Wing mirrors ..

colintrav

Whilst I was out yesterday afternoon a cyclist passed me and I noticed he had wing mirrors ..

I know you can get such things for bikes I remember seeing them years ago .. it's was only yesterday that I seen them again I was just curious how many of you has em fitted to your bike ?? and if you don't have them fitted why not ??


I thought they looked the part .. and it saves you looking round every other time

prj45

I don't.

Trusting a wing mirror on a pushbike would be a bad thing IMO, not even motorcyclists trust their wing mirrors (lifesaver look) which are much larger than anything you could put practically on a pedal cycle.

bannedbiker

colintrav wrote:

I was just curious how many of you has em fitted to your bike ?? and if you don't have them fitted why not ??

Lycra doesn't protect too well from smashed glass in the event of an off... :?

oscarbudgie

Standard equipment for touring cyclists - but so are beards, sandals and piss stained baggy green shorts.

bannedbiker

oscarbudgie wrote:

Standard equipment for touring cyclists - but so are beards, sandals and wee-wee stained baggy green shorts.

Well said, but you missed the part about inbreeding...!

Headhuunter

Some days I see an old geezer cycling slowly and surely on the Old Kent Road as I commute to work. The front end of his bike looks like a mod's moped - wing mirrors all over it! I think he considers it some kind of style statement. Personally I wouldn't trust mirrors, you get a far broader view of the road behind and are more easily able to judge how close traffic is by looking round. A mirror only allows you to partially see what's behind and introduces blind spots. The added benefit of looking round is that traffic behind can see that you are aware they are there.

Aguila

Not for me.

I knew a guy who had a spinal condition thast meant he couldn't rotate his neck freely, he had multiple mirrors to allow safe(ish) cycling.

ballspondroad

I'm thinking about fitting a periscope.

artaxerxes

I've seen a guy round the City with a small mirror attached to his helmet. I wonder how it might affect his forward vision if the car behind has really bright headlights.

shouldbeinbed

I do have them, & a bad neck well documented elsewhere on here. I use them in conjunction with the lifesaver look and do wonder why some people think mirrors and looking round are mutually exclusive.

The decent ones are also made of shatterproof plastic so no scare stories necessary about shards of glass in crashes. :roll:

to actually answer colintrav's question:

They fit usually one of two ways, clamped onto the bars & invariably on a stalk (like the mod scooter stylee) or plugged directly into the bar end with an internal tightening mechanism and usually no stalk.

The ones on stalks are cr@p and wobble like nobody's business on anything but a Formula1 quality surface, giving a terrible blurred image.

The ones that plug into or grip directly onto the bar with no stalk are far better and give a very stable image.

I've used them for years commuting in and out of rush hour and middle of the night Manchester on a variety of road types and qualities.

I have 2 favourites the Zefal Dooback and the Zefal Spy.

The Dooback is bigger and gives a great angle of vision, I can see my own side, the rear of the car passing me in the mirror as the front is comfortably in my field of direct vision. it plugs directly into the bar end and has a ratchet so it is completely stable on the bike on all types of road surface - and even off road. Its drawback is that it's best on straighter bars. Drops and moustache types not so good, though I have fettled it with a stubby bar end to work on moustache ones.

The spy mirror is smaller & clips directly to any bit of the bike, its judder free and infinitely adjustable- even can fit to the end of drops. It has a perfectly adequate field of vision with just 1, but I have 2 for complete peace of mind on my everyday commuter - I've got near as 180 degree rear vision as possible - the only thing in the way is me. I'd have to be an owl to see behind any better.



You're right about saving on some looking round, I know exactly where everything is and how quickly it's coming at me, I still look before actually making a manoeuvre, but I know damn well what I will see already cos I've clocked it coming up from a way off without my eyes once leaving the road ahead.

For the sake of a tenner you'll get either of the 2 I've mentioned so they're worth a punt if you're curious - Ignore the blind prejudice and the people that had a gimmick mirror on a kids bike and think they're all that bad, you might find it a revelation (or you may join the hating hordes )

edit - oncomming dazzle from cars is far more noticeable and offputting and far harder to avoid than when it is reflected from behind