SMIDSY? Luminous bike frames

[old_windbag]

I was looking at volvo's lifepaint that you can spray onto clothing bike frames etc and it is reflective due to micro glass beads. It gets hitty missy reviews for washing off too easily but could be a useful item if caught out at twilight or dark with flat batteries. It's £10 a tin I believe so expensive but on my searches I found many hard paint coats for gate posts, signs or hack bike frames that are transparent in daylight but reflect in headlights as link below:-

http://glowpaints.co.uk/reflective-paint-info.htm

Not super expensive but could be useful.

The worry I have about the volvo stuff( produced by another company ) is having micro glass beads washed into the environment.... I know sand grains are similar but somehow it doesn't feel right. A bit like the stupidity of manufacturers putting micro beads of plastic in hand scrubbing creams that was highlighted on th television.

I think to paint a bike with radium paint would be the ideal for luminescence and environmental friendliness as it is a naturally ocurring element .

[iviehoff]

The worry I have about the volvo stuff( produced by another company ) is having micro glass beads washed into the environment.... I know sand grains are similar but somehow it doesn't feel right. A bit like the stupidity of manufacturers putting micro beads of plastic in hand scrubbing creams that was highlighted on th television.

I think you can happily say that micro-glass-beads are precisely sand and therefore not worry about them. It's the micro-plastic-beads that are the problem.

[loch eck steve]

I think it dosen't matter how well your lit up your always going to get SMIDSY from some drivers , I tend to treat every other road user as a potential idiot and ride as defensively as I can