Safety Freak... Helmet/plate reflective tape mods UPDATED

taile84 · Post by **taile84** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:47 am

UPDATE: I taped up my sister's helmet also. She wanted a star design on it so here it is!

)

ORIGINAL POST:
I am seriously a safety freak. Before I got my Buddy, one night I was in a car driving up behind a scooterist and didn't even see him... well I finally saw him, but not from what I thought was a safe enough distance away.

Ok.... so when I bought the scoot, I ordered these off of Ebay.

Finally got the reflective tape in and here is what I did. (People always see the scoot brake light when its on, but when you use reflectors to elongate your frame indicating that there is a person on the road, people will notice you more)

I also taped up my Tag/plate holder

Here is what it looks like together

How to cut the right designs/fit for your helmet:
1. Buy the blue painters tape (same width as your reflective tape)
2. Tape a strip of painters tape to your helmet and use a pen to draw the design you want
3. peal off the blue tape off your helmet and stick it on top of your reflective tape
4. Cut the design with scissors, peel and stick
5. To make a mirror image of your design, use the design you have already cut, put it on top of another piece of reflective tape, trace and cut.

betsy q. bramble · Post by **betsy q. bramble** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:58 am

helmet looks good, taile! and very clever idea with the license plate frame.

BeetleGoose · Post by **BeetleGoose** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:55 am

Nice going! Thanks for the tips/techniques on the reflective tape. :thumbs up:

Becktastic · Post by **Becktastic** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:59 pm

That looks great! I need order some reflective tape too...

Thanks for the tips!

Xena · Post by **Xena** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:05 pm

You did a rocking job on that helmet!

And inspired me to go find some of what you used...did you get from a particular seller on Ebay? Link?

Philio81 · Post by **Philio81** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:35 pm

Great job on the helmet tape design! I mucked about w/ some reflective tape on my helmet but it did not come out the way I wanted and I had to remove it (not that easy).
I did add some to my black rear rack which I like and am working on a front stripe - when I get my reflective orange tape.
Nice post!

taile84 · Post by **taile84** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:47 am

Xena wrote:You did a rocking job on that helmet!

And inspired me to go find some of what you used...did you get from a particular seller on Ebay? Link?

Hi Xena,

The price is very affordable. I got my **Diamond Grade reflective Tape** from this seller:
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/merchant/minivariety

Here is a link to the tape that I got:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0256380379

Griffphoto · Post by **Griffphoto** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:43 am

I got my stuff here......

http://www.reflectivelyyours.com/

http://www.streetglo.net/

Reflect away!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:09 am

Excellent post and pictures. In fact the pics really demonstrated your point about visibility. There haven't been too many posts that I've considered must do's ... but this is one of them. And thanks for the tips on how to create the design ... from a guy that is artistically challenged (even my stick people drawings don't look right)

Rob

taile84 · Post by **taile84** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:59 am

Rob wrote:Excellent post and pictures. In fact the pics really demonstrated your point about visibility. There haven't been too many posts that I've considered must do's ... but this is one of them. And thanks for the tips on how to create the design ... from a guy that is artistically challenged (even my stick people drawings don't look right)

Rob

Thanks! I love ridding my Buddy but what I love more is riding my Buddy feeling a little bit more visible than most scooterists. I am glad I have convinced at least 1 person to add the reflecting tape to their helmet and scoot. I was behind a school bus yesterday morning with some reflective tape around the back and I was amazed how bright the bus looked with my Buddy's light shinning on it. Good luck!

ageekgirl · Post by **ageekgirl** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:32 am

taile84, thanks for the info on making the helmets more visible! I have a white half helmet, and a grey 3/4 helmet. I had been wearing the half helmet to get used to wearing a helmet on a regular basis, and have recently shifted to wearing the 3/4 helmet. DH has said that when I'm riding at night, the grey helmet is not nearly as visible as he initially thought it would be. So your tips on adding reflective tape are going to be used inteh very near future for both of us!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:45 am

taile84 wrote:Thanks! I love ridding my Buddy but what I love more is riding my Buddy feeling a little bit more visible than most scooterists. I am glad I have convinced at least 1 person to add the reflecting tape to their helmet and scoot. I was behind a school bus yesterday morning with some reflective tape around the back and I was amazed how bright the bus looked with my Buddy's light shinning on it. Good luck!

You certainly convinced me. I haven't done much night driving yet, and with a black scoot, I realize I'll be even more invisible at night. I've been looking at several types of red LED lights to attach to the back .. similar to what bicyclists or joggers use, but I've also found some that are even more substantial. I'll likely combine your ideas with some sort of LED lighting. Thanks again.

Rob

Dan Buddy · Post by **Dan Buddy** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:27 pm

Use reflective vinyl on my scooter and helmet too. Even the black vinyl works great. Here are a couple of pictures of my Stella with the vinyl.

Normal Daylight

Reflecting

I used Avery A7 refelctive vinyl.

marsturm · Post by **marsturm** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:23 am

Very nice design on helmet!

emptym · Post by **emptym** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:38 pm

not quite as artistic as yours, Taile, but inspired from 2 things.. one, my first and last initials "M", and the fact that when I bought the helmet, my GF said it looked like a Speed Racer helmet.

I have some ideas for the scooter, but still waiting on its arrival. :(

Front of the helmet.... GO SPEED RACER GO

3/4 view, you can start to see the black striping that follows the contours around the back of the helmet. (black in normal light, reflecting white from the flash)

Side View. I think I want to get some tape with a pattern in it (similar to what you have on your helmet) to fill in between the 2 black stripes

taile84 · Post by **taile84** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:46 am

emptym wrote:not quite as artistic as yours, Taile, but inspired from 2 things.. one, my first and last initials "M", and the fact that when I bought the helmet, my GF said it looked like a Speed Racer helmet.

WOAH!! Cool looking helmet!

skiwebster · Post by **skiwebster** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:23 pm

emptym wrote:not quite as artistic as yours, Taile, but inspired from 2 things.. one, my first and last initials "M", and the fact that when I bought the helmet, my GF said it looked like a Speed Racer helmet.

I have some ideas for the scooter, but still waiting on its arrival.

Front of the helmet.... GO SPEED RACER GO

3/4 view, you can start to see the black striping that follows the contours around the back of the helmet. (black in normal light, reflecting white from the flash)

Side View. I think I want to get some tape with a pattern in it (similar to what you have on your helmet) to fill in between the 2 black stripes

that is actually what I'm about to do to my helmet. Of course, i'm going as speed racer for halloween!

adam · Post by **adam** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:41 pm

Me is a id...

Becktastic · Post by **Becktastic** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:26 pm

I love the star! It was smart the way you chopped it up so all the pieces would lay flat against the helmet. I bought some of this tape...I just need to decide what design I want and apply it

I put some around our license plates like you did, thanks for the hi viz tips!

jazzmax · Post by **jazzmax** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:17 pm

taile84 & all,

Saw this post several weeks ago, and finally last week got my own reflective tape in and got creative on my black helmet. Now, I'm not the smooth artist with the tape that the original poster is, but I think everyone will agree that I am completely noticeable in day or night. First of all, here are some pics in daylight:

And now, some pictures in the dark with the flash:

I ended up using, as you can see, a combination of the diamond-grade tape, and 3m scotchlite in orange and black. I also used some leftover orange to make a big orange triangle on the back of my plain black topcase, so that I'm that much more visible. I'll probably go as far as putting some reflective on the front faring for people approaching me, and something on each of the rear fenders on the sides so that as I come up on neighborhood T-intersections & such I'll be easily seen.

Thanks for the inspirations folks, and btw, I bought from the same seller on ebay, so that guy should be thanking the people on this forum big time!

Thanks,

Max

Modern Buddy

Safety Freak... Helmet/plate reflective tape mods UPDATED

Safety Freak... Helmet/plate reflective tape mods UPDATED

reflective

me is a safety freak

Well, here's my few cents worth.....