Cyclists should know better than to adopt the 'Darth Vader look' - Yorkshire Post Letters

JA King makes a valid point (‘Safer cycling’ YP letters, November 18).

Modern cyclists are indeed their own worst enemy when it comes to making their gloomy sartorial choices.

I speak as a lifelong cyclist, having been a club rider since the seventies and a competitive cyclist since 1982. I have owned Trycycling in Kirkburton for 20 years, I am a former president of the Huddersfield road club, a race organiser, a British Cycling Commissaire and currently chairman of the Yorkshire cyclocross association, so I feel qualified to comment.

Cyclists have, over the decades, evolved into a fluorescent horde driven by self preservation and a desire to be better seen by all other (faster) road users.

The current trend for black clothing which harks back to early years of the last century, where bicycles outnumbered cars, makes no sense at all.

The recent influx of new cyclists who have swapped golf clubs for bikes are devotees of this new fashion and seem to have overlooked the natural evolution of hi-vizness among the ranks of which they are now a part.

There are also many established cyclists who should know better but chose the Darth Vader look which really beggars belief when common sense says being seen is being safe.

It’s all a bit odd.