Does the color of your bike increase/decrease visibility?

Yeah but, half the drivers on your road are legally intoxicated!.....If I'm wrong, I apologize, but I know the alc. consumption in Finland.

Neither can a white helmet.....it starts them thinking (for a change) "COP"

Oh, MAN! Starting to see a lot of those around PHX......How the hell do you put up with that?

OH, Man Cat......that Dunning Kruger effect you mentioned has to apply to at least 95% of the Harley Riders in the Phoenix area!! Way to go man!

After some knucklehead said to me, "Sorry man, I didn't see ya" when I had 170 watts of foward lighting, I figured that the bike color wouldn't have made a bit of difference.

This happened to me last week. I was behind a guy on a cruiser and a girl on a Ninja for a few blocks when the guy yelled something to the girl, then tapped on his helmet and pointed at me. They rode VERY carefully for the next several blocks, the guy even started doing hand signals even though he had (and was using) turn signals.

I do ride a white bike but it's 33 years old and I wasn't exactly dressed like an LEO (unless anyone knows of LEOs that wear red alpinestars jackets, red and white helmets, and jeans).

Same experience. I came over a hill on a rural 2 lane state road, just starting to roll on the power when what looked like a police officer on a bike came over from the other side of the hill. A few miles later I come into a small town and as I approach a stop sign two young guys on sport bikes come down the road I'm turning on to. Only one bike had mirrors that I could see and they were folded in and impossible to use. I pulled out behind them and followed them into town. It was soon obvious that they must have passed the same officer, I'm guessing at some speed, dodged off onto side roads to evade in case he turned around, and then assumed I was him. These kids rode like they were making a motorcycle safety video the whole way through town, so I stayed about 50 yards back from them and just kept on following from light to light to see how long they would behave. I finally had to give up and head in a different direction, but I think I had them crapping for a number of miles. It made me laugh.

can't hurt.

color of helmet & riding gear is a better place to start.

just read this in an article about increasing visibility

You can also achieve the same result by painting your motorcycle one of these offensive colors. In this case, a solid color will be better than a fancy pattern since the pattern builds in visual distraction. Still, bright colors are good. Perhaps the OE graphics of the late ’80s and early ’90s weren’t so bad after all

article

http://www.motorcycle.com/top10/top-10-ways-get-noticed-motorcycle.html/6

When I rode an ex-police white K75RT (P), with a hi-viz vest, I called the bike Moses, because the traffic parted in front of me.

I'd say the color of the bike can naturally increase its visibility. But the effect viewing from the front sector (which is THE most important, cos that's where the cagers jump in front of you!) is minimal, because the bike is narrow, and a bright headlight will cause a glare, that hides some of that small frontal surface. So, in theory: yes, but in practice: not very much.

Funny I think I mentioned earlier in this thread, that once I rode a few days on my friends GL1800, and it was EXACTLY the same color as the one on your pic... And I still had a few cagers try to t-bone me, not even close but they seemed surprised where did that bike come from. And someone already suggested, that it was actually my own fault, that they failed to notice a Canary yellow 'Wing... oh whatever

They would probably have failed to notice a Canary Yellow semi also...

...BTW I don't think this photo above tells the whole story about headlight glare (or how bad it could be - it naturally depends on at least 1001 factors).

The one thing I notice when driving my car, day or night - is headlight color temperature. When Hurt was written daytime running lights were rare so motorcycles with headlights on we're noticed as being unusual amongst traffic, today not so. If you equip your bike with a yellow/blue (ish) headlight bulb to distinguish your frontal area from the background you become less naturally camouflaged to the guy about to left hook, or pull out. In my experience this helps, as do lever activated pulsing led brake lights. Then again I have been left hooked in Jersey City and ass packed in London, so wtf do I know?

A brightly coloured bike (and jacket) almost certainly increases visibility when looming up close, and someone (who is not colourblind) is looking your way.

But at a distance a motorcycle is a relatively small speck against the background, whatever the colour. Against a bland background, a bright colour would stand out a bit, but in a multi-hued setting it could be just another shade.

To increase visibility the motorcycle needs to be seen to be moving against the background. A little weaving on a straight road helps make others more aware of you from afar, whatever colour you are sporting.

But in the end…….

Ride aware; don't expect others to be aware of you.

True, but I was using colourblind in a more general sense, and not specifically referring to hi-viz colours.

Yes, to red/green colourblind person a bright yellow Ducati would stand out, but the more popular red one would not.

Sunglasses, tinted screens and visors and the like can reduce the contrast of bright colours to the background. There are many factors that make some colours stand out in some situations, and not in others.

The long and the short of it is, bright colours can help in some situations, but don't rely on it.