Motorcycle reflective stickers, decals and tape for visibility – A complete guide

Reflective stickers, decals, and tape can be a good addition when you want to make your motorcycle more visible for other road users. It works great at night and will make your motorcycle stand out. I’ll tell you everything you need to know about reflective materials for motorcycles in this guide.

What is reflective material

I think that everybody will understand that reflective material is a material that reflects light that shines on the tape. There are, however, two types of reflective tape. A product can be reflective, or retro-reflective. It sounds similar and just one little word can’t make a lot of difference right? Well, it does!

This is the definition of “Retro”: Definition of retro-

1: backward : back
retro–rocket

2: situated behind
retroperitoneal

When it comes to retro-reflective material, it is material that reflects light back to its original source. The light goes back to the place it originally came from. I’ve made a little drawing to show you the difference below.

The conclusion to this is that you’ll need a retro-reflective sticker, decal or tape. This material will reflect the light from (for example) a car headlight back to the actual car. This will increase your safety since the person in the car will see the light from your reflector.

Always make sure you buy retro-reflective material and not just reflective material. Reflective material doesn’t increase your safety at all, it will only make you think you are better visible. This is a huge risk since there is nothing as unsafe as a motorcyclist who thinks he’s been seen!

There are all sorts of stickers and tape for sale online. Retro-reflective stickers can be found in all sorts of colors and shapes. You’ll find a wide variety here (Amazon).

Where should you stick your reflective stickers

So now that you know what type of sticker you should get, it’s time to talk about the positioning of the reflective material. There are several places you could apply reflective stickers to increase your safety.

Reflective rim tape on motorcycles

The rims are the most common spot to apply reflective tape. Reason for this is the fact that it doesn’t just increase safety, but it also looks very nice on many bikes.

Usually, we see this kind of tape on sportbikes, but they can also be used on other types of bikes. It will increase your visibility for drivers who drive up to you on a 90-degree angle.

This kind of motorcycle rim reflective tape is available in many colors like red, blue and green. Just find out what color fits your bike the best.

Reflective panniers / saddlebags

Another great spot for reflective decals are the panniers. They stick out and give your motorcycle width. Make sure to stick the reflective material on the back and the sides of your panniers.

The back will increase your visibility for cars approaching from behind. The side is great for cars which will come from the sides.

I personally don’t have any panniers or saddlebags, but I think this is the best spot for reflective material for sure! They have a lot of surface and it will give your motorcycle body at night.

Reflective tape on your helmet and clothing

You hear people talking about reflective material on motorcycle clothing and helmets quite often. But can you stick stickers or tape on your clothes?

Sticking reflective material to your clothes is probably not such a good idea. It will come loose over time and won’t stay in place.

You helmet, however, is a perfect object for some extra reflective stickers! As a matter of fact, my helmet came with 4 stickers to add to the helmet. Unfortunately, they were reflective, but not retro-reflective so they won’t help as much as I would like. But adding retro-reflective stickers to your helmet would be a great idea!

Tape anything that sticks out

Looking for other great spots to add reflective stickers to your motorcycle? Just stick them on anything that sticks out! We mentioned the panniers, but windscreens, crash bars or mirrors would do great as well!

Reflective material quality

So we talked about the difference between reflective material and retro-reflective material. You now know you have to look for retro-reflective material. That’s great because you already saved yourself some money by not buying the cheap (and worthless) non-retro-reflective stickers.

When you decide to buy reflective decals, you should look for high-quality decals. Why? Because you don’t want your decals to wear out or fade after one year of driving. It will lose its reflectiveness AND it will make your motorcycle look bad.

You should look for diamond grade stickers. They have the best reflection available. My personal experience is that the 3M material is the best material money can buy. It’s extremely reflective (they use it in road signs as well), durable and won’t lose its color. The only issue is the price. They are quite valuable. You’ll have to decide if you want to spend your money on them, but if you are looking for quality over time, you definitely should! You’ll find the diamond grade 3M stickers here (Amazon).

Don’t use any color

When you check reflective tape online, you’ll see that there are loads of options in several colors. Please be aware of these colors and don’t stick any color in any spot!

You shouldn’t add white reflective tape to the back of your motorcycle. Use red instead, since this is the color of a vehicle’s tail.

You can use yellow or orange on the sides of your bike, but white would also do. I wouldn’t recommend the red reflection stickers on the sides.

Another great option is the black stickers! They appear black in daylight but will brighten up white when light shines on them during nighttime. You’ll have to advantage of non-visible stickers during the day and highly visible stickers at night. Perfect, right?!

Is reflective tape on a motorcycle legal?

One last thing to discuss is the legal part of the reflective tape. Reflective tape is legal in my country. There are specific laws that write about colors though. I can only use red in the read and orange on the sides. The front of the bike could take white or yellow reflection, but I don’t have any reflection in the front.

I cannot say if the reflective tape is legal in your country or state since I do not know this for every single country or state. What I do know is that I care about my safety more than I care about the law. I personally don’t think there will be many police officers writing tickets for safety increasing reflection, as long as you don’t overdo it.

More methods to be more visible in traffic

So now you know everything about retro-reflective tape and stickers. But maybe you want to know more about being seen in traffic. Being seen is all about the right appearance and the right position on the road. I wrote an article with 12 tips to be more visible on your motorcycle. Just go and check it out if you want to know more.

Stay safe and keep the right side up. See ya!