Author Topic: Can you use a green light on a bike?  (Read 1264 times)

Gattopardo

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Can you use a green light on a bike?
« on: 06 August, 2022, 10:00:25 pm »
Bought a fibre light for the bike and it is green.

Can it be used on a bike?

Kim

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #1 on: 06 August, 2022, 10:27:50 pm »
"Green ossifer?  I thought it was yellow.  I'm a bit colourblind, you see..."

Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #2 on: 06 August, 2022, 10:44:19 pm »
Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations here. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/regulation/11
Can only show a green light to the rear if a doctor or ambulance.

Though seems no rules about lights on the front or sides (except not red lights on the front).

Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #3 on: 13 August, 2022, 06:18:31 pm »
If you're talking about legality and if it's in France then the answer is "no". But then if you're talking legality in France it's one red rear light, no flashing or strobe, and a reflector back and front. Orange reflectors are used everywhere on a bike that is not a direction covered by a red or white reflector. As you will undoubtedly know, no-one sticks to the rules at all (and electric trottinettes in the middle of the road two-up without lights are far more of a danger, both for the riders and the other road-users).
However you need to be very careful about strobes that are not red or white. A blue strobe is not, and should not, be tolerated since it can be confused with emergency services and utility workers. Orange strobes are for highway maintenance, heavy haulage (including in my part of the world, and some others, timber trucks going up to 55T, and a whole host of off-road vehicles from giant tractor-trailer combinations to lawnmowers. You could get into trouble with an orange strobe on a bike but it would mostly be a telling off.
I can't think of anything that uses a green strobe so I don't know what the response would be, probably not much (unless it's something military or nuclear waste :facepalm:  )

Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #4 on: 13 August, 2022, 10:34:39 pm »
I seem to remember some of the very early led bike lights being green, but they were so dim no one really cared

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Kim

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #5 on: 13 August, 2022, 10:41:29 pm »
I seem to remember some of the very early led bike lights being green, but they were so dim no one really cared

One of the supermarkets did a set of cheap blinkies where the front light had a very green tinge a few years ago, presumably using up a batch of old-stock LEDs.  They were popular with BSOists for a while.  Some of them even fitted them the right way round.

Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #6 on: 13 August, 2022, 10:48:16 pm »
Don't the Barclays- Boris- Santander-bikes have a green light on the front? So it surely isn't illegal, but whether one on its own would cover you from an over-zealous plod is a different question. Though in practice having any form of lighting is sufficient to satisfy most coppers.
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that's not science, it's semantics.

Kim

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #7 on: 13 August, 2022, 10:58:39 pm »
The FRIKKIN LAZER that projects a little bike lane symbol (which is completely drowned out by motor vehicle headlights, but is occasionally effective in shared-use areas for making drunken zombie pedestrians look around as you approach)?  Good point.

Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #8 on: 13 August, 2022, 11:07:39 pm »
The FRIKKIN LAZER that projects a little bike lane symbol (which is completely drowned out by motor vehicle headlights, but is occasionally effective in shared-use areas for making drunken zombie pedestrians look around as you approach)?  Good point.

That badger. They're quite effective when you're walking on the towpath in that you don't accidentally knock a novice cyclist into the canal as they wobble up behind you. All the other cyclists either carry a sound system with crap music blasting out, or they're doing 30+ mph on an unrestricted efatbike and you can hear the tyre noise from miles off.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #9 on: 16 August, 2022, 08:49:49 pm »
Not answering the question, but I remember there was a minor fad in the early years of the century for illuminated valve caps. Mostly blue I think but other colours were available (and probably mostly on fixies, because fixies, but obviously could be any bike).
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Kim

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #10 on: 16 August, 2022, 09:07:20 pm »
Blue LEDs were a very turn of the century thing; it took a while to work out how to add phosphors to blue LEDs to make different colours (rather than the native red/yellow/green of most 20th century LEDs).  We're still suffering BLUE blinkenlights on things as a result of that novelty factor.

I still see illuminated valve caps from time to time, but they seem to have become a thing people do when deliberately blinging their bike for group rides and things, rather than the latest be-seen gimmick.  I assume they're no longer in pound shops or wherever normal people get their LED tat.

I'm not sure where the law stands on huge GPS-reactive RGB LED Pacman characters, but North Yorkshire Police seemed to enjoy them.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Can you use a green light on a bike?
« Reply #11 on: 16 August, 2022, 09:11:10 pm »
Gosh, the early bronze age!  :D
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