Position of lights, and flashing or not

[Sandra6]

Just curious as I had previously assumed everyone puts their lights on their handlebars and seatpost, but I've seen a few cyclists with lights in unexpected places recently.
Like the chap the other day who doesn't have lights on his bike, just on his person - one on his helmet and one strapped to his back.
Also saw a cyclist last night with lights somewhere around his pedals, no idea what they were actually attached to but every time his foot came up he obscured the light.
On my apollo that I use for shopping and in the rain I have a basket so can't attach a light to the bar, instead I have one on the front fork and a little knogg clips on the basket.
As for flashing or constant, isn't it a legal requirement to have a constant light? I googled and confused myself even more.

 

[defy-one]

depends on the bike being used, but always two on the front (one constant, the other flashing), and two on the back (both flashing)
on the road bike, rear lights are on the saddle bag and on the seat post.
on the hybrid, due to a mtb style rear mudguard i have one on the seat post and the other is low down on the offside seatstay, again both are flashing

 

[Drago]

On my commuter, big light in middle of the bars (constant) second light as far away as poss on the front axle (flashing).

On the rear one on helmet (flashing) one one top box (constant). Again, as far apart as I could make it to give other road users the best possible datum for their brains to calculate speed of approach.

 

[sidevalve]

Just don't do as I saw a guy do and put one on the seatpost then wear a large rain cape type thing over the top. Each to his own I suppose but it did seem a waste of battery power.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Cut and pasted from Internet.



Front lights - Only one is required and it must be white and positioned centrally or on the offside (the right!) and be between 350 and 1500 mm from the ground. If it can emit a steady light it must be marked as conforming to BS6 102/3 or the equivalent EC standard (we've looked at lots of lights and can't find this....). If the light can only emit a flashing light then it must be at least the power of 4 candelas - lots of companies quote their light outputs in millicandelas because the numbers look bigger; 4 candelas equals 4,000 millicandelas.

Rear Lights - again, only one is required and similarly must be positioned either centrally or on the offside (the right) and be between 350 and 1500mm from the ground. Like the front light, if it can only emit a steady light then it must be marked as conforming to BS6102/3 and if only flashing must be of at least 4 candelas in brightness.

Rear Reflector - yes, you should have one! Only one is required but it should be there and should be red and marked BS6102/2 and be similarly positioned to the rear light except that it shouldn't be any more than 900 mm from the ground (the rear light can be 1500mm).

Pedal Reflectors - yes, you need these as well! It would be interesting to see how these cold be fitted to modern racing pedals.... Anyway, four of them are required and they should be amber in colour and marked BS6102/2 and positioned so that one can be clearly visible to the front and the rear of each pedal - does this mean that to be legal a tandem only has to have one reflector on each pedal?

 

[Drago]

And if we're in about reflectors my commuter had 2 x proper red rear reflectors, is heavily plastered in 3M reflective tape, and both wheels have the 3M spoke reflectors too. Pedal reflectors are brilliant and are an instant visual indicator to another road use that there's a bike ahead, but unfortunately me SPDs don't gave them.

 

[400bhp]

You need lights on your bike as a default.

A lot of people I have seen don't realise that sometimes, when they have them on their person and not on the bike, they can be obstructed from view/move around as the cyclist naturally moves on the bike.

And, from advice taken here, I now generally have 2 lights front and rear. One front and rear not flasihng and one flashing.

 

[middleagecyclist]

This was my light set up last year on my utility bike (main bike used for dark commutes). I've changed it a little bit now. The front helmet light placement is gone (as I found it annoying) and I replaced the Cateye strobe with two Knog Frogs strobing on the bar in addition to the dyno driven Schmidt Edelux. The rest is essentially unchanged although the rear dyno driven carrier light got upgraded to a B&M braketec light after the original was broken in an RTC. The new light looks the same but acts as a brake light as well (and very effective it is too). I must get round to doing an updated video soon...

 

[Hacienda71]

I have my best lights on the bike, i.e. Magicshine upfront and a Smart 1/2 watt at the rear I then have an additional rear light clipped onto the back of my jacket and a couple of four led reflective arm bands to give some added side visability. I also have a Decathlon mini led light thing on the front that I don't have switched on as it would be completely washed out by the Magicshine, It is comforting to know that it is there though if the Magicshine was to fail mid ride.

 

[Boris Bajic]

None of my bicycles has reflectors.

For lights, I usually have one on the handlebar and one on the seatpost. My fixie wears its rear lamp on the seat tube, partially obscured by the seat stays.

In winter I usually have two front and two rear.

These days I generally have the rear (or one of the rears) flashing. I find as a driver that I remain more consciously aware of a flashing rear light in the periphery of my field of vision. I find it helpful that cyclists have flashing rear lamps.

I never put my front light in 'flash' mode. When cycling and driving, I find that a flashing white light coming towards me is not helpful. I don't rant and rail against cyclists whose front lights flash, but I don't do it myself.

These days I use only modestly-powered lights (currently Cateye Cube). I used to have a huge twin-reflector thing (10w and 2.5w?) whose rechargeable battery sat in a bottle cage. I found it unnecesarily powerful and slightly cumbersome.

I would counsel against poorly angled, powerful front lights. These are a menace to other road users and anyway give you little clue as to the state of the tarmac in front of you. Whenever I see a cyclist with powerful lamps pointed at the eyes of oncoming cyclists or drivers, I imagine a very angry soul with a grudge they have no better way of dealing with - or just a selfish and intellectually challenged turnip. There seems no benefit in angling powerful lamps this way, but many cyclists do it. I am not sure why.

On dark nights and in fog I am also in favour of bright clothing, but I have almost no Hi-Viz.

 

[summerdays]

Some people wearing rucksac's clip them on there - but how visible it is often depends on their bike set-up (whether they are sat upright or more low aerodynamic position), some are pointing their rear light up at the planes!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I go for the steady and flashing options, both front (handlebars) and rear (seat post). It's probably not necessary to have both modes on at the rear but I've found it difficult to get a good fix when a bike has both front lights on flashing, particularly when there is little ambient street lighting.

 

[benb]

Pedal Reflectors - yes, you need these as well! It would be interesting to see how these cold be fitted to modern racing pedals.... Anyway, four of them are required and they should be amber in colour and marked BS6102/2 and positioned so that one can be clearly visible to the front and the rear of each pedal - does this mean that to be legal a tandem only has to have one reflector on each pedal?

And if we're in about reflectors my commuter had 2 x proper red rear reflectors, is heavily plastered in 3M reflective tape, and both wheels have the 3M spoke reflectors too. Pedal reflectors are brilliant and are an instant visual indicator to another road use that there's a bike ahead, but unfortunately me SPDs don't gave them.

All SPD shoes that I have seen have reflective material on the heel at least, so I think that should be sufficient.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Common sense yes....law no, doesn't meet the standards.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

When I got some double-sided Shimano SDPs as a present they came with a little plastic platform with reflectors which clip in on one side. As I'm fairly used to one sided clips, I thought I'd keep them on, thinking I could use them for short journeys in regular shoes/trainers. They're legal but there's a trade off, with your pedals becoming one-sided. I've kept them on.

Looking at the legislation, I've just realised that my rear reflector on the seat post is illegal because it's too high up. So much for arcane and unenforced legislation!

EDIT: these things...