Is black cycling gear dangerous?

[TonyEnjoyD]

Cos you're not a car they don't see you anyway!
Regardless I always wear hi-vis or bright colours.

 

[Andy_R]

Black cycling gear is incredibly dangerous........but only when worn by ninjas

 

[Ethan]

No, but it does make you go faster! but not as fast as red.. Obviously

I have red and black. It even says 'rosso corsa' on it.
How fast am I?

 

[raindog]

Black is the new white.

 

[Hacienda71]

Well I am knackered my bike is black as well.........

 

[ianrauk]

I will wear black as it look so friggin cool.
Fek wanting to look like a bag of custard... but each to his own and all that.

 

[172traindriver]

Black cycling kit is currently very popular, but personally I steer welll clear of it and I am not a fan of it, instead prefreing to wear brighter colours.
It is up to the individual as to what you feel happiest in and as many others have pointed out, but the problem lies with the drivers of vehicles. You could be dressed up as a giant flashing bill board and would still fail to be noticed by some drivers.
The problem is with the drivers, and probably a lack of knowledge and experience of how to deal with things such as cyclists and horse riders or the fact they are just impatient and bad mannered and probably act in a similar manner at work or in the supermarket.
If I am driving and come across a cyclist and it might be a bit difficult to pass them I will wait for an opportunity rather than trying go get past a squeeze back in, thus cutting them up. It is an education thing and when learning more emphasis should be put on acquiring road skills and positioning.

 

[Recycler]

I will wear black as it look so friggin cool.

.........says the man with a white T shirt in his avatar!

 

[Psycolist]

Hello, this is only my 3rd post and first week of reading all the many threads and posts on Cycle Chat so i don't know if it's been asked but does anyone agree with me that dark cycle clothing(not counting shorts)..black, grey etc is dangerous to wear?
I drive to and from work in daylight and dark and i see many cyclists wearing black. Some even have no, or poor lights and some don't have any reflection on their clothing. As a cyclist i look out for other cyclists but some i don't see until i'm 20 yards or less away because they just aren't bright enough. I have many jerseys, plain and team ones, but i only wear flourescent ones, i want to be seen and i don't want to give some of those horrible motorists out there an excuse if they hit me that "he was wearing dark clothes, i couldn't see him"etc.
I want to be seen hundreds of yards down the road, not at the last few seconds where it might be too late. So to those who wear black, why do you want to be the same colour as the road?

hear hear ! or is it here here ? Woteva, good thoughts

 

[ianrauk]

.........says the man with a white T shirt in his avatar!

damn......

 

[172traindriver]

damn......

Oops!!

 

[Psycolist]

My wife swears wearing black makes you look thinner

Are you sure she dosnt mean you wearing back makes her look thinner

 

[Recycler]

hear hear ! or is it here here ?

Hear, Hear.

As in "Hear what this man is saying" (slightly olde worlde English)
As in "Listen to what this man is saying (What we would say today)

with apologies for being gender specific

 

[palinurus]

Some years back when I first joined a cycling club there was always a bit of chatter on the club runs about other cycling clubs in the area and for some reason which I can't remember (but may have something to do with not having stuffed enough food into my jersey) I got the idea that the Icknield Road Club were a fearsome bunch of grizzled hard men who wore plain black lycra. I imagined that if riding alone there was a chance I'd be overtaken by a whole pack of them, they'd eyeball me as they passed, their cold deep-set eyes looking out from under their black cycling caps, perhaps one of them would push me into a ditch and others would dismount their bikes, leap in and give me a shoeing.

Anyway, it turns out that the Icknield Road club don't look like that at all. They aren't even a bit dangerous, and they don't wear black. Not uniformly anyway.

Disappointing.

 

[doctornige]

As a hypothesis, this is full of so many confounding variables, it is impossible to state from observation alone that black clothing is dangerous.

Variables include:

Popularity of black
Age of wearer
Sex of wearer
Experience of wearer
Time of day
Weather

and probably many more. What would be more fun for this group would be to try to imagine how we might design a study that eliminated these variables. The fun part is deciding whether we ought to use surrogate or genuine endpoints, where genuine would mean death or serious injury, and surrogate would be 'being called a self-gratification artist'.

N.