The CB1100 Community Forum

Thought I'd give a little back. Pics below

Safety and style don't usually go together. I greatly prefer not being dead or injured but on the same hand I feel good when I look good. I think a lot of times safety takes a second place to style to get us to feel how we want to feel when we're doing something like riding a motorcycle.

I've come across that a fair bit in my research, so I thought I would show the two don't have to be exclusive.

My helmet is a white Shoei Qwest. Not the most stylish in the world, but it fits well and got a 5 star rating from SHARP (meaning in an accident the helmet keeps brain injuries down as much as possible by not transferring the energy to your head. I'll take two broken arms over a head injury any day)

Why white? It's not my favorite helmet color, but in my opinion it stands out the most. I watched hundreds of bikers go through when Strugis was going on (have to travel through here if you're coming from the west), and white stood out the most. Hi-viz also did. Silver was the worst ironically. The bright white contrasts against surroundings very well and you can't help but look to see what the white dot is as it's unnatural to see. It contrasts against every background, yet silver some how blended in to the point it looked like they didn't have a head when in motion. Thus white. (though I will argue a white bike blends into the pavement, a white helmet is above the line of sight where you would have pavement contrasting against it)

I also think people tend to pause for a second thinking you're a cop with a white helmet. So they've seen you and slowed down just from that thought, even if for just a split second.

But just a white helmet isn't good enough in my opinion. It needed to be reflective.

Why reflective? Because you are seen a lot, lot more.

Though not all reflective tape is created equal, here is a good chart showing the difference:


Farther away you are seen, the more time they are aware of you and can stop.

And it's not just type but color as well. Nothing beats white. Black is pretty much useless. Even red reflects about half as much as white at the most.



What I used is called Reflexite V98. It's the most retro-reflective tape I've been able to find at candela per square meter is 750. To put that into context the red V92 is 75, one tenth as reflective, the black is one twenty-fifth as reflective.

It cuts very well like a soft vinyl and can be taken off and moved easily. The V92 tends to stay stuck once it touches and is more brittle. The V98 works extremely well for the compound curves of a helmet.

You can buy it here: http://www.colebrothers.com/
or http://www.identi-tape.com/

A couple important notes to anyone thinking of doing this: First off the Qwest helmet is a FIBERGLASS one, there is some debate about putting stickers on a polycarbonate shell as it is possible that the adhesive in the sticker/tape can over time weaken the polycarbonate and compromise the safety of it. Research it out, and see what you think of it. It's sort of one of those unanswered debates. Also, don't cover up the DOT on the back, if a cop goes to inspect it they want to see it, so you'd have to remove the tape there. Also concave areas are harder to get the tape to hold, you'll need to cut it with this in mind so it has relief.


Onto my helmet:
Not much natural light in these first three. The one on the left is without a flash the one on the right is with a flash.






What it reflects is very very bright. Brighter than the source if you're up close to it. It's retro-reflective meaning it shines light back to the source not all around like chrome. This means it's like having a head light on your head that shines exactly back to the face of other drivers coming towards you. It is BRIGHT. Bright enough it hurts to look at up close like looking at the sun.

However being a compound curve it makes a unique effect, a sort of ghosting of light if you will.

This is with the light source not being directly from my view, but having the sun shine on it in such a way it catches the edges.

This is straight day light, notice there isn't any reflective shine going on


Same exact light but with the sun more behind me, maybe 6" from where the last picture was taken. It is as bright as the sun, the camera doesn't capture it as it just overloads the sensor.


And this is inside with indirect sunlight, it's much more faint and tends to "roll" as you move the helmet, only capturing it at certain times



So, even at day light it works very well, the sun sort of makes for a very bright sliver light at the top of your head in the day, and at night, works insanely well.

When I did this last fall I noticed a huge difference in how other drivers saw me. A LOT less amount of people cut me off, and they stayed A LOT farther back from me, even during the day. I think it tends to pause drivers to go, "what is that?" as it's bright and it's moving, not a constant like a head light.

Some states you need to have it on your helmet on the back and sides, so I thought I would give back a little and share my research and results. Who knows, it might save a life.

Ride safe, ride smart, but who says you can't look good doing so?

Cheers

Nice post....Thanks

Heres the black tape reflecting on the back of my ST

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0130.jpg.html]


You can barely see the tape on the back of the bike in the daylight

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0045-1.jpg.html]

Thanks for the info.......although v98 white 1"x30' is $50 a roll.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hey Captain thanks for the information. That tape looks awesome, so effective and the way you applied it looks very stylish. I'll have a look for some of that stuff here in Oz.

Welcome

A 2" roll is a lot better deal, it's $60 for 30'. The wider the better the deal. I suppose one could always do a group sort of buy and cut it up and share it, but $60 for what it does doesn't seem like a bad deal to me.

It is a little spendy, but a lot cheaper than being rear ended. I've done my helmet twice over, made a lot of mistakes and used up a lot and I still have enough to do it at least once more. If you use as much as I did per helmet, it would be $60 worth of tape for 20 years worth of helmets.

The problem with the brighter reflective tapes is that they are what they call prismatic which is good for reflectivity at obtuse angles, but in order to make them prismatic they have to make them thicker and stiffer and are not conducive to wrapping around circular surfaces. This is not a disadvantage when used for their normal use which is on highway traffic signs. The engineer grade tapes are not as reflective but are much thinner and are more easily wrapped around curves.

(just retired from 24 1/2 years in the Highway Traffic safety materials field..we were 3M distributors and also sold Avery and Stimsonite materials)

BTW you can go down to your local sign shop and they will probably give you more scraps from their sign jobs than you could probably ever use)

Checking out a sign shop is a great idea!

On the Reflexite:

The V98 is retro-reflective and is a lot like a soft vinyl. It stretches, it curves, it cuts very easy. It's about as thick as one or two layers of duct tape. It's very new, least for tape.

The V92 on the other hand is a lot more brittle, it doesn't want to turn or stretch in anyway. That stuff you tend to have to cut to get the shape rather than manipulate the curve. I've also used the 3M black stuff on design I had before this one. Went on like electrical tape but in comparison reflected about as well (course it was black and black is the absents of light)

This was a good write up on the differences:

http://reflective-tape.com/orafol-reflex...tive-tape/

Great post, Captain. I used to think it was pretty cool that my helmet was the same Tahitian Blue as my CB750. When I bought the CB11, I could have gone with a matching helmet, but when I saw the Hi Viz yellow ones, I couldn't really justify cool over visibility.

Within the next few weeks, I found out how visible. People at stop lights were telling me that they saw my helmet long before they saw me. To which I'd reply, "That's the idea!".

I'm planning to add some of that magic reflective tape to the helmet and the bike.

Great thread, thanks for posting C.A..

I've always worn a white helmet, not only does it stand out more than the dark colors, but it also looks somewhat "classic" (or so I tell myself). Living any place with hills, the helmet will be the first thing a motorist from behind will have a chance to see of me when cresting a hill that I've already cleared. The more visible the helmet is the better. I'm going to look into some of this tape.

I've got a real nice jacket from Langlitz and it looks pretty spiffy. But for the last few years, Ive been covering it up with a hi-viz vest and that's probably not going to change any time soon. Increasing visibility is a good thing.

(02-10-2014, 11:05 AM)Flynrider_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Great post, Captain. I used to think it was pretty cool that my helmet was the same Tahitian Blue as my CB750. When I bought the CB11, I could have gone with a matching helmet, but when I saw the Hi Viz yellow ones, I couldn't really justify cool over visibility.

Within the next few weeks, I found out how visible. People at stop lights were telling me that they saw my helmet long before they saw me. To which I'd reply, "That's the idea!".

I'm planning to add some of that magic reflective tape to the helmet and the bike.

When it comes time to replace my current helmet, this color might very well be my next choice.