Approved legal lights?

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

I may be wrong but I think legal lights need to be steady and not flashing. You will need to look that up though.

See now who's lazy? So you have a go at me - only to realise I know what I'm on about and that your own knowledge is very poor.

Transference of your own inadequacies is not cool Steve, not cool at all. Strict childhood upbringing or over critical father figure? Don't worry it's not unusual in your generation.

 

[Flying Dodo]

And you'd have read it and clicked the links, you'd have realised non of the approved lights links work and non of the cat eyes are approved.

Exactly. However, if you look on ebay you might be able to find some of those which are legal.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Exactly. However, if you look on ebay you might be able to find some of those which are legal.

I've found and reserved some el cheapo's from Halfords, thanks.

 

[Drago]

I may be wrong but I think legal lights need to be steady and not flashing. You will need to look that up though.

a flashing light is legal even if it's your only light (provided its a legal light of course).

I sidestep the problem. One dirty great cree light to see by, and alongside it one legal light both as a back up and to tick the legal light boxes.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

a flashing light is legal even if it's your only light (provided its a legal light of course).

I sidestep the problem. One dirty great cree light to see by, and alongside it one legal light both as a back up and to tick the legal light boxes.

Yeah that's the way I'm going, I was getting nowhere finding flashing only. But a quick thread on here solved my problem and getting some from Halfords.

 

[steveindenmark]

See now who's lazy? So you have a go at me - only to realise I know what I'm on about and that your own knowledge is very poor.

Transference of your own inadequacies is not cool Steve, not cool at all. Strict childhood upbringing or over critical father figure? Don't worry it's not unusual in your generation.

Lazy??? Im not doing your work for you, you old toad

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

CTC have recently (last issue) done another article on legal lights... if that helps.
they had some links to some that were legal but I can't (yet) locate the article online....

So have you added pedal reflectors to your list of requirements? just a thought.

 

[ufkacbln]

It is difficult to actually buy a "legal" light as few will be marked with the BS6102/3 stamp

Eve then it can be confusing. I remember the Cateye AU100 (BS)

Absolutely ideal until you looked a bit deeper and discovered that...

The Cateye TL-AU100 BS Rear Light is a powerful 6 diode LED rear light that is manufactured to meet BS 6102/3. Wide angle lens provides excellent all round visibility. Features an integral British Standard reflector. Batteries included.

It was in fact the reflector that passed the regulations, and NOT the whole light

This is where the fun then starts, my lighting is not BS6102/3 stamped or marked at all, although the lights on the Kettwiesel have a German "K" Mark which I am allowed to use under the "equivalent EU standard" clause

Also don't forget that BS6102/3 has still not been updated, so you can use a flashing rear light on a bicycle under the RVLR...... even though it cannot comply with BS6102/3

Even sillier is that you can have a light that is both legal and illegal!

You can use your light in flashing mode and be perfectly legal under RVLR, yet if yu put it into a steady mode, teh lack of BS6102/3 designation makes the same light illegal (in that mode)

In reality so long as you have reasonable lights that are not in the extremes of dazzling or dim then you are going to be fine

 

[CopperBrompton]

Of all the things in life you could possibly worry about, this seems to me to be about the silliest, so people in fact are being helpful when they tell you not to worry about it.

The chances of being involved in a collision while cycling resulting in serious injury? Miniscule. The chances of lights even being raised as an issue (provided you had some, if it was dark)? Pretty much zero. The likelihood of the BS markings being discussed? Zilch. The possibility of lack of BS markings on decent lights reducing a payout? Zero.

 

[ColinJ]

The chances of being involved in a collision while cycling resulting in serious injury? Miniscule.

To save bfb the effort of responding to that ...

He was knocked off his bike while commuting a couple of years ago and suffered a shattered elbow which has only recently stopped hurting, and now has a permanent lump on it.

He also had a serious injury another time (not traffic-related) when the carbon fibre forks on his bike snapped!

I am not surprised that this question concerns him.

 

[the snail]

I think there are two issues with non approved lights, yes you could be prosecuted for riding with them, but contributory negligence is a separate issue. I think if you turned up in court and demonstrated your magicshine/cree it would be hard for a lawyer to convince the court that you were invisible.

 

[TheDoctor]

Yebbut, I don't think bfb is being sensible. A flashing LED might be legal, but it won't get you seen like a mad bright light will. He's focussing on legality, I'd sooner not get hit in the first place!

 

[ufkacbln]

Have your cake and eat it?

Have a set of "legal" lights and then a set of backup lights that subsidise the output with something that does the job?

 

[ColinJ]

If you have the legal lights on, can having non-legal lights on as well make the whole setup illegal?

(I am thinking about the question of dazzling rather than visibility.)

 

[IncoherentJeff]

Unfortunately in the current environment of perusing legal action for absolutely anything & everything.

I'd sooner be legal in the event of an incident. And knowing the law might help you defend yourself if you can point out to any police at the scene that their vehicle is not road legal.

Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/contents/made

This legislation includes pedal cycles. But its from 1989 so may have been revised or superseded by EU law so best to check before you follow this!

First exemption:
(3) Nothing in these Regulations shall require any lamp or reflector to be fitted between sunrise and sunset to–

(a)a vehicle not fitted with any front or rear position lamp,

(b)an incomplete vehicle proceeding to a works for completion,

(c)a pedal cycle,

(d)a pedestrian-controlled vehicle,

(e)a horse-drawn vehicle,

(f)a vehicle drawn or propelled by hand, or

(g)a combat vehicle.

Daylight hours is legally defined as the time between half an hour after sunrise and half an hour before sunset.


(2) Where any pedal cycle manufactured on or after 1st October 1990 is equipped with any lamp that is required by any Schedule to these Regulations to be marked with a British Standard mark, no filament lamp other than a filament lamp marked with the marking indicated in the British Standard specification for Filament Lamps for Cycles published by the British Standards Institution under the reference 6873: 1988 namely “B.S. 6873” shall be fitted to any such lamp.

23. (1) No person shall use, or cause or permit to be used, on a road a vehicle unless every lamp, reflector, rear marking and device to which this paragraph applies is in good working order and, in the case of a lamp, clean.

11 Any other lamp - Used so as to cause undue dazzle or discomfort to other persons using the road.

Looking at the schedules at the bottom of the page any bicycle manufactured after 01 Oct 1985 must have amber pedal reflectors. Before this they are optional.
This is the only thing my bicycle doesn't meet the legislation on at the moment as my SPD pedals don't have them.