Night lights, side of bars?

[Sweep]

I do a fair amount of night riding, with sensible lights I stress, no desire to blind drivers. Just want to see road surface and where I am going.

Did I imagine it, or did someone recently say that night lights should be mounted on the bars on a particular side of tbe stem?

If so, why?

Or does it matter not a jot?

[whoof]

People with views going to 5 pages recently.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=132921&p=1401241&hilit=lights#p1401241

[pwa]

In the centre or to the right.

[Sweep]

People with views going to 5 pages recently.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=132921&p=1401241&hilit=lights#p1401241

Ah that's maybe the thread I remembered, but that is more wide ranging, not on the specific issue.

[Sweep]

In the centre or to the right.

Polite question, as in my original post.
Why?

[pwa]

In the centre or to the right.

Polite question, as in my original post.
Why?

I don't know but I imagine it might be because of the way it could be interpreted by oncoming traffic, with a light to the left of your bars potentially making someone else think the centre of your bike is somewhat to the left (from your view) of where it actually is. But if we are talking 10 cm I doubt it would matter much.

[Tigerbiten]

In theory it's illegal to have a light on the left of the centerline on a bike without a balancing one on the right.
But I don't think you'll be pulled up for it.

YMMV ...........

[JakobW]

Yeah, the rationale is that at night people will use the light as their reference point for your position; if the light were all the way over to the left then there could misjudge how much space they had to give you. I think there are similar rules for how far from the body edge car headlights can be?

[whoof]

In the centre or to the right.

Polite question, as in my original post.
Why?

I don't know but I imagine it might be because of the way it could be interpreted by oncoming traffic, with a light to the left of your bars potentially making someone else think the centre of your bike is somewhat to the left (from your view) of where it actually is. But if we are talking 10 cm I doubt it would matter much.

There's someone riding the Bath Bristol Railway path with a light on an extension to the RHS of their bars. In the dark it look like some is riding straight at you. See diagram below not to scale just to give an idea.

[pwa]

Polite question, as in my original post.
Why?

I don't know but I imagine it might be because of the way it could be interpreted by oncoming traffic, with a light to the left of your bars potentially making someone else think the centre of your bike is somewhat to the left (from your view) of where it actually is. But if we are talking 10 cm I doubt it would matter much.

There's someone riding the Bath Bristol Railway path with a light on an extension to the RHS of their bars. In the dark it look like some is riding straight at you. See diagram below not to scale just to give an idea.

light.jpg

Must be unnerving.

[Sweep]

Thanks for replies - I think I'll stop wondering/fretting.

Most of my bikes have lights mounted on forward extensions.

This sort of thing where the bar for plonking stuff on can be moved left and right.

One or two of these have THIN mounts just to the right of the bar clamp but the bar on the end goes left and right of this and the power lights are at worst central or only ever so slightly to the right of the clamp.

After all, with most modern bars there is sod all room away from the central area to mount anything - hence my frequent use of clamp bar extenders.

And Thorn I think sells a non adjustable extender mount which replaces a spacer, so half of that bar is always to the right - my extender bars are often biased over to the left wherever the end clamps on to the bars.

[peetee]

I ride with a flashing light pointing sideways on my stem to alert drivers of my presence as they approach roundabouts and wide or fast junctions where I have right of way and they are likely to be looking out of their side windows when I am in front of them.

[andrew_s]

Did I imagine it, or did someone recently say that night lights should be mounted on the bars on a particular side of tbe stem?

The law says that lights should be mounted centrally or on the offside.
Presumably this is to stop people mounting lights on the kerbside fork leg or seatstay, where they may be obscured by wheels or mudguards.

I can't see any policeman trying to say that just to the left of the stem wasn't central. "Reasonable" should count anything at bar level and between your hands in a normal riding position (on the lever hoods or tops) as being central.
On the left-hand drop may cause problems in the unlikely event of your lighting being looked into officially.

[mjr]

I ride with a flashing light pointing sideways on my stem to alert drivers of my presence as they approach roundabouts and wide or fast junctions where I have right of way and they are likely to be looking out of their side windows when I am in front of them.

If the light has any side visibility windows (like a legal light will), then pointing sideways will result in showing a white light to the rear, which is illegal under RVLR 11(2). The side visibility windows of a legal light are sufficient for roundabouts IMO.

[peetee]

In theory yes, but in practice it is shielded by my torso and it is mounted on the upright part of the stem so the side portions are in the (near) vertical plane