Postby Jeremy » Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:52 pm
Well, the LED lights that I I've already bought don't have any warnings on at all. The rear/stop/number plate LED light I have is E marked, so that's OK. The replacement headlamp I have isn't E marked, but then small bike headlights don't need to be. The indicator LED bulbs aren't marked, but curiously neither were the old filament ones that I took out. This may be because the bike was made in 1986 and the regulations are dated 1989. Anyway, the LEDs are both brighter and cover a wider angle than the old filament bulbs, so I'm not at all worried about using them.
I can understand some LED lights being marked as "not for road use" or similar, for two reasons. Firstly, it's a get-out clause for the manufacturer, in that if the LEDs don't meet the required visibility standards then they can claim that they never intended them to. Secondly, some LEDs won't be legal because they have a beam width that is too narrow to meet the angular visibility criteria in the regulations.
I'm keen not to give them ammunition, but the law is the law. All a magistrate can do is uphold the law, it's what he or she has sworn an oath to do. You cannot be convicted if you haven't convicted an offence, no matter how much a police office may wish that you can. Obviously you need to ensure that any replacement bulbs, whether LEDs or some other type, comply with the regulations, but that doesn't look onerous as far as I can see from reading them.
I doubt that the police would even notice, anyway, unless the lights were obviously deficient in some way. So many cars have LED lights now (the last two I've owned have had them) that I think it would be pretty grim luck if you were stopped just for this.
If anyone can find the requirement for putting an approval mark on a non-filament bulb then I'd be keen to see it. I've just about read the law on this from cover to cover and can't see a mention of the need for it.
Jeremy