Attended a meeting of my bike club tonight. The main item of business on the agenda was to figure out what to do about our club kit.

Last year, the design of the club jersey was modified radically — a complete departure from earlier designs. The idea was to create something that was highly visible — so a diagonal “sash” of our club letters (CCRCC, for Circle C Ranch Cycling Club) dominated the front. They’re in bright yellow against a black background. There’s also a picture of a biker figure in blue against black. Meh. The blue and yellow stripes on the sleeves work, though, in my opinion, and the red stripes are a holdover from earlier versions. We’ve got matching arm warmers, which carry through the stripes, and look pretty good. But it’s been apparent that the jersey needs a makeover.

They’re just not as visible as had been hoped. The back — which one would like to be seen by motorists at enough of a distance that they have time to react and avoid hitting the cyclist — features rays of blue emanating from the Circle C logo. The logo is the only thing that’s yellow, and it’s kinda thin. It just doesn’t stand out. If you completed the kit by buying the shorts, they have a wide yellow band across the butt. However, way more people bought just the jersey instead of a jersey-shorts combination.
I never even got in on the jersey purchase, and other club members joined too late this year to get in on it, either. So, we had the option to place another jersey order, using the template on file at the custom jersey company. Or, we could redo the jersey for the fourth time in four years, and see what we could do to make it stand out more.
We decided to go for a redesign. Instead of a bunch of us all contributing different ideas, and resembling the committee that was commissioned to design a horse but came up with a camel, we turned the job over to the member who had honchoed the last jersey order. He knows the folks at the jersey company, and he’ll work with them to come up with a new look, while preserving the feel of our current kit.
We should get the new ones in mid-January.
If you’re in a bike club, have your jersey stories been like ours? Are you happy with the look of your team kit? And while we’re at it, how has customer service been from the custom jersey company you do business with?
I agree that the jersey is not visible enough. I suspect a lot of cyclists get tired of the bright yellow or greens but they are far easier to see. I have switched to wearing the bright orange (like hunter orange) and I’ve had many people comment on how much more visible it is. I would suggest something really bright on the back, good luck.