And Now I See!

Or rather, everyone can easily see me. While digging thru my boxes for other stuff, I found some jars of DayGlo paint I'd bought years and years ago at Hobby Bench on the clearance table, and decided it would be a good idea to make myself more visible. As a side effect, it also makes the bike junkier looking, thus potentially less of a theft target (though I've seen some pretty stupid stuff thieves choose to steal, so it might not matter much). It does make it pretty unique-looking, and highly visible, neither of which is a good thing for a theft target if they've got to ride away with the prize.

I deliberately did not use any particular care when painting it, as I only care that it is highly visible, not what it looks like, at least right now. I used bright yellow for as much of it as I could, till it ran out, then orange and red for the rest. If anyone ever hits me in daylight and then says they couldn't see me, I want to see their lens prescription--it better be so bad that they shouldn't even have a driver's license, because I think this bike can be seen from about 1/2 mile away now. At least. :-P



Seriously, it *has* already helped. I've had a number of cars that typically pass me in the morning on the way to work or the afternoon on the way home, which I easily recognize and am sure are the exact same ones, which before the paint job would pass so close to me I would be moved around by their air shockwaves, but now they (along with most others) move into the left lane where it exists, and pass as far to the left as possible in the same lane when there is only one. Also, people stopping for stop signs on the cross streets to my path would often not wait before, and I'd have to slam on my brakes to keep from hitting them as they went ahead anyway. Now, many many more of them wait till I'm past before going ahead (as they should per the law and safety reasons). I've even been thumbed-up by police and others for the "anti-collision paint job".

I'm still looking around for a really good deal on a roll of that reflective tape, which will help at night (I already have a brighter headlight than some motorcycles do, plus flashing taillights, and plans for more lighting I haven't had time/materials to build yet). Also, one of those vests like traffic control and construction people often wear, that is both DayGlo yellow with orange stripes, and has those reflective stripes on it in all directions.

I bought a new helmet (my other one recently had it's last impact that would let me trust it), and this time got an all-white one that I put some orange DayGlo stripes on. Again, I've gotta put my headlamp and backlight on it still, but it's very much more visible than the old one day or night.