Daylight Running
 

In the UK it's possible to legally have no lights on your bike as long as you don't ride in the dark.

How do you stand in Europe if your bike is so (or not) equipped?

Do other countries have the same rules?

I am not sure if it is age related but it is possible to use a bike in the UK with no lights and it will need a no lights MOT to do this, I believe most or all European countries require daylight running lights but other might know different.

In many countries in Europe, you are actually required to have your lowbeams (or daytime running lights, or front fog lights) on at all times, whenever you are on a public road. That alone would preclude any kind of daytime-only certification.

TBH I wouldn't be looking to use any bike without lights for long distance travel. It's likely to be very limiting, not only for local laws, but also the ability to travel out of daylight and clear visibility.

You could always strap a few battery powered bicycle lights on to give the appearance of normality. :rofl:

I presume you were thinking along the lines of the legal in one, legal in all EU regs. (or whatever it's called (or was called, after Brexit?)), so if you were no lights MOT legal here what's to stop you? The short answer is I've no idea but unless you were going to stick to tracks and trails and stay out of sight you might, after being stopped and fined for the 20th time, wonder whether the spirit of the law has more clout than the letter. Trying to explain the finer points of EU law to a non English speaking German traffic cop isn't going to get you very far. :nono: doh :eek3: :rofl:

In the U.K, you don't need any lights whatsoever to pass an MOT.

There is no such thing as a Daylight MOT. You will just get advisories.

However, riding in low light or at night is illegal without lights.

There are some caveats..

Read this..

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-insp...ical-equipment

The question is pretty tenuous at best - there are very few bikes you would take from the UK to Europe without lights that you'd want to be riding any distance on the road anyway...

Unless you are talking about a vintage bike, or [and I'm presuming] an MX bike you've registered for road use, pretty much every motorcycle has a head and tail light fitted anyway, so you'd be covered as far a daylight-running-light requirement is concerned... and even non [street] homologated Enduro and Trails bikes come with a simple head and tail light fitted these days - quite possibly for just this reason (ie. road use between trail/trial sections, since their effectiveness is pretty poor at night).

I'm sure if the bike was clearly designed and/or of an age not to have lights fitted (rather than you've simply taken them off) then you'd be able to explain that to any police officer who stopped you and queried you - but as Backofbeyond suggests, is that something you really want to deal with in the first place?

Like a lot of these 'issues' - their relevance is very much down to context... if you want to trailer an MX or stripped down Trials bike to France and ride a few green lanes during daylight hours, I'm sure in practice you'd be fine... riding your MX bike through the centre of a busy city at rush hour is another matter entirely.

Personally I'm not sure why you'd not want some sort of lights on your bike anyway? - not least as it gives you the option to ride for longer - particularly if you do get caught out towards the end of the day - and you can fit a very compact LED head a tail light (with a DC reg/regulator) to pretty much any 'off-road' bike these days.

Jx