Rear - View Visor

Mirror on the inside of a helmet visor

Front view of helmet with mirror

Back view of helmet

Side view.  The tilt of the mirror at the front has a big role in determining what you see.

Visor on a helmet on a newly repaired Dahon Boardwalk

Hi

This story started a while ago when I made an oversize visor for for my helmet.  The visor has since solved or improved the riding problems of rain in the eyes, sun glare and sunburn.

About 2 months ago I was riding from Airey's Inlet to Torquay and looking in my handlebar mounted mirrors. And it occured to me that a mirror on the inside of the visor could take the place of both left and right handlebar mirrors.  It took a while for me to do anything about this idea, it bubbled away till eventually I had a go at making something.  Old cd's and bike mirrors and corflute were cut up to mount on a visor but either the visual quality wasn't good or my cutting was bad and I gave up eventually.  Some research found the term "acrylic mirror" on this ( beer view mirror!) instructables page, and I started looking for a supplier and cutter of acrylic mirror.  And I found one in Australian Sheet Traders and ordered some rectangular acrylic mirror cut to size.

 The parts arrived on a Monday and  I wasn't very happy.  Mirror all blurry!  After emailing the supplier, one of their reps came round promptly and sorted things out.  It was just an extra protective film of plastic on the mirror surface.  So it was OK, and many thanks to David at AST, Christine and Ermi for sorting it out.

So now the mirror was built into a visor and it works!  A slight tilt of the head is all that's needed to see the road behind, there are no vulnerable "stalk mirrors" to manipulate and potentially get damaged, and there are no mirrors on the handlebars. In the setup I have at the moment, I can see my eyes in the centre of the mirror but it doesn't bother me.  I feel that building in adjustment to the tilt of the mirror relative to the helmet would improve things but I'm happy enough for now.

Next step is to find out if its been thought of before and the answer is a definite yes.  This link shows one similar patent and it looks to be fairly much the same idea.  One of the pictures is shown below.  So do I stop now?  No, I don't think so.  For the moment I will improve the mirror system for my own use and give away the mirror blanks to anyone who buys a cycling book from me, and maybe to ozhpv members as well.

A patent for a very similar idea exists.

There was a product that provides an integrated mirror in a bike helmet. The Reevu system uses mirrors to provide a rear-view using a sight-path above the riders head.  The manufacturer's web page (previous link) does not seem to be connected to the Reevu main page which concentrates on motorbike helmets. However a review here indicates that the writer has great enthusiasm for the product and hopes that the product will again be on sale "the year after next".( in 2009!)

Vizor-vu Visor for motorbike helmets.  "Sort of the same idea"

As well, the Vizor - Vu, shown at the bottom of the page here is something very similar.  It is designed for motorcycles and was most famously worn by Steve Mcqueen in the film "On any Sunday".

Others in Ozhpv have turned their thoughts to helmet visors as well  and this link provides a plan for a visor and the photos down the bottom of this page show Pete Heal and the visor in action.


Am very interested to hear your comments.  Are the explanations clear enough?

Regards

Steve Nurse