I’m looking for a jacket (or ideally a gilet) which is visible at dusk / low light conditions (when car headlights not necessarily on) plus at night.Ideal would be fluoro and pixel. Proviz grey jackets have never really appealed as only good at night, also apparently very sweaty. Switch gilet perhaps but still sweaty.
http://www.provizsports.com/en-gb/reflect360-crs-cycling-jacket.html
The CRS jacket looks to be a step up on all fronts… any real world experience?

These jackets are brand new and probably not many experiences of them at all at the moment. I do however have the 360+
http://www.provizsports.com/en-gb/proviz-reflect360-cycling-jacket-mens.html

(women’s version) is cracking. I believe it is pretty much the same coat but the new ones you get the option of the color. The 360+ is good, has pit vents and fits me well. Can’t recommend it enough as a perfect commuter coat. I’ve worn in in horrendous rain and it has been good.

I would only ever get the 360+ or possibly the new one (but no experience). switch gilet would be okay as it’s a gilet so sweatiness isn’t quite such an issues as it isn’t a full coat. If that makes sense?

I’ve not worn a 360+ so I don’t know about comfort, breathability etc but the visibility is like voodoo tbh. I remember seeing a dude at the falkirk funduro wearing one, all you could see was the jacket as if it was floating in the air, every other part of him was invisible but the jacket glowed. Bloody awesome.

£3 from Sportsdirect:

The yellow on that doesn’t flash and shine though in the dark like the Proviz ones do! look at the pictures on their website it is exactly what they do! As northwind says! ]

Just cover it in more hi-vis tape!!

Seriously though, more brands than Proviz make stuff like this now . I saw something in the Nike shop the other week.
Women’s Gilet only £25 https://www.sportsshoes.com/product/nik8376/nike-flash-reversible-women’s-running-gilet/ – Is a woman’s gilet any different from a bloke’s? 🙂

the evans own brand, FWE, one is good but a boil in the bag type and
short in the body ….

Altura night vision might be what you need? only small sizes here

https://www.cyclestore.co.uk/altura_night_vision_evo_cycling_vest_black_small_sizes_only_-ID_67006

https://www.cyclestore.co.uk/altura_night_vision_evo_cycling_vest_hi_vis_yellow-ID_24841

I’d get the switch. I Just have the 360+ gilet, so just wear that in the dark, but it’s awesome.

Sportful Reflex gilet is similar to the yellow and black ones up there

Hi I have the pro-viz reflect 360 plus.

It is a bit sweaty, I just wear a gilet and shirt underneath, seems OK, but any jacket like this is going to be the same.
It is the fact it is so visible at night and low light.

I have one of the new ones with vents across the shoulders and pit zips. I can keep the zip lower to let air through.

It was nice first thing this morning, whereas my face was proper cold.

Would people really wear that nasty Altura gilet! I know people will say “well it’s better than better squashed” no it isn’t when the car driver is laughing so much you look like a moron!!! 😆

The Nike gilet isn’t anywhere near as reflective as the Proviz stuff either! And yes women’s is cut very differently to men’s clothing.

Boardman now do a convertible ProViz type jacket/gilet – looks great value

Very wary of the breathability of them – I’m a big fan of Altura Night Vision kit for refkectivity – see my thread from yesterday, bought another NV jacket today to replace the one I have shrunk out of

“£3 from Sportsdirect:”

Or free, if you nick one when working on a project involving a local council. 😀

(Don’t tell Waltham Forest council that I didn’t return mine at the end of the project)

The Proviz jacket is visible from outer space. NASA have sent one to Neptune, to act as a mirror to bounce laser beams off for measuring space stuff. There’s one been put in the Large Hadron Collider to increase the acceleration or particles.

All true, that.

The alturas really aren’t that good as visibility gear- the reflective is decent but there’s not that much of it. Not as good as a cheap class 2. But all vests are pretty limited tbh.

The alturas really aren’t that good as visibility gear- the reflective is decent but there’s not that much of it.

😯 Are you looking at the right products? Myu flouro NV lights up like a Christmas tree.

LOL @ Northwind and Kryton.

I’ve had car drivers wind their windows down to tell me how bright my Night Vision jacket is at night. I’d hope that they were sincere, rather than lulling me into a false sense of security before crushing me the next day and using SMIDSY as an excuse.

It’s really not all that tbh. As soon as you start using retroreflectives as fashion accessories and logos, you end up with less effective kit. It is at least flourescent rather than just yellow so better than most.

I think if you reckon the night vision is bright, you just haven’t seen a proviz.

I have seen a Proviz. They are awesome. As are the Boardman and Evans versions.

But (the coloured) Night Visions also work in daylight, and aren’t so “boil in the bag”

Thanks for the responses. I’m definitely more interested in the “human pixel” effect of the Proviz stuff than in something fluoro with added reflective bits. Just personal preference really although I do feel the more we can “humanise” ourselves at night, the better. If that makes sense.
Anyway I think my ideal would be a fluoro yellow/green/orange CRS gilet but will look further into the switch in the meantime.

I have always hankered after the full Ready Brek visibility of a glowing Proviz type jacket. Driving home today after dark I saw a couple of people cycling with them on in traffic. Drivers seem to take more note of them and give them more room. I think they are a big improvement over jackets with strategically placed reflective flashes in terms of visibiliy – good as they are.

My only reservation is that as I do sweat when I get going on the bike I don’t want to boil in the bag – which has been the main criticism of this type of jacket in the past. The latest ones attempt to deal with this problem by having lots of vents etc., so I’ve been taking a second look at them.

Today I had the chance to look the new Evans FWE Kennington FX Waterproof jacket in one of their shops. It appears to compete directly with the Proviz, has the addition of a hood, but it doesn’t have the pit vents that the newer Proviz ones do so I don’t it’s the one for me.

I wear a proviz gilet running in the winter, it was amazing last winter, car drivers would slow down as soon as they saw me.
The other option is the Sugoi Zap jacket, which is not quite as bright but seems more breathable, similar to the CRS proviz

Be interesting if Pro viz could manufacture a reflective jacket with either a red/silver chequerboard or red/silver verical stripes.

Ladies dont like vertical stripes as the make you look fat aparently , well if you look fat then you also look wider and bigger than you actually are. These seem like perfect attributes to low light bike wear.

My black Manta GTe looked narrower than my mates white Manta Gte.

I overtake a guy in a proviz and, as a driver its fantastic , impossible to miss.

I use a pair of Iris Cycling “Halo” reflective overshoes in winter. I really noticed the difference in the room afforded me by cars as they overtook. Reflective *works* for road safety

A colleague has one; it sets off all the automatic flushes in the toilets when he walks through 🙂

My only issue with a reflective is that it won’t work for drivers emerging from side roads. Although, the light colour is reasonably contrasty to the background, so might be ok. Certainly as good as anything else?

Sportful Relex vest is decent for a pretty cheap price, the old version I have does look a bit road worker style but the new one looks better IMO. It also packs up small into its own pocket which is handy.

I’m amazed by how bad the visibility of some of the high vis, fluro jackets are when it’s dark.

I’m amazed by how bad the visibility of some of the high vis, fluro jackets are when it’s dark.

High-viz is only high-viz during daylight hours. In the dark, you need lights and reflectives.

Although, the number of people who talk about all the cyclists without lights that they see seems to imply that lights aren’t needed…

High-viz is only high-viz during daylight hours

Huh?! Assuming there is some light (street lights, headlights, moonlight, etc) then a bright colour, and high viz especially, will be easier to spot that a dark one

Random internet pic to just about show what I mean:

Cheers for the altura NV evo gilet link nbt.. just what I was after, great for £8

Assuming there is some light (street lights, headlights, moonlight, etc) then a bright colour, and high viz especially, will be easier to spot that a dark one

Now that streetlights are (mainly) white light that’s more true, but when they were orange the yellow/green high-viz didn’t reflect any of it.

It’s all about contrast with the background. In studies, either white or black or high-viz-yellow have been most visible.

High-viz is only high-viz during daylight hours

I thought that’s why nearly every hi-vis item has reflective strips on it. (See handsome dude I posted near the top)

Just picked up one of the boardman 2-in-1 jackets from halfords earlier.

Looks like it will be a bit sweaty, but man it’s reflective! Lights up like a good ‘un (quick test with a light and the blackout blinds down in the kids room!)

The arms are just like a wing/shoulder zip on affair, but I’ll probably end up just using it as a gilet.

Will report back in the week once I’ve tried it in the road.

A