So I’m on my commute – its about 7.30,  beautiful morning but big shadow pockets as the sun is bright but still low in the sky behind the trees and there is a bit a of moisture in the air left from last nights rain that is diffusing the light. Heading into the sun is not ideal but as usual I’m wearing bright yellow flo wind jacket, flo yellow socks and an exposure front and rear set to daybreak flash. I’m on one of those 40-60-40-60 main roads that are pretty much the most dangerous type of country road and a car gently comes up behind me, waits for a second or two and then passes with plenty of room before indicating right to turn down a minor c road that i’m also going to turn down. Starts to turn and then bangs on the brakes as a group of 4 roadies literally appear from nowhere out of the misty shadows. Travelling at speed in two twos they are in black tights, black tops , black carbon frames, no DRL’s and coming out of the sun. Its a straight road but even I only saw them at the last minute although I thought I might of glimpsed them earlier inbetween a shadow gap.

They whizz off and the guy in the car turns right and off down the country road which is very narrow, I follow and a few hundred yards down we both pull in to a gate as a tractor goes by. Guy leans out the window and said ‘you should tell your mates to dress like you do – whats with the ninja look?’

I had to admit he had a point – and i saw another group as I cycled into work that were all dark except for one guy with a red top. I often see other commuting cyclists on the way and almost without fail they are wearing bright colours and have lights – also touring cyclists as its south downs and an nice area to cycle, they also always seem to be brightly clothed with DRLs

Roadies either single or in groups are almost always in dark colours, dark bikes, dark helmets, no lights.

Lighten up guys!

Roadies love the ninja look down this way too (London). Is there an inverse correlation between colour and watts?

True.
My kids and I have a game when we drive to the trails to guess how many roadies we’ll see en route. They regularly comment on the stupid dark apparel thing.

Well I for one look cool as shit in black, AND its slimming.

I predict 10 pages with the last 8 comprising two people to a froing mainly about their poor ability to debate with the topic in hand largely forgotten

Isn’t telling someone that how they dress is asking for trouble a bit of a no no these days?

Wearing black isn’t the problem as that is easily solved by having (small) lights on your bike, something that almost all roadies do because it makes sense.

But to answer the driver’s question, the reason roadies, until more recently, exclusively dressed in black (and why competition rules required shorts to be black for example) is because back in the day, road racing, in the UK, was not legal, hence we invented time trialling. In order to ‘stay under the radar’ and not draw attention to ourselves, regulations required shorts to be black and consequently black became a standard (non) colour for road cycling.

Dark colours weigh less and make them faster innit.

Rapha, team Sky/Ineos, GCN have contributed to the trend. All well and good if using effective daytime lights.

tell your mates

Do you think if he sees a speeding car he tells the next driver he sees to tell his mate to slow down?

No mention of waving. Did you wave? Did they wave? Did anyone wave?

Or just drive at a speed where you can see potential hazards in time to avoid hitting them.

A fact that many drivers seem to miss is that it’s not the cyclists legal or moral responsibility to not get hit. Yes, I use lights and rarely wear black to help the hard of seeing/thinking, but the hierarchy of responsibility in the new Highway Code isn’t there for fun, it’s a serious message.

Good luck with this OP. I brought the subject up of dark clothing and roadies a few years ago and the replies were some what interesting to say the least.

Wearing black isn’t the problem as that is easily solved by having (small) lights on your bike

Or, if you commute round my way, a light that’s brighter than a nuclear holocaust pointing directly into the eyes of the oncoming traffic

@muddylegs Yeah the reply above yours says it all really. Hard of seeing and thinking, always the drivers fault blah blah.

I would consider myself a pretty millitant cyclist and over the years and tens of thousands of km cycled have been involved in plenty of altercations with idiot motorists but sometimes we really don’t help ourselves.

Or, if you commute round my way, a light that’s brighter than a nuclear holocaust pointing directly into the eyes of the oncoming traffic

I spent the winter of 2014/15 riding in and out of London three times a week (about 60km in and 40km back) and my route took my over Boxhill and Headley Common. I was lit up like a christmas tree the wholetime; a 1200 lumen light on the front, 800 lumen red on the back, two little flashing ones strapped to the outside edge of each drop on the bar (these I felt always helped give a dimension of width for overtaking cars) and a final one on my back pack. Plus a hi-vis jacket over my black top. So yeah, totally agree that you can always do yourself a favour by making yourself more visible.

Yup, that’s why I bought a pink jersey, the more people that spot the kn@bhead the better.

Curious.

What was the driver wearing?

Could you both see black cars?

I bought a black jacket for the road bike. This seemed a terrible choice of colour but was £100 cheaper than the bright colours.

Bright pink notice me gilet on top for me+ lights

I don’t get the “I won’t make myself more visible because people should be looking for me anyway” argument. Of course if everyone drove safely and attentively there’s no issue but many (most? ) drivers are at times innatentive, distracted or in a hurry and only looking for the obvious hazards.

What’s the use of having the moral high ground from your hospital bed?

As a pedestrian, cyclist and driver I like to think that I’m on the more responsible and careful end of the driving spectrum, but I’ve nearly been in the same position as the driver the OP encountered

When I cycle I’m mostly a roadie, and a militant bugger at that, I agree with the OP

I would rather compromise my choice of clothing and be alive than wear what I like because I can and end up dead or seriously hurt.

Problem is, loads of clothing manufacturers think dark colours are the way to go for road tops. Bloody stupid idea. I only have one black/dark top, and I only use it on the MTB off road – it’s a windproof winter top – I wear a red summer jersey over it if I’m on the road.

TBH, I’ve been run over with daytime lights and bright colthing, so read into that all you want.

DRL? **** off.

Some rides I’m in bright orange (club colours) other rides I wear black. Still get run-ins with idiot drivers regardless. I don’t feel any safer in bright clothing.

I do use a rear light at all times though (built into radar)

Hi Viz is either a red rag to drivers or they are so used to it no one actually notices it.

In an ideal world wear what you want and everyone should be looking for road hazards rather than relying on other people to wear bright clothing and have lights on in the day so you don’t have to pay quite so much attention.

These seem to work though

Yeah the reply above yours says it all really. Hard of seeing and thinking, always the drivers fault blah blah.

Well, funnily enough, that’s how the law works at the moment, as reinforced by the recent Highway Code update.

I don’t wear black, I do use lights. But that doesn’t absolve drivers from their responsibility to not collide with other road users. Cyclists don’t appear out of nowhere.

I used to handle motor claims and the mantra was “if it’s there to be hit, it was there to be seen”.

Roadies either single or in groups are almost always in dark colours, dark bikes, dark helmets, no lights.

This is not my experience at all. Black shorts though, please wear black shorts.almost all the people I ride with on club runs or shop rides use lights all the time. Can’t remember the last black/dark helmet I saw…you’d get a hot head surely?

Must be the day for it.

This am I was riding an MTB off-road, slowed up for 2 older women walking up a track and was asked why so many ‘of you’ wear black and how she couldn’t see them when driving as she was getting old. ‘Could you tell the club, if you’re a member of one?’. I was wearing a black gilet, but apparently my sage green sleeves made me OK as they were ‘bright’. Huh? Then she told me if she hit a rider who was on the wrong side of the road she’d be done for manslaughter, and that she knew the law. She seemed posh and not daft, but…

Half an hour later a dog walker I passed and said hello to (her dog wanted to say hello anyway..) told me all about 60 ‘of you’ from the road club who were riding in a bunch on a lane earlier and were very hard for her to get past. What do you say : ) 60 roadies eh.. clearly BS. I couldn’t be bothered to discuss it. Why would you?

Weird. I only saw about 6 people out on the trails in total and a third of them thought their opinions were worth sharing because I was on a bike.

a light that’s brighter than a nuclear holocaust pointing directly into the eyes of the oncoming traffic

And some muppet in a car will still SMIDSY them! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Slow down, even if you win at the rat race you’re still a rat!

And some muppet in a car will still SMIDSY them! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

To be fair to the muppet in that situation, a non-lensed mega-bright light burning their retina means they’re probably half blind.  “I saw your light – couldn’t really miss the **** – but it was so bright I couldn’t look direclty at it and so couldn’t fully work out where you were.  My best guess was you were a dick on a motorbike with full beam on, probably 100 yards away”

Doesn’t make the driver right but it doesn’t make the rider right/sensible either

a group of 4 roadies literally appear from nowhere

They really didnt

All of my helmets are black, all my shoes are black, all my shorts are black, but none of my jerseys are black. The darkest I have are a green and a purple. I always have daytime lights (LED flash) on the bikes.

I’ve used lights for years, any time of day or night. Going out without them now feels like riding without a helmet or riding without being clipped in, just “wrong”.

Never once thought “shame I brought these lights along” but there have been plenty of times when I’ve been very glad of them – riding early morning or late evening with the rising / setting sun causing glare, out later than anticipated, caught in bad weather…

The driver who didn’t see them by definition couldn’t actually see anything approaching when they started turning, presumably they’d of done the same thing if it had been a black car.

Personally I always use light on the road as there are people who will do things despite not being able to see out there.

Meh… bollocks.

Problem is, loads of clothing manufacturers think dark colours are the way to go for road tops. Bloody stupid idea

+1 this

I bought all my kit in black years ago, it was pretty much all Rapha/dhb/castelli/etc sold. In hindsight I regret it a lot.

Also while you’re looking on a flashy website one just thinks ‘oh that looks really nice – nice and stealthy’ – without actually realising how unfavourable that is in practice.

But by the time you have that realisation – you have a wardrobe full of e$pensive, black kit

White overshoes/oversocks help a *LOT* and a little blinky light, white helmet

Context is everything. The high-contrast black clothing stands out better in some circumstances.

Stop blaming the victim and tell drivers to look where they’re going – as the nights draw in. pic.twitter.com/cf4ibWR7yu

— Michael (@baoigheallain) November 23, 2021

Roadies either single or in groups are almost always in dark colours, dark bikes, dark helmets, no lights.

I’ve not found that tbh. Sure, some riders wear dark colours, but not ‘almost always’. Personally I tend to wear bright tops, run a rear flashing light most of the time and have a light on the bars too for that special hour or so around dusk when cyclists become magically invisible.

As for black, pah! Morvelo does, or at least did, road kit in camo fercrissakes. In what world does that make any sense. The only time I wear camo on the road is on Zwift.

Rapha, team Sky/Ineos, GCN have contributed to the trend.

In recent years, Sky/Ineos/IG riders have bright orange training kit for non-race use, which says it all really.

Problem is, loads of clothing manufacturers think dark colours are the way to go for road tops. Bloody stupid idea

They do, but there’s plenty of brighter coloured options as well. I really don’t like high viz, so I wear bright primary colours usually red, blue or normal yellow. Lots of options in those colours. I have Endura in red and an Assos long sleeved jersey in a bright but non-high-viz orange.

The high-contrast black clothing stands out better in some circumstances.

Perhaps, but in MOST circumstances where there’s a cyclist, the black is going to be less visible. You could move the black child in that picture to a place where it’s well camouflaged, and it would be much less visible than the yellow one in the sun.