Smart 1/2 Watt LED Light Legality

roset3

I want to get a coupe of these rear lights for my bike for riding in the evening and night time.

I read in the BikeRadar review that they are not UK Road legal.

Is this really going to cause a huge problem ? Has anyone ever been stopped for havng illegal lights ?

What is the UK law on rear lights ?

roset3

Ok, so did my own research into the legality. Apparrently it does not conform to the correct BS standard and is technically not legal.

Anything out there just as good ?

Thinking of getting two of whatever type I go for to give me some security if they die on me.

feel

got one and am very pleased with it - i think used in flashing mode they are strictly not legal - but i don't think that i have ever heard of this ever being a problem. In fact i think a flashing rear light marks you out as a cyclist and so in reality is safer than a constant red light

littleandy0410

Who's seriously going to police it? (ETA: and don't say "the Police!") I don't recall anyone getting pulled over for having a non-legal backlight. At least, not for it being too bright, Maybe if someone was using a really rubbish old dynamo one that couldn't be seen from more than 10 feet, but one like that is surely a good thing. No one will miss you with it! I'm currently waiting for mine to arrive, ordered 1 smart 1/2 watt and 1 mars 3.0. Cheap on tredz at the mo.

doog442

feel wrote:

got one and am very pleased with it - i think used in flashing mode they are strictly not legal - but i don't think that i have ever heard of this ever being a problem. In fact i think a flashing rear light marks you out as a cyclist and so in reality is safer than a constant red light

thats the best thing ive read in years...what a brilliant idea, should be made legal and adopted by the highway code etc

funkywindmill

Got one of these last week at the bargain price of £9, it really is good, great for daytime use too, in the flashing mode, and as an extra to my old 4 AA cell Cat Eye which I converted years ago from a bulb to a red Luxeon Star LED which is seriously bright, and lasts for ages.

blorg

The standard Smart 1/2 watt is a great light, feck the technical legality. I have three, two on the seatstays and one on the end of my rack or seatpost; have at least one on constant, one flashing. I am most definately SEEN with this setup

If you are really concerned about the letter of the law Smart actually make another 1/2 watt light called "B-spoke" in association with Transport for London that is I believe technically legal. It's a lozenge shape light. I have one but It is not however IMHO as good a light as the standard 1/2 watt on either constant or flashing modes. On constant it just has the 1/2 watt LED on, not the other two LEDs, and has worse side visibility due to this but also the casing design. The "strobe" mode IMHO is not as good as a constant flash, views on this may differ though.

Smart B-spoke:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=29374

giant_man

Oh for gods sake man, just get one cos they're brilliant. And very very bright!

And bloody cheap too!!

I really can't see any plod giving you hassle over a light that they think is illegal.

Garry H

I use two and like everyone else, think they are fantastic. Why are they considered illegal?

blorg

AFAIK it is because they are not BS (British Standard) approved, e.g. they have not gone through the certification process.

Rob Somerset

I have one of these 1/2 watt leds. They are excellent especially in fog/mist in daylight. The only downside I have found that if ridiing in a group somebody will end up with melted eyeballs.
Rob

feel

blorg wrote:

The standard Smart 1/2 watt is a great light, feck the technical legality. I have three,

Hey blorg - that is actually very dangerous as airplanes might think you are a runway and try and land on you.

roset3

Thanks guys, great responses.

Ordered two, hopefully won't be having too many accidents with those on.

blorg

@feel- stranger things have happened. (Best headline ever IMHO)

cougie

Glad you saw the light.

I really wouldnt worry about the legality of the lights. My priority is to be seen - and these lights really do that job. I prefer them to my Cateye Holy Hand Grenade that was 3X as pricey.

Cunobelin

My personal answer is to only use RVLR compliant lighting..............................


............. and then subsidise it with the biggest brightest lighting I can find as a "backup" system!

At present onthe rear I have an RVLR compliant Cateye:



and my backup is a Dinotte rear:



On the front I have the Complimentary legal front light:



and my backup is an USE Exposure Maxx...




So I am both legal and can see / be seen!

alfablue

Is that really RVLR approved? Does it have a BS mark on it? Also, whilst a light may be stated as being BS compliant, it may not be BS approved (actually tested by the BSI). Cateye do make a light that they say has a reflector that meets the BS (the TL-LD500, which puts out only 2 candlela compared with 100cd on their brightest lights, so effectively useless amoingst traffic), but even then, its just the reflector (and even then, they use the term "compliant" rather than "Approved"), and the light in steady mode (not just the reflector) has to have BS approval to be RVLR legal.

The Smart 1/2 watt also says it meets the BS on the packaging, but again it isn't approved.

Its a bloody minefield, and I have given up trying, just use the Smarts and if my compensation is reduced in court due to lack of visibility I'll just demonstrate the lights in court! That'll show 'em.

Cunobelin

The lighting is stated as being compliant - therefore if you purchase it in good faith then you have take "reasonable" care. Any dispute over legality would be with the manufacturer who
has made the claim.


As for a minefield!

The first BS approved (and stamped) rear light was the Cateye AU 100;






However the BS only applied to the reflector - not the light!


I also believe that you can use lights that meet a"European equivalent" so a Busch and Muller light with a KS stamp should be legally useable!

floosy

If i remeber correctly, the reason LED lights, flashing or otherwise dont comply with the current british stdandard regarding cycle lights....

is because they are not "bulbs" (no fillament).

alfablue

floosy wrote:

If i remeber correctly, the reason LED lights, flashing or otherwise dont comply with the current british stdandard regarding cycle lights....

is because they are not "bulbs" (no fillament).

No, the law was updated in 2005, now we can have LED flashers providing that the light, if it has a steady mode, is approved by the BSI in that mode (though as Cun' above says, EU approval is okay too).

floosy

alfablue wrote:

floosy wrote:

If i remeber correctly, the reason LED lights, flashing or otherwise dont comply with the current british stdandard regarding cycle lights....

is because they are not "bulbs" (no fillament).

No, the law was updated in 2005, now we can have LED flashers providing that the light, if it has a steady mode, is approved by the BSI in that mode (though as Cun' above says, EU approval is okay too).

Thank you for the update.... now I know better.

alfablue

floosy wrote:

alfablue wrote:

floosy wrote:

If i remeber correctly, the reason LED lights, flashing or otherwise dont comply with the current british stdandard regarding cycle lights....

is because they are not "bulbs" (no fillament).

No, the law was updated in 2005, now we can have LED flashers providing that the light, if it has a steady mode, is approved by the BSI in that mode (though as Cun' above says, EU approval is okay too).

Thank you for the update.... now I know better.

your welcome, I am sorry to have to update you with such a half-baked law

monty88haynes

i just order a smart 1/2 w from tredz after being nearly blinded by a cyclist with one while i was in my car last night. i do have a car on those occasions when i have to bring home ten bags of shopping. i saw the light from nearly a quarter mile away so i thought i had to get that light.

i spoke to a salesman from tredz and he said that the law requires a fixed beam in the front only in case you give someone an epileptic fit staring into your flashing head beam but if you have a fixed and a flasher in front, that's ok. bit confusing since i don't understand epilepsy enuff to know why a fixed beam would negate your flasher. i have both anyway and i have never seen anyone in london stopped for having a flasher only.

as to the rear he said that there is no problem at all with the flashing rear and i figure he should know since he works in a bike shop. why some websites says it's not bs compliant is a load of just that..., BS. really it's just another one of those unforceable ridiculous rules.

i have a cateye fixed and blackburn quad flasher in front and three different lights in back all flashing away. if any motorists thinks it's strange for me to be lit up like a christmas tree, then he noticed me enuff to see me..., which is the point of it all.

alfablue

I am afraid the Tredz guy is wrong:

Front Lamp
One is required, showing a white light, positioned centrally or offside, up to 1500mm from the ground, aligned towards and visible from the front. If capable of emitting a steady light it must be marked as conforming to BS6102/3 or an equivalent EC standard. If capable of emitting only a flashing light, it must emit at least 4 candela.

Since most (probably all) flashing lights do also have a steady mode, and since none of their manufacturers can be bothered to test and mark them to the pernickety standards of one small country on the fringes of Europe, it's unlikely that any flashing light actually qualifies for approval. But since it became theoretically legal to ride a bike with only flashing lights on it, the Police are nowadays no more likely to quibble its legal status than one equipped with steady lights – unless they're rather dim or involved in an accident of course.



(from CTC Lighting Regulations)

blorg

@alfablue- the bit you highlighted in bold is particularly daft all right.

tarpaullynn

As far as I'm concerned the whole purpose of buying cycle lights is to be seen by other road users and pedestrians.

I'm a bus driver so see people on the roads at all times of the day and at all times of the year and flashing LED's certainly catch my eye thus they have served there purpose.

I have 2 Smart 1/2 watt lights plus a little Cateye at the back, at the front I have 2 Ultrafire C3 Cree LED lights and a Edinburgh Cycle Co-op Revolution Vision Hi Power Led Light on the front and believe me when I say I can be seen.

andy_wrx

No policeman is going to arrest you for not having BS-legal lights on your bike.
They hopefully have have better things to do (like catch other cyclists without any lights at all ?) and probably are as confused over what the law actually says as everyone else here.

The concern however might be that if a motorist knocks you off, his insurance company might possibly just try to wheedle lesser compensation on the grounds that you were partially to blame by not having legal lighting, even though it's obviously not your fault at all and your lights are perfectly good for being seen.

So Cunobelin's approach, of having legal lights and then other non-BSI lights as auxiliary backups as well (because that's what the law allows) is the thing to do.
- even though of course the legal lights are bloody silly farty little things and the non-approved lights are the ones I'm really using...

The law's an ass !

Marko1962

On the Wiggle web sitie its says of the Smart 1/2 Watt ;'This light complies with British Standards when used in steady mode only ' so there you go

musto_skiff

Are these a good deal?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SMART-1-WATT-LED- ... 286.c0.m14

Seems quite cheap; are there such things as fakes?

blorg

musto_skiff wrote:

Are these a good deal?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SMART-1-WATT-LED- ... 286.c0.m14

Seems quite cheap; are there such things as fakes?

It is a pretty good deal all right but I doubt it is fake, seller seems reputable and it's not _crazy_ cheap; I got my 1/2 watts from CRC @£12 each, free postage.

monty88haynes

hey cunobelin

ur lites are worth more than my bike :=) lol

and alfablue,

thanks for the uplink for ctc light regs.

great forum!