why black for biking clothes

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool',

Thats all there is to it.

Pete

I ask the same questions myself. I don't agree about the night riding, though.

Don wrote:
:: Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear.
[...]

::
:: What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
:: and full length tights come only in black.

[...]

:: Also, biking shirts and vests in white or day glo green..

You can get some at www.performancebike.com but it does seem like shorts come mostly in black.

::
::
:: Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
:: they arent charging $100 for them..
::

I've seen some at performance that have white in them, but they seem pricey.

Don said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear. Doesnt make
sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the dang jacket is black. I do NOT ride at night
on the roads.. Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe to be on the road with cars
at night.

What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
and full length tights come only in black.

Why not light flourescent colors and white shoes.. It is a proven fact that feet are cooler in
white shoes. In bright summer sun, would make sense to have shoes in white. Also, biking shirts
and vests in white or day glo green..

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for them..

Black shorts have the advantage that stains (from leather saddles, etc.) do not show up as much on
them. The same is true for black tights, with the additional advantage that the mixture of chain
lubricant and dirt is hardly noticeable on them.

Black shoes are best since they are the least distracting color to have in the rider's field of
vision. 😉

Tom Sherman – Close to 41½ N, 90½ W

Have you ever ridden in the winter? Black clothing is warmer (if you ride during the day and it's
sunny). But.... Black goes back to the days of early racing when riders that had breakdowns would be
required to fix there own bikes to continue. Wiping their hands on black shorts made the most sense.
Tradition is huge in this sport, sometimes things are done for no other reason than that is the way
it's always been.

Mike D.

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the

biking

Quoted message said:

gear. Doesnt make sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the dang jacket

is

Quoted message said:

black. I do NOT ride at night on the roads.. Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe
to be on the road with cars at night.

What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
and full

length

Quoted message said:

tights come only in black.

Why not light flourescent colors and white shoes.. It is a proven fact that feet are cooler in
white shoes. In bright summer sun, would make sense to have shoes in white. Also, biking shirts
and vests in white or day glo green..

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for them..

cheers

don

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for

all the biking

Quoted message said:

gear.

As Tom pointed out bike & road dirt stains that you can't wash out don't show on black. Others have
written in this newsgroup that coloured lycra shorts can become see-through when wet.

Quoted message said:

Doesnt make sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the

dang jacket is

Quoted message said:

black.

Many colours don't show up very well in the dark, they look close to black. White & light yellow are
easier to see in low light such as rainy days or lit city streets.

Quoted message said:

I do NOT ride at night on the roads.. Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe to
be on the

road with

Quoted message said:

cars at night.

I believe we can be "safe" but I don't understand riders with dark clothes, no reflectors and no
lights. It's not expensive to be visible.

Quoted message said:

What i want is maximum visibility.

I like high visibility, but I might even show up more than you in some conditions. Tights can
contribute a LOT to night visibility for example the proper reflectivity on a rider's calves is very
bright at distances of a kilometer or more and, because of the pedaling motion, instantly
indentifiable as a cyclist.

Quoted message said:

I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts and

full length

Quoted message said:

tights come only in black.

During the day, if you're already wearing a brilliant green top, how much extra visibility are
brilliant green tights going to add? Certainly nothing like calf or pedal reflectivity at night.

Shorts and tights tend to get dirtier than tops. Then if you are a manufacturer, a retailer, or a
rider, your black tights and shorts go with any top. Get into colours and you need to invest in a
lot more bottoms.

Quoted message said:

Why not light flourescent colors and white shoes.. It is a proven fact that feet are cooler in
white shoes. In bright summer sun, would make sense to have shoes in white.

I wear Shimano sandals most of the time in the summer. My feet are cool.

Quoted message said:

Also, biking shirts and vests in white or day glo green..

Aren't these widely available already?

Quoted message said:

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for

them..

As Roger noted, Performance has some. Some of your LBS will too.

Doug For email, a sense of wonder.

Don' from said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear.

Black hides dirt and oil.

--
[email hidden]
Be extravagant.
94

Don said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear.

As others have said, light colors show dirt quickly. If you do short rides and wash everything
immediately afterwards, I suppose that's not a problem. If you do multi-day tours, you'll look
grungy by day #2.

Quoted message said:

Doesnt make sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the dang jacket is black.

If you're talking about the "illuminite" reflective fabric, the color of the fabric matters very
little at night. If a car's headlights are on you, the illuminite will show up well. In daylight,
bright yellow is better - but I think it's rarely an important difference.

Quoted message said:

I do NOT ride at night on the roads.. Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe to be on
the road with cars at night.

<Yawn> Yeah, we've heard that. You stay home and watch TV. I'll ride.

Quoted message said:

What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
and full length tights come only in black.

Why not light flourescent colors and white shoes.. It is a proven fact that feet are cooler in
white shoes. In bright summer sun, would make sense to have shoes in white. Also, biking shirts
and vests in white or day glo green..

So, when you're driving, how often have you come within, say, 30 yards of passing a cyclist before
noticing him? Does this happen often?

I ask because it's not something that happens to me. Of course, I'm talking about legal, competent
riders. I'm leaving out a few sidewalk cyclists, wrong-way-riders popping out from parked cars, etc.

--
Frank Krygowski [To reply, omit what's between "at" and "cc"]

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for them..

Voler makes shorts in eight colors: velowear.comallBottoms.aspOpen ↗

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In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear. Doesnt make
sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the dang jacket is black. I do NOT ride at night
on the roads.. Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe to be on the road with cars
at night.

What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
and full length tights come only in black.

Have you ever seen what light colored tights and shorts look like when wet? They are nearly
transparent. That's why they are black. A agree with the bright jerseys, though.

....

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

Don said:

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for them..

www.velowear.com

www.performancebike.com

www.nashbar.com

Matt O.

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the biking gear.

Don, if you check up on us pro's you will find out that our trade team kit hasn't been 'black' since
the mid-80's.

MD said:

Have you ever ridden in the winter? Black clothing is warmer (if you ride during the day and it's
sunny). But.... Black goes back to the days of early racing when riders that had breakdowns would
be required to fix there own bikes to continue. Wiping their hands on black shorts made the most
sense. Tradition is huge in this sport, sometimes things are done for no other reason than that is
the way it's always been.

I believe that 99.9999% of all cyclists still have to fix their own bikes when it breaks down on the
road. Maybe more?

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Here's the official trivial pursuit answer:

Back in the days of iron men, wooden ships and leather saddles, you had to keep your saddle oiled.
The oil would seep up as you rode.

If you didn't wear black, it would look as though you'd shat yourself.

Quoted message said:

I believe that 99.9999% of all cyclists still have to fix their own bikes when it breaks down on
the road. Maybe more?

I must be in the .0001 that doesn't break down. But I don't do anything special beyond routine
maintenance.

I think your figures are inflated.

:-)

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________ ------------------"Buddy Holly,
the Texas Elvis"------------------
__________306.350.357.38>>[email hidden]__________

Eric S. Sande said:

Quoted message said:

I believe that 99.9999% of all cyclists still have to fix their own bikes when it breaks down on
the road. Maybe more?

I must be in the .0001 that doesn't break down. But I don't do anything special beyond routine
maintenance.

I think your figures are inflated.

:-)

I think you misunderstood me. I was saying that out of all the cyclists that have a bike that breaks
down while riding only 0.0001% of them has somebody following them in a car and fixing it for them,
maybe less.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Quoted message said:

I think you misunderstood me. I was saying that out of all the cyclists that have a bike that
breaks down while riding only 0.0001% of them has somebody following them in a car and fixing it
for them, maybe less.

That would be a small subset, yes.

But not as small as you might think. Supported tours spring to mind.

As well as that little Mavic car.

Not as many people ride bicycles as you might initially compute.

I think you might be off by at least two orders of magnitude, Perre.

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________ ------------------"Buddy Holly,
the Texas Elvis"------------------
__________306.350.357.38>>[email hidden]__________

Eric S. Sande said:

Quoted message said:

I think you misunderstood me. I was saying that out of all the cyclists that have a bike that
breaks down while riding only 0.0001% of them has somebody following them in a car and fixing it
for them, maybe less.

That would be a small subset, yes.

But not as small as you might think. Supported tours spring to mind.

As well as that little Mavic car.

Not as many people ride bicycles as you might initially compute.

I think you might be off by at least two orders of magnitude, Perre.

Well. I don't have any scientific evidence to back up my statements with so I will just be a good
boy and shut the f-k up 😉

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool', why black for all the

biking

Quoted message said:

gear. Doesnt make sense to have reflective stuff on jackets if the dang jacket

is

Quoted message said:

black.

Give me a break. Do you also suggest to your friends to not drive black cars? It doesn't matter
squat if you are lit up properly.

Quoted message said:

I do NOT ride at night on the roads..

Why not? My experience says it's no more dangerous than riding in daylight, if you have
proper lighting.

Quoted message said:

Even with reflective stuff and lights, it aint safe to be on the road with cars at night.

Spoken by someone who doesn't know.

Quoted message said:

What i want is maximum visibility. I wear flourescent pink and green jackets but all the shorts
and full

length

Quoted message said:

tights come only in black.

You should finds all kinds of bargains in the 80's day-glow clothing sales bins at your local
bike shops!

Quoted message said:

Why not light flourescent colors and white shoes.. It is a proven fact that feet are cooler in
white shoes. In bright summer sun, would make sense to have shoes in white. Also, biking shirts
and vests in white or day glo green

You must be joking!

Quoted message said:

Does anybody know who makes shorts in colors other than black. With the proviso, of course, that
they arent charging $100 for them..

Robin Hubert

"Pete" <[email hidden]> reaches into the minds of every cyclist in the world
and states at "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than the misplaced desire to look 'cool',

Thats all there is to it.

Really. How about utility?

Robin Hubert