blue sidelights

[benny hedges]

riding a white bike (two in fact) it's amazing how much more you get noticed... especially when wearing a white lid.

you notice a plod bike from miles away out the corner of your eye...



and blue lights - you spot them miles off.



ive tried a number of different types of bulb and found theyre all shite - no way as piercing blue as plod lights...



so i ordered some of these as theyre only cheap - £1.29 each free delivery from chinkyland.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0674664680







crouton me theyre bright!



in daylight....





at night...





i might be a total butt and illegally wire them to a spare led flasher relay ;)
i know plod wont like these, but they dont like scraping people up off the road either apparently, so they keep telling me.

[benny hedges]

some legal stuff.
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/index.php? ... mid=61#ble

and my interpretation of it.

quote:
There is no authority that issues permission to use blue lights on your vehicle.
Any driver can drive using blue lights without needing any higher qualification than a driving licence.
While using blue lights, drivers are exempt from a number of motoring regulations, including

•treating a red traffic light as a give way sign
•passing to the wrong side of a keep left bollard
•driving on a motorway hard shoulder (even against the direction of traffic)
•disobeying the speed limit
YOU MAY DISPLAY ANY COLOUR

•for interior lighting
•for registration plate lighting
•
•from a traffic sign attached to a vehicle
•any colour from the reflectors on a wheel of a cycle, motorbike or invalid carriage
IMPORTANT BIT....

You can’t have a flashing light except for:

•indicators
•lights on a traffic sign attached to a vehicle
SO... according to that, i can have blue lights if they are lighting up a road sign.
i think i'll get a NARROW VEHICLE sign made and bladder it with flashing blue lights.

and stick one either side of my number plate. legally

[VTRDark]

I think you will get noticed now. By other drivers and old bill Does look good though, nice and bright. First traffic cop that see that is gonna nik you so don't get caught. Otherwise it's gonna be another battle with the courts. But knowing you luck, it will just get chucked out of court for some silly technicality

(:-})

[Rob]

From the same site, further down...

Summary of Lighting Rules

Only emergency vehicles can be fitted with a blue flashing light, or anything that looks like a blue flashing light, whether working or not.

You can only have a steady white light to the front and a steady red light showing to the rear of your vehicle. The exceptions to this are:

BLUE
flashing from an emergency vehicle
flashing or constant from a police vehicle

Lots of other exceptions too.....

Personally I agree that being seen is more important, but I think you'll find Mr. Plod won't be happy.

[benny hedges]

according to the regs these are legal
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-pcs-Bike-Bi ... 3f1bbbc5bc

not sure if i fancy a 14g weight on my rims though!
they stop flashing when the wheel stops turning...... wasnt me ossifer!

[AMCQ46]

I was doing a couple of laps of knee down on a local roundabout and as I left the bike that followed me had blue sidelights, fecking freaked me out

[geodude]

Look great and will no doubt have the desired effect. Stick a switch on the bars!! lol Just make sure there are no plod around when you use it.

Here are the official regs
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989 ... on/16/made

Although it is not flashing, it may be mistaken for a special warning lamp imho. You will probably get a pull and a fine if they catch you!! lol

[simo]

In simple terms, Blue bulbs in sidelights are illegal . Additional blue lights are OK. That's according to VOSA regarding Trucks.

[Jazzscot]

Iv got some of these led lights in a box in my garage.

got some blue, green and pink. Got these from Boz along with a few other bits.

Anybody wanting some give me a PM
Jazz

[Ckennedy]

The way I read that it sounded like I could use blue lights as I have done an advanced riding course. Only a 1 day course but a course none the less

Speaking of which I think the headlight in mine is slightly blue and that passed MOT like it.

I think as we all will that being see and noticed on a bike is one of the most important things, they say wear a high vis, white helmet and move in your lane.... why not allow us to have really bright lights. It makes sense. The louder the noise of the bike the more people hear you, has saved me hitting a few people. Plus as we all know the head light on the firestorm is not the best.

Oh if anyone has one of those relay kits for the head light please let me know.

Jazzscot if you have a white LED I would like to take one from you.

[tony.mon]

Nothing to stop you using blues in your speedo or other instruments, and if something accidentally reflected some of the light forwards......Know what I mean?

[benny hedges]

on the way back into warrington earlier i was behind a traffic plod for a good 5 miles.... with bright blue sideys on.
didnt bat an eyelid.

dont care anyway. theyre staying.
much better than the original dim yellow efforts - at least theyre visible.
and better than riding round with low beam on and burning my bulb out,,, plus the sp only has a small battery.
if i can make do with day riding with just the blue sideys on i will do.

from personal experience i know that it does not make a sh1t of difference whether you have your headlight on or not - even wearing a hi vis. cagers will still pull out on you and change lanes without looking.
i do not trust my life to the vain hope that another motorist has seen me - but today, from the glances in the mirror every 50 ft from numerous drivers, it's very obvious that blue lights get you noticed.

[Rob]

Sounds good

Even if a plod in a bad mood pulled you I doubt it would be anything more than a producer or forced to get a new MOT.

Although I have to say a lot of new cars have LED sidelights which are bright white and they are very very noticeable as well. Just bought some LED sidelights for my car which were supposed to be bright white and they have a very slight blue tinge.

It's all relative though. I just put in some Philips X-treme Vision bulbs and they looked bright white compared to the standard very yellow sidelight. With the LED sidelights the Philips bulbs now look very yellow in comparison.

The LED's are 3W and I have some 7W on order. I think they will be far too bright for sidelights but I'll give them a go. I can always use them as reverse lights. 7W doesn't sound like much but for an LED it is - I expect them to be VERY bright

[VTRDark]

producer

Have time travelled. I don't think they hand producers out anymore mate. It would be a mr meaner money making thing like speeding or not wearing a seatbelt. It's all about revenue these days, so probably a £60 fine and either points or you have to get another MOT to prove it been changed.

Benny maybe plod thought you where plod.

(:-})