Possible stupid question - helmets

[Thalass]

Hey folks. I went riding with my neighbour the other day, and he told me that i wasn't looking down side streets and such. Now i know i missed a few but from what he was saying i wasn't making it obvious enough for the test.

I think part of the problem is that my helmet is plain old gloss black, so perhaps that made my movements a bit hard to spot. Now i know you aren't supposed to spraypaint a helmet - something about the paint eating away at the helmet or something. But i have some skinny (almost pinstripe) reflective tape. And i was thinking of putting a single stripe of it on the back of my head to help the tester out. But would they flunk the helmet (and thus me) if i did that? More importantly would the glue eat away at my helmet?

[Ryven]

Don't bother, just get in the habit of making more pronounced head checks. Besides, if you use tape and miss side streets, it's going to make it more pronounced...

[D'Artagnan]

Head checks are important, not just for your tests. The tester will be looking for clear and early checks, i.e. looking well in advance of any corners and looking long enough such that if you have a car not see you, you have time to react. You need to exaggerate the movement by the sounds. The pinstripe idea is probably a good one (don't paint) but really if you're doing BIG head checks, they will see.

[Spike139]

best place to ask this dude is in...

Ask an instructor thread

[Shady7/8]

for the test make a very pronounced turn of the head. Once you have your licence you will eventually do your head checks with a barley noticeable flick, or maybe just the eyes. But for now.... Make it PRONOUNCED!!
Don't bother with paint or stripes

[darkfibre]

The person assessing you does it for a job every day of the week, they will notice TINY things, so tiny they may not even exist in our space time continuum.

Lines wont help.... as others have said, exaggerated head checks. Its very good practice anyway. Practice leads to automatic habits.

[Thalass]

Thanks guys! haha!