If you hack out on roads with hedgerows...

Gosh, I remember a great many years ago (when I was young!!!) when I used to ride out after school when it was getting dimpsy and all I had then was a little stirrup light which I used to click on to the side of my boot. It wasn't possible then (or at least I didn't know where to go to buy it) to get Hi Viz stuff for horse riders, presumably you'd have to have got stuff for motorcyclists, and I rode for all of my schoolyears with this little light!!! Thank God no-one hit us!

Here in Devon we've got sunken lanes where you have these huge hedges towering about you and you're sort-of down in the depths, so this sounds a brill idea!! Anything to let people know you're around.

I go out dressed in as much Hi Viz as I can muster and its interesting to watch the reaction of motorists; the vast majority, I have to say, seem to do a bit of a double-take (OK so we are a bit bright) but that's exactly what I want them to do, and hopefully give us a wide berth.
 
.. and always wear a long sleeved hi-viz jacket so that other road users can clearly see you and your hand signals from a distance.
 
Yes, of course. We wear a variety of high-viz stuff, but I had never seen one of these before. The problem with our single lanes is that they are very twisty and have hedgerow on either side so there is no visibility whatsoever, so I was hoping that the lights might shine through the top bit of the hedgerow. By the time the driver turns the corner and sees us, he can probably see hand gestures quite well (as he's up the horse's bum!), the problem is getting the drivers to notice us sooner.
 
I can see that working in low light or dusk but you can barely notice a car's headlights are on (think Volvos) in the height of daylight, so why would this be any more visible than a normal hat band in those situations?

For what it's worth, I always wear V Bandz High Viz hat band. It is far brighter than the stretchy cheaper elastic ones and it doesn't lose it's visibility over time.
 
Patches said:
I can see that working in low light or dusk but you can barely notice a car's headlights are on (think Volvos) in the height of daylight, so why would this be any more visible than a normal hat band in those situations?

For what it's worth, I always wear V Bandz High Viz hat band. It is far brighter than the stretchy cheaper elastic ones and it doesn't lose it's visibility over time.
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Well it's still a hi-viz band, so if the light doesn't make it better in ALL situations but only in some, it's still better overall?

We don't ride at dawn/dusk and the bright light is less of a problem for us because the hedgerows keep everything in shadow. The hope is that the light might shine through the hedgerow and shadow, but clearly it's not a guarrantee!
 
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