Cycling UK Forum

To those of you who advocate cycling with a rear view mirror, how do you cope with being blinded at night by cars from behind? I seem to get full photon pressure to the retina from my fork-mounted mirror. Is covering it up at night the best stratagem? I'm not really sure I'm a true convert to the mirror; It is highly distracting both by day and by night.

I have only just gone to a mirror this week (on a second hand bike that I bought with one on)
I would never have bought one, and never really thought about getting one.

But, I must say, within 20 mins i was converted.

In terms of 'glare' at night....? Well, I'm looking straight ahead , so the mirror doesn't come into it.
BUT , this is based on just one night time ride of 30 mins or so.

I find that it is useful in the day for a quick glance.

EDIT- sorry, just saw your post concerns a fork mounted mirror, mine is on top of the brake hood- so maybe I was missing your point about glare?

The end of a pair of stockings make a glare filter, of just tweak the mirror so you have to move your head to use it.

I have a Blackburn bar end mirror which I have found to be very good. As XAP bob says it is positioned such that I just need to glance accross to it so I have not had a problem with glare from headlights behind. And of course, using a mirror is in addition to looking over your shoulder.

mirrors vary in quality; ones designed for rear view use can be made so that they only reflect about half the light which causes somewhat less dazzle.

Obviously the higher up your mirror is mounted, the less likely it is to be within the dip beam spread of car headlights. Most have an abrupt cutoff at about headlight height; get above this and the number of lights that dazzle should be greatly reduced.

cheers

Brucey wrote: the less likely it is to be within the dip beam spread of car headlights.

Most of my riding is done in the lanes and I find that motorist approaching from behind do not dip their lights. Perhaps they think they are doing me a favour whereas in fact they are putting shadows up the road and cutting off my vision around bends - a bit of a nuisance. They dip if they catch another motorist, but not a cyclist. It is 15 years since I last used a mirror but I am thinking about trying again with one of the neat modern ones that fit in the bar ends.

I off-set them by a fraction so I have to positively move my head to see back. They still light up if a car is behind but not into your eyes. Being much lower than a DF rider I guess if I manage then any DF rider can.

I use a Zefal bar-end mirror on drops. No problems with cars, just with guys in the same peloton who just have to have the brightest battery headlights on the market, mounted on top of the bars.

I had a pretty miserable drive last night, car after car behind me had their lights so high that they were lighting my car ceiling and showing a good outline of me on every passing sign. I would have liked to remove my wing mirrors all together.

Do you need the mirror at night, I can tell where the cars are by the light beams that they are shooting at me and I can see the lights of the car behind the one overtaking me reflected on their back.

I notice on the bike that they will very rarely dip their headlights when behind just a cyclist.

I have a Mirrycle mounted on the STI lever of my tourer/commuter. it's very adjustable so I just set it so that I have to move my head slighltly to look at it. That way any reflected headlights will not be shining into my eyes.

I find it really useful for keeping an eye on what's going on behind. You can have a quick glance or a long-lingering look. I got it becuase I kept getting left-hooked by cars. I can now see them coming and prepare myself accordingly. Good for identifying a gap when moving out to turn right - you can still do a quick glance over your shoulder to check it's safe.

Also useful for keeping an eye on my wife when we're touring - I can now see when she's about to attack me on a hill .