Dogma
Forum Sage
Long term review of Emgo bar end mirrors
I can remember being annoyed with seeing my elbows in the mirrors, and the cheap replacements for the mirror I ground off when the bike nearly fell off the trailer kept moving. So, after seeing Emgo bar end mirrors on another bike (Bad Juju, I think), and TCK's Napoleons, I thought I'd try the whole bar end mirror thing. So, last fall I ordered a set.
You get what you pay for. At least relatively speaking. The Emgo mirrors are cheap, and you can tell. A stamped steel piece slides into the handlebars, and a fairly ugly galvanized hex head screw draws the bottom end of the mirror into stamped steel piece, expanding it against the inside of the handlebar. Simple, and somewhat effective. Less than elegant. They eventually worked loose so that the mirrors would rotate back at highway speed. To keep them from rotating again, I tightened them until was afraid I would strip something out.
The next point is the quality of the glass. Not very much quality here either. It's just plain wavy, so the image distorts as you move your head back and forth. On top of this, the glass is not convex, so you have a limited field of view. This coupled with the mirrors being far out to the sides causes you to have to move your head quite a bit to get view of something that isn't right in line with where the mirror is aimed. A definite negative impact on situational awareness. On the slab, I use the rear pegs and lean into the wind. These are even harder to use in that position.
The camera decided that the round mirror was a face, and set the focus on the image of the neighbor's house in the mirror. This causes the Emgo mirror to appear fuzzy.
The last point against the Emgo mirrors is that they are very easy to bump out of alignment. I had to adjust them almost every time I rode. There is a feature that allows you to rotate the mirror in to either tuck it in, or swing the mirror down underneath the handlebar. This adjustment has several stops along the way, but the stops are not at all positive. Once the mirror is roughly in position, I had to push it against the downwind side of the stop to put into the alignment that the wind was going to put it into anyway.
The round mirror I just mounted today. I bought it from jwhelan65 here on the forums. Thanks Joe! With the larger field of view, and being mounted a bit more in front of me, I don't need to move nearly as much to see what I want to see. Around town, an accasional glance at the mirrors is all I need to maintain awareness of what's behind me. Vehicles in neighboring lanes only one car length behind me are visible. On the slab, I just lean an inch or two over the get a good view. No need to duck.
As bar end mirrors
Well, there's was no more problem of elbows occluding the view behind me. Plus, I ride with no fairing or windshield in the warm months, so I liked how there was even less stuff in front of me. I like the look of bar end mirrors on a bike, too. With quality glass (good field of view) and mountings, I'm sure I'd love bar end mirrors. Next time I see TCK's Napoleon's, I'll have a look at the view. One other thing: with the bar end mirrors, it takes slightly more effort to throw a wave out there. No biggie.
I can remember being annoyed with seeing my elbows in the mirrors, and the cheap replacements for the mirror I ground off when the bike nearly fell off the trailer kept moving. So, after seeing Emgo bar end mirrors on another bike (Bad Juju, I think), and TCK's Napoleons, I thought I'd try the whole bar end mirror thing. So, last fall I ordered a set.
You get what you pay for. At least relatively speaking. The Emgo mirrors are cheap, and you can tell. A stamped steel piece slides into the handlebars, and a fairly ugly galvanized hex head screw draws the bottom end of the mirror into stamped steel piece, expanding it against the inside of the handlebar. Simple, and somewhat effective. Less than elegant. They eventually worked loose so that the mirrors would rotate back at highway speed. To keep them from rotating again, I tightened them until was afraid I would strip something out.
The next point is the quality of the glass. Not very much quality here either. It's just plain wavy, so the image distorts as you move your head back and forth. On top of this, the glass is not convex, so you have a limited field of view. This coupled with the mirrors being far out to the sides causes you to have to move your head quite a bit to get view of something that isn't right in line with where the mirror is aimed. A definite negative impact on situational awareness. On the slab, I use the rear pegs and lean into the wind. These are even harder to use in that position.
The camera decided that the round mirror was a face, and set the focus on the image of the neighbor's house in the mirror. This causes the Emgo mirror to appear fuzzy.
The last point against the Emgo mirrors is that they are very easy to bump out of alignment. I had to adjust them almost every time I rode. There is a feature that allows you to rotate the mirror in to either tuck it in, or swing the mirror down underneath the handlebar. This adjustment has several stops along the way, but the stops are not at all positive. Once the mirror is roughly in position, I had to push it against the downwind side of the stop to put into the alignment that the wind was going to put it into anyway.
The round mirror I just mounted today. I bought it from jwhelan65 here on the forums. Thanks Joe! With the larger field of view, and being mounted a bit more in front of me, I don't need to move nearly as much to see what I want to see. Around town, an accasional glance at the mirrors is all I need to maintain awareness of what's behind me. Vehicles in neighboring lanes only one car length behind me are visible. On the slab, I just lean an inch or two over the get a good view. No need to duck.
As bar end mirrors
Well, there's was no more problem of elbows occluding the view behind me. Plus, I ride with no fairing or windshield in the warm months, so I liked how there was even less stuff in front of me. I like the look of bar end mirrors on a bike, too. With quality glass (good field of view) and mountings, I'm sure I'd love bar end mirrors. Next time I see TCK's Napoleon's, I'll have a look at the view. One other thing: with the bar end mirrors, it takes slightly more effort to throw a wave out there. No biggie.
