Do you dress for visibility in the UK?

  • Thread starter Thread starter trscott
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steveuk said:
my advanced riding trainer says it's not neccessary - and i agree - if we ride defensively it's not neccessary....just ride like everyone is out to get you !
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But, when you're training you will probably be the ONLY vehicles actually obeying the speed limit signs. Thus, it makes sense to make yourself as visible as possible.

Furthermore, you do gain points from the examiner because consipcuity is one of the assessed areas on the score sheet.

The point of hi-vis kit is not to make you feel safer but to help other road users spot you. It's just part of the I phase of the System, IPSGA and under I you have TUG, remember? So the hi-vis kit is part of giving information.

But, as coppers who ride brightly liveried bikes and are covered in hi-vis will tell you, some twats still fail to spot you.

I always advise the people I'm training to consider the use of hi-vis kit. Consider it part of your defensive riding routine.
 
I wear a Hi-viz on my commute to work, also treat all other vehicles as threatening, (more wary of other bikes than anything else) whilst having fog lights on as well. Still get fools not noticing me.
 
A lot of people seem to subscribe to the 'treat all other road users as idiots who are out to kill you' theory of defensive riding.

I just can't do that. I like to enjoy my time on the bike and if I spent all my time expecting the next vehicle to pull out and hit me, I'd soon stop enjoying the riding and then what would be the point in owning a bike?

After 15 years of all year riding while not wearing hi-viz clothing and not worrying about every other road user, I've never had an accident due to being invisible.

Maybe I'm just lucky.
 
Hi viz

I generally wear a long sleeved hi viz over during the winter for my commute and others times when the weather is crap. The same for my running lights only get used when i feel the need, either heavy traffic or crap weather.

My main reason for this is because of how easily and quickly bikers do merge into the tfaffic when the light is crap.

But i must say this year i have made the concious decision to not wear my hi viz since the days have got lighter & longer. And i can honestly say i have had no more or no less close shaves than when i wear the hi-viz.

Perhaps i ride more defensively when not in high viz rather than assuming people will see me when i wear it, who knows.
 
only wear them to and from work, we have to have a highviz vest on as soon as we go through the main gates otherwise its in the topbox for those dark wet winter months. i use the highviz yellow and orange jackets so they dont blend in with grass and Leland's:thumb2
 
Both my bikes that I have just sold had some high visabilty and reflective stuff on them and I often used high vis clothing but to be honest I reckon riding with lights on is the better solution.

I hadn't thought about it too much till I read other people's comments in this thread earlier today. I nipped to the shops in the car afterwards and after joining the motroway I was passed by a motorcyclist. Hadn't noticed him coming despite his high vis vest (though a bit dirty) but a few minutes later I spotted a single light way behind me. Sure enough a bike passed me a minute later. What was it? A lovely R1200GS in black and yellow just as I have on order.

I would still use high visability clothing in certain conditions and certainly if I was broken down. I always carry a set in the car as well.
 
Hiviz colours & reflective strips are different

On the winter commute in the dark I wear hiviz for it's reflective qualities rather than the Saturn yellow colour and it does help alert car drivers shut in their mobile living rooms to notice you IMHO along with strips on my topbox. At night wearing black with just a rear light showing you are invisible! In the summer (during the daylight) I don't wear hiviz as the reflective strips do nothing. Studies show that orange does show up well in daylight whereas yellow doesn't as shown by the example above.
My 2p :thumb2
 
I wear a cheap HiViz site jacket over my kit for a few reasons
  • Improved warmth
  • Keeps my expensive kit from getting dirty
  • Improved waterproofing as my expensive stuff gets old and leaky
  • Less likelihood of being run over if I ever do have an off
Can't see a downside, mind you I also have a thin one for summer :)
​
 
My Aerostitch suit is blue and has a couple of Scotchlite strips notably on the back from shoulder to shoulder and on teh outside of the ankles. I've been told that I light up like a christmas tree in headlights from behind. I have a large topbox so the overall effect of a hi-viz jacket would be lost.

That being said, I've ordered a new (hopefully better fitting Roadcrafter 1 piece suit in hi-viz with black ballistic patches (they end up black soon enough anyway so I can be easily seen when I'm off the bike or when seen from the side. I rely on the HID headlights and overall road presence of teh 12GSA to cover visibility to the front.

My choice for Hi-viz is one of generally being offensive to look at and generally bucking the trend for 'all-in-black' as much because black makes me look fatter than I already am and that is about as logical as it gets.

FWIW, as others have said here, cagers will fail to see bikers (I have been guilty of it as well) because they're not looking or distracted by phones/stereo/gps/kids etc and no amount of hi-viz will change that.

I once had mondeo-man pull out in front of my truck and use the excuse "but it's painted in camoflage paint mate, what do you expect?" I replied "my 4.5 tonne six wheel drive truck with armoured bumpers has just ripped both doors, front wing adn wheel off your shitbox rep-mobile because YOU didn't look. What did YOU expect?". Would painting it yellow have made any difference apart from making passers-by vomit? Proably not!
 
tarka said:
I don`t wear Hi Viz clothing.


It`s something I simply won`t do.


Nor will I enter a possible multi page discussion/debate/arguement/rant about it.


If other folk feel better for doing it,that`s their choice.
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:thumb2 :thumb2 :thumb2

Totally agree Steve...

My safety bubble, as Schtum has previously said... is in my head!

I've known police bikes, with two's'n blues on be 'T' boned :eek:

I rest mi case mi'Lord... over & out on this one :)

:beerjug:

www.adventure.gs
 
Robin wears a dayglo yellow 'stich.

Robin looks like a tellytubby.










I also rest my case m'lud....I won't wear it either......
(I also ride like 50% of the cars are going to do exactly the worst thing they could right in front of me, and the other 50% are actually out to kill me...that sort of hones the mind ;) )


PS Sorry Robin ;) :kissy2
 
I wear a Rallye II in Red, I recon that's high visibility?

But I do subscribe to the see and be seen brigade, so I'm for Hi Vis stuff, I put reflective tape on the panniers as well to be seen from the side at night. Look at a bike side on, in the dark, you will see no light from the lights, cars tend to have curved lights these days that give them some visibility from the side.

:rob
 
I wear a HiViz vest for commuting in London in the Winter darkness. Only costs a fiver and gives extra warmth. I can't see a downside in wearing one, as long as you don't use it as a cloak of invincibility. I've worn one for years and will continue to do so.

One thing I have done recently, from observing the visibility of other bikers when in the car, is change to wearing a white lid. I believe this is the single most visible thing a rider can wear better than all the hiviz / stickers / stripes you could choose to wear / affix to your motorbike.

As more people now wear Hiviz, hiviz no longer becomes hiviz............maybe black will become the new hiviz??
 
So you are riding along a main road, coming up to a side road on your left.
There's a car on the left, turning out, and an oncoming vehicle indicting to turn across you in the side road. You have to ride through the gap between the bonnets of the cars.
where is this safety bubble then :confused:
I wear hi viz most of the time, certainly commuting.
I'm too bug and too ugly to give a sh*t what other people thing of me as a result, I'm startled by the vainity here. 'OOO I don't want to look a prat'

don't get me wrong, its not the answer to stop SMIDSY, but its just another little thing that can help.
 
Use my bike to do get too and from site meetings where I have to wear a hi-viz on site anyway, so wear mine when around London and on motorways - has company name on back so a bit of advertising as well
 
I never ever go out without one. Not even on the scooter.
I'm amazed people put wanting to looking cool (the only reason I can think of not to be hi viz) over personal safety.
I also cannot seriously believe that it doesn't help. How common is SMIDSY ?!
Sure, there are some coppers and ambulancemen here saying that "I was driving along with a lighthouse or active volcano or whatever on top of my car, and STILL people didn't see me. So what? Nothing guarantees 100% safety. It's all a matter of percentages. All I want is granny in the volvo to catch a glimpse of ORANGE and pause for 2 seconds.
Do what you want, but don't complain about smidsy if you're not hi viz.
See you in casualty !
 
gasman said:
Do what you want, but don't complain about smidsy if you're not hi viz.
See you in casualty !
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Blimey!

Where did that come from?

This isn't about "looking cool" or a judgement on the sartorial elegance of those who wear Saturn-yellow or Day-glo orange.

The original question was do you use hi-viz clothing or not and the reasons why.

Maybe not wearing it will make me feel less angry when some myopic twat pulls out in front of me compared to someone who thinks that they are "visible?":nenau
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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