Did you notice whether they had flat glass? The mirrors I see in shops have flat glass, which is absolutely useless. Motor vehicle mirrors have to have curved glass, so you can see more of what's behind you. I notice that B&M (or BUMM) make mirrors for bicycles. I've never seen one, but I can't believe the Germans (it is a German company) would allow flat glass to be used on their bicycle mirrors. They seem very strict about such things.
Indicator / turn signal kit for 36v bike
- Thread starter decotopian
- Start date
I bought a BUMM mirror - and it turned out to be a BUMM fit. The eBike ones were so small as to be basically as good as useless. So got these which are much better and also have convex glass :
mirrycle.com: mirrycle mirrors
They're sufficiently adjustable to even be useable on the end of swept back handlebars.
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I regard a mirror is essential on vehicles which are the slowest and most overtaken on the road. The Mirrcycle is excellent, but I've always used the BM Cateye ones on my bikes and find them ok. They use curved mirrors and give a perfectly adequate field of view, but it's important to fit the right one:
The BM500G is for straight handlebar bikes.
The BM300G is for drop handlebar bikes.
Like many bike mirrors, they do often need to be reset on setting off, but if used all the time that takes an instant and becomes an automatic habit.
The BM500G is for straight handlebar bikes.
The BM300G is for drop handlebar bikes.
Like many bike mirrors, they do often need to be reset on setting off, but if used all the time that takes an instant and becomes an automatic habit.
No, they weren't wide angle (curved glass). And neither are the motorbike ones. And I don't recall seeing any cars or motorbikes with wide angle mirrors, though I'd guess some have.
Vans and lorries have them as they can't see their blind spots. A lot of car mirrors have blind spot mirrors (the little curved bits in one of the corners) which you can also buy to stick on your mirrors.
I don't know what the law has to say about wide angle mirrors but they're really not necessary on a bike. When they're adjusted properly you get a good view behind you and your blind spot is the slightest flick of your head away. And if you do want a different angle on things, you just move your head a bit to the side.
In fact almost all of them are curved, but the curvature is very slight. This was true of my Honda CB500R, my current two cars and the three previous cars at least. If you have a close look at many modern cars, they sometimes have a faint legend printed on the lower mirror glass with words roughly stating "Objects may appear more distant than they really are", the clear indication of mirror curvature. Both my bikes have mirrors which are also slightly curved, and I bet most other mirror makes are too.
I know the sort you mean, most cars now have rather larger mirrors door mounted close to the driver so needing very little curvature to give a good angle of view. In some cases one almost needs a straight edge to determine that they are curved. At the other extreme, cars many years ago often had small front-wing mounted mirrors viewed through the screen. They needed a very marked curve for the distant mirror to give enough field of view.
I'm afraid I remember those. lol
I've had a closer look and the cycle mirrors are flat. The motorbike ones are slightly curved.
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