being seen (nklr)
Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2000 4:21 am
Fellow Riders,
Just thought I'd share a couple recent dicoveries.
First is the 'Road Construction Safety Barricade and Supply' store. I
discovered this
place while in search of reflective adhesive tape. Indeed this place is
Le Creme!
Its almost as psychedelic as the 60's. Bright oranges, yellows, and
white everywhere!
On top of that they had a reflector tape section that was like a candy
store. Orange,
green, blue, yellow, black and white stripe, red and black stripe,
yellow and black
stripe.......I had a ball..........and spent like $40 bucks!......whew.
The best deal I got was a back-brace belt with four inch wide
flourescent
orange suspenders. Its like ones you see on some guys working road
construction.
I have noticed, in the 8 weeks that I've had the thing.....that people
I'm approaching
actually notice me sooner.....yeah, it 'GETS ATTENTION'. After thinking
about
this for awhile I sorta realised, 'hey, I look like a road crewman- but
I'm moving'. I
think this is one of the things going on in cagers heads........Well,
whatever makes
em' think! I speculate, as more cyclists use road crew like garb, it may
actually
benefit road workers and MC riders alike.......indeed, people take an
extra second to try and figure out- 'hey, is that guy moving? or not.'
Last but not least. I noticed Rob Crocker, whose ridden with us a
couple times,
put white reflective safety tape all over his bike. At first I thought
this was
unnecessary. But, in subsequent thinking, I recall him stating that
thing about
how motorcycles are not seen from head-on. He put reflective tape on the
hand-guards of his bike....and on other surfaces facing forward. So, now
I've
gone to my reflective tape cash and begun, again, making my bike more
visible......at night. I put some blue tape facing rearward....... the
tape is so
bright it looks like a blue light, like the CHP bikes have.......
hey, maybe that's why when some vehicles go flyin past me they suddenly
slow down!?!?!.....or slow to never pass me at all!?!?!
So far I think I'm legal. Someone told me it was illegal to have red
reflector tape facing forward.....I dunno. My goal, when finished, will
be to have an eye catching reflective array, but one that hopefully
won't piss off the law, on one of those rarer occasions.....if I'm
speeding.
Toby(Cal Posse)