What's SOLAS tape? If you had never heard of it before, SOLAS stands for Safety Of Life At Sea. A highly reflective tape approved by the U.S. Coast Guard specifically designed to enhance the visibility of life jackets, ring buoys, survival suits, and inflatable life rafts in marine environments. It make sense since rescues at sea are also perform at night and SOLAS ' high reflectivity improves the chance of spotting a person/lifeboat when a searchlight hits it.
SOLAS tapes come in two types, an adhesive and a sew-on version. The adhesive version is highly flexible and adheres to rubber-coated cloth, vinyl-nylon laminated cloth, cured polyester cloth, PVC, aluminum, virtually most surfaces. While the sew-on version has all of the adhesive's characteristics but is most likely used in applications where the adhesives version just may not stick too well to and had to be sewn on. Both SOLAS tapes are excellent for outerwear applications such as motorcycle jackets and rain gear. It even sticks to nylon and cordura.
SOLAS is normally sold in 15-foot increments or 55-yard rolls. Depending on who you're buying from they could be on the pricey side, but the way I see it it's a good investment for safety reasons.
I've used SOLAS on my bike and gear ever since I've started riding and have had many occasions to see it in action. Loosing my brother at night in freeway traffic? No problem! I could easily identify him at night with SOLAS on at a quarter mile ahead if not more in my motorcycle's headlight. There's no doubt that I'm highly visible to automobiles and trucks which is a definite added safety measure.
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