Monday 26 August 2013

Banish the Blind Spot

Why are motorcycle mirrors so inadequate compared to the average car door mirror where blind spots are virtually eliminated?  The ideal mirror would have a wide angle and a deep view too to capture more of the road behind.  A failing with many mirrors is that they give a view through a letter box effect. 

Here at NW Lab I have tried various improvements:

 Riderscan:
First, the Riderscan.

The Riderscan is a hemispherical segment of mirror that provides a near 180 degree coverage.  Unfortunately as mounted on the GS screen it provides an excellent view of mostly me and as it sits in the middle does not provide a logical scan sequence.

SAENG stick ons:

The SAENG rabbit's ears Quick Scans.
These resemble those stick-on blind spot eliminators but have a mounting system that allows them to be stuck independently on a fairing or windscreen.

Quite good when positioned correctly  as they completely cover the blind spot.  They do tend to wobble around a lot. Quite useful on dense motorways and for overtakes as they cover the shoulder check view without losing forward vision.

Finally I have tried to reposition the standard mirrors forward on crank arms (available from Wunderlich, Hornig etc.).

Crank Arms (extenders) - This has been the best - the mirrors are positioned forward and slightly outwards and give a wider effective view.

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