# Help with reflective tape placement.



## Emilio84 (Oct 5, 2004)

So, I have begun riding earlier and later in the day as of late and went ahead and bought some reflective tape for my bike. I have black, white, red, and silver. I am trying to keep it as in conspicuous during the day as possible (aesthetics). 

I was thinking of 1 or 2 groups of tape on my wheel rims (for a strobe effect at night), the backs of my crank arms, and the rest of the usual spots such as the down tube, stays, etc.. 


Suggestions? Tips?


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## Fixed (May 12, 2005)

*suggestions*



Emilio84 said:


> So, I have begun riding earlier and later in the day as of late and went ahead and bought some reflective tape for my bike. I have black, white, red, and silver. I am trying to keep it as in conspicuous during the day as possible (aesthetics).
> 
> I was thinking of 1 or 2 groups of tape on my wheel rims (for a strobe effect at night), the backs of my crank arms, and the rest of the usual spots such as the down tube, stays, etc..
> 
> ...


First and foremost, and really important -- if you ever will want to remove the tape, do this, because reflective tape is a real bear to get off. It comes off, if you can at all, in itty bitty little chunks, and can take forever. Put down layer of electrical tape, which you can also get in various colors. This will protect your frame or components in the event you want to remove the tape eventually.

Good locations:

- crank arms are great places
- a couple of 1 inch circles on rims, if they fit (like deep section rims)
- head tube
- seat stays
- fork
- helmet

I stick with plain white, though.

From the FC 508 rules (event that runs all night)

"While riding at night, racers must have significant amounts of reflective material on their bike and/or body, facing in all four directions. We suggest wrapping reflective tape around both crankarms, the forks, rear stays, and helmet at the minimum."

http://the508.com/intelligence/rules.html


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2009)

The suggestion to stay with white is a good one, black especially is quite a bit less noticeable. Depending on how much you want to put on outlining the bike so that it reflects in all directions provides the most coverage obviously. I think I'd prefer other side surfaces to the crankarms as they are often covered by your legs though.


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## Fixed (May 12, 2005)

*cranks*



kytyree said:


> The suggestion to stay with white is a good one, black especially is quite a bit less noticeable. Depending on how much you want to put on outlining the bike so that it reflects in all directions provides the most coverage obviously. I think I'd prefer other side surfaces to the crankarms as they are often covered by your legs though.


I've ridden and officiated the 508 bike race where all riders go all night and must have reflective tape on crank arms, and I noticed that it really does stand out there. The movement creates a flashing sort of effect that is very visible.


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## California L33 (Jan 20, 2006)

Consider reflective tires. Conti 4000's are available with reflective sidewalls. You can see the bike for miles in headlights at two white hoops- unmistakably a bike. Then you only have to worry about front/rear reflection with the tape. 

I haven't found anyone in the US who stocks reflective 4000s, but they are available from PBK.


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## Emilio84 (Oct 5, 2004)

California L33 said:


> Consider reflective tires. Conti 4000's are available with reflective sidewalls. You can see the bike for miles in headlights at two white hoops- unmistakably a bike. Then you only have to worry about front/rear reflection with the tape.
> 
> I haven't found anyone in the US who stocks reflective 4000s, but they are available from PBK.



Next time I need tires I'll check those out. I just put a set of GP4000's on my bike so it'll be a while.


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## tturbotom (May 8, 2008)

I have red and white DOT reflective tape on my bike. Lucky for me, my bike it mostly white with red and black accents. I have tape on the forks, head tube, seat tube (at 5 and 7 o'clock position), and chain stays. The tape follows the lines of the bike and accents the graphics already in place.

I like the idea of placing the tape on the cranks. I will be doing this ASAP.

Good thread.


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

I know you didn't mention fenders. I posted this to show how a jogger belt looks around a bag. This will work on any type of bag and provides some really nice side visibility. If I was going to ride a road bike at night, I would consider a raceblade fender on the back just as a place for reflective tape.


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

First of all, here is a post about some reflective tape that I have purchased and compared. Notice that the black reflective tape does a poor job of reflecting light back to the source but it is better than nothing.

Here's a picture of my commuter bike all decked out with reflective tape all over the place. I did this because I wanted to uglify the bike but also to make the bike reflective if the batteries in my lights die in the middle of a ride. I have tape set up to reflect back to the source from 360 degrees around the bike.










At a minimum, I would put reflective tape on the rims in two places opposite to each other so that as one fades away at the bottom or top of the rotating rim (depending of you are viewing it from the front or back) another one comes into view. On my commuter bike I did just the one set of four patches but I also put a patch of reflective tape on the hub facing the strips on the rim. Not as effective but it works nonethless. I would also put reflective tape on the back of the crank arms wrapping all the way around. Yes, your foot/leg are blocking it from view as you are pedaling but this makes the tape flash as it comes in and out of shadow.

Reflective tape should augment, not take the place of, good head and tail lights. Make sure that you have at least these before you even look into reflective tape. Reflective tape is passive safety while head and tail lights are active safety. Active safety should come before passive safety. The problem with reflective tape is that the tape has to be within the headlights of the car. Being in the headlights of the car means that you are in its path. Not good.


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