Can you see me?
I don’t want to look like a traffic cone 24/7 when I am riding my bike. In fact I generally buy black or other dark colours for my riding gear. Most of the time that works fine for me, but there are situations [fog, dark rainy nights, rush hour traffic, etc..] where having extra visibility is a good idea. So I got an Icon Interceptor vest in high viz green/yellow.
- Victoria to Duncan, BC ~100km round trip…
I’m still breaking in my KLR650 and haven’t had a lot of time to go on any big rides so I decided to get out for a trip to Duncan, BC to add 100kms to my Odo and check out how the vest worked at highway speeds.
- Definitely not mellow yellow!
I bought the large-XL size of vest so it wouldn’t be crazy tight when worn over my riding gear. The vest goes on easily over my riding jacket and I can access the bottom front pockets with the vest on which is handy. It didn’t flap or move around at speed which made me happy. Nobody had any trouble seeing me, but I can’t say whether it made any difference on a sunny low traffic day like today.
- Front detail…
The vest is made up of a double layer of mesh fabric that’s eye searingly bright. This type of nylon will fade pretty fast wen exposed to UV which makes a vest a smart choice. You can replace it when it’s not as visible any more without feeling bad about the cost. It’s not crazy hot where I live so I can’t tell you how this will be in super hot climates. It should breathe okay, but it won’t let the venting on your riding jacket work as well as if you didn’t have it on.
- Back detail…
The quality of construction throughout seems excellent.
- The sides adjust…
You can adjust both sides to fit different gear via a shock cord and toggle.
- Reflective material…
There are reflective sections of material front and back.
- ID holder…
The ID holder on the front is velcro backed and comes off. I’ll just slide a business card in there in case someone needs to ID me or finds my vest if I leave it behind. Over all it seems like a decent product and I’ll be happy to put it on when I feel like I need to be seen better without having to wear day glo yellow all the time.
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