Can you see me now?
[November 16,
2006]
The question is begged to be asked, "When is it you have too much
reflective tape on your motorcycle?" For me the answer is, "It's
never enough!" I put more and more on and I still think it's not
enough. Am I paranoid? Perhaps. At the same time my
thoughts, including some of my friend's thoughts (e.g. Minh, Eugene,
and Russell), it never hurts to be seen in the darkness of
winter. This is especially true when 5:00pm (STD time) rolls
around and it is time to commute home in the dark. As most of us
know, it's
the most dangerous for a motorcycle to be hit from the the
backside. Who knows what the results can be:
- You might get launched (endo) and do the Superman
- You might turn into road kill (roll underneath a car)
- You might roll over the hood and roof (the best possibility in
all bad situations but end up getting run over by the car behind the
car that is trying to run you over)
- You can be viewed as a bug stuck in an SUV's grill (where's that
water hose? I have this gigantic bug stuck to my grill. It
looks like it even has a helmet on)
I don't know about you, but none of the above mentioned possibilities
really excite me. In fact, it does the opposite. Absolutely
terrifying. Remember this mathematical equality:
soccer moms = motorcyclists road kill
What do I do to combat the darkness of winter's night? SOLAS
reflective tape. What is SOLAS reflective tape? SOLAS
stands for Safety Of Life
At Sea. SOLAS is an international
treaty agreed upon by the world community as a safety standard for
merchant ships. This treaty was originally adopted in response to
the Titanic disaster in 1914. The treaty has since been upgraded
numerous times to keep up with the marine industry's more
modern developments. As far as I can tell, the latest and last
SOLAS convention is SOLAS 1974. For more information about SOLAS,
refer to the IMO
website.
History aside, I can't take credit for the idea of putting SOLAS
reflective tape on my bike. The idea came from my friend
Minh. He was the one that discovered it and presented it to
me. I was so impressed with the brilliance of the reflective
material that I decided to update all of the reflective tape on Mr.
Moto. The SOLAS tape is approximately 2x to 3x more brilliant
than the standard 3M reflective tape. This is due to the
increased amount of metallic material used in the SOLAS reflective tape.
According to my wife, who was driving her car behind me one night, she
claimed that she can pick me out from the crowd so long as there is a
direct line of sight. She said she was able to see me
approximately 1/4 to 1/2 miles away. It was possible that I was
even a mile away. That's good. There is no reason for
anybody to say, "I didn't see him." The proof is on the bike, and
in the photos.
The SOLAS reflective tape comes in two forms. One is the adhesive
back and the other is a non-adhesive sew on. The SOLAS tape is
not cheap. It runs about $1.50 per foot where as the standard
reflective tape runs about $.30 per foot. However, the
construction of the SOLAS tape is much better than the standard
reflective tape. It is more sturdy and can stand up to
weathering. It's all worth it I say.
To purchase SOLAS reflective tape check out http://www.identi-tape.com/solas.html.
Update [
Sunday - August 17, 2008]
I can't believe it, the 150' roll of SOLAS tape I purchased in 2006 is
finally running out. This is after a lot of pattern changes,
passing out the tape to my riding buddies, numerous changes of helmets,
changing bikes, and so on so forth. I still have about 20' left
of the tape but I know I will always need more SOLAS tape so I
purchased another 150' roll. Unfortunately, identi-tape.com has
changed their SOLAS tape pricing so it's no longer economical to
purchase from them. However, Land Fall Navigation is selling the
SOLAS tape at the same price two years ago.
The question is still asked... can you top this?
http://www.landfallnavigation.com/ssrt1.html
Written on: November 16, 2006
Last modified: August 18, 2008
