Blackburn's Helmet Mirror is simple and effective. A self-adhesive disc enables mounting to any helmet. Two swivel points offer plenty of adjustability. Weight: 10g.
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The product weight specified is an approximate weight based on the manufacturer's specifications (if available) or our measurement of one or two examples. For most products, the weight will typically vary by 5% to 10%.
Purchased this for my new road helmet. The good, it was easy to mount and adjust and holds adjustment well. The not so good, like stated in previous review's the mirror arm is thin and the mirror tends to bounce alot to the point that on rough roads it's useless.
The adhesive tape isn't very sticky. Mirror fell off my helmet yesterday, on 2nd ride, and was run over by a car. It was applied properly to clean surface. In fact, the tape is till on my helmet-the mirror came unattached to the tape.
The arm is a bit short for placement on my helmet. This is more a limitation of my helmet, requiring the mirror to be mounted farther back from the browline, where this would work best. I will replace it with a longer arm model, but from a different manufacturer.
This mirror is inexpensive and easy to install and use. It takes a while to figure out how best to adjust it and to get used to it, but after a few rides it becomes a habit to check it. It makes checking what's behind me easier and safer, which means that I'm checking more often, which is a good thing. It does jiggle a little bit if you're on a rough road, but I can generally still see if there's something behind me, so that's not a huge issue.
I had a mirror similar to this that had most of these same issues.
1. Stem is thin and flexible - transmits a lot of vibrations from the road to the mirror.
2. Base stem is too long - creates an impossible angle for the mirror to rotate back from the way the joints are designed.
3. Joints are stiff and hard to adjust, but still seems to slip out of place. Have to adjust every few miles.
4. Mirror is small, have to use a lot of head rotation to view behind you. A rectangular mirror would work better.
You have treat your training helmet with special care once you put a mirror on. I super glue the mirror on after it gets knocked off a few time. It's a great benefit in watching vehicle's that are behind along with fellow cyclist. It save your neck and body from always twisting left to look behind while your blinding flying forward, which adds to safety.
I tried this mirror as an alternate to a small mirror on the end of one of my drops. For me it is not a good solution. Too small to be useful. I pulled my bar end mirror off and used this one for three long rides just to force myself to get accustom to it. I could never make the adjustment. It actually made me a bit dizzy trying. To be fair this may be my issue and others may find it works for them.
I've been using Third-Eye sunglass-mounted mirrors for years now. They provide a stable rear image. When I purchased a Giro Air Attack helmet with built in sun shield, I needed a helmet-mounted solution, thus the Blackburn.
The Blackburn's mirror bounces around at the end of its tube quite a bit, the tube is more flexible than the Third-Eye's. I can still make out bulk objects behind me but sometimes mistake large stationary objects for vehicles. When still, when I least need it, the image is clear. So far (2 weeks) the mount is sticking to the helmet just fine.
Bottom line, it is serviceable-I can see well enough to know that someone is coming up on me-but I could do better. I would look at other mirrors before replacing this one with another of the same.
If you have ever heard of RAAM (Race Across America) SOLO, along with all of the other Ultra Endurance racing that leads up to qualifying not to mention racing non stop for 11 days. This mirror was attached to my helmet through all kinds of training, racing including daytime, night time, rain, fog, snow, ice, and held up in fact I am still using the same mirror that now has well over 30K miles!!
A must have for any kind of road riding, stay SAFE out there............
