nightime high vis for rear

[breakdirt916]

almost got rear ended at a traffic light commuting home in the dark

so lately, I've been driving behind bikes on the freeway, to see what I could improve....

already added a strip along the base of the helmet:



similar to what a halo does, but the last one I got just shredded apart from the elements after a few months

the next thing was a big, ugly, strip up the middle:



now onto the bike...

here are some issues - 1 red taillight does squat from afar. Until my headlights illuminate the rider, I can't see anything but a single red dot from a distance...and even if there's a reflector, if it's really close to the taillight, they blend together. Wearing no hi-vis? then I'll barely see the rider...worse if I'm tired

so I looked at the back of my bike, and picked out the items that were as far away from the the taillight as possible so that they don't blend together. I found:

1.) the BACK of front turn signals:





2.) and just in case those were blocked by the rider, I also picked the rear passenger peg mounts:



how does it look?

I drove past a few times, and...

up close? great



but as you go farther away...







it gets worse...reason being? bikes are just too narrow to spread out the reflectors so you can see them better

also - the farther away you get, the less that car headlights point UP at the bike...

so what do I want to do next?

get some reflectors that are LOW on the bike - that way residual light from headlights will catch the reflectors from farther away...I was thinking the back of the swing arm...unfortunately it's dark, and my swingarm needs a good cleaning first

and lastly - I was blessed to receive a reflective from the cycle guy:

[01xj]

A tail light flasher would be helpful as well. Nothing crazy, just the 3 quick flashes when you apply the breaks. I don't have one but on group rides I have noticed how much more they stick out to me than normal brake lights.

[breakdirt916]

sweet...glad to hear they work

just bought this from superbrightleds.com



only $4.95!

going to have to do some hacking though...my FZR600 has 3 wires going into a male plug adapter, and 6 wires coming out of the female adapter connecting to the 2 taillight bulbs

if I'm going to use a single controller, I'm going to have to run both LED 1157 taillight bulbs in parallel via my own connection after the controller...I'll take the other 2 wires from the OEM harness to trigger the heated grip relay, and power an LED strip license plate light

[KB]

I like the vest the best!

KB

[golden chicken]

Another +1 for brake light modulator. I got one from Back-Off that flashes 5 times fast and then goes solid, and on your bike, I'd consider a bulb or LED upgrade. http://www.svrider.com/forum/showthr...t=brake+lights

I would personally also change the reflective tape on your bike to red, instead of white.

[Puppet]

Check out this guy for the bottom of your license plate. http://www.twistedthrottle.com/admor...r-turn-signals.

Mount it with some space between your stock light and the aux light and it takes away from having a single focal point on the back of the bike. It has a built in brake modulation and "progressive" turn signals to provide multiple indications for whatever action you're doing. I use it and have ridden behind plenty of them. Very easy way to change the back of the bike.

I do like the creative use of the retro-reflective. Don't forget a little on the side of the bike for crossing/angled traffic that doesn't get a good shot of the headlight or taillight.

[Puppet]

As far as riding habits.... Get in the habit of flashing your tail/brake light as traffic approaches you while you're stopped and/or you're coming to a stop

(my .02 for everyone, not just the OP )

[golden chicken]

Or you could go ridiculously overboard like I did...

[Jaynnus]

Check out this guy for the bottom of your license plate. http://www.twistedthrottle.com/admor...r-turn-signals.

Mount it with some space between your stock light and the aux light and it takes away from having a single focal point on the back of the bike. It has a built in brake modulation and "progressive" turn signals to provide multiple indications for whatever action you're doing. I use it and have ridden behind plenty of them. Very easy way to change the back of the bike.

I do like the creative use of the retro-reflective. Don't forget a little on the side of the bike for crossing/angled traffic that doesn't get a good shot of the headlight or taillight.

That is the light I have, makes a huge difference in being visible.

[lord1234]

I am waiting for my http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...cle-visibility to come in...should be useful(I hope)

[MattR302]

I've got one of these screwed to the bottom of my license plate- https://signaldynamics.com/index.php...category_id=47

with one of these in-line with the brake wire http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...odule/194/844/

This brake flashers don't work well with incandescent bulbs due to the high flash rate. but if your bike already has an LED tail light from the factory, this is a great $8 improvement, and you just splice it in-line.

[nhbubba]

Brake flashers work perfectly well with incandescent bulbs. At least mine did.

[Garandman]

You can buy the 3M reflective cloth and sew it onto the back of your jacket. Generally the more you spend on gear the more reflective stuff it will have.

The real SOLAS tape reflects a lot more than most other commercial stuff.

If you have bags it helps with your profile. I also bought some 4" wide black reflective tape.

[nhbubba]

I still need to do that to my Givis.