Mirrors

I suspect that all you racer boys (and girls) out there will disagree with me, but I like to ride with a mirror. Yeah, I know they look kinda geeky, but come on, riding a bicycle in the USA is already considered kinda geeky anyway. Using a mirror is just a different type of geeky. Like there’s “cool geeky” and “uncool geeky”. Anyway, if you’ve ever ridden long distances on the open highways, especially by yourself or only one or two other riders, you’ve learned to appreciate mirrors. There are simply times when being able to see behind you adds a great deal of confidence and safety.
I’ve tried several kinds of mirrors on my different bikes with mixed success. I had an unsatisfactory experience with a helmet-mounted mirror several years ago. It was the kind that sticks to the side of the helmet with double-sided tape. It was hard to adjust, the mirror part was too small, it was hard to focus on the objects behind, and worst of all it kept falling off. When it fell off for the ??th time, I finally just left it in the road where it landed. Since then I’ve used a bar-end-mounted mirror on my straight-bar bikes and I like it pretty well (some brands work better than others). I’ve not tried the kind that wrap around the brake hoods on drop bars, but a friend of mine had one, and he said it buzzed and vibrated. The worst thing about bar-mounted mirrors is that they break easily if (I mean when) you drop the bike.
Several months ago I decided to try a mirror that mounts on the frame of my eyeglasses. I doubted that I would like it, but gambled on the $15 price. For some reason I've found that I really like this mirror ... it's called the "Take A Look" by Bike Peddler. It's an acrylic mirror with no frame and has a thin wire stem that mounts easily on my eyeglasses or sunglasses. It stays put, is easy to adjust, doesn’t vibrate too much, and I find that it's easy for me to focus. And since it’s mounted on my head and not the bike, I can turn my head and sweep all lanes behind me.