{"id":245675,"date":"2025-10-28T13:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245675\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:25:10","slug":"mat-brett-when-cycling-safety-tech-collides-with-the-law-looks-new-luminous-pedals-highlight-that-the-highway-code-is-still-in-dire-need-of-an-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245675\/","title":{"rendered":"Mat Brett: When cycling safety tech collides with the law: Look’s new luminous pedals highlight that the Highway Code is still in dire need of an overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Look has launched its new Keo Vision clipless pedals with built-in lights that, it says, are visible from up to 1km away, day or night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis innovative pedal range, featuring integrated lighting technology, is designed to maximise visibility, confidence, and lightweight functionality, transforming cycling safety and style,\u201d says Look.<\/p>\n

Sounds pretty good, huh? But do they comply with UK legal requirements for riding at night?<\/p>\n

\"LOOKLOOK Keo Vision Pedals with rider (credit: Look Pedals)<\/p>\n

The use of bike lights and reflectors is regulated under the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 and subsequent amendments. Government guidance<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

Any cycle which is used between sunset and sunrise must be fitted with the following:<\/p>\n

– white front light
– red rear light
– red rear reflector
– amber\/yellow pedal reflectors \u2013 front and rear on each pedal<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the Highway Code<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

\"HighwayHighway Code Rule 60 (credit: Highway Code)<\/p>\n

Pedal reflectors front and rear, unless your bike is at least 40 years old? In reality, few of us who use clipless systems have reflectors on our pedals.<\/p>\n

\"LookLook Geo Trekking Grip pedal (credit: Look)<\/p>\n

Maybe you do. They certainly exist. Look offers its Geo Trekking Grip pedals<\/a>,\u00a0for example, which have an SPD-compatible mechanism on one side. Shimano offers a similar proposition with its PD-T8000<\/a> \u2013 a flat platform on one side, an SPD mechanism on the other.\u00a0There are other examples out there, along with reflector units that can be added to SPD pedals.<\/p>\n

> Everything you need to know about bike pedals: from clipless to flat pedals and everything in between<\/a><\/p>\n

What about\u00a0road-specific bike pedals, though? Your bike might well have come with some cheapo moulded plastic pedals with amber reflectors on both sides, but you never fitted them, did you? You lobbed them away with the spoke protector\u00a0or threw them into a dusty corner of the garage, never to be seen again.<\/p>\n

\"ShimanoShimano 105 SPD SL road pedal (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

If you use single-sided road pedals from any of the major brands, they won\u2019t have come with reflectors fitted. Reflectors aren\u2019t mandatory for daylight riding but, as we saw above, the rules say that you must have them when riding at night. Your bike might be lit up like a Christmas tree, you might be wearing a fully reflective jacket and have 3M Scotchlite<\/a> panels on your shoes, but if you don\u2019t have pedal reflectors front and rear, you\u2019re not complying with the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People were bickering\u00a0chatting about it on the road.cc forum way back in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Look Keo Blade Ceramic Vision pedals – left.jpg (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Look\u2019s Keo Vision pedals are built specifically \u201cfor day and night visibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unique system of lights integrated into the pedal, highlighting the rider\u2019s biomotion, increases visibility by 5.5 times compared with a standard light mounted on a seatpost,\u201d says Look.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith dual moving red lights, riders benefit from enhanced visibility, and drivers perceive speed and distance more accurately. Offering 180\u00b0 visibility and four versatile light modes\u2014including both continuous and flashing patterns\u2014these lights are engineered to adapt to any riding condition, guaranteeing optimal safety in all environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do they come with amber\/yellow reflectors front and rear? Nope. Is this a problem? I spoke to a recently retired police officer of 30 years, much of that time in the traffic division.<\/p>\n

> Read our review of\u00a0Redshift’s Arclight Bike Pedals, complete with front and rear lights<\/a><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t want to be named but confirmed what you’d probably expect: police aren\u2019t going to pull you over for not having reflectors on your pedals when you\u2019re riding at night; they\u2019ve got more important things to worry about. But what if something bad happens?<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things are all well and good until something goes wrong. The most obvious example is if a cyclist is killed or seriously injured, and it\u2019s dusk or night, the vehicle examiner examines the bike, and there are no reflectors on the pedals.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of whether the lights were on and functioning, a percentage of blame could be attached to the cyclist, potentially. And then it would be between insurance companies or lawyers to work out what the percentage blame was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks good and it sounds like a great idea, but you have to comply with the law. These things are in place for a reason. Those lights are probably better than an amber reflector, but what if the battery goes? The whole point of reflectors is that they\u2019re a backup safety measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, but isn’t the word \u201cpotentially\u201d doing some heavy lifting there?\u00a0Does that ever happen in reality? Is blame or the size of an insurance payout ever affected by\u00a0something as seemingly trivial as a cyclist not having reflectors on their pedals when riding at night?<\/p>\n

We asked personal injury lawyer Mark Hambleton<\/a>,\u00a0a partner at RWK Goodman<\/a> down the road from us in Bath.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark said, \u201cIn my experience of civil claims for compensation on behalf of injured cyclists, I have never seen a motor insurer run an argument to the effect that pedal reflectors should have been present. Thinking about it, my pedals on my commuter bike don\u2019t have reflectors on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect insurers take the point because it would be very unlikely that they could argue that an accident would have been avoided had the pedals been fitted with reflective strips. I just don\u2019t think that would ever be a causative factor or make the difference between an accident happening and being avoided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think riding a bike without reflectors on the pedals is evidence of contributory negligence either. That is the sort of argument generally reserved for riding a bike at night without illuminated lights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen the police concern themselves with the presence of pedal reflectors during criminal investigations. I can see it might play a part if a rider was riding at night with no lights, bike reflectors or high vis clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it a bit strange that we have obligations set out in law and written down clearly in the Highway Code, but if you don\u2019t follow them, no one\u2019s going to get too bent out of shape about it? What’s the use of that?<\/p>\n

I spoke to Dan Joyce, who\u2019s editor of Cycle<\/a>, Cycling UK<\/a>\u2019s magazine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re required to have amber pedal reflectors when riding between dusk and dawn in the UK. However, the amber pedal reflector rule is not policed and makes a scofflaw of anyone using most clipless pedals, unless they\u2019ve fitted adaptors with reflectors (which only some pedals will accept).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of UK cyclists who do have amber pedal reflectors are probably not road legal at night in any case, as their lights won\u2019t meet BS6102\/3 or an equivalent EC standard, which is what the regulations require. You can find lights that meet \u2018an equivalent EC standard\u2019: Germany\u2019s StVZO, which a minority of bike lights available in the UK do meet. As for finding lights that meet BS6102\/3,\u00a0good luck with that.<\/p>\n

\"ProvizProviz Reflecive Arm-Ankle Bands (credit: Proviz)<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said all that, the up-down motion of pedal reflectors is useful for immediately identifying a cyclist as a cyclist. Reflective ankle bands do a similar job, even though (like most lighting and reflectivity used by most UK cyclists) they don\u2019t meet the lighting regulations. Look\u2019s pedal lights will also have an up-down motion that will suggest \u2018cyclist\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Look pedals can be set to flash. Red flashing rear lights are associated with cyclists because cyclists are the only non-emergency road users who can legally use flashing lights \u2013 either in conjunction with an approved rear light or, if the flashing lights can only flash (no steady mode) and do so at 1-4 times per second, as your only rear light(s).\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this all a bit of a mess? Even if you\u2019re trying to do the right thing \u2013 making yourself as visible as possible on the road to minimise the chances of anything nasty happening, benefiting both yourself and other road users\u00a0\u2013 you might well find yourself outside of cycle lighting regulations. Is that an issue? Probably not, but where’s the line? Most of us aren\u2019t experts in law and\/or insurance, and aren\u2019t qualified to make that judgment;\u00a0we shouldn’t need to.<\/p>\n

The Look Keo Vision pedals are designed to enhance rider visibility\u00a0beyond what simple reflectors provide, thanks to their integrated LED lighting system. From a safety standpoint, the product exceeds the intent of the regulation, even if it doesn\u2019t match its literal wording.<\/p>\n

The law and the products cyclists actually use to stay visible aren\u2019t quite in sync\u2014and until they are, we\u2019re left navigating a gap between safety and legality. In short, it’s time for the law to catch up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look has launched its new Keo Vision clipless pedals with built-in lights that, it says, are visible from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-245675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}