When I was packing to head off to the Bespoked Show in Bristol last weekend I trawled through my collection of T-shirts to find the best ones I’ve got. Only the rarest and coolest would do. Seems I wasn’t the only one!
The following are just a tiny percentage. Maybe next year we should run a competition! Sorry about the blurry images…. cant get the staff…
Bike-Eye designer Tony McGuiness’ response to my previous post contains some insightful comments so I reproduce his email in full:
Hi Mick,
Thanks for the blog post, your opinions mirror (sorry for the pun) mine almost to a tee. I have become so reliant on the mirror and use it in a similar mode to that of a motor cars interior mirror in that I check behind in good time before I need to make a manoeuvre and I’m almost always aware of what type of vehicle is bearing down on me if it’s a car, large van, bus or articulated lorry. Each type of vehicle can present different dangers to cyclists. With the information to hand it allows me to manoeuvre around the road safer, “fore-warned is fore-armed” as they say! I could count on at least 100 pair of hands the amount of times I’ve heard cyclist say “they would rather not know what is behind them” personally I just can’t get my head around that mentality.
Further to your remarks on panniers I have attached information lifted from our web sites FAQ page:-
Can you use Bike-Eye when you have panniers and/or large saddle bag fitted?
A full touring set up with rear panniers and a large saddle or top bag will definitely block the line of view through the Bike-Eye mirror. It’s possible to acheive a view above panniers in some instances, for example, if the panniers are low slung and the mirror locating point on the frame was high enough.
If you are using a single pannier bag this could be located on the opposite side to the mirror leaving the line of view clear! On most frames Bike-Eye can be mounted on the cross bar if the frame size and rider height are appropriate, i.e. there is a clear viewing pathway below the riders thigh! It’s best if you can run a line along the frame from mirror fitting location to the panniers to see if the viewing angle would be above or below the top area of the panniers.
Wide saddle bags usually get in the way, narrow saddle-stem and seatpost fitting bags are an alternative and usually allow a clear viewing pathway!
Regarding Trailers:- Bike-Eye can some times be helpful in keeping an eye on little ones in trailers or tag along bikes.
Other user benefits:- Cyclists who wear glasses have peripheral vision problems and need to turn much further to view behind due to the fact they look out of the side of their glasses as apposed to through the lens centre, Bike-Eye is hugely beneficial for them as well as riders who have lost the sight of an eye especially the right eye on UK roads and cyclist with neck or spinal limitations, physical or age related.
The fact that the Bike-Eye offers Increased riding enjoyment to thousands of cyclist who are now in tune with their cycling partners whereabouts on a regular basis I find hugely rewarding.
Best Regards Tony @ Bike-Eye
Look out for the report of our long term test in a few weeks time.
The safety benefits of a bicycle rear view mirror cannot be overstated. It takes a confident and experienced rider to look over their shoulder, judge a gap, indicate and turn across fast moving traffic. There’s a right hand turn across a 60mph road on my commute to Cyclorama HQ. To make it even more treacherous many drivers travel in excess of the posted speed limit down there. I’ve often done a ‘life-saver’ look over my shoulder just as I’m being passed too close by a speeding vehicle. Really not nice. At the very least a mirror would let me establish when it is safe to look behind for a big enough gap to complete my manouver.
Trouble is I gave up on rear view mirrors on my bikes a very long time ago, not because they were useless or unnecessary but simply because they stuck out and got bashed whenever I leant my bike up against a wall. Virtually every time I stopped the mirror would get nudged out of adjustment and require re-setting but eventually it would be smashed off all together, either by a close encounter with a wall or by my frustration with the ‘gosh-darned’ thing.
I persevered, I really did. I tried them all. Starting circa 1975 with a chrome plated number on a stalk (which wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Vespa scooter). It couldn’t be tightened up enough to stop slipping around the bar. Useless. They are still available. You still find them in the shops but never see actually any on bikes. I can only assume that every one sold gets binned shortly after purchase.
When I first saw the American Mirriycle in a magazine I thought my prayers had been answered. A high quality product, it required the installer to completely remove the off-side brake cable, carefully trim the brake lever’s rubber hood with a knife and the near impossible task of stuffing a 13mm spanner upside the then ubiquitous Weinmann brake -lever body. If you were having it done professionally the labour cost of fitting usually outweighed the RRP (£16.99 in 1985. Why do I remember that ??) And then of course it would loosen off in the first week, requiring a replay of the installation. Yawn. When it did work it worked well but I tweaked mine out of adjustment on every wall. It was the kind of thing which had to be adjusted precisely so every re-adjust took an age – a safety concern in itself – with my eye on the mirror rather than the road I invariably wobbled off line whilst manhandling the hecking thing back into place.
I tried the expensive Rhode Gear handlebar-end mirror which attached to the bar with a velcro strap (huh? are you expected to remove it every time you park the bike?), a cheapo bar-end plug mounted one, a helmet mounted one and even a sunglasses mounted one (made by a beardy weardy from Oregon out of bits of old wire). All of them worked perfectly well right up to the inevitable moment they got bashed. They all got bashed because they all stuck out.
Adjust ……. bash, OMG.
Adjust ……. bash, FFS.
Adjust ……. bash. Smash.
I wonder how many cyclists have been killed over the years whilst re-adjusting their rear view mirrors….
So, I want the safety benefits of a rear view mirror – I wouldn’t drive my car without one – but I can no longer tolerate the frustration of bashing them at every opportunity. Enter the Bike-Eye. I’ve been using one for a couple of weeks. I know it’s a terrible cliche but I really don’t know how I’ve done with-out this product for all these years. A bicycle rear view mirror which doesn’t stick out and is therefore immune to being knocked. Not so much genius as eureka, it’s such an obvious solution that it makes me wonder why it took humanity so long to invent it. The Bike-Eye attaches to the bike frame at the junction of the head and down tubes with a couple of cable ties. Easy to fit, simple to adjust with the included socket tool and well out of the way. You do need to move your leg out wards slightly to clear the mirror’s field of vision but this isn’t an issue in use and soon becomes second nature.
In addition to the mirror’s usefulness as an awareness aid in traffic Tony McGuiness the Bike-Eye’s inventor has noted some other ‘benefits’ of his product. He regularly rides out with a group and he usually is the only person to notice when a fellow has fallen off the back! It invariably falls to him to turn around and lend a hand or a new inner- tube.
It has its limitations; a pannier or a tall trailer will obscure its view and its field of vision is a bit limited but these aside it does what it sets out to do. In fact I like it so much I just bought one for SWMBE to fit on her tandem.
Highly recommended.
I can’t resist a Cycle Show. I love Spezi for the fringe, the Hand Made Bicycle Exposition for the eye candy, and the Cologne show, Interbike in Vegas and Eurobike in Friedrichshafen for their sheer mind numbing enormity. Milan and Paris have their own individual characters, but I have the longest relationship with the London show. It’s been held at many different locations over the years: Olympia, Olympia 2, Alexandria Palace, and Docklands Excel. ‘Cycle Show’ (for that is what it is called, they couldn’t afford a ‘the’) has settled in to Earls Court, its latest home, very nicely. The last three or four years of steady growth has coincided with a substantial increase in cycling in the UK, particularly in London and the 2010 show (which I attended yesterday and runs until Sunday) is now as big as any I’ve ever attended.
It’s great to see the latest incarnation of The London Cycle Show expand year on year because it’s been through some lean years; a couple of decades ago a few cycle companies started the trend of hosting their own private dealer shows. One by one they pulled out of the one big annual, national multi-brand trade show altogether which left it severely diminished. I’ve been to a few of these individual dealer shows, usually hosted at some country hotel or other, where the day is mapped out and hapless dealers are herded towards bike sales programmes like cows to the slaughter. Ask the cheque writer in any bike shop if they’d prefer to finance many trips to many individual single brand shows or one trip to one big show…
Giant, Trek, Marin, Raleigh and Madison are all big players in the UK market but all are absent from the attendance register. You may not have heard of Madison but they are the UK’s official importer of Shimano cycling products, meaning that Shimano, who have totally dominated the world’s cycle component market for the last twenty five years had no official presence at the show (though of course the show was awash with bikes carrying their components). Some of the biggest brands in the UK cycling market, conspicuous by their absence. They’ve all made plenty of money from this particular ‘sales territory’ so I think the very least they can do is support our national show.
Grumble over.
There was a lot to see this year – there was some fabulous new gear and the usual high-end blingy stratospheric carbon stuff always gets me salivating. Campagnolo, SRAM, Specialized and Bianchi had some extraordinarily beautiful products on display. Every year these companies up their game, I don’t know how they do it but so many of their bikes were profoundly, jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I suspect someone at Colnago sold their soul to the devil.
Encouragingly there were also a good number of small/new companies exhibiting new and innovative products such as Bike-Eye, Spencer Ivy, Breeze Blockers and MyVelo. If this show is anything to go by, the UK cycle industry is on an up and it was certainly a pleasure to see some familiar UK brands in rude health; Brompton, Pashley, Hope, DMR, Condor, USE, SiS, Endura, Moulton and Polaris. All UK companies and all doing very well thank-you-very-much and not just in the UK, internationally some of them and during a recession! Pure brilliant. I’ve known many of these folks for years so it really is a pleasure to see their success.
It was also good to see small makers like Bernds, Kemper Fahrradtechnik and Patria make the trip from Germany – they were a very welcome addition. Quest 88 headed up an expanded special needs section. I fully expected to find endless rows of cookie-cutter band-wagon flouro-fixies but there weren’t very many at all. The fixed wheel bicycle buyer certainly has plenty to choose from, every brand has at least one in the line-up, but it seems to me that the quality is on the rise and there’s a move away from the flourescent towards a more retro vibe. Bianchi and Condor had it nailed.
Strangely absent this year; cargo bikes, cargo trailers, kids trailers and trailer bikes. I understand why there were only one or two recumbents but there was hardly a kids bike to be seen. Unless I missed it there wasn’t a single trials bike so I guess that bubble has burst. What the industry is pitching at the trade (and by extension to the public) is still largely road bikes, mountain bikes and a few (increasingly trendified) city bikes. Shame.
My Best Stand Award (if such a thing existed) would go to Early Rider for their beach scene complete with vintage ice cream trailer (converted to serve beer!) And for me the Best Trend of the show was the very welcome re-emergence of spangle. Here and there throughout the hall (and in particular on at least two high-end De-Rosas) was glitter – proper big chunks of metal flake with high-gloss lacquer deep enough to swim in. It was metal-flake to make a seventies hot-rod proud. It may not be to everyone’s taste but I’m biased since I’m old enough to remember spangly boob tubes.
