Reflective tape colours, front, back and sides

[alexnharvey]

Hello all. I have previously fitted reflective tapes to some of my bikes to improve night time visibility, particularly from the side.

I am thinking of doing another bike and reflecting (ahem) on colour choices. Previously I have used a coloured tape (3M 580) that appears bright white when lit on the sides of the tubes and red tape that reflects red on some rear portions.

According to road regulations for commercial vehicles and trailers (e.g. ECE104) red should be shown to the rear, white to the front and yellow to the sides. The bike is dark green and I thought it might look really smart with reflective patches in the centre of the tubes, in a way mimicking the painted panels of some older English bikes.

My dilemma is do I go full compliance and put yellow on the sides, or full aesthete and justify putting silvery white panels on the side because it's a bike, not an HGV and will never be mistaken for one.

Also, reflective barber pole on the seat tube, yay or nay?

[Brucey]

strictly speaking you should probably adhere to the usual protocol, but practically speaking I very much doubt there will be a problem. It isn't quite the same thing but clothing, bags etc has reflective patches of all colours facing in all directions.

Barber's poles are a bit marmite, reflective or not. I'd suggest securing it (without it being stuck down) using zip ties and seeing if you like it or not before taking the plunge.

cheers

[Vorpal]

Some years ago, I bought a kit with red, white, and yellow reflective stickers all together in one package. It came from an independent auto parts shop, and was labelled as being for motorbikes or pedal cycles.

[thirdcrank]

Er ... reflect on why you are asking. The aesthetics seem entirely personal. If you are concerned about compliance with lighting regs, then no amount of reassurance is likely to reassure you.

[Jdsk]

Previously I have used a coloured tape (3M 580) that appears bright white when lit..

This stuff is clever and it's worth playing with it if you haven't already. It's not as bright when reflecting at night as tape that is obviously reflective but it's good enough.

Jonathan

[mig]

would recommend any reflective tape being added to parts that move, especially pedals, shoes, overshoes etc. it's far more eye catching than on frames.

[9494arnold]

Not ever taken the plunge but you can get tyres with reflective sidewalls.
Spoke reflectors are terminally naff but they do work.
In fact I think I recall spoke mounted LED lights. (?)
Did for a while run a yellow LED Lamp on the bars that shone towards my chest and body whilst wearing a yellow top.
Also had gloves that had a small LED Light in them.
Just obtained an LED lamp that fits on the valve and lights up when rotating.
Will be trying that on the son's Unicycle.
Mate of mine had an led bolted on to the axles of his trike, outside the hubs. Very distinctive but a Trike only solution.
Don't commute in the dark anymore.

[alexnharvey]

Thanks all.

Thirdcrank. It is a utility bike and I think I will probably choose function over purely aesthetic appearance.

Brucey, the tape is very sticky and thinking back I found it sometimes challenging to get it to lay flat without any wrinkles. It seems that wrapping a neat barber pole would be very difficult and an uneven barber's pole would look terrible.

Vorpal, I've seen some packs of all three colours but it seems out of stock, not sure if it's still available. My plan is to use larger panels anyway.

Jonathan, on the other bike which is dark brown, the black 580 tape looked OK in the day and reflects well at night. However, there's not a good match to the british racing green of this bike so I thought why not go the whole hog and use a contrasting colour of tape which is reflective all the time and make a feature of it. Dark Green and silver/white panels looks pretty good in general, but dark green and red or yellow/ gold are not too bad either.

Mig, the pedal already have reflectors and I will consider adding patches to the cranks, maybe also wheels.

[Jdsk]

... on the other bike which is dark brown, the black 580 tape looked OK in the day and reflects well at night. However, there's not a good match to the british racing green of this bike so I thought why not go the whole hog and use a contrasting colour of tape which is reflective all the time and make a feature of it. Dark Green and silver/white panels looks pretty good in general, but dark green and red or yellow/ gold are not too bad either.

Great approach... and when I said "you" I meant everyone else who hasn't done the experiments yet! : - )

Jonathan

[SA_SA_SA]

Cycle spoke reflectors are allowed to be white, so I presumed that means white is ok at side of a bike, but isnt amber legally ok in any direction? As the only legal requirement for additional pedal reflectors is that they are amber , amber should be ok back and front but

I would still choose

Always white for front, and

At rear red (unless in a pair of strips in rough mimic of pedal reflectors such as the rear reflective strips on the back of a pair of panniers).

[Brucey]

...the tape is very sticky and thinking back I found it sometimes challenging to get it to lay flat without any wrinkles. It seems that wrapping a neat barber pole would be very difficult and an uneven barber's pole would look terrible...

if it is the stuff that is used for signage then it can also be very stiff (in plane), so it might even be difficult to wind a really uneven spiral....? One way of applying the stuff is to wind a turn, then pull the backing out from beneath that turn; this may help it to stay the right place. I'm still not sure that it is the right thing to do though!

mig's point about moving stuff being better is spot on IMHO. Just two or three spoke reflectors can make a bike very visible; arguably the less evenly spaced the better, because anything which makes another road user look twice may be a good thing. Reflective tyre sidewalls are good but if the sidewalls get dirty (eg with rim brakes) the benefit is soon reduced. Spoke reflectors (esp on front wheels) tend to stay a fair bit cleaner.

cheers

[Jdsk]

mig's point about moving stuff being better is spot on IMHO. Just two or three spoke reflectors can make a bike very visible; arguably the less evenly spaced the better, because anything which makes another road user look twice may be a good thing.

Agreed.

Jonathan

[atlas_shrugged]

Completely agree with the point made by mig. If you can get yellow reflective tape on anything that moves that is visible from the side then that is best. That will attract the drivers eye, because Lord knows they need it.

Another good place is reflectors in the pedals so they are visible front and rear. These are yellow if memory serves me right.

[peetee]

I had some sign reflective tape and it was hopeless for frame tubes; way too inflexible. You could bend it so it would stick but it would very soon pull straight again. Prior to this I had bought some 3m tape (on that auction site that everyone has heard of) that was described as being suitable and it proved to be. It was on the bike for many years in all weathers.

[alexnharvey]

I am looking at reflexite orafol. A bit more reflective than the 3m stuff in some tests. From a website called reflective supplies. Although reflexite isn't in their cycling section they say it is quite thin and will conform to tubes ok.

Really to do the barber pole you need something that is workable like masking tape, lifting and relaying, but that then would fix very securely with pressure. 3m claim their tapes do that but I find them quite tenacious.