Black.

As I have only been cycling since my paper delivery rounds in 1959 perhaps some of you folk out there can enlighten me as to why there are an increasing amount of cyclists, both professional and leisure wearing black!

I am mindful of my 30 Class One professional years and the ability to see over most things and for some distance so I can confidently say that a cyclist wearing black would be unwise.

Now as pensiioners we currently wear yellow Hi-Vis that could be seen from the moon with rear headlights but black was never an option.

Any ideas?

Well, if you can see them then whats the problem?

When cycling to work I wear hi -viz and to some drivers it doesn't seem to make any difference. If I go shopping then I have a lighter blue rain jacket or if colder like now a black and dark blue jacket, personally colour matters not.

I think the biggest problem for cyclists and to a fair extent motorcyclists is in being small in comparison with cars etc., so easily overlooked in a glance.

 

In daylight being dressed all over in black, or even any single colour, can make someone easier to see than being dressed in patches of various colours against what is so often a multi-coloured background.

 

So for me being a big single target to be seen easily is all important. That can be all over dressed in black while riding a black bike with large black pannier bags

 

But at night after dark or in dark areas such as under a dense tree canopy by day, everything changes and lighting and reflective clothing are what is needed.

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I'm the opposite. I always wear bright colours whether this is a high-vis vest over normal clothing, a bright red jacket or a bright yellow fleece in summer. I never wear black because it is much harder to see.

Although black at night is never going to be a good choice I don't think it's a colour issue.

 

I think the disadvantage cyclists have is that car drivers generally look in the wrong place at junctions/traffic islands.

 

Drivers tend to focus on the area behind where a slower moving vehicle (Cyclist) might be.

 

Just an observation...

 

TTFN

John.

Hi viz Jacket and lights front and back all the time for me, even off road.

Overkill especially where I live but safe.

I use Respo hi viz waistcoats and run daytime bright led lights.

It doesn’t stop idiots, but if there’s a subsequent civil case against a driver, it helps with the SMIDSY defence

Well, if you can see them then whats the problem?

Good point - well presented!

 

 

Well, if you can see them then whats the problem?

 

Problem?

No real problem, with a seating position six feet from the ground and a screen the size of a patio door quite a lot more can be seen in advance than from a car or van.

 

Training considerably more intensive than a car test, at least back then it was. Awareness that causing a bump up the rear would in 90% of cases result in just a tad more than a buckled rear wheel.

 

On my motor, even with a total of seven mirrors there were still objects fifty feet behind me, if not Hi-Viz would have been difficult to see. Blind spots? Yes quite a few.

 

In my case my allergy to big rubber doors opening as I get wheeled along a corridor to an ER after an industrial accident (not an RTC) reinforcing my belief that those cyclists who wear black and make themselves difficult to see should perhaps have a rethink, but then as with most things why bother as black is apparently cool – but blood is warm, for a while at least.

 

Cyclists with a death wish? Yes, I see more and more hence my curiosity.

 

Am I willing for us to take the risk without our array of LED and yellow garb? No, I didn’t get to 70 by chancing fate or trusting anyone on the roads of GB.

black is apparently cool

Fashion over Function is the modern mantra.....

As I have only been cycling since my paper delivery rounds in 1959 perhaps some of you folk out there can enlighten me as to why there are an increasing amount of cyclists, both professional and leisure wearing black!

I am mindful of my 30 Class One professional years and the ability to see over most things and for some distance so I can confidently say that a cyclist wearing black would be unwise.

Now as pensiioners we currently wear yellow Hi-Vis that could be seen from the moon with rear headlights but black was never an option.

Any ideas?

Black is useful on these cold sunny days to absorb some heat,but I also wear some high vis stuff as well.

For me it's hi-viz in the day time with flashing lights and reflective jacket in the dark and steady lights.

I found that a high via jacket in the daytime was like an invisibility cloak. It got to the point where I was scared to wear it.

 

At big-time, it was the opposite. The shining reflective strips seemed to scare drivers, so they wouldn't overtake me, which was really annoying.

Nothing I wear is for fashion reasons, unless scruffy becomes fashionable, I prefer to ride helmetless in ordinary street clothes like the Dutch do and some of my clothes are black. Since virtually all my riding has been in daylight, that isn't a problem as seventy years of cycling, mostly in London and the Home Counties, without injury shows.

 

Much more important than what I wear is how I ride. As an experienced truck driver like TedG, I never ride into or stop in truck blind spots, or overtake them on the nearside in slow traffic streams.

 

I make myself visible by sensible road positioning, where necessary dominating the lane I'm in.

 

I always cycle with a rear view mirror and use it to have knowledge of overtaking traffic, to avoid inconveniencing or scaring drivers by pulling out suddenly for parked vehicles, skips etc., and to plan for road bends when a driver looks likely to dangerously overtake on entry.

 

I slow to be able to stop in time when circumstances indicate a possible cause of collision, such as a car intending to exit a sideroad I'm approaching. That's no problem on an e-bike with the motor helping back up to speed.

 

On the rare occasions when I'm out with poor daytime visibility I use the lights that both my bikes have. That includes 12 LED saddles on both which can show all together or in scanning sequences from outer to inner. Drivers can then look at my illuminated backside and think "What an arse'ole" in typical anti-cyclist fashion.

 

 

And I've usually got big black panniers with reflective strips on when I ride, making me more obvious:

 

Stay safe young man.

C19 stab applied today so I'm hot to trot.

Next woman to take me on will light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars.

 

 

With acknowledgement to R.P. McMurphy.

The biggest thing you can do is ride is with the assumption that every car driver has the potential to not see you. Make eye contact with the driver, for example at junctions, if you can. Second guess their moves in where they are looking, if they are looking in the opposite direction, get ready to take evasive action.

Always ride with a rear facing mirror, use this to monitor traffic overtaking you. Get use to the expected position of the car as it approaches from behind, if it's not pulling out wide or slowing down, get ready to steer into the nearside to give you as much chance as possible to avoid being hit.

Ride with confidence, make your presence known at junctions, roundabouts, traffic lights etc, again make eye contact with drivers, check they have seen you.

I always wear some hi viz, and have multiple rear lights and a helmet light. I always run front and rear lights during the day too

I prefer to ride helmetless

Why, This is the most important piece of cycling equipment there is and having seen the devastation a brain injury can cause in my eyes should be compulsory.

Why, This is the most important piece of cycling equipment there is and having seen the devastation a brain injury can cause in my eyes should be compulsory.

 

Cycling to me has always been just an alternative to walking so I don't dress up for it

 

For most of the over 70 years of my cycling there were no cycle helmets anyway.

 

No helmets either for 23 years of my motorcycling, they were also a later invention.

 

Year after year the great majority of cyclists killed in London or nationally were wearing helmets at the time, obviously inadequately protected.

 

Not wearing any protection of any sort I know how vulnerable I am and ride accordingly, unlike so many of the helmet wearing dangerously riding cyclists.

 

At 85 I've completed all my cycling and e-biking, never been hurt in any way doing it, never knocked my head once cycling, so I've never needed a helmet. I did once give my head a serious knock at work and have twice damaged it enough in my home for bleeding to result. And once at school when 12 years old one idiot kid fractured my skull with a carelessly thrown housebrick, the groove still shows.

 

The reason those happened was because they were unexpected. The reasons they haven't happened while cycling is because that it where it's likely so I successfully avoid the risk.

 

Compulsion would be madness, Australia did that and remains ever since with the lowest rate of cycling in the world at 1%. The Netherlands where no-one wears a cycle helmet has the world's highest cycling rate at 70% of the population riding daily.

 

Done here and the outcome would be similar, for starters it would kill racked city hire bikes since no-one will commute in carrying a helmet on the train. And many of the 73% of our London cyclists who don't wear a helmet would just not bother to ride.

 

It will never happen anyway, successive governments have killed every attempt to bring in compulsion since they know how silly that would be. They even determinedly killed an attempt to bring in compulsion for children.

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Edited February 11, 20215 yr by flecc

For most of the over 70 years of my cycling there were no cycle helmets anyway.

 

No helmets either for 23 years of my motorcycling, they were also a later invention.

Totally untrue there have been cycling and motorcycle helmets available for at least 60 years, however I suppose if you bury your head in the sand you are unlikely to hurt it.

Totally untrue there have been cycling and motorcycle helmets available for at least 60 years, however I suppose if you bury your head in the sand you are unlikely to hurt it.

 

I was motorcycling from 1950 when I joined the trade and there was only the all steel ACU helmet which wasn't tolerable for normal road use and only protected the crown of the head. Almost no-one used those on the road at the time and certainly none of our customers did. The most popular head wear then for motorcycling was the leather flying helmet. Later in the 1950s a helmet called the Corker came onto the market, made of compressed cork with a dangerous peak it was useless for any degree of protection. It was a few years later that better designed practical motorcycling helmets arrived and the British Standard BS 6658 for them arrived in 1985, 35 years ago.

 

And cycling helmets have not been around for at least 60 years. They started to make an appearance around 1975 but even then weren't seen in cycle racing where reversed peak caps were worn. But that introduction was too late since cycling other than for kids had all but died in Britain during the '60s and '70s. It was in 1981 with the arrival of the first mountain bikes that adult cycling started to revive and the helmets finally with it.

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Edited February 11, 20215 yr by flecc

I do wear a yellow Altura Yellow night vision Jacket all the time in the Winter, but might ride in non hi viz T shirt and shorts in the summer.

 

I commute to work all year round and the biggest difference I noticed to the way I was noticed and treated by cars approaching from the rear was when I added a bright rechargeable flashing led seat post light.

 

I immediately noticed a big difference. I now always have that on when I ride on the road, night or day. I don't have a flashing light at the front as I find it a distraction and hope I can see the dangers as I approach them.

 

I always have Ortlieb panniers attached which have high viz elements.

 

When driving my car at night I have been shocked at how invisible both walkers and cyclist have been who wear dark clothing with no lights.

 

As a biker in the 70's I remember how my mates and I all wore black leathers, often without our lights on. I was 19 and had a fast bike, thought I was indestructible, and probably quite lucky to survive that phase, although I have always had a motorbike and still have several still and continue to ride.

 

no one can see me coming in the dark as most cover there eyes when i zoom past them

A lot of my riding is along forest roads and tracks, bright flashing lights can often be seen around bends through the trees before the bike and rider are in view.