Mirrored and or heavily smoked visors may not be a good idea.

[Guest]

On Saturday I went up to Royal distributing in Guelph for their "tent sale". I picked up an Icon Alliance SS helmet. A good deal I thought for $139 and no taxes. As it was cheap enough I was going to get a mirrored visor but stopped myself at the last moment. Don't really know why.

So I'm out riding with the new lid on Sunday. Very comfortable and quiet. good flow through ventilation. A well made helmet at a good price and DOT and Snell certified to boot.

Now the incident about the visor. The stock visor is clear and I wear prescription sun glasses. I ride with the visor down until I come to stops at traffic lights when I flip it up. Toward the end of my ride, I'm stopped at a light facing a guy on a sportbike (CBR I think) wearing full leathers and helmet with a mirrored sheild. I could not see his eyes and he didn't move his head much so I couldn't tell where he was looking.

He did not have an advanced green but he must have figured I wouldn't be fast off the line on the old GS as he turned right in front of me and rocketed off. I was a bit alarmed to say the least. Luckily for him there was no car to the right of me.

I think if you ride with a mirrored or smoked screen it would be good to pop it up in situations like this so the on coming rider or driver can get a sense of what you might be contemplating by looking at your eyes and where you are focused.

Ride safe guys.
Cheers,
Spyug

[seuadr]

that sounds sensible.. i'm not sure it would catch on

[Dogma]

I think I would rather vote against doing things that need eyeball communication. Too easy to misinterpret. But I am all for the prescription, polarized shades. No visor can beat that.

[uudfourty]

We should figure out how to make prescription visors.

....


How much does it cost to get an idea patent?

[earlfor]

I always ride with a dark smoke shield during daylight. It isnt optional for me as the sun is bright enough to give me a headache without it. Sunglasses dont fit well under a helmet and become pretty uncomfortable quickly. I carry a clear shield in my tank bag that I change to when the sun goes down.

Earl

[spyug]

Before I picked up my new lid I was in another store ( 2 Wheel Motorsports, for the Ontario guys) where they have a really good selection of the quality brands like Arai, Shoei, Shark, Nolan etc.. Oddly enough, I didn't find any of the those brands to be as comfortable on me as the Icon I got. One thing I did notice and I thought it was a good idea was that several brands now have an inner dark visor that you pull down or pop up as you need to block the sun without moving the clear visor.

I brought up this post not really to put down tinted visors but to reinforce what I learned on the MSF type course I took 5 years ago and what I've read over and over that the direction of the eyes is a good indicator of what the rider or driver might be contemplating doing. As I couldn't see his eyes and he barely moved his head I was caught off guard thinking he would stay put 'til I move through.

I know that if he were wearing sunglasses as I do myself it might not of helped any but he might have had to move his head more to get a good view. I find I do that myself and often exagerate my head motions, especially with shoulder checks

Just wanted to clarify that a bit.

Cheers,
Spyug.

[MelodicMetalGod]

On Saturday I went up to Royal distributing in Guelph for their "tent sale". I picked up an Icon Alliance SS helmet. A good deal I thought for $139 and no taxes. As it was cheap enough I was going to get a mirrored visor but stopped myself at the last moment. Don't really know why.

So I'm out riding with the new lid on Sunday. Very comfortable and quiet. good flow through ventilation. A well made helmet at a good price and DOT and Snell certified to boot.

Now the incident about the visor. The stock visor is clear and I wear prescription sun glasses. I ride with the visor down until I come to stops at traffic lights when I flip it up. Toward the end of my ride, I'm stopped at a light facing a guy on a sportbike (CBR I think) wearing full leathers and helmet with a mirrored sheild. I could not see his eyes and he didn't move his head much so I couldn't tell where he was looking.

He did not have an advanced green but he must have figured I wouldn't be fast off the line on the old GS as he turned right in front of me and rocketed off. I was a bit alarmed to say the least. Luckily for him there was no car to the right of me.

I think if you ride with a mirrored or smoked screen it would be good to pop it up in situations like this so the on coming rider or driver can get a sense of what you might be contemplating by looking at your eyes and where you are focused.

Ride safe guys.
Cheers,
Spyug

Sorry, but I don't think this has anything to do with visor transparency or eye contact. If somebody turns left in front of another vehicle that's proceeding straight through the intersection then they're simply violating right of way. Regardless of shield specs, a rider like that would likely still make poor/foolish/stupid choices.

[Mysuzyq]

My latest helmet also happens to be an Icon Alliance (great lid!). I use the smoked (not mirrored) visor during the day, and the clear one if I head out late evening or nights.
From your description, my understanding is that the squid did not have the right of way to begin with. I'm not sure if he indicated a left turn while stopped at the light, or was in a dedicated turning lane, but it is moot....without an advanced green, he should have waited for through traffic to pass before cutting across. Had there been a collision, he would still have been at fault, visible eyeballs or not. It is just squidly behavior, and a lack of respect for other riders/drivers....a new trend I have noticed with these riders, and also their four-wheeled counterparts, is a tendency to weave through traffic, without indicating any lane changes...apparently, the normal sequence of check/indicate/change has not been hard-wired into their brains.... or perhaps they think 150+ bhp allows them to dispense with such niceties, as not many vehicles will be passing them.:roll:
Tony.

[JTsGS650]

No turn signal + cutting in front of you = Idiot

[hillntx]

I have to go with John on this one. The US government already addressed the situation by requiring motor vehicle manufacturers to place odd looking orange lights on either side of the front and rear of a vehicle that are activated to indicate changes in direction. When used correctly they work surprisingly better than the make eye contact thing.

Down here in TX, the dark visor is practically mandatory for daytime riding.

[skreemer]

Here's a fun one...

I have prescription fotogray glasses... (need em as I have a slight sensitivity to bright lights)
Bought my first dark smoked shield because the sun was right in my eyes in the morning commute... It was great. Then one day I sat at a light and flipped the shield up... activate fotogray... shield down again for a good two minutes was like driving on an unlit back road...

[derwood]

I got a couple of pennies.........polarized sunglasses don't work well with a visor or factory glass tints in cars, many purple rainbows etc.... good for fishing

[zig06]

The guy that cut you off was an idiot. It didn't matter if he had a smoked shield, or was sitting behind the wheel of a minivan wearing sunglasses.

Eitherway, he was going to cut you off.

Sharp skills prevented a bad thing from happening. Keep them sharp and hopefully you'll be ready the next time, as you were this time.

I personally ride with a smoked shield, and have zero intentions of replacing it. And if your counting on waiting until you can see the whites of someone eyes, your most likely going to be too late. Or wrong more than your right. After all, if the sun is in the direction of where they are wanting to go, they may look away "sort of" and still cross your path.

[Killer2600]

I gotta say I also agree with the others, the guy was just a bad/impatient/self-centered rider. Regardless of if he was looking left, or signaling left he has to wait for traffic to clear and seeing his eyes really wouldn't make a difference because if he did ride properly and waited for you to clear the intersection he could still have looked where he was planning to go. Just because your not turning doesn't mean your eyes are only looking straight ahead. Glad he didn't wreck you though, surely he learned a lesson about being faster than anyone else, seems alot of people cagers and riders alike who jump the gun making left turns as soon as the light goes green think they are fast **** so they do it fairly often until someone else scares the **** out of them or wrecks them.

Personally when riding I wait a moment when the light changes before I do anything to account for late light runners and people who might want to make a left in front of me. Other drivers may hate me for it but I care more for my life than their commuting time.

[jola]

Turning left before traffic starts blocking a turn is a standard operating procedure around here, ha.

Anyways, I remember learning at the MSF course that eye contact means absolutely nothing as people can look you straight in the eye and still ignore your presence.