Christmas bike lights

[drossall]

Any recommendations for strings of lights for Christmas decoration of bikes? The club has a socially-distanced mince pie run. I have a couple of sets that I used to string round the bike for Christmas commuting, but they are older and don't show up in daylight. I'm going to Argos anyway, so could pick something up.

[Canardly]

Aldi usually do an inexpensive battery powered string of lights at this time of year.

[Ham]

Block of wood, drilled for the tree.


(this was a couple of years ago, when Going to Work was a thing)

[drossall]

Aldi usually do an inexpensive battery powered string of lights at this time of year.

Do you reckon any battery LED set sold these days would show up in daylight, because even Christmas lights have got better in the same way as real bike lights? Or do I need to check carefully? Some of the ones I looked at seemed exactly the same ones as I bought ten years ago for this "job".

[Ham]

Any. Flashing mode is your friend.

[Lightning Phil]

Or just wrap bike in tinsel

[drossall]

Seemingly out of stock anyway. Tinsel it may be. Or the old, not-very-visible lights.

[Lightning Phil]

Here’s my recumbent wrapped in tinsel last Christmas. I kept the tinsel on for a couple of 200 audaxes.

[quixoticgeek]

Just a reminder it's technically an offence to have blue lights on your bike. They are reserved for the emergency services.

Good luck with your illuminations

J

[cygnet]

Of any sort (e.g. flashing/non-flashing; lamps/LEDs)?

[Kim]

Indeed (presumably the same applies to green).  Also, you shouldn't show a red light to the front or a white light to the rear.

Yellow/orange should be fair game.  I really don't think anyone's going to complain if you have some warm-white Christmas lights on your bike, and I've done so in the past.  Didn't stop me getting SMIDSYed, thobut.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Strictly speaking, I think yellow might be reserved for breakdown trucks and the like. And white of course is illegal to show to the rear. But in practice, worrying about this is like worrying that your lights aren't BS6102 approved or that you don't have pedal reflectors.

[cygnet]

You should only show red to the rear (slightly more extensive than "not white") which makes my Christmas bike lights illegal. But then it doesn't have pedal reflectors either so
Meh.
They are blue too, for added complications but not flashing so not a warning beacon, and not a special warning lamp either.

[ElyDave]

Is that specific to bicycles? Otherwise what about indicator, reversing lights?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Is that specific to bicycles? Otherwise what about indicator, reversing lights?

No. Except for.

[cygnet]

Is that specific to bicycles? Otherwise what about indicator, reversing lights?

There's an extensive list of exceptions to cover normal vehicular lighting e.g. temporary lights for indicators, warning beacons, illumination of number plates/bus numbers (and even including exceptions for reflected light from my nonexistent pedal reflectors)

[Tim Hall]

Indeed (presumably the same applies to green).  Also, you shouldn't show a red light to the front or a white light to the rear.

Yellow/orange should be fair game.  I really don't think anyone's going to complain if you have some warm-white Christmas lights on your bike, and I've done so in the past.  Didn't stop me getting SMIDSYed, thobut.

"I was lit up like a Christmas tree and the driver still didn't see me"

[Cudzoziemiec]

And if you have a set of lights on each of your bikes? "The fleet is all lit up."