Modern Vespa

White and bright colors for scooters seem to be a good idea.

And I have read several places that the #1 visible item on a rider is the helmet. So, bright colors there - probably white is best for all light conditions.

But, to each his own.
To explain - a scooter rider wearing a bright jacket and helmet was struck in the side in an intersection by a vehicle driver who did not see him in time to avoid the accident.
So, following his rehab, and using some of the hefty court settlement, he bought an expensive all matte black motorcycle and a matching matte black stealth helmet.

Obviously bright gear is not fool proof - but I'd bet my actuary dollar that that jazzy looking all "stealth-black" ensemble is going to be significantly harder for a driver to pick out.

Like I said, to each his own.
It seems that we might ride, the way we ride, for many different reasons.

Search:"Are white helmets safer?"
"A study published in the World Health Organization's Helmet Manual analyzed the link between the colour of a biker's helmet and chances of his crashing. It suggested that policies that encourage white and light-coloured helmets can help prevent motorcycle crashes.

Wearing a white helmet makes the bike driver more conspicuous both during the day as well as at night, explained Madhu Khurana, chairman and managing director of a major helmet manufacturing firm. "Bike riders should wear only white or yellow coloured helmets as they become more visible, especially at night and chances of them being hit are greatly reduced. We make helmets in all colours, but eight out of ten people prefer to buy black-coloured helmets."

If a new rider is just now putting together his gear - this might give you something to think about.

O.S.

Other than staying out of a blind spot, I think movement is just as important as the color of your helmet. I can see the reasons for the white helmet, and bright colors keep you as a rider from "melting" into the back ground, but just moving around in your lane will help you get noticed.

I will never, ever forget the first time I purchased a helmet. So many choices available in helmets, like shoes. What color, what style, what shape? The salesperson assisting was involved with the purchase of my scoot, a dragon red S150.

I was very clear, I want to be visible, when riding.

The salesperson told me, you will want a white helmet. Hence, you will stand out like a cue ball.

Cue ball? Cue ball? Really? I was crying from laughing so much, because I found the statement hilarious ... I will stand out like a cue ball. Dear one walked away from me while I was having a funny bone hilarious moment, blabbering about looking like a cue ball on my dragon red S150.

I walked out with a HJC white helmet ... knowing I will look like a cue ball, for all others to see! Since then, I have a collection of helmets in different colors, but, to this day ... I love my cue ball!

I have always owned white helmets in my years of riding motorcycles and scoots. BUT I totally agree with the comment re riding position and making sure your are in the best, safest road position for all to see.

I picked up a white Shoei over the winter not for visibility, but because a white helmet would be less likely to heat up in the sun compared to my previous black and silver helmets. We'll see if it makes any difference.

I took a self initiated straw poll on a cross country (car ) trip to see what color helmet I saw most easily in the oncoming lane. It was white by a long margin. Not silver. Not yellow. Not even flourescent colors. So I bought a white helmet.

YMMV.
Bill

I have a white and gold glitter. I get a lot of attention wearing that one.

Bought white so it'll stay a little cooler in the summer. Maybe people who buy a helmet for a practical reason rather than a fashion statement might make better decisions and have less accidents.

I wear a hi-viz yellow helmet. Also a (partly) hi-viz yellow jacket.

Along with white, this seems to be the most visible color from my experience observing other riders.

Silver, though light, blends in with the background. I once almost didn't see a car coming toward me because the silver color was lost in the road.

I also don't assume that anyone sees me. If they aren't looking they won't see any color.

Yeah, a bit before I bought my high viz helmet I realized my eye picks up high viz bicyclists, construction workers etc from three blocks away.

I'd just as easily go for white on my next helmet, though, as well.

...and white is "the new black" what comes to fashion, so it's a clear win-win

Fully agree, that's why e.g. motorcycle polices around here wear white helmets and white visibility straps over their bike gear.

...and, of course, I don't have a white helmet at the moment

Have to add, that many of "beamer adv" - guys, including one of my neighbours nowadays wear a yellow high viz vest over their normal gear (which typically already include hi viz elements). And they do shine...really, in a positive way, they are very visible sitting high on their bikes with bright yellow vests and typically white helmets.

It's funny with white.

I distinctly remember as a child in the 70's asking my dad as we where driving along, "why don't we see many white cars on the road".

He said it's a well known fact that white cars are harder to spot, and more people have accidents in white cars.

This was the thought process of the 70's. Now whilst I think that white does stand out, with all the scientific discoveries being announced daily that contradict what was known the day before it would not ever surprise me if they did come out and say white is harder to see again lol.

I have a white helmet, and a Matt black one btw.

Bill, The most noticed or visible colours are yellow and blue togehter. Also proven in the '70's.
Sound familiar?

I mostly remember the 70's being very brown lol

Avocado.
Harvest Gold.

What were we thinking?!

Aubergine was the in colour for cars?
Avacado for bathrooms?

Oh god I remember that green from my youth. Everything comes back though.... Remember the "mom jean" skit? Yup they are making a comeback.

http://www.dailymotion.com/cdn/manifest/video/x2vbmi0.m3u8?auth=1525441463-2690-ryfqqvgf-16630e4fa4d035411126984d84b478f0

As far as white helmets go, I don't mind them just don't have one. I do have reflective stickers on my helmets though.

nice write up Old Scoot, which explains why motorcycle cops ride white bikes with white helmets...

I do NOT wear a white helmet

because I ride a white scooter! My thought process is to give others "contrast" to see, so a white helmet and grey jacket on a white scooter is giving people really just one color to see.

So I wear a red/black or black jacket and a red helmet on my white scooter. I don't ride at night (and rarely at dusk), but this combo gives me confidence that I'm showing others a variety of colors.

Cops here (at least state troopers) ride blue/blue (light/dark) bikes with matching helmets. But they also have many lights, reflective stickers, and sometimes high vis reflective x things on their chests ( I think they call it a bandolier) to give you more things to pick up.

I have helmets of a variety of colors.

I used to only wear black, clothes mostly too, when riding.

Never an issue.

Then one rainy day I was stopped behind a Mercedes Benz SUV in a stretch of road where she shouldn't be stopped. No turn indicator. I stood up to see why she was stopped when I heard a screech, then Rocket got knocked out from under me.

It was a very unusual occurrence for me. I am quite certain that the driver who hit me, a very nice fellow it turns out, was looking at his phone and would have hit me if I was driving a truck.

But it was time for a new helmet anyway, so I bought one of my current Day Glo yellow Scorpion helmets that I now wear everywhere.

I used to lead most of the club rides and everyone commented on how easy it was to see me ahead. I know I can see these colors better than others too, so I gave in to the notion.

Not sure it really matters, but it can't hurt.

Bill

There was a link here that I cannot find to an old study, perhaps in the UK, that included comments such as the zig-zaggy patterns on helmets actually act like camouflage.

There was an article in QRZ , a Ham Radio magazine, titled "The Mythical Milli-watt", or some such, that went through the entire antenna to radio signal chain and cleaned up every junction and interface, each one allowing a milli-watt more signal through. The net result was a stronger signal at the radio.

The point being that everything one does to improve noticeability, no matter how seemingly insignificant it is, will add to one's chances of avoiding contact: Hi-vis clothing, helmet colour, swerving in one's lane, modulated headlight, even loud pipes, and so forth.

Do it all.

Live long and prosper.

Have a nice day.

My wife and I were looking into High Visibility gear at one point, and she found this article.

From the article: It goes on to say that the Hi Viz colors aren't any more visible than other colors in the dark, and that lights or reflective materials help.

I wear a High Visibility yellow helmet, and a High Visibility Yellow & black jacket.

I remember this, too. The pattern breaks up the silhouette of the object/animal making it harder to pick out from the background. So Zebras have stripes.

This was used in World War II to camouflage ships. It was called "dazzle camouflauge". https://goo.gl/Odk20C

Following this logic, the safest riding gear would be white or hi-viz solid colors.

I'm sure I've read in at least one credible study that white is the most visible, even if that feels counter intuitive, especially when you ride with others in Hi-Viz/Flourescent yellow helmets. My helmet is white, as is my GTS, and I take some comfort from both being pretty visible in a range of conditions. It's possible to see drivers notice you and their reactions in some conditions and situations.

On the same theme, I'm surprised by some UK and Euro GTS owners who've gone for a 'stealth' or 'blackout' look for their scooter, removing all the contrast and colour. The point here is to make your scooter difficult to see and that seems bonkers when it could compromise your safety on the road. Not definitive of course, but I put this picture together in similar light and backdrop to add to the point...

The black gets my attention first tbh, not for its looks, just first.

Perhaps the definitive truth hasn't yet been discovered and actually there are several colours of equal maximum visibility.

We're all reciting info we've read, not studies we've done ourselves and making our own minds up.

Curious.
To each, his own.

O.S.

There's a preponderance of black gear because so many guys want to look like Billy Badass on their Harleys. Another reason, I know, is because black won't show dirt, bugs, and grime like lighter colors. But I still hold that the Billy Badass Effect is largely responsible for all the black gear because in a sane world, most gear would be more colorful/visible.

One white, one black.

Hope that helps

I learned many years ago while attending Brooks Institute of Photography that the eye peaks at the color chartreuse or yellow. Therefore fire trucks were going from red to chartreuse (yellow) in color. However, if the cagers don't look that doesn't matter. THEY DONT LOOK!
Here in Utah it seems very popular not to stop when the signal turns yellow, and even red for a few seconds. ALWAYS LOOK BOTH WAYS WHEN APPROACHING INTERSECTION! No matter what.

I added the silver night/reflective strips to my black helmet to be more visable during my rides. But, my next helmet i'll get a bright orange full face to matchy matchy my Corrazo 5.0 (I'll still add the strips of reflective/night tape to the new helmet.)

I read a Meme or Gif or something about teaching your kids to look out for motorcycles/scooters when driving around. To help them look out for riders so when they get older, they'll be aware of bikes on the road. I'm starting that practice now with my kids.

In the end no amount of visibility is going to work if people aren't paying attention. The best we can do is be a defense rider. Always be aware of our surroundings and anticipate potential hazards.

Hi-Viz Arai and I don't ride at night.
If I rode at night, I'd wear a white helmet with reflective tape, at night.

Aye. Shortly after reading this thread this morn I road out on my bright green V, wearing my high viz helmet and white/silver mesh jacket...and some dude blasted thru his yield and right at me: ah, the famous "left hand turn".

I'd even done the lane wobble to get his attention.

My spider senses were tingling and I was ready for his idiocy, covered the breaks and slowed down... or he woulda driven right into me.

I have a white helmet because I heard that riders with white helmets get into fewer crashes. I'm the kind of guy that tends to do the safest thing he can while riding and I am an example of what I hereby dub the "White Helmet Effect".

The white helmet effect, which shows that people with white helmets on get into fewer crashes, is an effect caused by the fact that people who perceive white helmets to be safer and put one on for that reason are also doing lots of other things that are safer as well. Such people are serious about safety and don't much care what anyone thinks about their helmet. So yeah, they are wearing white helmets and they have better safety records than those wearing other cooler looking helmets, but they also ride differently and wear all kinds of other safer gear too. White helmet types would get into fewer crashes regardless of their helmet color based on their personalities alone.

This is related to something I've noticed about studies you read about people who do things like walk for 43 minutes a day having a much lower risk of having a heart attack and other such health problems. That may be true, but anyone who walks around the neighborhood for 43 minutes a day also probably doesn't have two triple cheeseburgers and two pints of beer for lunch, so it's hard to pin their healthiness on the walking alone.

I've just bought a new helmet after 5 years - another white Arai. This time a Tour X with a peak.

My Burgman 400 is also white and I wear a red hi-viz.

Looked up a few studies to add some depth...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387473/

http://smarter-usa.org/research/conspicuity-highviz/

Good points. One of the necessary difficulties in doing this kind of research is isolating the dependent variable. When you are working with lab rats, for example, you can have two genetically identical groups in identical conditions. Then you just change the one factor you are studying and see what happens.

So we always have to start with "all things being equal", which in real life is never the case.

So, I am a safety-minded rider who wears hi-viz because being more visible just makes sense to me. I also don't speed excessively, drink before riding, etc.

Is white a color? In have 2 wild colored ones and a black Diesel. I think white would blend in and not really be considered a Hi-Viz helmet. IMHO. Here's my 2 high-vis ones.

2 of my helmets are white, most used one is black, but with reflective red, white and green stickers on it. I am surprised, not really, that Harley riders wear mostly black clothes, the dealers don't even sell/offer other colors. I wear a red jacket and red chaps, in the summer, a hi-viz green vented jacket. Conspicuity is good.

I read that originally as you were surprised Harley dealers don't have hi-viz gear. Then I re-read it

That is a different lifestyle and I have had dealings with a number of them and to be honest for the vast majority they are good guys. Hell I went from Mod to scooterboy back in the 90's and we weren't any better. We just happened to ride Vespa's and Lambretta's with flight jackets. HD riders were better protected than we were.

I do love this site but there is a definite lean toward safety and if you aren't in full gear then beware. I'm older now and sit somewhere in the middle but am never going to wear a bright yellow vest over my armored jacket. So yeah I do wear armored jackets now and boots, gloves etc but the colour of the helmet and extra LED's etc is never going to be me. I'm not going to touch more on it but sometimes I think things can be a little cautious here. You know you can have A beer and still ride.