man y'all certainly took the hi-viz to a different direction I was initially asking. I wasn't really considering the the "safety" aspect of this but more of a would be riding the in the hi-viz helmet and/or arm warmers, booties, other things like that too excessive in a sport that that has some pretty loud cycling enthusiasts?

No, neon is in right now. Go for it.
If your gear was all retro-reflective, however... mmmmmmmmmm that might be interesting.

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Exp001

From a personal point of view (literally), you can't even see what you're wearing when you're riding anyways. Just wear what you want.

I am pulling my hat to your background and reasoning, but in traffic the relative difference between rider and vehicle is often such, that the rider appears to move very little compared to the background. Say the typical case of rider (30kph) and vehicle approaching from behind with 80-100kph.

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Bikes: Raceur, Beateur

Cyclist visibility at night : perceptions of visibility do not necessarily match reality

Wood, Joanne M., Tyrrell, Richard A., Marszalek, Ralph P., Lacherez, Philippe F., Carberry, Trent P., Chu, Byoung Sun, & King, Mark J. (2010) Cyclist visibility at night : perceptions of visibility do not necessarily match reality. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 21(3), pp. 56-60.


Abstract: Visibility limitations make cycling at night particularly dangerous. We previously reported cyclists’ perceptions of their own visibility at night and identified clothing configurations that made them feel visible. In this study we sought to determine whether these self-perceptions reflect actual visibility when wearing these clothing configurations. In a closed-road driving environment, cyclists wore black clothing, a fluorescent vest, a reflective vest, or a reflective vest plus ankle and knee reflectors. Drivers recognised more cyclists wearing the reflective vest plus reflectors (90%) than the reflective vest alone (50%), fluorescent vest (15%) or black clothing (2%). Older drivers recognised the cyclists less often than younger drivers (51% vs 27%). The findings suggest that reflective ankle and knee markings are particularly valuable at night, while fluorescent clothing is not. Cyclists wearing fluorescent clothing may be at particular risk if they incorrectly believe themselves to be conspicuous to drivers at night.


... it looks like the motion of reflective bits is what helps most.

Sticking with the safety aspect of this thread, here's a relevant article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... luorescent
Which is basically saying, it's complicated.

As for the style aspect of this thread, I think the correct word is 'neon' rather than 'hi viz'. I like it but I think it will go out of fashion again pretty soon.

This really isn't that hard. You need bright colors with built in contrasts for daylight visiblity and reflecting surfaces, preferably moving, for night riding. Lights help greatly. Blinking light help more.

All that said and done, you are still just lowering the risk and not fully mitigating it. It's a dangerous sport we participate in so choose your routes wisely.

Case in point: I nearly mowed over a scooter this morning who was doing everything wrong - dark blue pancho (it was raining), no headlight, riding into opposing traffic (common here), dark color helmet with tinted shield. We were going under a bridge and it was quite dark under there - not light night riding, but very far from daylight. Had the scooter guy had done any of the above things I'm 100% sure I would have seen him sooner and been able to move the car over and give him more room. As it was, I didn't see him until he was a few feet in front of me - thank god I was going quite slow.

Prendrefeu, very interest info, thanks, did not know that, sounds reasonable and true. Contrast it is

That Colnago is beautiful! When you get tired of riding it hang it on the wall like a piece of art.

My tights and Demarchi winter jacket (which i love) are dark but I think these more than compensate.