Be Safe. Be Seen.

Our commitment to low-light safety.

Reflective tabs and hits offer exceptional visibility in low-light conditions, ideal for morning / evening commutes and variable light conditions.

Riding in low-light conditions such as early mornings, dusk or after dark is almost unavoidable, especially if you're a commuter or doing training rides before or after work on short winter days. Even mid-day rides can present visibility challenges during low-light months when fog, haze or precipitation present challenges for drivers to pick out cyclists from visual chaos in urban environments.

Low-light safety has always been a priority.

It's for those reasons we include reflective hits on nearly every garment we manufacture. Since Pactimo's inception, we have made it a priority to be focused on our customer's safety and have made it a point to incorporate reflectivity in the design of our jerseys, bibs and outerwear.

Through various trials and interactions we have developed and expanded the use of reflective fabric applications that explode with brightness when illuminated by exposure from direct light (such as a car’s headlights).

Today, you will see the applications in the form of small tabs, strips and logos, or incorporated into the stitching of a zipper. They might look underwhelming in normal conditions, but these small hits actually provide as much as 350 lumens of reflectivity when lit by headlights and make the wearer more visible to motorists than if they had merely chosen to wear hi-visibility or fluorescent colors.

The myth that hi-vis is better.

By bouncing light back where it came from, back towards headlights and subsequently the driver, cycling clothing that incorporates reflective panels or strips offers the best chance of being seen in low-light conditions. While more is always better, and why we encourage the use of lights and reflectors on your bike, it can be quite surprising how effective even a few strips, panels or tabs of reflective materials can prove to be. Several studies suggest that reflective clothing is far more effective than fluorescent or hi-vis clothing for being seen by drivers.

“Fluorescent clothing needs UV rays to be reflective and so doesn’t work at night,” said Dr Philippe Lacherez from the School of Optometry & Vision Science at the Queensland University of Technology. Lacherez conducted a survey of 184 cyclists who had been involved in a collision with a car and determined “cyclists should add reflective strips to their knees and ankles because the pedalling movement makes light from the headlights bounce back to the driver, making it easier to register they are there.”

Gary Rubin, professor of ophthalmology at University College London agreed. “[A] reflective kit is even more effective than fluorescent clothing because it fires light back at the motorist,” Rubin said. “Reflective panels would also increase visibility. Movement does capture attention – our visual system is more sensitive to a moving target.”