Do you wear Hi-Viz stuff?

mudcow007

well do you?

most of the people i see out an about round liverpool seem to wear a Hi-Viz jackets or have it wrapped around their backpacks

i dont ride at night, especially with it being light until about 20:00

kelsen

Not so much now the mornings are bright and the evenings are light. I was wearing all black today. Having said that, the only hi-viz I sometimes wear in deepest darkest winter is a gilet.

Pufftmw

As a rule, no but some of my gear has reflective piping, logos etc.

UndercoverElephant

Nah, not really my thing. I do have lots of reflective SOLAS tape on my backpack though, left over from the winter. I also still have a few of the reflective straws on my wheels, but most of those have fallen off.

asprilla

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Nah, not really my thing. I do have lots of reflective SOLAS tape on my backpack though, left over from the winter.

One of my rucksacks is yellow and covered in SOLAS tape whilst the other is bright orange. Apart from that It's just the piping or reflective patches on my clothing.

Most of my clothing is black and so is my bike.

t4tomo

Foska Marmite jacket - its pretty bright.

HamishD

I used to , but noticed that it makes not one iota of difference to how I'm treated by car drivers.


Some of my gear has reflective piping on it and I have very bright lights for when it's dark, particularly the rear one. That seems to do the trick.

DonDaddyD

I do on occassion, I wear this: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pea ... t-ec020123

I actually really like it.

Also when driving I do notice those wearing hi viz more so even during the day. That isn't to say that I can't see a cyclist, when driving, who isn't wearing hi-viz. I can, even at night - London. But the viz is more noticable.

ndru

DonDaddyD wrote:

Also when driving I do notice those wearing hi viz more so even during the day. That isn't to say that I can't see a cyclist, when driving, who isn't wearing hi-viz. I can, even at night - London. But the viz is more noticable.

So High Visibility jackets are more visible - is that what you're trying to say

I don't wear hiviz - feels wrong. But then again I hardly ever cycle on busy roads and I have good lights and never go very fast.

roger_merriman

The cheap flats refectors remarkably have stayed on, but I wear mostly dark clothes and bike is mid tone, I use lights, makes a difference in dull etc days

daviesee

Lets see.

I am nearly 6 ft tall and over 14 stone.
I wear a white helmet and usually have light some colour included in my top.
I have white mitts and "do" signal.
My bike is nice and shiny, especially the very light-reflective chrome.
I have lights that I will use if the light dims.

If you can't see me in daylight then you shouldn't be driving.

Tonymufc

All the time whilst commuting. I have an Altura Night Vision jacket in yellow, but now the weather is getting warmer I tend to leave it at home now. However I do have a Hump rucksack cover that I always use and never leave home without it. (On the commute you understand.)

kurako

I stopped wearing hard shell jackets becuase they were too hot, sweaty and uncomfortable.

Now I tend to go for softshells/ lycra in brighter colours such as red or yellow. High contrast is good IMO, also a lot of cycle gear has reflective detailing. I try to avoid dark colours.

Good lights are important. 2 front and 2 rear to increase visibility in dark conditions and also gives a backup in case of batteries dying.

notsoblue

Nope. But I have bright lights, and theres some reflective fabric on some of my clothes. Thats enough.

R_T_A

I have a Hump rucksack cover, but that's also because it doubles as a waterproof cover.

You don't have to be decked from head to toe for Hi-Viz to work.

The idea is just to make drivers aware. Anything that *could* help avoid me being hit is worth the effort.

The Rookie

In winter I have a red soft shell with reflective piping and good lights, in summer my 2 main cycling tops are white or lime green, either shows up well on my Rural commute.

Simon

davmaggs

Kurako wrote:

I stopped wearing hard shell jackets becuase they were too hot, sweaty and uncomfortable.

Now I tend to go for softshells/ lycra in brighter colours such as red or yellow. High contrast is good IMO, also a lot of cycle gear has reflective detailing. I try to avoid dark colours.

Good lights are important. 2 front and 2 rear to increase visibility in dark conditions and also gives a backup in case of batteries dying.

+1 Same mix for me.

On my route there is a lot of filtering so my thinking is that an orange or red top is more likely to be spotted out of a driver's peripheral vision.

Ginjafro

When I commute I always wear hi-viz with reflective piping. These days you can buy decent, well cut, quality gear and you don't have to look a dork.

Yep, there are some drivers out there who wouldn't see you even if you went upto them and punched them in the nose but that would not stop me from using what I consider a really good safety item. Put it this way, at any distance who are you most likely to see first, someone wearing hi-viz or someone not?

jonny_trousers

Yes I do. I went down the hi viz jacket route when preparing myself to join the ranks of cycle commuters and from my car windscreen I could see how much more noticeable those who wore it were. I was obviously looking out for them, however, and so perhaps it was a flawed test. I will always be careful where my safety is concerned, but I'm not sure I will go for florescent green next time.

marksteven

i wear a hi viz gillet on my commutes to work didnt use to but im getting on abit now so grow more sensible by the day mines quite a nice yellow & orange number from madison cost £10

Headhuunter

I do more since my crash in Nov 09. The solicitor specifically asked me if I was wearing hi viz (I wasn't at the time). Also Sports Direct sold off hi viz jackets for about £6 before Christmas and I'm a sucker for a bargain....

kelsen

Headhuunter wrote:

I do more since my crash in Nov 09. The solicitor specifically asked me if I was wearing hi viz (I wasn't at the time). Also Sports Direct sold off hi viz jackets for about £6 before Christmas and I'm a sucker for a bargain....

Yup, t'was a very fetching shade of luminous yellow you were wearing when I met you yesterday! Hope you're enjoying the jersey.

nation

Not routinely.

My rain jacket is an eye-watering shade of neon blue, that's not hi-viz per se but difficult to miss. Other than that it's just reflective piping/patches etc on whatever gear I happen to be wearing.

Funnily enough the wife was nervously asking if I should be wearing hi-viz the other evening.

bails87

I've got a Knog Strobe on the back of my helmet, a Fibre Flare on my orange backpack and a Smart 1/2 watt on the back of the bike. All are set to flash when it's light on the commute. When it's dark the Smart is on constant and I also use a C1 LED on my helmet and a P7 LED on the bars, so I think I'm pretty visible.

But I've also got a hi-viz orange short sleeved jersey from Sports Direct. It's not the greatest quality in the world, but perfectly adequate, and I'm sure it was less than a tenner. I seem to get less people pulling out of side roads in front of me when I use it. Compared to wearing 'normal' stuff during the day, and even compared to when I've got my lights on, which is strange, seeing as ~1000 lumens should be more visible than a bit of orange material.

I think for the winter I'll try to get a thin hi-viz gilet type thing to wear over my softshell jacket. Flourescent orange or that pinky-red seem to stand out better than yellow and green, IME.

As for a white helmet standing out....depends what it's contrasted against. If you're in open areas and the helmet is against the sky.....well, there's a reason trainer jets are painted in 'High Visibility Black' and planes that need to be harder to spot are in light colours.

notsoblue

Headhuunter wrote:

I do more since my crash in Nov 09. The solicitor specifically asked me if I was wearing hi viz (I wasn't at the time). Also Sports Direct sold off hi viz jackets for about £6 before Christmas and I'm a sucker for a bargain....

Did the fact that you weren't have a negative effect at all?

Paul E

Bright colours ore than hi viz, I do have one hi hiz long slevee jersey but it's getting too warm to wear it and I only generally wear it during the winter over my winter jacket which is black.

If it's dim I put my lights on and I am about to change my bar tape to white to try and make the front end stand out a bit more as white as night reflacts the most light back.

daviesee

bails87 wrote:

I
As for a white helmet standing out....depends what it's contrasted against. If you're in open areas and the helmet is against the sky.....well, there's a reason trainer jets are painted in 'High Visibility Black' and planes that need to be harder to spot are in light colours.

In which case they should clearly see my coloured jersey and black shorts

shm_uk

I'll wear Hi-Viz on my bike when motorists drive around in Hi-Viz cars.

I mean really, how stupid do you have to be not to see a cyclist?
Actually, I'll answer that myself - massively incredibly unbelievably stupid

Unless you're just the average blind, ignorant, inconsiderate, inattentive moron often behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Non-cyclists use the "you should wear Hi-Viz" line as a poorly veiled alternative for "sorry, but I'm too dumb and ignorant to pay proper attention and consideration to other people around me, therefore I need you to be glowing like a super-nova to stop me driving into you. Yes, I am really that stupid. I would apologise but I wouldn't mean it"

Headhuunter

kelsen wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

I do more since my crash in Nov 09. The solicitor specifically asked me if I was wearing hi viz (I wasn't at the time). Also Sports Direct sold off hi viz jackets for about £6 before Christmas and I'm a sucker for a bargain....

Yup, t'was a very fetching shade of luminous yellow you were wearing when I met you yesterday! Hope you're enjoying the jersey.

Yes that was one of the Sports Direct jackets! I switched to the Planet X jacket for the rest of the day and felt very cool and smart!

Headhuunter

notsoblue wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

I do more since my crash in Nov 09. The solicitor specifically asked me if I was wearing hi viz (I wasn't at the time). Also Sports Direct sold off hi viz jackets for about £6 before Christmas and I'm a sucker for a bargain....

Did the fact that you weren't have a negative effect at all?

I don't think so. It was my solicitor who asked right at the start of the process, it was not mentioned again to me anyway, unless there were discussions between the sol and the insurance company about it that I wasn't privvy to...

solsurf

My wife bought me this http://www.evanscycles.com/products/mav ... t-ec025598 no excuses for not seeing me!
Quite a good jacket just a little too warm Its not too fugly, although I do confess I prefer my Campagnolo soft-shell, I suppose the difficulty is finding a high viz ss jersey, what do people recommend?