Category: reflective fabric

A cloudy sky, a couple of drops, an intermittent drizzle, and even a little more too. Some look at the sky and find they’re a perfect excuse not to go training or avoid any competition: the rain. The truth is that, except for those circumstances in which integrity is put at risk, a little water does not rust anyone.

 

And many times, rainy weather can be an ally, always taking the necessary precautions to avoid problems. It is also true that not even running on a rainy day is heroic and not going out is cowardly, sometimes it is better to keep yourself. But when there are many days without activity due to the water, it is advisable to take precautions and leave excuses aside.

 

Some advice:

Raining does not mean wearing more clothes: on the contrary, adding more coats will imply more weight on the body once it gets wet. Use the usual amount.

Garments should be technical, it is ideal to avoid cotton or materials that accumulate liquid. Some sneakers have the same purpose, with materials that do not absorb and keep the foot dry.

A repellent jacket would be ideal. When buying one, you must observe how much water it repels: there are some uses for a drizzle and others that are useful for a storm. A windbreaker jacket is not necessarily water repellent.

Wearing the hood can be useful, but be careful because in general, it removes vision from the sides (important if you run on the street).

Rainy days are generally less bright, so it is important to wear reflective clothing with reflective fabric and bright colors so that everyone can see you.

You should also choose shoes with a good grip. On the street, some slippers slip. And for running on land, without a good mud-prepared sole, you can end up in a fall.

To avoid water on the face, the best is a visor or cap. Lenses prevent the eye from coming into contact with water, but they splash and remove vision.

Wet clothes and body rub are not good alidades. That is why technical clothing is important. Be careful with blisters and chafing. Petroleum jelly is a good friend.

Be careful with electronic equipment because in many cases water can ruin them. If you use a cell phone holder, you can cover the phone with plastic wrap to prevent it from getting wet.

The use of music for running should also be taken into account since with rain the risks increase and it is better to be vigilant.

Don’t trust puddles: being covered by water you can’t see how deep a well can be and when stepping on it can cause falls or twists. Always try to step on insurance.

If it is cold and you have a place to leave a change of clothes, keep it in mind: bring something to change as soon as the activity is finished will prevent you from getting cold.

Don’t forget about hydration. Just because your body is wet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drink water or isotonic drink.

For racing, many use lightweight pilots or large bags with holes for arms and head. In this case, it must be borne in mind that it does not have a ventilation system, so it can generate a lot of perspiration, which will still moisten the clothes.

In the case of hail, storm, or thunderstorm, it is better to think about postponing or postponing the departure. The same in the case of high wind.

 

There is nothing worse than going down the road and finding yourself a dense fog bank. It is normal to suffer nerves since visibility drops to extreme limits and the chances of having an accident increase. It is best not to lose your cool and remember some key points for driving in these weather conditions.

 

The first thing is to make g  ood use of the fog lights, both the rear and the front. In a quick summary, it should be remembered that fog lights do not serve to improve your visibility, if not so that other vehicles are easier to see, although the front ones can help you see something better.

 

Depending on the country where the car is rented, the permits needed may vary.

According to article 106 of the regulations, the use of front fog lamps will be mandatory with dust and smoke in the environment, with fog and snow, and only in heavy rain. The rear ones will be obligatory as long as these previous assumptions can be qualified as “intense”.

 

If you do not use these lights correctly, you can dazzle and make uncomfortable the rest of the drivers who are on the road and cause an accident. Plus, they can fine you, so watch out when you plug them in.

 

Other useful tips

It is best not to lose patience, slow down, and increase the safety distance. Also, avoid overtaking if you are driving on the motorway or highway and always stay in the right lane. Follow the road lines to continue the layout of the road and do not imitate the movements of the car that precedes you, since if you get confused or make a mistake you could have an accident.

 

Almost 7% of accidents occur in foggy situations.

Fog lights: when should I turn them on?

On the other hand, and regarding the use of lights, avoid connecting long ones. Fog usually reflects light and this will dazzle you and will not increase your visibility. It is more recommended to drive with a low beam or low beam. Also, be sure to keep all the windows clean and if they get foggy you can direct the ventilation towards them or open the windows a little. Connects the wipers intermittently to eliminate moisture that can accumulate.

 

Finally, if you see that the conditions to continue your journey are very dangerous, park the car as close as possible to the shoulder and connect the emergency lights (if you cannot stop in a more protected place). Always get out of the car wearing reflective clothing with reflective fabric and never turn off your emergency lights.

 

After the summer, the hours of daylight get shorter and shorter, it disappears in the middle of the afternoon and it gets dark very early, but most of us have no choice but to go out to train at those hours, whether, for work, studies or simply because we want more than getting up early, and what we find are dark streets. So in this post we are going to see a few tips to run at night and be safer in the dark.

 

It has a light. This is essential if what we want is to illuminate the streets where we run. A frontal would be the most appropriate if we are going to run through areas with no light and highly recommended if it is in the mountains (the Run Light is perfect). But we must not forget that lighting is not only for us to see, but also for other vehicles to see us, so it is highly recommended to carry some safety light, both in front and behind. Currently they sell many devices of this type, even in the form of an armband or anklets with LED lights that do not disturb anything on the go.

Reflective clothing. Another tip for night running is to make sure you wear clothes that have reflective fabric, it is not a matter of going out to run at 10 at night in mourning. Most sports clothing, sneakers, and running accessories have a reflective strip, but if you think that it is not enough you can choose to buy some attractive armband or even adapt pieces of, for example, a typical reflective car vest, to your equipment.

Always run facing traffic. This is very important and should not be forgotten. If we run through areas without sidewalks and with traffic, we must always go along the shoulder where we see the vehicles coming from the front, so we can have a minimum reaction margin if we see that something can happen and we will not be startled if large motorcycles or vehicles pass.

Bring a phone. No one knows the unforeseen things you can have in the middle of the night, so carrying a phone can get us out of an emergency. Luckily, thanks to the rise of sports applications for smartphones, many people wear the phone with bracelets and could use it if they needed to.

 

Tips for night running, safety first

Bring identification. Nobody thinks of having an accident while running, but better be prepared, so it costs nothing to carry identification with our data or even buy us a bracelet like the ones from Safesport ID, which can be personalized with contact phones, illnesses, allergies, etc. You can find them on their website from € 16.95. In our case, we have analyzed in depth the Codylife Sport, very to take into account.

He wears a cap. Although it may seem silly, if you are used to training in areas where there is traffic, you may want to try wearing a cap for those moments when the lights of the cars coming from the front blind us and it would only be enough to lower the visor to avoid it.

Leave the music at home. Carrying music helps us distract ourselves during training, motivates us, and gives us the feeling that time passes faster. This is great, but at night we need to be more attentive to everything that happens around us and since our eyesight is impaired by the lack of light, it is advisable to at least have a good ear and leave our brand new headphones to run at home.

As you can see, they are simple tips, many of common sense, but they can make our night outings more comfortable and, above all, safer. What are your tricks when you go out without the Sun to burn shoes?

 

When it comes to cars and especially driving, one of the main rules concerns the safety of both the driver and the passenger but above all also other vehicles and pedestrians.

 

The law, to enforce this fundamental factor, provides for the obligation to own a series of useful accessories in your vehicle.

 

Among these are:

 

The triangle,

The safety vests,

The snow chains,

The seat if you have children.

In addition to these accessories, the first aid kit, torches, battery cables, fire extinguishers can be useful, even if they are not mandatory.

 

In our site, you can find all these elements, so that your machine is safe and far from any danger.

 

Mandatory accessories

Among the mandatory accessories to bring in the car to ensure safety, there are first of all the triangle and the reflective jacket.

 

It is the Highway Code that underlines that the presence of these elements on board is fundamental and those who do not have them also risk obtaining a penalty.

 

As for the first, it is a red object to be placed outside the car in case there has been a rear-end collision or the car has stopped at a very dangerous point. it is about 40-50 cm tall and is made of fluorescent material, plastic, or metal.

 

The reflective jacket with reflective fabric is also very visible, which must be worn to signal your presence outside the car, and when there is little visibility.

 

Also important are the snow chains, which are no longer only recommended, but also mandatory to be kept in the car, from November 15th of each year until April 15th of the following year.

 

Alternatively, if the car has snow tires during this period, the chains may not even be present on board, if there are no roads where there will be snow.

 

If you have children on board, the seat must never be missing, very important for the safety of your child, who must be compliant and always present in the car. In addition to these accessories, there are some recommended ones.

 

Recommended accessories

As previously stated, it can be very useful to have a first aid kit in the car, but also torches, battery cables, fire extinguishers.

 

Among all, the cables will be of fundamental importance also because if the battery of your car turns off suddenly, the car will no longer turn on, and the cables can be a quick solution to adopt.

 

As for fire extinguishers, first of all, it is good to specify that there are various types, and those suitable for cars can be carbon dioxide.

 

Of course, there are many elements to think about to keep your car safe, also because the dangerous situations can be different and it is right to try to prevent them all.

 

In addition to this, you must never forget to omit the mandatory accessories in the vehicle, or you risk even heavy penalties, as well as the most serious thing: risking healthy.

With winter in full swing, the evenings are getting much darker. So it can be easy for parents to worry when they walk home from school.

 

When it’s dark outside, it can be hard for motorists to spot pedestrians, which is why reflective clothing with reflective fabric can be very beneficial at this time of year. But Next have got you covered.

 

Parents are very impressed with Next’s Fleece Lined Padded Jacket, which is available for ages 3 – 16 years. It’s made with a reflective print and is available in black, camouflage, navy, and mustard.

 

According to Next, the coat is, “Made from a heat-sealed fabric, this padded jacket features fleece-lined pockets and a reflective print at the back.”

 

Fleece Lined Padded Jacket

Made from a heat-sealed fabric, this padded jacket features fleece-lined pockets and a reflective print at the back.

 

It also features fleece-lined pockets, it’s shower resistant, and suitable for cold weather, so the perfect coat for your children to wear as it starts getting cold, wet and windy outside.

 

But it’s the reflective print that’s impressed shoppers this winter. Speaking about it on Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK, one mum wrote, “Such a simple idea, why aren’t all kids jackets made like this for the winter, it would save so many lives!”

 

Reviews on Next’s website have been very positive too, with it receiving 4.5/5 from customers.

 

One wrote, “Son needs a plain black coat for school. This was perfect and great value”

 

Another said, “Perfect fit and excellent quality. Good value for money. Perfect school coat.”

 

And a third wrote, “Nice quality coat for school – warm and shower proof.”

 

You can even get a reflective pom beanie hat to go alongside it, to ensure your children are warm and safe out there this winter.

We cyclists are the most vulnerable of all road users. We’re up to 30 times more likely to get injured on the road than drivers are, and up to 18 times more likely to get killed.

 

They’re concerning stats, and it’s up to all of us to ensure we’re as visible as possible (and therefore as safe as possible) while riding on the road. But how do we do that? Is it simply a case of wearing brighter clothing? And what about when it comes to riding at night?

 

Every cyclist has a story to tell of the time a driver didn’t see them, leading to a scary near-miss or worse, a crash. And if you’ve been riding for any length of time, you’ve probably been involved in several such incidents yourself.

 

This experience isn’t just borne out anecdotally — research suggests that the majority of crashes involving a cyclist and motor vehicle are a case of “looked but failed to see”. That is, incidents where the driver might well have been looking in the direction of the cyclist, but failed to recognize that what they were seeing was a cyclist. There’s a reason SMIDSY – “Sorry mate, I didn’t see you” – has become such a familiar acronym among cyclists.

 

Several factors can make a cyclist hard to spot, including ‘visual clutter’ on or beside the roadway, the light conditions at the time, and, crucially, the conspicuity of the rider.

 

STAYING VISIBLE

There have been many studies in recent decades investigating how “visibility aids” affect the ease with which drivers can spot cyclists on the road. In a 2009 literature review, nine papers were found that compared the visibility of fluorescent and non-fluorescent colors. All but one of those nine trials found that fluorescent colors were more visible to drivers. Fluorescent clothing in red, yellow, and orange — colors that contrast significantly with the riding environment — was found to be most effective1.

 

Another paper, published in 2007 by researchers in New Zealand, compared the number of times cyclists spent off work as a result of crashes involving a motor vehicle. They found that riders who never wore fluorescent cycling kit spent eight times as much time away from work as riders who always wore such clothing.

 

Studies like these seem to point in a clear direction: riders who wear fluorescent cycling gear aren’t just more visible to drivers, they’re also less likely to be hit and injured.

 

But this is only part of the story because such findings are only relevant when considering riding in daylight.

 

NIGHT RIDING

Whether it’s commuting to and from work in the winter months or heading out for a pre-dawn bunch ride, most of us do at least some of our riding in the dark. And as you might expect (or may have witnessed first-hand) riding at night is more dangerous than during the day. Some 35% of all fatal cycling crashes happen at night, despite the fact, only about 10% of cyclists ride after dark.

 

While fluorescent clothing is effective at increasing rider visibility during the day, it’s largely useless at night.

During the day, fluorescent clothing takes ultraviolet (UV) light from the sunlight we can’t see — and converts it into the light we can see. The result is an increase in the total amount of visible light that’s reflected off the clothing, giving fluo clothing a brighter appearance. This is particularly the case in low-light conditions, around dawn and dusk.

 

At night, there’s no UV sunlight to convert, so the fluorescent material isn’t effective. And so for cyclists to be as visible as possible in the dark, reflective, rather than fluorescent clothing, is required.

 

REFLECTIVE CLOTHING

It’s intuitively obvious that reflective clothing with reflective fabric makes us more visible in low-light conditions. Rather than being absorbed by our clothing, light from car headlights and streetlights is reflected nearby drivers, making us more visible than we otherwise would have been.

 

Jackets with reflective paneling are the most common piece of reflective gear used by cyclists but, perhaps surprisingly, they don’t seem to be the most effective.

 

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Professor Joanne Wood from the Queensland University of Technology leads a team of researchers focused on cyclist visibility and the benefits of reflective clothing. In a study published in 2010, Wood and her team tested the night-time visibility of a range of different clothing setups used by cyclists:

 

1. a) a black tracksuit
2. b) a black tracksuit and a fluorescent yellow cycling vest with no reflective markings
3. c) a black tracksuit and a jacket with reflective markings
4. d) a black tracksuit, a jacket with reflective markings and reflective strips positioned on the cyclist’s ankles and knees.

 

The results are striking: “Overall, drivers identified the largest number of cyclists wearing the vest plus the ankle and knee reflectors (90% correctly recognized), followed by the reflective vest alone (50%), the fluorescent clothing (15%), and lastly black clothing (2%).”

 

These results mirror research findings on the visibility of pedestrians at night and can be explained by a concept known as biological motion— that is, “our visual sensitivity to patterns of human motion”.

A reflective jacket, while more effective than simple black clothing, limits reflective material to the rider’s torso which, according to Professor Wood and her colleagues “presents much less motion information to approaching drivers”.

 

Reflective strips on the knees and ankles, on the other hand, move up and down as the cyclist moves, helping drivers to better recognize the object in front of them as a moving cyclist, as opposed to a simple light source3.

 

This finding seems to lead to an obvious recommendation for cyclists: if you want to maximize your safety at night, don’t just wear reflective clothing; ensure that the reflective clothing includes reflective strips worn on the ankles and knees.

 

But as we know, road cyclists can be a fickle, fashion-conscious bunch.

 

FASHION VS SAFETY

Researchers have long shown that cyclists know the benefits of reflective clothing but choose not to wear it. This might not be surprising when considering the fashion- and performance-conscious road riding scene.

 

Reflective clothing has traditionally lacked the aesthetic appeal and performance of other, more stylish kit options, while also being associated with casual or commuter riding. But now, with major kit brands getting on board, reflective gear is being designed for the performance market.

 

Sugoi, Proviz, Hey Reflect’o and Specialized are among brands to have developed reflective jackets that stand out impressively when lit up by car headlights and other artificial light sources. And then there are the products that harness the power of biomotion to further increase rider visibility.

 

Giro has developed impressively reflective cycling shoes, Castelli and Sugoi are among those to have made reflective overshoes, and the likes of Pactimo and Proviz have made winter tights with large reflective panels below the knee.

 

1. According to the 2009 literature review, yellow was found to be the most visible non-fluoro color in six trials. White was more visible than grey and black in three trials.

 

2. Interestingly, while Wood and colleagues found that cyclists generally tend to overestimate how visible they are to other road users, they underestimated how visible they would be while wearing reflective strips on their ankles and knees.

 

3. Professor Wood and her colleagues showed in a subsequent paper that the use of bike lights reduced the effectiveness of reflective ankle and knee strips. Wood offers a simple explanation for this surprising finding: “This pattern may have resulted from the bicycle light (mounted on the handlebars) acting as a glare source that reduced the drivers’ ability to see the reflective markings on the ankles and knees.” While Wood et al. don’t say as much, it would seem that the combination of reflective ankle and knees strips + lights, while detracting from the visibility of the reflective items, is still more visible than lights on their own.