1) Do these things stay in place on the spokes without getting lost frequently?
2) Do they cause noticeable air-drag or make whizzy-whooee noises while the wheels are turning at speed? Or that horrible clicking noise of the "spoke toys" kids attach?
3) Do they get all dirty-yucky from dirt, grease, oil and rim oxides and stop reflecting to a large degree?
4) Do you have a preferred length? Some are 40mm in length, others 80mm (probably cut in two to make the 40s). The 80s have double the surface area, so better for visibility but...?
5) Do they make a noticeable difference in wheel weight?
6) Is there a difference between brands?
I've had them (Sekuclips) on the bike I used for my Spanish trip for about 15 months and about 6,000 kms.
1) Yes. I used a small piece of insulating tape on the thin spokes (1.5 mm ? 1.8 mm ?) on the front wheel, as they would have been a bit loose otherwise. Not lost a single Sekuclip so far, despite a fair amount of use on bumpy tracks.
2) I don’t notice any drag or noise.
3) They do get dirty, especially on the rear wheel from drivetrain muck, but I had derailleur gears at the time so messier. I clean them from time to time. After cleaning they still reflect reasonably well, but of course not as good as when new.
I've since fitted Sekuclips to 2 other bikes. The new Thorn has them on both wheels and has a Chainglider so they should stay cleaner. My old 5-speed only on the front, because I fitted the Sekuclips before I got the Chainglider
I find tyre reflectors on bikes ridden in wet weather get very dull quite quickly with rim brake debris, plus drivetrain muck on the rear. In my opinion, the Sekuclips stay cleaner for longer.
4) As they are very light I think 80 mm length is probably best, this is what was available locally
5) Not for me.
6) Don’t know, only Sekuclip is easy to get locally.
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Spoke (or tyre) reflectors are mandatory here in France. I reckon ordinary wheel reflectors are fairly useless as only really visible from the side, so would be seen too late to avoid collision in most circumstances.
In my opinion, the only reflectors that really matter are the ones facing straight back. I’m not a great believer in the benefit of wheel reflectors, but, as I have to fit them to stay legal, I prefer Sekuclips. Being cylindrical, they are visible from quite wide angles and they don't fall off/cause wheel balance issues like some of the ordinary wheel reflectors.
Its raining quite heavily here, so photo taken in a damp and cluttered garage, lit from the flash (none of the bike lights are in operation). The Sekuclips on the blue bike are the ones that have been used for 15 months - they are much more noticeable than the tyre reflector on the red bike. The orange-red stripes on the mudflap don't show up all that well at the photo angle, but they are very visible from directly behind. The reflector on the mudguard mounted B&M Seculight still shows up well in the photo, but isn't very visible once the viewing angle is increased.
The front reflector on the Brompton shows up quite well, but is almost directly in line with the camera, in practice I don't think it is much use, its only there to comply with regulations.
You can also just make out the reflective tyre logo and wheel reflector on the Brompton front wheel. This reflector is "Moonline", which was available a few years ago. It is a similar concept to the Sekuclips, a cylindrical tube coated with reflective material, but fitted as a continuous length woven between the spokes and running parallel to the rim to form a complete circle. In my opinion, better than ordinary wheel reflectors, but not as simple and less visible than Sekuclips
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There is another small advantage to Sekuclips. At the moment they are unusual, so they should get noticed more than the standard type
