triddletree said:Brian G said:Pete Biggs said:Russell wrote:
> Anyone got any suggestions for a mirror on a road bike?
A helmet mirror should give a better view but I don't see how they're
practical either.
One big advantage of a helmet mounted mirror is that relatively small
movements of the head can aim the mirror as required and widen the field
of view considerably, whereas with a bar mounted mirror one has to
have the setup precisely correct or engage in tricky contortions to
adjust the view.
Quoted message said:This is the main reason I don't advise mirrors on bikes. The time taken
in getting the body and mirror correctly aligned, overcoming any
vibration, and then for the eyes to refocus is best, IMO, spent looking
behind.
I'm pleased to see John Franklin also agrees turning the head is both
faster and gives better information than a mirror.
Most of these comments about how awkward mirros are sound like
comments from people who never bothered to spend the time becoming
skilful in their use. Rather like someone who's never ridden a bike,
and after half an hour falling off their first bike in the park,
announces that there is absolutely no way such an inherently wobbly
contraption could ever be remotely close to safe in traffic.
It takes me maybe ten minutes of experiments to find the best way of
setting up a new kind of mirror. After that if it gets knocked out of
place I can reset it in seconds, usually while cycling. I never have
to overcome vibration because if I do accidentally buy one of the
stupid vibrating kind, I take it back to the shop and swap it. Once
you've learned how to use it you never have to refocus, because you
stop being so silly as to focus on the mirror in the first place. The
same focus as is used for looking ahead is used for looking
behind. And the awkward contortions of head and body rquired to shift
view are only awkward until making the right movement becomes so
automatic you don't even know you're doing it.
Of course looking round gives you a better view. But there's no way
you can track the behaviour of vehicles approaching from behind by
looking behind, especially in urban traffic where you also need to
keep a close eye on the stuff in front.
Twice in my life I've dived off the road when I realised the car
behind was going to drive me off the road, once because it was simply
either careless or malicious, and once because other traffic which I
could see and it couldn't yet was going to force it into that
situation. There's no way I could have seen either of those things
coming unless I had been lucky enough to turn round and look at exactly
the right last moment, and then I would have had a slower reaction
because I would have had my head round backwards. It was easily done
with a mirror. I'm not even sure if it would have possible without
one.
When I ride in the city without a mirror I feel more vulnerable, ride
a bit more slowly, and sometimes find myself pulling up behind a
parked car instead of swinging out because in thick fast moving
traffic I simply hadn't had the time to be able to check whether I
could pull out. That's because although I'm riding a bit slower, I'm
still not riding slow enough to be able to take all the observations I
need, without a mirror, for all the maneouvres I might need to take.
It's true my mirror, like most if not all of them, has that critical
blind spot where a very close overtaking something can hide, but that
can be covered by the very quick shoulder checking glance which
motorcyclists call the lifesaver, which is very much quicker than the
full looking behind that is needed if you don't have a mirror.
--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]
