I highly recommend that you invest in a set of Bike Wrappers – they just might save your life. Bike Wrappers make your bike much more visible in the dark, and also protect the frame from scratches.
If you have ever seen my bike on a winter morning, you may have guessed that one of my ambitions is to be as visible as possible. This ambition is closely connected to my ambition of one day being the oldest cyclist alive.
I have had a few close calls on dark winter mornings, and I am fighting back by being incredibly visible – some might say, ridiculously visible. But I don’t care what people say – I just want to stay alive.
I have three taillights, three front lights, and 32 LED MonkeyLectric lights (reviewed here) on each wheel of my commuter bike. That’s a total of 70 lights! At Christmas time I program my MonkeyLectric lights to merrily flash red and green, so I look a lot like an iridescent, moving Christmas tree.
Yesterday I even had a conversation with a cyclist who admitted that she was following me because she was “mesmerized” by my lights. I should have thought of this when I was single! By the way, here is my Complete Guide to Bike Lights.
In any event, I have a bold new addition to my life-protecting arsenal of extreme visibility: Bike Wrappers.
Bike Wrappers are one of those concepts that are so simple yet so clever that you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” They are soft wrappers that you can wrap around the tubes of your bike.
Bike Wrappers are soft, reflective wrappers that you can wrap around the tubes of your bike.They are reversible, with one side featuring a cool color or pattern, and the other side featuring reflective material. This means that in summer you can use them to make your bike look good, and in winter you can use them to dramatically increase your visibility. And all year around, Bike Wrappers protect your bike from scratches and dents caused by parking or falling. And of course, they require no batteries or other power – you simply wrap them around and sit back while they do their thing.
The bright lights of cars will reflect off your Bike Wrappers, making you extremely visible to the people who drive the big old cars that could kill you if their drivers fail to see you.
My wife Maggie (Mrs. Average Joe Cyclist) has a set of Bike Wrappers in a really cool zebra fashion, while I opted for plain red to make up for the fact that my road bike is (sadly) not red. But it’s not just about looking good. More importantly, it’s a safety issue. It’s about being SEEN at night. As you can see from the photos at the top of this post.
To make my point, here is a night-time photo of Maggie’s 2013 Giant Avail (reviewed by her here) WITHOUT Bike Wrappers:
And here is is a night-time photo of Maggie’s 2012 Giant Avail WITH Bike Wrappers:
It’s kind of a no-brainer that having Bike Wrappers on our bikes makes both of us much safer, so I have to say that I am really, really happy with my Bike Wrappers.
I like the way Bike Wrappers protect my bike, but I especially love the way they make me EVEN MORE VISIBLE.
With the combination of 70 lights AND my Bike Wrappers, no motorist has any excuse not to see me. If I am ever killed by a motorist at night, Maggie will be suing them for every thing they have, because there is no longer ANY EXCUSE WHATSOEVER not to see me. In order to miss me, you’d have to be legally blind, or else have your eyes closed and be wearing eye patches over both eyes, OR perhaps simply be texting while wearing sunglasses at night. In any of these cases, a person should of course not be driving.
I highly recommend that you invest in a set of Bike Wrappers – they just might save your life.
Check Out Our Most Popular Posts! | ||
| ||
Did you enjoy this post or find it helpful? If so, please support our blog! We write this blog because we love cycling. But we also need to earn a living, so we REALLY would appreciate if you click through to one of our reputable affiliates for your online shopping. We are proudly affiliated with Amazon, which sells pretty much everything, and has outstanding shipping and return policies. When you buy from our affiliates we make a small commission, and this is the only way we earn any income. Plus, it costs you nothing at all - a real win/win situation! | ||
It looks like I now officially have a Christmas wish list.
Good to hear, Graeme! And another cool thing is that you can very quickly switch them to different bikes, if you have more than one bike (which I seem to remember you do have).