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If you decide to wear a brightly colored cycling shirt when you venture out onto the road, you will have quite possibly just made a life-saving decision – whether you realized it or not! But cycling shirts are not the only device you can use to give yourself a fighting chance of reaching your destination in one piece. They form a part of your self-preservation armory and belong in the category of Personal Visibility. The other parts are Lighting, Safety Equipment and Training. Your goals, through thorough training, high personal visibility and effective lighting, are to avoid the need to test out the effectiveness of your safety equipment – the last thing you want to do is find out through personal tragedy that it wasn’t effective!

So let’s take a look at some of the available options for staying safe cycling on the roads.

Personal Visibility

Your ability to attract the attention of other road users is paramount, because if they have seen you, there is a negligible chance that they are going to be in collision with you. Unless of course they are taking a chance or they underestimate your speed when approaching a junction – a common cause of accidents is a vehicle overtaking a bike and then cutting across to turn at the junction, usually forcing the cyclist to turn with them.

So to attract attention, wearing really bright clothing is a great start, whether that means cycling shirts, cycling jerseys or heavier cycling jackets. Some people use the terms cycling shirts and cycling jerseys interchangeably; often though, the former will be a short sleeved cycle top, whereas the latter will have long sleeves. But it doesn’t matter; firstly avoid black, grey, brown, dark blue or dark green ones – the kind that drivers will have difficulty spotting at night, or dawn or dusk. Bright yellow, or white, or light green, or red will be good colors. Anything you wouldn’t be seen dead in normally (that choice of words was deliberate!) is good, and the more garish the better. A safety green cycling shirt lie the one pictured is ideal.

If you happen to like your design of cycling jersey or jacket, and it is a dark color, maybe because you ride for a team or club, and those are the team colors, then the next thing to add to your Personal Visibility cache is a high visibility vest, like those often worn in the construction industry. They are great for keeping you highly conspicuous at night as these vests have light-reflective strips, and it is hard for a driver not to see you. And while on the subject of light-reflective strips, it is also a good idea to wear reflecting wrist straps. These have the effect of making you appear wider, as your hands will be positioned apart on the handlebars; they also allow you to indicate your intentions with clearer hand signals when  turning left or right.

Wearing combinations of some of these practical devices will help to make you stand out on the road to other users, and keep you safe. Remember, prevention is better than a trip to the hospital.

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Bike Lighting

Lighting comes in various forms, and includes both powered lights and reflectors. Many bicycles are manufactured these days with four reflectors, under the saddle, on the handlebars, and one on each wheel; it is a good way to prevent a bicycle accident, because you can be seen from all four directions. If your bike is missing any of these, go and find them so you can upgrade your bike safety!

If you are cycling at night, or other times when visibility is poor, you should have powered lights on your bike. Most savvy motorcyclists always have their lights switched on when riding, even in broad daylight, as it adds to their visibility. The norm, as for all other road vehicles, is a white light at the front and red at the rear. For bikes, the lights are usually battery operated, although some are operated by a dynamo and light up when the wheels are turning; of course, this can put you in some danger when you are stationary!

Many people these days also wear some personal lights, either on their backpack or bike helmet; these are LED type lights and flash randomly to warn drivers. It’s best to find a good quality flashing LED light that flashes randomly because people have a tendancy to become accustomed to a regular flash and after a while, begin to filter it out.

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Bicycle Safety Gear

If the worst does happen, and you end up in collision with a vehicle, you will need some bike safety gear to try to minimise injuries. The one piece of gear all riders need is a bicycle helmet. The law varies from place to place, and many countries do not make wearing a bike helmet compulsory. But whether compulsory or not, get yourself a cycling helmet – would you prefer to bash your head against the road after a bike accident, or have a padded helmet take most of the damage? You don’t need to be a brain surgeon really, do you!

As for other safety gear, you might wish to wear knee guards and elbow padding, and perhaps a pair of leather gloves. These will give you some basic protection against scrapes in minor bike accidents. To be realistic, if you suffer a head on collision with a truck, travelling at speed, you are going to suffer major injuries, and your prime concern in this situation is your head. Of course, your “real” prime concern is prevention!

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Bicycle Training

Some countries have formal tests for cyclists (eg the Cycling Proficiency Test in the UK); often they are not compulsory, but it is a wise idea to go and try the test, and learn as much as you can about staying safe on the roads. You will need to obey the rules of the road, and these days many cyclists get killed because they think a red traffic signal doesn’t apply to them, or a one-way street is just one-way for motor vehicles, and they can go the wrong way up it if they like. It does sometimes seem that many of the rules on the road are just there to bully road users; but most are there either for our safety or simply to keep traffic moving smoothly. Cyclists: for your own sakes, stick to the rules!

If you can find courses that teach defensive cycling, go on one. Similarly anything that teaches you awareness is great; think martial arts perhaps. And while on martial arts, find one that will teach you how to fall properly. Many bike accidents result in broken wrists, arms or collar bones as victims throw their arms out when flying over their handlebars. This is needless, as many martial arts teach people how to roll out of similar situations without any injury at all.

So those are some of the things you can do you keep yourself out of harm’s way when road cycling. Make sure you get yourself some super-shiny cycling shirts to improve your chances of being seen; always use your lights when visibility is poor, and perhaps even also when it’s not; always, always wear a bike helmet; and be aware of what is going on around you – that means no ipods or cellphone conversations etc. when riding.

If you want to see some more excellent practical tips on cycling road safety, then read How to Not Get Hit by Cars by Michael Bluejay.

There are plenty of other options for people looking for a comfy shirt for cycling in, and perhaps the best of all is the plain old tee-shirt. You won’t be racing, so a skintight fit isn’t necessary for reducing drag. It’s probably fair to say you won’t be haunched over the handlebars, head down and pumping the pedals like the clappers. So you won’t need a ‘proper’ cycling shirt with length down the back. In fact, you’ll almost certainly be sitting upright and looking at the scenery as you go, enjoying a leisurely ride.

So, there are a few considerations. These will depend on the time of year and the corresponding weather conditions, and also whether you intend to go out in traffic.

Weather first. Wear comfortable cycling shirts to reflect the temperature; tee-shirts for the summer and long-sleeved shirts for when it’s colder. You can get decent cycling jackets in the stores for riding in colder temperatures. In all cases, for your own comfort – especially if you sweat a lot – go for a fabric that has moisture wicking capabilities. These are more expensive but make a huge difference to your comfort when cycling longer distances. Some places sell moisture wicking cycling shirts specifically, but I don’t see any reason not to get the wicking shirts used for jogging or hiking.

The important point about moisture wicking materials is that if you start layering your clothes, make sure all the items can wick moisture. If you have one layer that wicks, and another that doesn’t, it won’t work properly, and you’ll probably end up feeling less comfortable than you were hoping to be.

That’s your comfort taken care of. Now onto road safety. Like with many of the professional cycling shirts worn by racers, cycling tee-shirts are available in some pretty revolting and dayglo color combinations – pick one of those. Not a black or grey one for night-riding! You need to do your utmost to be seen by motorists if you are on the roads, and even though you might not think the color scheme is very fashionable, it will more likely than not get the attention of drivers, and help keep you safe.

And finally, if you really don’t want to be shelling out cash for new cycling shirts of any description, then my advice is to wear a normal tee-shirt, make sure it’s bright, and don’t forget to take a spare with you to change into when you’ve reached your destination.