colours might be best of all. With reflective piping, deffo.

Actually, the more I think about this the more I want a fluoro pink jacket. Can anyone recommend one?

Yes, yes, get a pink jacket! No idea where from though....
Being that I'm not a London traveller, I am very visible round my way - I am one of the only cyclists regularly using the roads rather than footpaths, and in a vast minority with lights and hi-viz!

At the home end of my train ride, I rarely see any other cyclists to blend into. At the University end, having a helmet, hi-vis and lights sets me apart from the lay students. I am, after all, smarter than the average bear (er, student)!