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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 315 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
69 of 69 found the following review helpful:
 Great Mirror Dec 03, 2007
By Andy Kaylor
This mirror is fantastic. I bought it to replace a helmet mounted mirror when the stem broke on the helmet mount. I can't tell you how much better I like this bar-end mirror. It's much easier to find this mirror out of the corner of my eye, and it provides a very good view of what's behind me, both in the traffic lanes and directly behind me in the bike lane.
I did have to mutilate the grip on my handlebar to remove the plug and cut out and opening for the mirror, so just trying it out requires some commitment, but once it is mounted the installation looks clean.
I didn't have any significant trouble with the installation. The directions are a little bit unclear about what to do with piece that goes inside the bar (the directions say to "secure" it, but you need to leave it loose, securing only the nut, until it is inside the bar). If you look at the piece and think about how it's going to hold the mirror in place, it's pretty obvious what to do with it.
The mirror itself stays put very well on rides. It shakes a very little bit, but really only little. The stability is surprisingly good for a piece for which it is so easy to adjust the angles.
All the parts can be replaced individually if broken for about $4 each plus shipping.
84 of 87 found the following review helpful:
Good on road bike drop handle bars too! Jun 05, 2009
By S. Gangstead
I have now used 3 types of mirrors for my road bike for both commutes and long tours: Take A Look mirror, the Mirrycycle round "mountain bike" mirror on the bar end, and the Sprintech bar end mirror for drop handlebars.
Short review: I like Mirrycycle the best.
I bought the Take a Look mirror based on the strength of reviews from Amazon and I was a little disappointed.
One strength I was expecting from the other reviews was being able to always see behind me no matter which position I used on the handlebars and without having to move my head like when you look down at the bar end mirror. This was kind of true, but you had to get your head to the same angle. I found the angle for the top of the bar to be very unnatural in the lower grips. It was impossible to tilt my head up that far on my bike with aero bars. In order to see back and to the left while on the brake hoods I usually had to tilt up and twist my head and when down on the lower grips I had to tilt WAY up and twist. You can't check behind you without moving your head because you have to do a lot of sweeping motions to see all around behind you and those are more uncomfortable in the lower positions.
I used Take A Look for a couple weeks commuting every day and doing long rides on the weekend and I sort of got used to sweeping my head around to check behind me, but the deal breaker for me was that most of what I saw while commuting was my backpack. When you have a backpack full of clothes and in a pretty leaned forward road bike position what the mirror sees looking back past your ear is back pack, even when on the top of the handlebars. If you are riding a more upright bike (hybrid, mountain bike, or others) it probably wouldn't be a problem. It also wouldn't be a problem if you had panniers (won't work for me because I have a large laptop that would make panniers severly unbalanced). It was fine on the weekend rides without a backpack.
I found either of the bar end mirrors (Mirrycycle or Sprintech) to be better than the Take A Look. The Sprintech is nice because it is convex and shows a wide area. Some people see that as a minus because it is hard to judge distance, but you shouldn't use the mirror as a substitute for looking behind you, just as a way to alert you that a car is back there somewhere and may warrant a head turn look behind. You can also get good coverage from the mirror from all handle bar positions, but the mirror is a tad small. It doesn't stick out far from the bike so it doesn't get bonked around storing the bike, but your knee can be in the way sometimes.
The Mirrycycle "mountain bike" bar end mirror is the best in my opinion. It goes fine on road bike handlebars. Since it's flat you have to compromise a little bit on the position or move your head a little to see behind you from the different grips, but there is no distortion like a convex mirror. It sticks out from the bike so you can see behind you without obstuction at all times. The downside to sticking out is that when you are entering or leaving the lower grips on the drop handle bars it is a little in the way of your left hand. It's not a big deal. Also when you want to lean the bike on anything the mirror is in the way. It's an annnoyance I don't mind putting up with to have the best view when I ride. It's big so you get a good viewing area. I guess it's not very aero dynamic, but lose some weight and gain some muscle and you can overcome that.
All three mirrors have to be adjusted everytime you ride. There is no set and forget mirror. The Take A Look itself holds position well on the ride, but your glasses never seem to fit exactly the same everytime you put them on and pretty much anything you do with them once you take them off will change the adjustment. This is even worse if you want to take the mirror off and use the glasses between rides (without looking like a dork). Take a Look also takes lots of little adjustments to get right. Sprintech mirror is flimsy and loses adjustment easily, but is also the easiest to adjust by a long shot. You just slide your hand down to the end of the bar and adjust it with your pinky as you ride, takes 2 seconds at most. It's convex and covers a wide area and the mirror doesn't move very far so it's never very far off from a good adjustment. The Mirrycycle mirror is stiff and holds position really well once you set it, but since it sticks out from the side just about anything you do to move or store the bike readjusts it. It takes a little more fine tuning than the Sprintech, but less than the Take A Look.
Of the three I prefer the Mirrycycle mirror.
29 of 30 found the following review helpful:
Great safety item! Jan 03, 2007
By S. C. Fisher
After trying another on handlebar mirror we were happy to find this one. It is excellent, giving you an unobstructed view of the road behind with a substantial size mirror. The fold-away aspect helps with storage.
23 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Great once installed Aug 05, 2009
By S. Long
"QuakerProf"
I use a Giant Transend LX (the Honda Civic of commuter bicycles) to do my daily commute to work. It's about 8 miles each way, mostly through neighborhoods and a few short stretches of busier roads. I bought this mirror because it received excellent reviews, and I didn't think I could get used to a helmet-mounted mirror. I'm pretty good about turning my head to check for traffic, but I thought that this might be better since I wouldn't lose sight of what is in front of me when I check.
I received it quickly after my order, but found installation to be less than simple. For my bike, the end caps on the bars come off easily, but neither the large nor the small "wedge" that came with the mirror fit into the hole properly. The large was too large, the small was too small. Let me explain the wedge system. While the photos show the mirror fitting snugly into the handlebar end, in fact it will not look like that for most bikes. A piece with a larger circumference attaches to the bottom section using a bolt and screw. The tighter the screw, the more the wedge-shaped piece moves toward the rest of the arm. I found that if you tighten it completely, the wedge moves past parallel with the arm. It's difficult to explain, but the wedge system is not well made.
I ended up ignoring both wedges and just used a nail to act as a shim between the normal arm piece and the handlebar hole. It's stable and snug. My only other option would have been to file down the larger wedge until it fit properly.
That said, now that it is in place firmly, the mirror itself is great. It is just rounded enough to provide a view of a whole suburban street, and shaking is minimal.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Fantastic design! Jul 14, 2008
By john jameson
This is a fantastic piece of engineering! When I first put it together, I thought it seemed a bit silly -- why does it take three bolts and half a dozen washers to strap a mirror on to a grip?
Here's why:
* The first bolt runs into your bar end, pulling two plastic wedges over each other to expand into an internal clamp, providing a firm attachment to any size bar end.
* Each other bolt/washer combo is not meant to prevent motion, but rather to allow it: you screw them down firmly enough to prevent slippage, but not so tight that you can't spin the plastic piece: height, horizontal angle and vertical angle. Bloody brilliant! And, if you're a clutz like me, you'll appreciate that this means most impact angles with trees, parked cars and "the ground" just fold the mirror back, like a car mirror, rather than crushing it -- spin it back, and you're back on the trail, no repairs needed.
So: five minutes of installation (read directions, cut hole in rubber grip if necessary, pop out plastic bar end plug, thread three bolts through plastic parts and tighten with the included hex wrench) and you have a mirror large enough to see the entire road/trail/mob behind you that is attached firmly enough not to vibrate or wobble, and can be adjusted one-handed while riding.
Mine was on my bike for less than a day before my wife demanded one for her bike too.
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