When I set out for a bike ride last Friday, I had envisioned the title for this blog to be “My coolness outweighs the dorkiness of this flag”. Well, of course, I am cool on my bike despite any dorky accessories; however, this flag idea was a total flop. Read on…

img_2267.JPG

I’d been mulling over the idea of buying one of these horizontal bike flags for about a year. I’m so sick of the idiots out there on the road. My thought was that having a flag would make me more visible, and send a clear message to drivers: “this is how much room I need when you pass”. Still, I wondered why I never see serious cyclists using the flag – only old geezers on touring bikes.

img_0010.jpgI finally decided to order one… got it from http://www.flashback.ca/bicycle.html . As soon as it arrived, I discovered one reason why I rarely see roadies using them. They are made to mount on a very skinny tube – probably mounts easily on a touring rack. It didn’t fit on any tube on my bike, so I had to do some serious jury-rigging to get it mounted to my bike AND not interfere with my pedal stroke. BTW – PVC pipe works wonders for many things – it’s like playing with tinker toys!

Here was my thought process as I rode on Friday with the dorkflag, er, I mean flashflag:

It’s going to be so great riding without having to worry about all the idiots. I’ll be able to completely focus on my riding.

Yippie, I can stay down in my aero bars even on busy roads. (actually, I think this IS true)

Hmmm, those cars aren’t leaving as much room as I’d hoped. Well, at least no idiot truck drivers yet!

HEY- didn’t that pick-up truck see me and my dorky flag?

WTF – what’s up with these trucks?!

#@$#@%^$&% ASS HOLE SUV ROAD HOG -_-*,,|,

My next project will look something like this:
120205n55_rocketlauncher.jpg

My conclusion is that the flag does not help at all. In fact, I think it made matters WORSE. I think drivers see the flag and think ‘Oh, as long as I don’t hit the flag, I’m good to pass as close as I possibly can’. But, if you look at the picture above, you can see that the flag only goes out as far as my handlebars. So, coming close the flag means coming close to the handlebars – which is too damn close!!

I briefly considered using more PVC tubing with an elbow joint to make the flag stick out farther, but, NAH, I’ll stick with the sentiment expressed in today’s blog title: “A Horizontal Bike Flag is NOT worth the dork factor!” The only thing that seems to work is riding farther out in the lane. I believe it is safer even tho it does not feel safer – it forces cars to slow way down because they have to wait until there is no oncoming traffic to pass.

PS: I wasn’t going to write about this at all. To be honest, I’m embarrassed about the whole ordeal. In the end, I swallowed my pride in hopes that it might save someone else the trouble of trying it.

PSS: Anyone want to buy a Horizontal flash flag? TeeHee