I’m talking jackets – I’ve a choice between a Red Gore phantom and a Fluoro Altura Transformer – same price.

My preference s for the Phantom but I want something I can be seen in in during the murky winter days…?

So – how visible is Red?

Flouro yellow will stand out more in most conditions

not as visible as Flouro, more visible than black.

driving round a soggy North Wales recently the flouro jacketed roadies stood out a mile away, red etc you had to get a lot closer to.

If it is dark surely you will have lights and reflective stuff on?

What they said though for whihc is brightest

Not darky just dull overcast days. I prefer to be seen and alive than a fashionista and dead.

What colour do road workers and the emergency services wear in order to ensure maximum visibility?

Do you think they mostly wear flouro yellow as some sort of fashion statement? 😆

Once it starts to get dark, red becomes almost like black. Yellow is the best for visibility.

I went for Pink with ‘CAREFUL NOW’ on the back

You want one of these;

Once it starts to get dark, red becomes almost like black. Yellow is the best for visibility.

This.

So – how visible is Red?

most colour blindness manifests as red-green so to some people it will be hard to spot against a hedge.

Once it starts to get dark, red becomes almost like black. Yellow is the best for visibility.

Once it starts to get dark, I turn my lights on.

Anyone know why fluo orange isn’t widely used? Looks better to me, seems just as visible generally. I guess it’s just that yellow is a lighter colour.

Fluro orange is widely used on the railways, yellow/green isn’t.
Can’t be mistaken for a green light.

I heard once, can’t recall where, that yellow is the first colour that you see out of the corner of your eye.

I’ve got a Red Endura with the standard reflecive bits, one issue is that Red is meant to be an ‘Angry’ colour, so it could arguably make me more of a target…

I also have both fluro and various other colours of jersey, none of them appears to have made me any more/less visible than the others…

End of the day I think lights are the best way to ensure you are seen, active illumination rather relying on just vivd colours and reflective kit…

cookeaa – Member
End of the day I think lights are the best way to ensure you are seen, active illumination rather relying on just vivd colours and reflective kit…

Surely a combination of both is the best way to be seen?

Just so you all know, I have lights.

I’m actually looking to buy a winter jacket for road riding. 🙂

Surely a combination of both is the best way to be seen?

Well of course 🙄

OP probably best to Err on the side of caution and opt for Hi viz colours where you can IMO.

As someone said above bright Orange might be a good choice, I sort of prefer it too…

Whoops Double post.

i prefer fluro orange, you stand out more from all the nodders.
Rapha do some nice road jackets. i have an orange stowaway, think they do them in pink and blue now though.

Best is orange and yellow (the 2 stand out against different backgrounds). Quality retroreflectives make a huge difference too- I’d choose a red jacket with really good reflectives over a yellow one without.

MrSmith – Member
Rapha do some nice road jackets.

I’m on a budget, £75 was already £75 higher than I wanted to pay.

Cookaa thanks for that – I have another thread going about an Altura Transformer which I can get in flouro, looking good for that…

The Phantom comes in Neon which is their high vis. Fantastic jacket. I have a white one. Read my review here.

Think what it looks like in black and white. Red is very dark

We’ve just changed our team shirts from black to red and I must say they do show up a lot more, obviously not like a flouro jacket, but I was surprised how much more visible they are.

I’ve got some old high viz vests that I keep meaning to cut up to make a triangle for the back of the bike – a yellow triangle surrounded by the reflective tape mounted on the back of the rack near the red reflector.

I think I saw them on Kent Peterson’s blog and they seemed a good idea.

I like to commute in normal clothes, because I’m sure I get left more room when overtaking – drivers are overtaking a person not a cyclist. This seems like a nice addition for visibility while remaining a human.

Orange is the best 🙂

I sometimes see a bloke in Houghton-Le-Spring who’s got a foot of plastic flagpole + flag sticking horizontally out of the right hand side of his handlebars

The fluoro yellow will stand out more, but the gore jacket is a much nicer one to actually ride in.

Yellow all the way, without a doubt!. IIRC, 8% of the male population is red/green colour blind. Speaking as one of them, I can honestly say that Orange is WAAAY less visible than yellow, and red is almost indistinguishable from a hedge.

Orange works on railways because train drivers have to have perfect colour vision.