Teh Shiny!

[unixronin]

Or, more accurately in this case, Teh Retro-reflective.

Last year, we found a spray-can of clear retro-reflective finish at Lowes hardware, and immediately thought of my helmet.  The stuff was useless.  Basically, it left occasional sparkly speckles on the helmet.  You could see them if you looked closely.  (Actually, some of them are visible in the third photo below.)

So, instead, I ordered a set of Applied Graphics Scotchlite retroreflective helmet decals online.  (I don't think they had the multicolor decal kits at the time.)  Today, I finally got around to applying the decals.

The kit I ordered was the third from the right in the second row of photos on the page above.  Here's the result, applied freehand to my Arai RX7-RR4 in a design that I basically made up as I went along:

Not bad for a first try at applying flat decals to a 3D-curved helmet, if I say so myself.  If I'd had a little more of the reflective material, I'd have extended the vertical stripe in front over the top of the helmet and brought it down to meet the large triangular panel in the back.

Deja-vu amusement of the moment:  Our MP3 library contains two versions of Genesis' Driving the Last Spike, one from the studio CD We Can't Dance, one from the live CD The Way We Walk. When I made my first post this morning, the one from The Way We Walk was playing.  By sheer random chance, my DigitalDJ playlist popped up the other one as I wrote this post.

(Crossposted to motorcycles)

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

See, now what I want (and was unable to locate the last time I looked, which was, admittedly, probably about 5 years ago) is Scotchlite fabric by the yard. Because while a retroreflective stripe on the back of my jacket is nice, I think I'd be much better off if the entire back panel of my jacket was Scotchlite.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd like that myself.

Frackin Cool...

[wolfspaw.livejournal.com]

Well done man... that looks rad :)

I sent them an email to see if they'd like to collaborate... I can see my designs on someone's helmet reflecting back at me from my headlights

O:)

Re: Frackin Cool...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That would be cool indeed.

They have a black reflec that reflects white, too ...............

You can get...

[uranushertz.livejournal.com]

Some really cool reflective helmet decals from http://www.streetglo.com/ .

These are their Super Bright Black. They cost a little more but are black in daylight and super white in nighttime lighting. They also have 8 other colors.

Re: You can get...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That's an interedting-looking helmet. What is it?

Is that the Caberg Justissimo from an angle I haven't seen it from before?

Re: You can get...

[uranushertz.livejournal.com]

It is a Skidoo/Bombardier Modular helmet. Made by Lazer of Denmark. Looks like from their website that they have a new revision out this year.

Re: You can get...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

OK, I saw a Bombardier helmet recently at one of the local sporting goods stores. I thought at the time that it had some very interesting features, but I don't at this moment remember what they were.

Re: You can get...

[uranushertz.livejournal.com]

Double pane visor (like ski goggles). Internal sunshade. Breath evac system. Basically a snap on mask that goes over your nose and mouth and vents out the sides. Works well unless you have mucho facial hair, then it pulls on it like a bitch.