red laser lightd. UK legal?

[02gf74]

My £2.34 red led laser lamp arrived from china.

Can say im imprrssed by quality but for the money seems ok.. Not impressed by laser but it is light hopefully be better in the dark.

Anyway cant find anything on the web if red laser rear lamps are legal - any one know? These are the onrs that project two parallel lines onto the road.

 

[raleighrider21]

if its onto the road and not into peoples eyes, like drivers, I cant really see a issue. I don't think lasers themselves are illegal, just the way people use them - if in a dangerous manner then illegal, but cant see two lasers projecting two parallel lines onto the road being illegal.

 

[JeRkY]

Fine until you hit a pot hole, go arse over tit, dazzle a passing pilot and cause him to make an emergency landing on an orphanage and the neighbouring puppy sanctuary.... be warned!

 

[xerxes]

Re:

 

[hamster]

Virtually no lights available in the UK are road legal in meeting the right BS standard. However if they are approved by another EU country (typically Germany) then you are off the hook.

If your Chinese light complies it will have the appropriate CE mark plus a TUV one for Germany. At £2.34 I suspect not...

The difficult one is when a clever lawyer states after you were mown down by a careless driver that your lights were illegal. Personally I go with a big brand like Cateye and a nice fat 1W rear, for position tracking by a driver, plus a flasher to attract attention from the background. At least then you have bought something on general retail you have the defence of buying a normal UK standard product. Cateye do make a UK compliant rear model with built-in reflector.
http://www.cateye.com/intl/products/detail/TL-LD570-R/

It's one of the few compliant models.

 

[Mike Muz]

Fine until you hit a pot hole, go arse over tit, dazzle a passing pilot and cause him to make an emergency landing on an orphanage and the neighbouring puppy sanctuary.... be warned!

I wish I had an imagination like that !
But what if he crashed into the houses of parliament or nick griffins house !
Go for it I say

Mike

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

I run two lights front and rear for redundancy anyway.

The prime lights are both unapproved, but work superbly.

The secondary lights are approved jobs and are there as a back up in case the main light fails, but also keeps me technically legal. Job jobbed.

 

[hamster]

Sound advice.

 

[JamesM]

I run two lights front and rear for redundancy anyway.

The prime lights are both unapproved, but work superbly.

The secondary lights are approved jobs and are there as a back up in case the main light fails, but also keeps me technically legal. Job jobbed.

Do you have pedal reflectors? It's a problem for anyone using clipless pedals. I wear reflective bands on my ankles but they aren't orange and they aren't on the pedals as required by law. I thought about buying some orange reflective tape and sticking a tiny little bit of it to the front and rear of my SPD's.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Yes, on my commuter. You can get pedal reflectors to fit M520s