micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

There's a certain turn I make regularly, where I need to merge into a traffic lane to turn left on a moderately-trafficked road. I always feel like I don't get a good awareness of cars coming from behind by turning my head. I realized: I should have a mirror! Not just for that turn, but for safety generally. But what kind? I tried three: a bar-end, a bar-mount, and a glasses-mount. I thought I'd share my impressions.

(What actually happened is I liked the first mirror that I got, but my son snagged it. So I thought I'd try a different kind, but I didn't like that one. So all in all, three mirrors.)

The mirrors:

• the bar-end: a Mirrycle Mirror - $25
• the bar-mount: I got one that wasn't labeled for retail; but I'm pretty sure it's the same thing as this Cosmoing Anti-Glare Handlebar Mirror - $20
• the glasses / helmet mount: Take A Look Active Original Mirror - $22

The post picture shows the first two mirrors. Here is the Take A Look Active:

Field of View

The easiest factor to assess objectively is field-of-view (FOV). So I'll start there. There are three factors that affect FOV:

• mirror size (bigger means you see more)
• curvature (convex mirrors make objects appear more distant, but you see more)
• distance from your eye to the mirror (closer means you see more)

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the Mirrycle (the round one), and the (likely white-label) Cosmoing (the one that gives motorcycle vibes):

The Mirrycle has greater curvature, but the Cosmoing is bigger and closer, so you can see more.

I also managed to get a photo of the Take A Look that gives a fair representation of its FOV. (The white Jeep is parked slightly closer in this photo.)

The Take A Look is flat, and very small. It has the smallest FOV of the three, despite being much closer to my face. But it's easier to use small head movements to see different angles. More on that in a bit.

(While shopping I saw that there a couple of Etsy shops with glasses-mounted mirrors inside bottle caps, such as the Beer View Mirror. Those are tempting. AFAICT they also use flat mirrors, and look a little smaller than Take A Look. So the FOV is probably a little smaller.)

Viewing Angle

The Mirrycle sticks out the furthest from the bike, which gives it the best position for getting an angle to see directly behind you. The closer in the mirror, the more of the rear view is blocked by your body.

Even with the telescoping arm fully extended, the Cosmoing doesn't get out as far as the Mirrycle since it's reaching over my grip, brake lever, and motor controller. If I had been more committed I could have swapped positions of the mirror and motor controller to get another couple of inches. Maybe that would get it into a position to match the Mirrycle. I'm not sure.

The Take A Look is so close to my face that I have to angle it out quite a bit to get to a point where I'm not just looking at my ear. I generally have to tilt my head a little to compensate to see behind me.

Vibration

Any bumps can vibrate the mirrors in a way that makes them more difficult to see in.

The Mirrycle is great in this respect - it's steady even on a somewhat bumpy road. Probably because it clamps inside the bar very tightly.

The Cosmoing was terrible about vibrations in my testing. But that might be partly my fault. There is a spring inside the mounting arm that is probably intended to absorb vibrations, and I think I over-tightened the bolt on that connection. I didn't think to try a different adjustment until after I'd returned the mirror. I'm sorry; I'm not the best reviewer!

The Take A Look is quite good. I'm not sure it's as vibration-resistant as the Mirrycle, but vibrations don't bother me nearly as much as they did with the Cosmoing.

Installation

The Mirrycle inserts in the the end of a handlebar, and comes with a wedge that presses inside the bar via tension from a bolt that you adjust. It's very secure, and pretty easy to install. You need grips that are open on the end. Usually lock-on grips come with plugs that you can pop out, which will work nicely. If you have slide-on grips it's usually easy to cut the end, since it's just rubber. I've heard you can thwack the end with a mallet to make the handlebar punch through the grip. My son snagged this mirror, (he rides to school every day, he needs it more) but although he had Bontrager lock-on grips, they had closed ends that I found to be quite resistant to cutting. That turned into an excuse to give him the grips from my e-bike that I don't love, and to get Ergon grips for myself.

When I tested the Mirrycle on my e-bike I ran into a problem where the wedge hit a bump where the wire for my motor controller is routed through a hole to run inside the handlebar. Fortunately the Mirrycle comes with a smaller-sized wedge for narrower handlebars, and that wedge fit fine.

The Cosmoing clamps onto a handlebar simply enough. The product description indicates there is a joint right next to the clamp that rotates 360°. That's misleading: you have to entirely remove the bolt that runs through that joint to rotate it, and there is a spline that allows rotating in increments. That's the same connection that holds the spring that I mentioned.

The Take A Look has three rubberized legs that slide onto alternate sides of the temple of a pair of glasses. It can attach to a helmet with an adapter, which I didn't try. I always ride with a pair of basic safety glasses anyway, so attaching to those was convenient for me. It takes some slightly fiddly wire bending to set everything up the first time. Once it's set up it's quite secure while riding. It's pretty easy for me to take on and off the glasses, and to adjust. I do spend more time adjusting this mirror than the bicycle-mounted mirrors.

Trade-offs

The Cosmoing has the best FOV, and is the least goofy-looking option. But I was disappointed by the vibrations. Plus the shop charged me $40, which seemed like too much for what I found when I opened the box. That probably soured my impression. If proper spring adjustment really eliminates vibrations then I might be selling this one short.

The Mirrycle is the most stable, with the second-best FOV. It sticks out the farthest from the bike for the best viewing angle. It's the most difficult to remove or get out of the way if you want to do something like put your bike in a bike locker. (The Cosmoing mirror attachment rotates pretty easily, so you can rotate it out of the way.)

Edit: The Mirrycle can be adjusted on the go in all axes. The Cosmoing is more difficult to adjust on the Y-axis because the 360° joint for that axis requires removing a bolt. And putting that bolt back in is pretty difficult due to the spring that the bolt compresses.

The bike-mounted mirrors have much wider FOV than the glasses-mounted mirrors. But it's more difficult to move around to see different angles. If you happen to be turning the mirror won't be pointed in the right direction, which can make it temporarily unusable.

With the Take A Look I can use small head movements to see any angle I want, and this gets easier with practice. But I do have to tilt my head a little to get my ear out of the way, so I don't have much of a passive view of cars coming from behind.

I can easily use one Take A Look mirror with multiple bikes. During my testing I used a bike share service, and I rode my son's bike to the shop for service. I had my mirror with me both times.

My Impressions

I think the Mirrycle would give me the best chance of noticing a car coming from behind.

I think the Take A Look is the most flexible in terms of my ability to see where I want to see, and for use with multiple bikes.

I ended up settling on the Take A Look. I've been using it for about a month. That's given me time to get used to moving my head to see everything, quickly adjusting it when I put it on, and transporting it while I'm off the bike. It does get me the weirdest looks. Even the younger bike enthusiasts I've been hanging out with have to ask because they don't know what it is. And then I had one guy inform me that I can also look over my shoulder. But I can see behind me, and that's what matters!