Mirrors

[sprogs]

My right eye is pretty useless so I find it very difficult to see safely behind me on a bent. I usually ride with my brother Pedaldog and he calls out when it's safe to turn. I'd like a bit more independence, anyone recommend a good mirror? I'd like one with a good field of view and a large area for safety. I ride a trice and a Burley limbo, the trice is good and stable but the Limbo takes up a lot of road space when I try and twist round to see behind (think Excorcist), not a pretty sight. I tried a glasses mounted mirror once, on the left side of my head, move head left, vision goes other way, where the £$%^ am I! Not a good idea at all.

[Karla]

Mine is convex, which increases the field of view but means you need a little practice at judging how close things are with it.  Go into a bike shop and see what they have.

[sprogs]

I tried the local shops and they seem to have mirror phobia, no call for them. I'd like to know what people have found usefull.

[jogler]

I have one of these **

Busch & Muller Cycle Star Mirror Short Stem

on the bars of my 'bent (with ape-hanger bars) fitted to the offside.The field of vision  is adequate but if I start to use this bike regularly I will probably get another one for the near side to agive 180* rear view vision


**recommended by Kim of this parish

[Charlotte]

Busch & Muller Cycle Star Mirror Short Stem

I have the long stem variety on my 'bent.  It's okay, but I wish it was a little bigger or a little more convex to get a greater field of view.  It's probably the best one on the market, though.

[Arch]

I have the Mountain Mirrycle:

http://www.mirrycle.com/mountain_mirrycle.php

The view is great and they are very easy to adjust (and to fold in to get the Catrike through narrow gaps.)  One came fitted to the trike, and after using a long stem B and M on the other side for a while, which tended to wobble, I went for another Mirrycle to match.

I have had a problem with the horizontal arm (horizontal on the trike - the bit with the ridged section) on the one that came fitted to the trike, when the arm just snapped on a rough bit of road. Inspection showed that the casting seemed to have a bubble in it, so that might be random bad luck. A friend has given me a spare arm - he tends to break the mirror bit by whacking it on stuff!

They work well on the trike certainly.

[Kim]

Busch & Muller Cycle Star Mirror Short Stem

I have the long stem variety on my 'bent.  It's okay, but I wish it was a little bigger or a little more convex to get a greater field of view.  It's probably the best one on the market, though.

I'd agree with that assessment.  It's extremely well constructed, and is one of the few with the ability to clamp round a bar (essential if you have bar-end shifters), but a slightly wider field of view would be nice.

After a conversation with a FNRttCer about the inherent wobbliness(?) of recumbents, I realised that I'd developed a technique of moving my head one way while deflecting the steering slightly in the opposite direction (causing a brief wobble but no real course deviation) in order to sweep the mirror horizontally.  This is probably a safety advantage in traffic, anyway, but is nevertheless suboptimal.

I do find that I set the mirror angle differently depending on where and with whom I'm riding - on group rides I have it set so I can see bikes in the blind spot immediately behind me, so I don't cause a pile-up by braking sharply, whereas when dodging Birmingham traffic on my own I'll have it set slightly wider so I have a better view of vehicles' offside indicators and when changing into the lane to the right.

[Kim]

I have the Mountain Mirrycle:

mirrycle.com: mountain mirrycle

See, that's a more sensible size, but needs a bar-end to mount it in.

What are the ones on MFWHTBAB's KMX?  Those gave an astoundingly wide field of view (think HAL 9000), with the unfortunate side effect that a T-Rex chomping on your rear tyre would appear as a mere speck in the distance.

[Quint]

You could always use the Trice adaptor for mirror/accessorie mounting (like a piece of handlebar) to mount an extra mirror as well as the one in the top of the bar, should get a wide spread of vision.

[tonycollinet]

I can show you a picture of that if you like (the trice adapter) complete with slightly broken mirror.

[Quint]

Ah, did it make the mirror stick to far out  

[tonycollinet]

No, I rolled my trike.

Not going to blame the mirror mount for my numptyness.

[Quint]

Ah yes, I remember wincing sympathetically when I read that 

[Regulator]

I have both the Mirrycle (on the right) and the B&M Cycle Star (on the left) on the trike.

The Mirrycle is definitely more stable and has a better field of view, hence it being on the right.  The Cycle Star is more flexible.

[Kim]

Interestingly, I haven't found stability to be a problem with the cyclestar - it stays where I put it, and doesn't vibrate excessively.  I suppose this is down to it being mounted amidships on a Streetmachine, rather than a more vibration-prone bike or three-wheeler.  Actually, thinking about it, a trike's going to do a lot more side-to-side vibration than a bike, which must be more annoying optically?

[arallsopp]

I have the B&Ms,

 - a short stem on the streetmachine.
 - a long stem on the Furai.

Once you've got the angle right, they're perfect. The little ball heads do tend to wear a bit, but on mine this has resulted in a set of indexed positions. Typically I have the 'what's behind me or just off to my right and behind' position as standard, one bump with the cuff will put it into 'is that guy riding gutter-side on my wheel keeping up', a knock on the top will give me the 'is my back tyre down?' view.

The fourth configuration is the 'hey, you took this through a doorway again didn't you' position. That's not so good.

On USS two wheelers, the most tempting place is to stick them below the grips, sticking out. It adds about 3 inches to the bike's width, and invariably is the first piece to contact when you lean her against a wall.

[Kim]

The fourth configuration is the 'hey, you took this through a doorway again didn't you' position. That's not so good.

On USS two wheelers, the most tempting place is to stick them below the grips, sticking out. It adds about 3 inches to the bike's width, and invariably is the first piece to contact when you lean her against a wall.

By cunning alignment of the seam between the two halves of the 'socket' of the lower ball & socket joint, it can be set up to give a little extra range of motion along the line.  On mine (the long curved stem version), this allows it to tuck safely between the bar and brake lever for manhandling through doorways (something that happens twice every time I take the bike out) or strapping down on trains.

Obviously a propstand is the correct solution to the leaning-against-walls problem

At risk of invoking Polar Bear, I'm leaning towards ASS for my eventual 'actually fast' recumbent, so that should make the mirror thing simpler.

[sprogs]

The b & m is looking good i'll see if I can find a shop where I can get up close and personal with one. I've found some bar ends with the same diameter as bars so fitting should be no problem. I tried some motorcycle ones today, dead stable, great field of view, weighed more than the trike.

[Arch]

I have the Mountain Mirrycle:

mirrycle.com: mountain mirrycle

See, that's a more sensible size, but needs a bar-end to mount it in.

What are the ones on MFWHTBAB's KMX?  Those gave an astoundingly wide field of view (think HAL 9000), with the unfortunate side effect that a T-Rex chomping on your rear tyre would appear as a mere speck in the distance.

I've just asked him, and he said they were just a random cheap Ebay find - he's looking to see if he still have the link...

I think he found he tended to see mostly his arms, but he's since moved the mirrors out a bit on barends to cure that.

Ok, he says they are Oxford 3D Handlebar Bar End Fit Round Bike Mirrors, from Ebay seller temecycles.  £7.50.  Currently available from bikes4lifeuk, item number 400221296042

However he says he's going to change to something like the Mirrycles. The view is wide, but as you say, everything in it is tiny.

Given his unorthodox approach to weight reduction,  those motorbike ones might do the job...   

[Cunobelin]

I have the Mountain Mirrycle:

mirrycle.com: mountain mirrycle

See, that's a more sensible size, but needs a bar-end to mount it in.

What are the ones on MFWHTBAB's KMX?  Those gave an astoundingly wide field of view (think HAL 9000), with the unfortunate side effect that a T-Rex chomping on your rear tyre would appear as a mere speck in the distance.

There are a number of options.

On the Gekko they have added bar ends to the handlebars in order to mount these, or if you do nor have bar end shifters they will fit in the handlebar ends.

You can also cheat with the Mirrycle and mount to mudguards as well using the extension pieces as well.

[TimO]

I wonder how well a video link would work?

The cheapest option would probably be to use a video baby monitor, quite a few of which are wireless and battery operated, although typically around £100 (I managed to find one for £65).

The trouble is likely to be that the screen may not be too visible outside in bright daylight, the camera may not work well at night (even though some of them have IR illuminators), and once the batteries ran out, you could have a problem!  There's potential there though.

[Kim]

Probably only really worth it for velomobiles, but I can see it being extremely useful there.

[TimO]

Even with a "conventional" recumbent, a camera / monitor combination would allow you almost total adjustment of the position of the viewpoint (I'd do something like mount it on the rear of a rack), and so long as you can find somewhere to attach the screen (admittedly potentially non-trivial), you could cover viewing angles quite well.  This will obviously also depends a bit on exactly what the field of view of the cameras are.

[sprogs]

I wonder if it would be possible to cannibalise an old phone and make the camera remote from the body, I don't know what sort of frequency you'd have to accomodate but it's worth a try if I can find my old mobile. I have a really cheap 1.3mp video camera that I could try and make the monitor remote on. It's not worth using for anything else. "To the secret laboratory Igor!"

[Arch]

I realise that some of you are technology mad, but frankly if I can acheive a prefectly good result with two bits of glass on sticks, the need for screens and batteries and wires seems superfluous....   

How about a pair of highly polished sporks?